When Is It Right to Die #1
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a word of caution.
Yes, I am concerned. You see, subjects that were once taboo in polite conversation, things like mercy killing, the latest demands of the LBGTQ movement, and even “gender reassignment”, all these subjects are now plastered in headlines of popular magazines and websites. What was once off-limits to discuss, is now out of the closet, and we have become inured to its shock value. Formerly unmentionable subjects now quickly find a way into, don’t know, lunchroom and carpool banter. And here’s the thing…
Without the absolutes of Scripture, peoples’ convictions about such subjects are fashioned by “what seems right in their own eyes.” The apostle Paul alluded to this when he wrote to Timothy in his second epistle, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.” And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Our own passions.
It’s exactly what happened when the horror of physician-assisted suicide elbowed its way into our national dialogue. I mean at least ½ a dozen states have now legalized doctor-assisted death. And nobody even seems to mind anymore. We’re no longer outraged. Something monstrous has now become commonplace, blending with casual talk about the weather, football scores, pop culture. All of its shock value has been drained away, along with peoples’ sensibilities. Left to our own uninformed senses, we quickly default to that which is most comfortable. Proof of that? At least 38% of evangelicals now believe that it is morally permissible for a doctor to provide aid in dying. I mean it seems to indicate that many Christians are apparently ready to sacrifice anything to be rid of pain and suffering—including their own lives.
And it’s why Romans chapter 12 keeps coming to mind, especially the opening verse where Paul says, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands, and moves toward the goal of true maturity.” Friend, we are being squeezed into the mold of the world around us. We are ignoring God daily remolding our minds from within. The constantly evolving opinions and fashions or our contemporary world are beginning to shape our thoughts, our opinions, and our sensibilities. Oh, how we need God’s Word to challenge, refute, and replace those sentiments with His eternal truths.
Friend, please think about these things, my friend. How do you reawaken shock value after it’s been diluted, rephrased, and painted over with soft pastels? Like you, I want people to become alarmed again, yes, repulsed and repelled by the taking of another’s life. Or even our own life. Death has been clothed in a crisp white lab coat, with “reasonable, compassionate, progressive” language.
But it is still death. Death before its time. Physician-assisted suicide is still wrong. So, don’t let the world, no matter how sweet-tongued, reasonable, and superficially rational it may sound, don’t let it squeeze you into its own mold. Molding God’s people is God’s job. And He does it from the inside out. And hey, if you need help with that, then visit joniandfriends.org/radio today and learn more about my book “When Is It Right to Die?” Again, that’s joniandfriends.org/radio.
© Joni and Friends
