Jump Start # 1225

Hebrews 9:27 “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment”

  My friend, Christy, asked me if I would write a Jump Start about “death with dignity,” especially with the news of Brittany Maynard’s assisted suicide. If you don’t remember the story of Brittany, she was the 29-year-old who was diagnosed with advanced brain cancer. Her doctors told her that she had only months to live and it would be a very painful death. She had experienced severe seizures, one which for days she did not recognize family members. She decided to control her own destiny and die with dignity. She moved to Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. It was there that her life on earth ended. It ended the way she chose.

I do not know what it is like to be in someone’s shoes like Brittany’s. I have never hurt so bad that I wanted life to end. I have never faced the reality of being told that I have months to live. Those things affect and alter how we view each day. We’d look at each day differently.

Our passage reminds us that we all have an appointment with death. That is the design of the world since Adam’s sin. This appointment is made by God. There is no escaping it. God always keeps His appointments.

Here are a few of my thoughts concerning “death with dignity” philosophy:

1. Death with dignity is a fancy and less offensive way of saying suicide. That’s the bottom line, it’s suicide. Suicide takes a right that belongs to God and puts it in our hand. It is God who has the right to make life and to take life. Under a few exceptions that are spelled out in the Scriptures, God allows certain people that right. Other than that, it is the privilege of God. When a person takes their life, they are taking something that it isn’t their right. It’s God’s. God determines when our appointment with death will be.

2. Death with dignity throws in the towel. It’s giving up. It’s quitting. There is no dignity in that. Fearing pain, fearing a long and hard journey, a person gives up. The honor is in seeing that person fight. The person struggles but keeps going. The person shows valor, courage and honor to others. There is always others. Death with dignity leaves the example that when faced with an uphill battle, give up. The painful journey of cancer is enough for some to take their life. What about a painful divorce? Or a painful bankruptcy? Where does it end? When things are hard, we simply give up. There is no dignity in that. The dignity is staying engaged and fighting as long as you can.

3. Death with dignity gives up on options, especially God. Our Lord can do things when others can’t. For those that take their lives, it’s over. There is no changing their mind. There is no coming back. A new treatment, a new drug, prayer, hope—these are the things that keep many going. My wife deals with cancer patients every day. The news is often sad and bad. For some, they come to the end and no more can be done. That was the case with my mother many years ago. She fought a hard battle with ovarian cancer. She passed with us around her. I preached her funeral. The dignity of death was being surrounded with loved ones, prayer and God. There was one afternoon when everyone was gone but me and her. Together we wrote out what she wanted me to say at her funeral. There were tears, but there was also joy and laughter. She died believing. She died knowing the Lord and knowing that when the angels carried her to the next room of God’s house, she would suffer no more. Death with dignity is selfish. It’s saying, “I’ll choose when and how I will die.” It leaves no room for God. It gives up on God.

4. Death with dignity fails to see the greatest point of all and that is, death isn’t the end. Death isn’t the worse thing that can happen to us. We are made in the image of God. Our passage reminds us that there is something after death. After death is God. After death is a judgment. The sufferings in this life are nothing compared to the sufferings in the next life. For the believer, all the problems, all the pains, all the sorrows of this life, end when we die. There is hope for the believer. There is the hope of comfort, peace and Heaven. There is the hope of fellowship with God forever. There is the hope of seeing other believers who have passed on. For those who are not believers, what follows death is a horror that they never expected. Jesus said do not fear the one who can kill the body and do no more. Fear the one who can kill the body and the soul. He was referring to God. Death with dignity is not the thoughts of a person who believes in God.

Going to Oregon and having a doctor administer drugs so a life ends, sounds appealing and nice to some. It’s no different than taking a bottle of pills or finding a gun and doing it yourself. Suicide is suicide.

Those early Christians didn’t die very dignified. Many were crucified, including the apostles. Many were tortured, eaten by lions or burned alive. Their deaths were horrific and painful. They died placing their destiny in the hands of a God that they loved and would not turn their backs on. They died, not on their terms, and not being selfish, but with the faith and knowledge that they would soon be with the Lord. They were not trying to escape death. They were willing to experience it, knowing that they would soon be with the Lord forever. That’s the Biblical approach.

There are other stories of folks with brain cancer who have stayed engaged in life. Soon after Brittany’s suicide, there was a story of a young female basketball player who had terminal cancer. She was playing in a game. She was trying to help her team win. That’s dignity. That’s honorable. How we live and how we die leave examples for others. I think of my friend Bill, who died early this year, from cancer. To the very end, he was cheerful, hopeful and a believer in Christ. His death, though sad, left a great example for all of us who saw him. He never felt that life cheated him. He never gave up. That’s dignity. That’s the way a believer dies.

Some day, unless the Lord comes, we must all face our death. We don’t like to think about that. It is sad. It is also hopeful for those of us that believe. We know what awaits us. We know what’s in the next room. We know.

The dignified thing is to walk by faith. Put our hope and our trusts in the hands of the Lord. He will be there for us, as He is every day. Don’t give up. Don’t throw in the towel because things are hard or painful. Don’t quit. Hold to God’s unchanging hand…

Live as if you have one foot already in Heaven

Roger