OPINION —
A woman I did not know called me from the local hospital. At her request I went to visit her, finding her in ICU, recovering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
She spoke plainly: “I saw no reason to continue living. I wanted to die so I shot myself in the chest with a .38 revolver, but I woke up alive in this hospital. So can you help me answer this question: Why am I still alive?”
I did my best to convince her that she was still alive because it was God’s will.
I said, “You are alive by the grace of God. God loves you. He has a purpose for your life that has not been fulfilled. I suggested that she thank God she was still alive and ask God what He wanted her to do.”
She admitted she was not a Christian. I invited her to confess her sins, ask Jesus to save her and accept the new life God would give her. She did that and on that hospital bed she became a child of God. Ten days later, she was released from the hospital. But instead of going home, she came by my church and asked me to baptize her.
Since baptism is a private ceremony only in extreme situations, I gathered several church members together and baptized her at the altar in our sanctuary. She went on her way, blessed with a new life in Christ, and determined to discover and do the will of God for the rest of her life.
The question she raised is a good one to ponder at any age. And it is a question Saint Paul answers in his “Letter to the Romans.” We find his answer in the 14th chapter, in a passage titled, in the NLT, “The Danger of Criticism.”
Recently, I had the honor of reading a New Testament passage during the funeral mass for Charlotte Warren, the beloved wife of my dear friend, Toby Warren. Their church is St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Auburn. The verses I read, Romans 14:7-9 and verses 10-12, contained Paul’s answer to the question as to why we are alive.
God had put that passage in my mind a few days before the funeral while I was reading a devotional by Charles Spurgeon. In the King James Version, the answer is stated in five words: “We live to the Lord.” Since the statement was a little puzzling, I wondered if “live to the Lord” should have been “live for the Lord.” Spurgeon did not change it — this is how he explained its meaning:
“We are here so that we may ‘live to the Lord’ and bring others to know his love. We remain on earth as sowers to scatter good seed, as plowmen to break up the fallow ground, as messengers to proclaim salvation. We are here as ‘the salt of the earth,’ to be a blessing to the world. We are here to glorify Christ in our daily lives.”
The New American Bible confirmed my desire for the word “to” to be “for.” Here are verses 7 and 8 in the NAB:
“None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”
I love the words “honor” and “belong” that are used in the New Living Translation:
“For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Christ died and rose again for this very purpose — to be Lord both of the living and of the dead.”
Paul’s answer to our burning question is buried in Paul’s warning against criticizing others, and his further warning not to judge others:
“So why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.”
The next time someone asks me “Why am I still here?” I will read to that person this passage from Romans. And I’ll explain that to “live to the Lord” is to live as servants of Jesus until He calls us Home!
