Meditation for Sunday: We Don't Belong to Ourselves

Whenever I hear someone talking as if he is the ultimate arbiter of his own existence, I can't help shaking my head. None of us owns himself. No matter how much we want to believe we do, it simply isn't true.

Some things do belong to me. If someone pulls into MY driveway to visit, he comes to MY house (and the mortgage company's). My husband and I own it. We bought it from the former owner who proved he had a clear title to the property and he sold it to us.


If I take my visitor for a ride to go sightseeing, we will ride in MY car. I can prove I own it because I have the title in the glove compartment. It used to belong to the car dealership and before that to the manufacturer. For a time I co-owned it with the bank, but it's mine now free and clear.

If my visitor stays for a meal, I will cook it in MY pans, on MY stove, and serve it on MY dishes. I own all of those things because I bought them from a store who bought them from the companies that made them. If I want to sell MY house or give away MY pans or smash MY dishes because I'm angry, I can do those things because they all BELONG TO ME.

I, however, do not belong to myself!

Are you scratching your head? Think about it. I did not make myself. I did not call myself into being. Someone else did that and I am made in His image and likeness. He, like the logo on the back of the car or on the bottom of the dishes, is the maker. And He will not sell or give me away because He loves me as the apple of His eye. I'm His forever. His stamp is on me. He loves me enough to let me make free decisions including the decision to reject Him. But, if I do that, I can never reach the wonderful destiny He has planned for me -- a blissful reunion with Him in Heaven.

What is the stamp that marks me as His? It's my uniqueness, my intelligence, my free will, my innate knowledge of what's called the natural law. I know when I look at everything else around me that I"M DIFFERENT. I'm not like a rock or a tree or even an animal. I'm more than they are because I'm made in the image and likeness of God. And that means I have a responsibility to my Maker to respect what He made and return it to Him in good condition. I do not have the right to choose to violate myself, injure myself, or kill myself any more than I have the right to go the car dealer's and puncture all the tires or go to the china factory and break all the dishes.

I certainly do not have the right to kill myself either with the help of the local Dr. Kevorkian, nor does the palliative department at the hospital have the right to kill me by denying me food, water, and ordinary health care.

An increasing sign of the culture of death is its insistence that we all belong to ourselves and can do whatever we want with ourselves. It's part of the lie and will bring to our world nothing but death and despair. We belong to God. Let's not forget it!