Episode 354: I’m Talkin…Perish

I’m Talking, episode 354 for January 26th, 2025.

This is Joel from the I’m Talking microcast, where I share my thoughts on a topic that has piqued my interest this past week.

This week, we’re talking perish.

Perish is a word that is not used all that often, I don’t think, unless maybe it has to do with food drives where you’re talking about, Hey, we need things that are non-perishable.

Other than that, I don’t know that it’s a very common word in the, in the world, but the definition that I saw was quite interesting.

It said, suffered death often in a violent, sudden, or untimely way.

And I thought that was interesting that it had that kind of connotation and maybe that’s why it’s not used because often the world is afraid of death and therein lies the challenge for those of us who call ourselves Christians.

So why the word perish?

Well, my verse for this week is John 3, 16, and I’ve learned it a little different than I remembered it as a child, but it says, this is how God loved the world.

He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

So there’s that word perish, and it’s for everyone.

God does not want anyone to perish, no one to die an untimely death.

And I was thinking about that, and in a Christian life, there really never is anything that’s a sudden or untimely because our God is sovereign, not that in our own world, we would think of someone’s passing as untimely or as sudden because that’s the words that we use, but nothing surprises God.

And so we see that he recognizes people’s fear of death.

He recognizes the humanity and frailty of humanity, and so he says, this is how I love you.

I gave you my son so you don’t have to fear death, you don’t have to worry about the word perish, because to be absent from the world is to be present with the Lord.

And so that removes fear from the idea of perishing, and so I think the word is used on purpose because it holds, it’s more gravitas, it holds a little bit of gravity.

It holds a little more something than just the word death.

And God says to us, I love you.

I don’t want you to perish.

And we have that as Christians to share with the rest of the world.

Until next week, this is Joel from the I’m Talking Microcast.