A dying man's words

I recently read a poignant book titled "When breath becomes air". It's written by a 35 year old neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2014 and died in a year or so from diagnosis. He wrote this book after his diagnosis in an exploration to understand the meaning of life and put his dying moments in perspective. 

He is a gifted writer. He talks about his childhood, medical school days and then moves on to residency stories. But soon enough the reader is placed into the innermost thoughts of a dying man. 

He and his wife decide to have a child through IVF. Quite a brave decision to have a child in the last moments of life. He writes to his daughter that one day when she grows up and tries to find meaning with life, do not discount the fact that she brought joy into a dying man's life. 

What is the meaning of life? This is a question I always ponder in both my life as a Christ follower and as an oncologist. In fact, a few days later I heard Ravi Zacharias talk about the absolute truth of God and the meaning of life. 

On a related note, the noise of today's new age churches and theology just deviate so much from Christ's teachings and potentially brings peripheral aspects of Christian living into the center. More on that later. 

For now, I remember Paul Kalanithi and thank God for the life of that young man. His life found its meaning through the book he wrote. Not the surgeries he performed. His dying words gave meaning to his life and faith.