The Gift of Life

My heart is grieving - mourning life lost, life wasted, life taken, life thrown away.

The Creator of the earth and sky, the sea below and the stars above, all good things...He breathed life into man.
"Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." Genesis 2:7
By this we are set apart. His breath gave us life, not just physically, but spiritually.

And then the hissed lies of a serpent in the shadows caught our attention, turned our head. We threw away the gift of life that filled our lungs, permeated our very being. We decided we wanted to play with the box the gift came in, instead of the gift itself. And still you loved us.

You loved us enough to sacrifice your son as a lamb to be slaughtered. Life was cruelly, brutally, mercilessly stripped and drained from him. Yet this was only temporary. Love rose again in defeat of death. Life was renewed, and once again we were given the gift of life for your glory.
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep." John 10:11

But today that gift is trampled on, spat upon, taken for granted, treated with disdain. This delicate and fragile thing that is life, is mocked and degraded. Some take the lives of others, some take their own lives. Some waste the life they've been given, some abuse it.

My heart is broken for the lives lost, taken, abused, destroyed, mutilated, cheapened, imprisoned.
LORD, forgive us our sins.

On the surface, our world appears to greatly value life. We spend countless hours and obscene amounts of money in desperate efforts to extend life. Yet, life is only worth extending if it is deemed "healthy" or "happy" by society. Anything falling outside those qualifications isn't worth saving. We abort babies with down's syndrome. We are told that after a certain advanced age, when the mind isn't as supple and the body isn't as agile, that it would just be better to die so as not to be a burden. We applaud those who have the "courage" to take their own lives so as to avoid or escape suffering. We glamorize mass murderers while their victims get tossed aside like banana peels. How can our world be so confused, so backwards, so contrary to itself? Why is a pain-free life the only life worth living?

My heart aches for the lost, for those who have been lied to and bought into the lie, for those whose lives have been ended because they didn't pass society's quality assurance test. But should I be surprised? These lies are perpetuated by those who don't have the truth. They either haven't heard it, or are ignoring it, but they don't have it. It should be no great shock that these lies spread like wildfire through the uninformed masses who are consumed by it like a forest that hasn't seen rain for years. On some level, it must make sense that a life of pain or discomfort isn't worth living. When illness consumes, when circumstances overwhelm, why prolong the agony? But that cuts to the heart of the issue. It's selfish. Thoughts and actions like that are selfish to the core. You cannot possibly know the impact or influence your life will have on those around you. You don't know how your difficult situation or suffering may shape someone who crosses your path. Not to mention how such situations shape ourselves. When is the last time your grew as a person when your life was peachy and carefree? I look back on my life and see that true growth as a person happened during the trials. Of course it was difficult. Of course I prayed for an end to the discomfort and suffering. There are times in my life I wish never to repeat, situations you couldn't pay me to endure again. But I am so thankful for how I was stretched, grown, matured, during those trials.

My body, my very core aches with a longing for the peace, healing, and wholeness in heaven. Eternal, unbroken life in the presence of my Father. But it is not for me to decide when and how that happens. In our world of test tubes and artificial preservatives we attempt and presume to play god. How dare we. We see our capabilities in preserving life, so we assume we should have the same power to end it whenever and however we wish. After all, "It's MY body. Who are YOU to tell me how to manage MY body?" We forget that our lives are not our own.

Heavenly Father, forgive us for the callous attitude and ever decreasing value we give to your gift of life. What a precious gift it is. Help us to maintain an attitude of thankfulness for the lives we've been given. We have life while millions of others have been denied it. I pray for hearts overflowing and lives LIVED with gratitude.

Don't live life in fear of pain and discomfort. How much richer would life be if we learned to find the good in all situations instead of simply avoiding what hurts? A life with pain is worth living THAT much more. Live it for all it's worth.