As a Christian, how does one answer?  I really took a few minutes thinking before I answered. I chose resuscitation because I felt God put me there to save me, not call me home.  For a few seconds, I thought of going to Glory, but I do not know, when I changed my mind, if it was my will or His. It was strange having to make that decision. I chose the temporal over the eternal. Was that a correct choice or should I have chosen eternal and left it up to our most awesome Physician?

Working with Hospice, I am very aware of the choice that is often given to patients to decide if they wish to be resuscitated in the event their heart stops.  In most of the patients’ homes I visit, there is a DNR posted close to the patient’s bed.  This is an individual decision that each Hospice patient will be asked to make, so any EMT or physician that is called into the home will know the proper wish of the patient. 

I am sorry that I cannot give you a definitive answer to your good question.  This is a decision that you had to make, and I think you chose according to your own determination that your time to leave earth had not yet come.  Efforts to keep patients alive are so common.  I think we even expect that from our physicians…as we should.  On the same token, we often pray for our ailing family and friends, asking the Lord to intervene according to His perfect will.  In fact, the Apostle Paul once rejoiced in the recovered health of his friend so that he, himself, would not have to lose his friend.  He wrote of Epaphroditus in Philippians 2:27, “For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.”  So, we naturally have a desire for continued health.

Paul summed up his life in Philippians 1:21 by saying, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  As long as he was on the earth, he was determined he would live to honor Christ.  He also realized that when it came his time to go, it would be a profit to him because he would be with Christ…which is far better. 

Let me assure you of one thing…your decision to be resuscitated did not interfere with God’s plans for your lifespan.  No, not for a single second. 

  • Job 14:5, “Since his days are determined, The number of his months is with You; And You have set his limits so that he cannot pass.”
  • Psalm 139:16, “Your eyes have seen my formless substance; And in Your book were written all the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.”

The words of Job and David show us that the Lord has determined how long we will live on the earth.  You will not pass away sooner than the “days that were ordained” for you.  Neither will you live beyond “his limits” set for you.  God’s will is absolute over life and death, and the Bible teaches that every person has an appointed time for their life (Hebrews 9:27), including when they will die. Passages like Psalm 139:16 and Job 14:5 affirm that God knows and has set the length of our lives.  You can do nothing to take God by surprise and change what He knows will happen.

I would encourage you to spend time meditating upon the reality that one day we will leave here.  May we, as believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, find peace in knowing we are in His loving and powerful hands, and He will welcome us home when He determines it is the correct time.  (CC)  (735.6)