What to do When You’re Facing Death

If you are facing a sentence of death – a bad report, a scary diagnosis, the loss of a business – you would do well to read Christ’s letter to the church at Smyrna. It’s the shortest of the seven Revelation letters, yet death is mentioned three times in four verses.

(Bonus fact: the name Smyrna means myrrh, which is also the name of a spice we associate with death. Myrrh was one of the spices used to prepare Christ’s body for burial (John 19:39), and myrrh mixed with wine was also the...