When Charles P. Luckey, a 50-year-old Connecticut minister, learned that he had a fatal disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob, he dictated the following letter: "What does a Christian do . . . when the doctors have told him that his disease is ravaging his brain, and that his whole personality may be warped? . . . After 48 hours of self-searching study, it comes to me that ultimately and finally the Christian is to always view life as a gift from God, . . . and it is not his to smash."

Luckey decided that suicide was out of the question because of his deep faith in "the Creator who knew and loved me before I was fashioned in my mother's womb." But he still asked God to take him quickly. The Lord honored Luckey's request, and the minister soon went to be with his Savior.

Job faced a similar situation. Although he was afflicted with a painful and unsightly disease and lost everything he had, Job trusted God enough to reject his wife's suggestion that he should "curse God and die" (Job 2:9).

In a day when many influential people promote death as a way out of our toughest dilemmas, we can learn from Job and from Charles Luckey. They knew that life comes from the Creator, and it is not ours to take away.  — Herbert Vander Lugt