The Reason

While the big question for most facing terminal illness is "Why me?  Why is my life being cut short?"  For so many of my patients, it is just the opposite, "Why me?  Why is my life dragging out?"  For the one, there is still more life up ahead, things on the horizon they wan to see.  For the other, they've already lived a full life and they don't see anything much on the horizon at their age.

While both see life in a very different way, one as all up ahead and the other as all behind them, they both are looking at it from the same lens: Self.  They are seeing life as being about "Me."  What will I be missing or what will I have to endure.  Basically life is seen as as a story about the individual and how it impacts him or her.

The question of "Why me?" Is based on the assumption that my life is my own and that my purpose has to do with personal fulfillment.  Life is viewed as a collection of personal milestones of finishing school, getting a job, getting married, having children, seeing grandchildren, reaching retirement, etc.  And if life is cut short, we feel cheated.  If life drags on after we are no longer productive, we feel pressed upon.  After all, this is my life, let me live it.

I certainly understand the feeling and the question of "Why me?" is not unknown in my personal journey.  But, I have grown to replace the "Why" with "How."  I believe the better question is "How can God use me now?  How, in my circumstance, can I best impact the live of others?  How can my life, such as it is, best bring glory to God?"

I believe this is in keeping with the Spirit of God and the purpose of life as modeled by the apostle Paul: "I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body" (Phil 1:23-24).  Paul had seen and done it all.  He had gone through the wringer.  He was aged and apparently going blind at this point, ready to go home but he knew that his life wasn't about himself.  His life was wrapped up in the will of God and the good of others.

Whether we live or die is not the big question, it is how we live and die.  That we live and die is a reality of all who walk on planet Earth, that we live and die well is another thing.  And, it is the important thing.  Paul was ready for his life to end but he desired more to serve God and mankind.  His lens was outward focused and made all of his life and the timing of his death something to leave in the hands of God.  He could die today or live on for a while equally in the Father's hands.  How about you?  Jus' Ask'n.