Senior Living

Ayoung man I know became a quadriplegic 4 months ago. A bad accident left him paralyzed. He was on life support. Doctors needed to know what to do. His mother asked him, “Do you want to live like this?” He said, “Yes.” I know a senior adult man with Parkinson’s who struggles every day to move about due to his dyskinesia. I was telling him about the young quadriplegic, and he said that every morning he asks himself the same question, “Do I want to live like this?” And he ultimately comes up with the same answer, “Yes!” He asked me, “Why did God make us like that?” We do have a built-in survival instinct that wants to live. Being asked if you want to live or die is like being in a room with a dark hole in a wall and someone saying, “Do you want to go in there? If you go, you cannot come back.” An unknown future here among those you love certainly seems better than an unknown future wondering if you would be all alone or possibly worse. So, the logical answer would be, “No, I think I would rather stay in here with you if that’s OK.” For some, fear of the unknown beyond the grave is what makes them cling to life. For others, particularly those who have a faith-based idea of what is awaiting them beyond death’s door, it’s the bond they have with their loved ones that makes them persevere each day. When the apostle Paul contemplated his own death he said, “To live is Christ! To die is gain.” Paul was not afraid to die. He knew that as long as he had Christ Jesus, anywhere, under any circumstance, he would have a purpose and a reason to exist. So, do you want to live? I pray that you will find your purpose for living in Jesus who can then take away your fear of dying.

Next Week: Take me back to Mayberry

Dan Williams is the senior adult pastor at Lexington Baptist Church.