This is our pastor’s newsletter article for SOTHLC’s November, 2013 newsletter.
Last month, Sheri and I took our 21 year old dog, Samson, to the vet to be put to sleep. It was heart breaking. Yet, we felt compelled, as his health had declined so badly that his life was one of constant burden and pain.
But that brings us to this question: “If we may put a dog to sleep, why not a person?” The answer to that goes beyond God’s word to His people not to kill (Exodus 20:13). It goes all the way back to the heart of creation.
In Genesis 1-2, we learn that God created the first man, Adam, in His image. All the other animals came into being by God speaking His word. But Adam was different. God created him from the dust of the earth and then God breathed into him the breath of life. God enspirited Adam with His Spirit. And so God created Adam differently: He had a soul, even a part of God, His Spirit and breath, that God had breathed into him.
Now, our fall into sin ruined the image of God that God had put into us. We learn that Adam’s children were in his image, not God’s (Genesis 5:3). And so we became corrupted, death entered the world, and the seed of destruction sown back then continues to wreak its havoc. Yet, from the beginning, God created us differently and in a different classification–although now fallen and in need of salvation.
God even gave us His mandate to be stewards and managers of His creation (Genesis 1:28). This may even involve taking care of a pet dog and treating him with all the dignity his “dogness” deserves, recognizing that we are the steward for God, not the owner. (Christian stewardship recognizes that God “owns” everything, and we, as His people, use and manage what He gives us as His stewards.) Being a steward for a pet dog may even involve putting him to sleep when the conditions warrant it.
Yet, for humans, originally created in God’s image, it is only for God to take a life. That’s why God commands us not to kill. That is His domain, not ours.
So then, how do we deal with end-of-life issues? Here, Job’s words to his friends during his suffering are good words for us to ponder. Job said, “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away; praise the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
As Christians, we have to allow God to give life and take life. We have to allow God to call His saints home to Him in eternity. Yet, we are also to uphold life as best we can.
So, now comes the hard part. How do we know if we are upholding life or getting in the way of God calling someone home?
In such a serious setting, this is a good question to ask yourself: “Is what we are doing aiding in the recovery of life or just prolonging someone’s death?” If someone is in a place where, based on all you know at the time, that doing something will aid in him recovering life, then you do all you can to help him. That is honoring the life that God originally intended us all to have. You “pull out all the stops,” so someone may recover the life that God originally gave to him.
Yet, if doing something will not aid in recovering life but only prolong the time it takes for someone to die, then we have to let God call the person home. It’s then that the focus shifts away from doing everything you can to recover life, which in this case would not happen, to seeking the highest quality of life for the time the person has left. Everything shifts toward quality of life, not quantity, letting the person die a natural death.
Understanding that distinction lets the Lord give and the Lord take away according to His divine purposes. Understanding that distinction lets us honor God and the person whom we love in medically trying circumstances. Indeed, “the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away; praise the name of the Lord.” Amen.
