By Becky Soske
The recent news of the 29 yr old Oregon woman declaring she has chosen her day of death has struck a chord with many Americans. On one side of the “life” spectrum, those who agree are calling her move “brave” and “courageous.” She has committed to spend the remainder of her life (roughly three weeks) fighting for the right of others to “die with dignity.” On the flip side is the simple yet profound perspective that God is the giver of life, and He is the only one with the authority to declare it finished.
Intriguing, this day in which we live. We operate under such subjectivity regarding spiritual laws that we create whatever “truth” we feel best fits our personal circumstance. We chose if life gets to come forth in our wombs and call it a woman’s reproductive right. We chose who we marry with no regard for the natural law set in order by God. And if anyone dare disagree, we call it bigotry and hate. We fight for the right for people such as this young woman to die at her own choosing and call it “brave.” And if we declare this “right” is wrong, we then lack compassion. Our societal psychosis comes from a lack of understanding and belief that Truth is absolute, as declared by the Word of God.
If we applied this woman’s thought process to life, we would find that Utopia had arrived: a place where we only tolerate what we deem acceptable and good, no messes, no struggles. It is the spiritual equivalent of plastic surgery, an endless pursuit to live a photoshopped life. Don’t like that part, just remove it from your life. Don’t like your marriage, just discard it. Don’t want the baby, just abort it. Don’t want to face cancer, just end your life. You can even make the appointment and decide the date. Such thinking leaves nothing to mystery and wonder. Such thinking also presumes that we cannot trust God with our circumstances.
Many people I know have walked a similar path to this young woman. In all those situations, they did whatever they could to live; they held out hope that God would give them all the days He had planned for them. Some would argue her choice reflects a “quality not quantity” ideal, where less days with beauty and health intact are far above longer lives, where we age, change and fall apart. Well, life IS messy. Even without cancer, our bodies age, wear out and fade. Yet, none of those days of the twilight years are less meaningful than those of our youth, they are real. They are “unedited’ versions: raw, tough, but worth it.
When we face life’s challenges, whatever it may be, we must respond with God’s truth. We must first trust in the One who made us, and know full well, that He is the author and finisher of our faith. We must consider from where our value comes. If our value comes from the “quality” of life we live, we would have to presume those living destitute lives have no value. Think Mother Teresa. (Who, by the way, changed the world!) By choosing an appointed time of our own death, we tread on dangerous ground with regard to ALL life. The parents of children with short-lived lives would dare never say that time was not valued. They saw contained within those short hours or days, the perfect value of their child’s life. We diminish all life when we diminish even one. We are valued, because the One who made us declared it so. We must grab hold of this truth in our own lives, and pray that others would have their eyes opened to who they are in Christ.
