Seeking a Shortcut

This post dives a little deeper... I'm wrestling a bit lately with the "choose life" mentality.

I'll state the obvious that it is not an easy thing to watch someone you love slowly deteriorate toward a miserable death.  It is hard to understand the point, particularly when they have no further desire to be here.  It's difficult to fathom how it glorifies God to prolong the suffering of someone who has enjoyed a long and full life, but is now helplessly trapped in an atmosphere of death and decay and longing for death to come as soon as possible.

I've been thinking and praying about this the past few weeks.  I have read articles on both sides of the assisted death argument (a moot point here since it is illegal in Oklahoma and you must be a resident of other states for it to be legal there, but I'm just wrestling with how I feel about it all).

One article said the following:

"God brings about good even from the suffering that believers experience. He allows it and uses it to build their faith. Our trials may be physical affliction, emotional pain, intellectual doubt or daily temptation. His desire is that we persevere and endure to the very end. In all this God shapes us in ways that may be painful at the time but develop His holiness in us. His goal is to bring us to completeness so we might be declared to be His children and have a place in His eternal family...  If we can find some means to escape a painful, dangerous or abusive situation we should take it. But does this logic apply to taking one’s own life? Your life is not your own. Everything you have and are belongs to God. To take your own life, or have someone assist you take your life violates the Sixth Commandment of “do not murder.” Anyone who takes a human life, even their “own,” without His authority, will be held responsible by God. God can forgive. But to deliberately violate His command expecting or assuming He will forgive is very risky business. Jesus told us we are not to tempt or test God."

Another article said:

"If we truly believed that only God should determine the hour of our death, then we should think it as wrong to use medical means to extend life as to shorten it... The reason murder is condemned is that it is an act that deprives another person of all that life offers. But when a dying person is already being deprived of life by a terminal illness and wants help to hasten that process, the situation is rather different... A Christian case for supporting assisted dying is based on Jesus’ teaching that the whole of religious law and prophetic teaching can be summarized as requiring us to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus’ golden rule was that we should always treat others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Applying this to assisted dying the argument is: When people’s sufferings are so great that they make repeated requests to die, it seems a denial of that loving compassion which is supposed to be the hallmark of Christianity to refuse their requests. If we truly love our neighbors as ourselves how can we deny them the death we would wish for ourselves in such a condition?"

(My mind and spirit are much more inclined to go with the first stance on this issue, while my heart and emotions are more sympathetic to the second.  Especially as someone who has struggled with suicidal thoughts in my own past, I see both sides, but I know we cannot take God's sovereignty lightly.)

I also read a friend's blog today which said:  

"Our culture has decided that suffering is to be avoided at all costs - we advocate abortion, assisted suicide, and drugs to prevent suffering.  We don't want anyone to experience pain or hardship.  But suffering is a part of LIVING... When we know Christ, we understand that suffering isn't worthless.  Our kids need to know that there is purpose in their lives - even if life holds hardship and suffering."

I'm guessing that is true for most people (I know it's true for me) that we look desperately for a shortcut to avoid suffering... whether it's minor or major suffering, we would prefer to take the easy way out.  But that usually is not God's best plan for us.  When young people receive a terrible medical diagnosis, most Christians make the above argument that there is value and purpose in their pain, and there is beautiful truth in that.  It feels different when someone is frail and nearing the end of their life, but that line of thought is a slippery slope.  And in the end, I can see that we don't get the deciding vote about whether a life has purpose.  Our true value is not based on age, physical ability, or mental capacity, but based on God's love for us... so it does not change over time, even when our sense of purpose and joy does drastically shift.

I needed to write to process some of this, and it was helpful.  It's still a complex issue, but I believe that choosing to love God with all my heart means choosing life (choosing surrender to God's control) even when it hurts. ❤