All of us should give thanks to Herb Orban for his shared testimony about the End of Life Option working it‘s way through the California legislative process. Those of us who await the death scenario, somewhat removed from its reality, cannot fully appreciate the angst of his circumstance. We do, however, respect his courage to share his suffering in order to help free California from the legal complications of death.
I was, like Mr. Orban, raised in a very evangelical church and have since dispensed with many of the “drills”, as he calls them. The church can be a comfort to all in the midst of suffering unless the ultimate freedom of the individual to choose death without condemnation is breached. Something is wrong with the church and the state when both are dishonest and hide from the people and patient the reality of death. Can anyone explain the irony of a medical situation called hospice that eliminates hydration for the patient so that they die legally?
For two thousand years the church has considered itself the gatekeeper of eternity demanding that the dead and dying conform to the drills or be banished for an eternity in hell. This gatekeeper mentality of the church is a vicious falsehood that itself must be put to death. God is the gatekeeper of eternity and there is no human organization that can arrogantly cancel Him out or issue speculative promises to anyone.
I can only share my personal opinion on the eternal matter. God would not be God if he kept a pit of eternal fire that burns but never consumes and reserves it for anyone who does not measure up or conform. Only a sadist God or a radical Muslim terrorist could think up such a place. At least this one person believes that the ancient hell belief of the church is not necessarily a Christian belief.
Suffering is the path that must be traveled by everyone in preparation for eternity. We human beings are hopelessly selfish beyond all logic or justification. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, God banished them from the garden to dig a suffering existence out of the dirt. Suffering as the plan of God is the narrow road that Jesus spoke about and upon which he saw few travel because most of us get bitter, depressed and angry. The miracles from God that Jesus witnessed were a promised future and destination that awaits every one of us when we are ready.
Our modern pill popping culture avoids suffering yet everyone will be filtered for eternity by suffering, on this side of death or beyond. We have no idea what that filtering process will entail on the other side so why not embrace suffering in this life when it comes our way. Popular wisdom has long noted the redeeming quality of suffering by saying, “whatever does not kill you will make you stronger”. Choosing death at the slightest provocation should suffering come upon us is to sell life short, we may just surprise ourselves. One should ask, is avoiding pain and suffering by ending life a worthy life decision?
An elderly preachers wife suffers for thirty years with debilitating rheumatoid arthritis yet she possesses a saintly character that out shines that of her husband and most other folk. This lady must have been 99 and 44/100 ready for eternity when she passed from this world. Selfishly, you and I would not want her pain but her life was a successful life, judged not by the standards of this world but by a character that is out of this world. This kind of selfless character is shown to us by Herb Orban as legislation is written that hopefully gives death authority to the individual while preserving the sanctity of life.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
