Just over a week ago on November 2nd, Brittany Maynard, a 29 year old brain cancer patient, chose her own date of death through assisted suicide instead of letting God choose. This has been a heavily debated topic for weeks both before… Brittany Maynard’s November 2nd death and after. While Maynard’s comments are very moving, one has to pause and realize that her choice made her the god of her own life. She chose when her last breath would be. She chose when her suffering would end. She chose. Her terms. Her way.Many would say, “Exactly, that was the point.”
News articles and opinion pages are filled with commentary saying just that.
Consider this excerpt from Brittany Maynard’s post on CNN:
“I would not tell anyone else that he or she should choose death with dignity.
My question is: Who has the right to tell me that I don’t deserve this choice?
That I deserve to suffer for weeks or months in tremendous amounts of physical and emotional pain? Why should anyone have the right to make that choice for me?”(http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/07/opinion/maynard-assisted-suicide-cancer-dignity/)
Maynard had the right to choose, they say, and anyone who has a differing opinion is a bully and doesn’t get it.
But I contend that none of us has the right to choose.
Not if we serve the Sovereign Lord.
Christ alone has the right to choose our date of birth and death, and Christ alone has the right to choose our suffering and/or reprieve from suffering.
The Holy Bible says:
“Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” (Romans 9:20)
When Job suffered the loss of his entire family, his property, and his health, many could argue that he had the right to choose. In fact, his own wife advised him to curse God and die. Instead, Job waited on God and trusted Him. He honored God’s sovereignty. He honored him as the creator, as the one who had the last word in all things – both good and bad.
What if Job had chosen to end his own suffering because he had the right to choose?
Or Joseph?
Or David?
My point is that all too often we want to circumvent our own suffering, to have the right to choose. But in the choosing, we thwart many wonderful and beautiful lessons that God intends for us to learn and experience THROUGH our suffering.
The debate isn’t really about suicide or not.
No, it’s about choosing to be the god of our lives, or not.
It’s easy to say “Jesus, be Lord of life” when things are going good. But what if you found yourself with a diagnosis like Brittany Maynard’s?
Would He be Lord of all then?
What if it was your sister who was given less than six months to live and was told it would be a painful, excruciating death?
Would you still hold to your beliefs that Christ is in charge, and He alone has the right to choose the day of anyone’s death?
Tough questions.
Tough choices.
But tough decisions and choices – including the choice to let God have absolute sovereignty over your life- is the fiber that makes up the tapestry of the Christian’s life.
If we love Christ and have truly surrendered our will to His, then, no matter the circumstance, He sits on the throne of our heart; and He alone has the right to choose when we take our last breath.
It is the same with the right to life issueor any other issue, big or small. Either Christ is Lord of all – or He is not Lord at all.
Agree? Or disagree?