I'm Warren Smith, and today you'll be listening in on my conversation with Clarissa Moll.

As we discuss her late husband, Rob Moll's book, The Art of Dying.

Acknowledging our mortality makes a difference in how we live. It makes a difference in how we die. It makes a

difference in how we grieve, how the people who are left behind make sense of death, of loss.

Clarissa Moll has been on a journey none of us wants to take, but in all likelihood, almost all of us will. And that is the journey of walking

through a season of mourning the loss of someone close to us. In Clarissa's case, it was her husband,

Rob Mall. Rob was a well-known and well-respected journalist in the Christian world.

He had served as an editor of Christianity today, a communications officer at World Vision,

and director of business operations at Even-Tide Asset Management,

an organization that invest money according to biblical principles.

Rob, Clarissa, and their children were on vacation in the Pacific Northwest when Rob died in a hiking accident in 2019 at the age of 41. That part of the

story alone is poignant enough. What adds extra elements of irony and wonder is the fact that Rob, even as a young man,

had made a study of death and had thought deeply and wisely about how Christians should face death

and how we should help each other face death as well.

His book, The Art of Dying, was published to critical acclaim in 2010 when Rob was barely 30 years old.

Now that book has been republished with an afterward by Clarissa Mall, who is a fine writer herself.

In fact, her work has appeared in modern loss, practical homeschooling, the gospel

coalition, and Christianity today.

Clarissa, first of all, welcome to the program. It's great to be with you. And I want to start our conversation with just kind of a basic question that you may be

the world's leading expert in, which is, can you tell me about Rob?

You know, Warren, thank you so much for having me.

That is my bar none favorite question in the entire world.

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