Die for A Friend

Dear Victor,

Some friends and I were talking the other night and came up with a hypothetical situation - that I'd like to know your answer to. Suppose you and a friend were captured and taken hostage by terrorists. The terrorist tells you to gauge out your friend's eyes ... or they will kill your friend. You're safe either way, but it's a matter of whether your friend lives (without his eyes) or dies. There is no other way out. What would you do?

Terry B. - Weirton, WV

Dear Terry,

Actually I've heard a slightly different version of this challenge before, so I have the advantage of having already applied some thought to this a few years ago. What you've described would be a dilemma. The thing I would do is to pray and seek God's will in the matter.

I suppose there's all kinds of criteria we could use to make the decision. Is the friend much older than me? Does he have small children? How well would his wife be provided for? All would be natural considerations. I would probably also want to talk to the friend and get his opinion! But at the end of the day, I'd want most to talk to God about it ... and I would make my decision based on however He led me.

There are many other, more practical or more common, times in life when we are faced with difficult choices where the only options seem wrong. There may be no good choice available to us. In such circumstances, I find it's best to seek God for wisdom and discernment. More often than not, He will lead you to another choice or make another option available to you. Ultimately you'll want to choose the choice that comes the closest to honoring God.