You get one shot at it. It is called life. With all of its choices and circumstances, it is long or short depending on your expectations and contributions. No one of us chooses to be born and without being born we are not. Shakespeare said the question was “To be or not to be”. Existence is not our choice. Life is to be. It begins at the creative moment of conception when through the miracle of God an egg is fertilized by a sperm. It is a journey of time and joy intersecting dreams and desires. With each heartbeat, each breath, a never before seen glorious manifestation of uniqueness unfolds. For better or worse, in astounding amazement or despondent disappointment, life continues until it ends.
Death is to have been. It is not the choice of “Not to be”. Not to be is not choice nor opportunity nor option. It is simply Not. It cannot be. It is the race that was never run. There is not a first nor a last breath in what is not to be. It simply is not. Not an imaginary thought, not an unmet circumstance, not even a fleeting glimpse of what might have been. You are not a you without life. Life is to be. Death is more than to not be. It is the culmination of what has been. It is the end of to be and the beginning of eternity. Eternity does not exist for that which is not. Life begins to be. Eternal life is to be again without end. It is one of the choices of life. While you do not choose to be, in much of our existence you do choose what to be. For some, the choice is to no longer be in this life.
But to be very clear, one cannot choose to not be. You may choose to transition from temporal, mortal life into the eternal. You may choose to extend every humanly possible effort to squeeze every additional millisecond of life you can call upon regardless of the agony and cost. You may choose not to choose which is of course your choice to make. It is your course to choose. Some will, some will not, regardless of whatever option is put before them. It does not change their existence, “To Be”. Nor does it cause them to cease to be. Some fatalistically will declare it is for nature to take its course. There is no doubt that nature, which we might call the irrevocable plan and purpose of God, will take its course.
Circumstances result from two things, your choices and the choices of others. How those choices interact and impact each other determine future opportunities. Choices beget choices. Good or bad, morally right or wrong, choices are made and opportunities result. Pain results from some, joy from others. No greater pain can be imagined than to make a choice with the assumption that you had chosen well before only to discover you had not truly chosen rightly. Suicide is probably that way sometimes. Believing that they had secured their eternal life with the Creator one might choose to escape the terror and disappointment of this life hoping for a better and blessed eternal one. What pain and unimaginable horror would it be to find the first choice in error. An assumption is not a choice. It is the difference between a hope so and a know so.
Getting is part of our growing. We get by choosing to experience. The Holy Scriptures commend us to get wisdom. Wisdom can be defined as understanding experiences. With all your wisdom you should get some measure of understanding. To be or not to be is hardly the question. You are. Life is. The greatest wisdom is to know and believe that He who made all that is, gave up all He had, to give life to you. It is life. Life is short or long depending on your expectations and contributions. It is yours to live and breathe and choose. Choose Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life. Without Him, eternity looks mighty bleak.