Brittany
Maynard is a 29-year-old wife with terminal cancer. Her story has been all over
the internet, including her own first-person account on the CNN website here. Brittany has a form of brain cancer that is
particularly aggressive, and those who have it usually die within 6 months.
She and
her husband moved from California to Oregon, a so-called “right to
die” state, because she wants to end her life on her own terms. She plans to do so on November 1, and is spending her last days as an advocate for
the right of all people to commit suicide when and how they wish.
Here’s one quote from the CNN article: "When my suffering becomes too great, I can say to all those I love, 'I love you; come be by my side, and come say goodbye as I pass into whatever's next.'"
My heart goes out to her and her family. I've watched people I love die, and even when they've lived a full life and are ready for heaven, it is still incredibly difficult. I hope and pray for God's very best for her. But at the same time her decision to take her life and her advocacy for the "right to die" must be examined, especially since it is the prevailing view of much of our culture. Its claim is that the individual is ruler and owner of his or her life - that you and you alone are the captain of your destiny, and that you and you alone are the determiner of right and wrong, truth and values.
When I
read Brittany’s words “as I pass into whatever's next,” I know we must pray for
her. If the Bible is true, “whatever’s next” is forever - spent in one of two
places, heaven or hell. If the Bible is true, this life, however long or short, is meant to prepare us for eternity. If the Bible is true, the only
way to be ready is Christ. To pass into eternity without Him is infinitely more
terrible than terminal cancer itself.
But
here’s another story. A friend at church told me of another young woman with
terminal cancer. Kara Tippetts is a Christian mother of four, married to a church
planting pastor. Her breast cancer has spread, and she, too, is dying. She
wrote a letter to Brittany which you can read here. (Her blog is called Mundane Faithfulness: http://mundanefaithfulness.com).
Let me
quote a little of her remarkable letter. (But do yourself a favor and read the whole thing.)
As I sat on the bed of my young daughter praying for you, I wondered over the impossibility of understanding that one day the story of my young daughter will be made beautiful in her living because she witnessed my dying.
That last kiss, that last warm touch, that last breath, matters —but it was never intended for us to decide when that last breath is breathed.
Knowing Jesus, knowing that He understands my hard goodbye, He walks with me in my dying. My heart longs for you to know Him in your dying. Because in His dying, He protected my living. My living beyond this place.
Brittany, when we trust Jesus to be the carrier, protecter, redeemer of our hearts, death is no longer dying. My heart longs for you to know this truth, this love, this forever living.
You have been told a lie. A horrible lie, that your dying will not be beautiful. That the suffering will be too great...
More importantly, will you hear from my heart that Jesus loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He died an awful death upon a cross so that you would know Him today that we would no longer live separate from Him and in our death... He died and He overcame death three days later, and in that overcoming of death He overcame the death you and I are facing in our cancer. He longs to know you, to shepherd you in your dying, and to give you life and give you life abundant- eternal life.
We need
to pray for both Brittany and Kara, and for their families. And maybe the best
thing to pray for Brittany is that she will listen to Kara.
As I
thought about the story of these two women, I kept hearing Jeremy Camp’s song
in my head: Give Me Jesus. The last stanza and the chorus is:
When I come to die,
When I come to die,
When I come to die,
Give me Jesus.
Give me Jesus.
Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus.
You can have all this
world,
Just give me Jesus.
