When I Die by Mattie Stepanek

I was browsing books in MPH and came upon a collection of poems by Mattie Stepanek who died four years ago. I read When I Die and copied it in my small notebook. When I came back from MPH, I switched on the telly and there it was again, a recording of When I Die by Mattie Stepanek. It broke a chord in me and I started crying like nobody's business.

It's just that I've always had a fantasy of heaven and this world is portrayed by so many people as a test that we have to go through to get to heaven. In a way, that's why people are dying to protect their religions by all force governed necessary. They want a rightful place in heaven.

But for Mattie, this world IS heaven. And when he is in heaven, he wants to do the same thing he did in the world because he loved it so much.

This is a new way of thinking for me and for many of you. To go through our lives like we're in heaven and are able to do what we want to do, what we've been dying to do. The world is a much peaceful place when we're all in heaven on earth.

When I Die

When I die, I want to be a child in Heaven.

I want to be a ten-year-old cherub.

I want to be a hero in Heaven,

And a peacemaker,

Just like my goal on Earth.

I will ask God if I can Help the people in Purgatory.

I will help them think,

About their life, And their spirits, About their future.

I will help them Hear their Heartsongs again,

So they can finally See the face of God, So soon.

When I die, I want to be, Just like I want to be Here on Earth.

-Mattie Stepanek, November 1999