Suicide, Heroism and Worth

The questions about assisted suicide aren’t the right questions. We tend to ask shouldn’t everyone have the right to end their own life if they want to? The answer isn’t really the answer. Anyone can end their life at any time. You’re asking the wrong question. The question is what is your life worth? What does it take to get your finger off the trigger and put the gun down? I’ve often wondered why more people don’t kill themselves. I know. That sounds awful. But it’s true. Life is hard. Life sucks. Life blows in a big way. You might not have cancer – yet – but you have real suffering. For every person reading this, you have burdens that feel unbearable. You have real fears, horrors, demons plaguing you. You have hurts that are taking away your soul a little bit every night. You may be alone or you may be surrounded by people who love you, and it doesn’t feel any different does it? Why do you go on? Why do I go on? What keeps us here? What makes us choose life? What makes it worth the effort?

For Christians, it is a complete and gut wrenching surrender to the will of God, a surrender to His purposes for life, His gift of every moment, His invitation to join in His temporary suffering so that we might know more of His infinite Grace. For us, it is a perseverance, a commitment to seeing this through, to valuing every breath, every moment we get here on this earth. We dare to see the possibilities in spite of the darkness. We dare to hope, to dream, to know and have confidence that it WILL get better and that we fight to see our little part of the world get better. We dare to stay in the battle no matter the cost, knowing that in fact it WILL cost us everything and there is nothing we will withhold, though we want to. Though we fear at times, when the enemy looks its most grim, we hold the line. We ready our weapons. We cling to our Shield. We remember the truth of the war, and we remember Who has already won it.

-Excerpt from Why Life