10 questions for when you’re dying

David Hayward, aka the Naked Pastor, says we should confront our individual spiritual realities before it's all too late...

What is the point of pretending?

One of the greatest regrets people have on their deathbed is that they weren’t more honest about their feelings and what they really thought. The dying realize they would have been happier being more truthful, authentic, real and honest with those around them, but, more importantly, with themselves.

Pretend you are on your deathbed. Here are some questions:

• 1. What do you really believe?
• 2. What do you no longer believe?
• 3. What conventions did you comply to but had no conviction for?
• 4. What controls in your life, either self-imposed or imposed by others, could you have lived better without?
• 5. What motions were you going through that were detrimental to your soul, your conscience, your intelligence, and even your health?
• 6. Who’s feelings were you trying to protect by continuing to live a life of deceit?
• 7. What do you wish you’d done differently?
• 8. Who are the few people you wish you had taken with you on your journey?
• 9. Who would you have been better off without?
• 10. Do you realize that rejecting your idea of That-Which-We-Call-God is not rejecting that which the word points to? The word is not the thing!

These are just a few questions you can ask yourself that might enable you to start living a fuller life now.

Why wait until it is too late?

David Hayward is author of Questions are the Answer: nakedpastor and the search for understanding, available now in paperback, priced £9.99.