Reminds me of Charlie West, a devout Baptist who lived until his late 80s. His wife had died previously from cancer and his doctors had decided his body was shutting down and nothing could be done for him so they took him off all his meds except for the pain meds, sent him home and let him prepare to die.
His friends all came by to say their farewells, his Bill Gaither tapes hummed in the background. You had never met a man more ready to die than Charlie West. He was fond of saying “I know more people in Heaven than I do on Earth and I’m tired of looking at the ones here.” He wanted so badly to be reunited with his wife.
There was just one thing wrong. Charlie West got better. He was so much better he dressed and walked into church one Sunday where his friends jokingly dubbed him Lazarus. Charlie was not amused. He was downright perplexed and angry that God hadn’t taken him yet.
This went on for six months until God mercifully took him home one morning. Charlie West was 89.
Contrast this with his son Dan West who died this February at age 78. West had been a Vice President with Monsanto, invested well and was able to travel the world on various tours and cruises. His wife had also passed away from cancer five years earlier but, after some mourning, Dan West returned to globehopping and seemingly scratching off everything one could possibly have on a bucket list.
Dan West passed away while swimming with humpback whales off the coast of the Dominican Republic of a massive heart attack. It was a very Dan way to die. Almost everyone admires what a “cool” way it was to check out from this life.
The point is that God alone knows the time we are born and the time we die. Perhaps with suicides, assisted or not, God allows a life to end. But God is sovereign as He demonstrated to Charlie West. And God does not wait for us, as was true with Dan West.
But you can always choose what your attitude about living is like and whether to approach the day with gladness or dread, with thankfulness or gloom. Dan wanted to get everything he could out of this life before moving on to the next one.
“He wanted so badly to be reunited with his wife.”
Yeah, but it doesn’t really work that way.
Matt 22:30
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
God IS sovereign. But I don’t believe He is the force behind assisted suicide. That act is taking the decision out of God’s hands.