If someone asked you this question, how would you answer?
“What if my health declines to the point that I can only survive on a breathing machine. I’m not sure that’s something I want to do, but I’m afraid to dishonor the Lord. Should I artificially prolong my life with a respirator?”
When you’re wrestling with a question as profound as whether or not life is worth living, only God – not conventional wisdom – is adequate to answer.
Conventional wisdom says, “It’s your body. Do what you want.” Scripture says that our bodies are ultimately God’s. First Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
Scripture also says in 1 John 3:1, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” God loves us as a father loves his children. He doesn’t merely tolerate us; He is crazy about us.
These two ideas are fundamental truths that draw a line between medical treatment that sustains life and treatment that merely prolongs the dying process. There’s also a line between defending God’s truth and over-burdening a suffering person.
I don’t know if anyone can bring God’s truth and compassion together quite the same way as Joni Eareckson Tada. Fifty years ago, a tragic accident left Joni a quadriplegic, requiring constant care. She understands what it means to suffer. And she’s had to answer the question, “Is life worth living?” as much as anyone.
On Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, Joni speaks about how godly wisdom turns much of what our culture embraces as truth upside down. We’re airing a recorded message in which Joni explains why she considers herself living proof that God can infuse even quadriplegia and all of its complications with eternal value. She shares how it’s often through our suffering that we most profoundly experience God’s glory.
Hear my full conversation with Joni on your local radio station, online, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, via Google Podcasts, or listen on our free phone app.
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