I hope I’ll be able to look at it like I looked on labor. It’s a lot of pain but it won’t last long, won’t be more than I can handle, and is necessary for the joy of the birth.
For me, it helps that Revelation tells us that there will be a time when those who die in the Lord are blessed; life on earth at that point would be far, far worse than anything that allows us to go Home. My son has asked me if it would be OK to commit suicide if it ever got that bad on earth. I told him no, that our times are decided by the Lord, but that the work I’ve been doing almost certainly ensures that we’ll go in the first round anyway, if it comes to that. I’m fighting in the hopes that it WON’T come to that, but we need to be ready for anything.
If it comes, it comes. None of us know. If we do indeed see this time, I just pray for strength.