Understanding God’s Plan for the End of Life - Joni Eareckson Tada

well there was a movie what was it last summer or two summers ago me before you and it was a story of a quadriplegic who felt that his quality of life was was nothing and even though he loved his personal care assistant he opted for suicide and all of his family and all of his friends said he made a courageous noble dignified decision and I'm sitting there in the audience as a quadriplegic thinking no he didn't he opted out he he took the Cowardly way out welcome to the focus on the family broadcast helping families thrive Jonny welcome back to focus good to be here and thank you for inviting me to speak on this this troubling topic that's influencing not only our nation's laws but also the Christian community yeah well you in many ways I'm sure years ago you didn't sign up for this I will be an expert in physically challenged you know lives 50 years ago fifty years ago I broke my neck in that diving accident and and my goodness I was athletic I was on the go I was hopeful about heading off to college and and here my plans were drastically altered when I took that dive of reckless dive and snapped my neck and severed my fourth cervical vertebrae that cut my spinal cord and left me a quadriplegic and I could not believe it when doctors said I would never walk never have use of my hands and I began to translate that Jim and John I okay this means somebody's gonna wipe my butt there my toileting routines this means somebody's gonna have to cut up my food and feed me this means I'm gonna have to have bed baths and someone who's gonna have to brush my teeth and wipe my spit and and clean my runny nose and and I don't want to live like that and I guess it's why when I talked to me christ-followers who struggle with disability they are thinking more and more about why should I have to go through this my quote quality of life is so poor you know physician assisted suicide is not a bad idea perhaps I have literally talked to quadriplegic friends who are thinking seriously thinking about opting out of life because of what they feel is dehumanizing and undignified care Johnny so appreciate that boldness I mean what you shared is so straightforward it makes us wince especially if we have the use of our bodies we're going wow we'll think of that all those things that you mentioned but let me ask you in that same way that pervasive thought then is well maybe it's okay for them to select an easy way out because of the pain they're in well and of course I don't ascribe to that I'm just trying to posture the way people rationalize physician assisted suicide which puts our listeners who are Christ followers in such a key and influential position you know we were reading a statistic just before airtime about 39 percent of evangelicals believe it's morally permissible to provide quote compassionate care in in mercy killing if someone's suffering seems unbearable now when 39 percent of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ feel it is preferable to to have three grams of phenobarbital injected into your veins rather than deal with suffering then we have to understand what are we hearing about suffering from our pulpits yeah do we have a biblical worldview and suffering do we know how to handle it how do we engage it and Jim what is so disconcerting is that these fears that people have about suffering have been translated into what most people think is very rational social policy let's have society aid us help us in death with with a lethal injection you know you have said a lot right there Johnny when you look at the issue of developing courage you know I'm mindful of the scripture where Paul writes about suffering leading to endurance endurance leading to character and character hope we're not very good with that no but that is not our our expertise in Western civilization no but you know I think a lot of this this discussion can be traced back to this US Supreme Court ruling in 1973 which ruled that there is an inherent quote right of privacy in our Constitution and right there gave birth to the entitlement culture we live in an entitlement culture which has made idols of of autonomy personal choice it's made idols of comfort convenience and and when you add to this despair then that is a formula for opting for assisted suicide my hope is that pastors and pulpits that small group Bible studies that people when they discuss these topics over a cup of coffee at Starbucks or the backyard fence or at PTA or in their carpool or with her coworkers my hope is that Christians will be able to articulate not only a biblical worldview and suffering but help people find virtue in affliction people find courage in facing the challenges of disability that's critical what you're saying is critical for us to understand absolutely and it flies in the face of our entitlement culture we want a healthy life we want a comfortable life we want life to go our way and when disease or disability or aging or pain especially pain begins to encroach on our comfort when our convenience we start to despair let me ask you in that regard when you look at quality of life and all the things you just mentioned the abled body person listening who hasn't lived a day in your shoes we don't understand what you have to go through and your husband ken is here and he has been such a great support to you and I know that from the times we spent together but help help us better understand why we should not support some of those movements in this country where they're proposing termination of life because we see it as a poorer quality of life and who are we to judge that well you're speaking from experience absolutely that meaning yeah does it ever frustrate you or make you upset well they I have able-body personally have some kind of judgment on you well yes Jim it does because it tells me that you think little of my abilities you think little of my years of cultivation of patience endurance self-control long-suffering compassion toward other people who hurt you know suffering is the textbook that teaches us who we really are and we all would like to think that we are Paragons of virtue but suffering is God's choices tool in molding our character and my my quality of life may seem poor to many people when I rehearse that that list you know somebody doing my toileting routines bed bath feeding me dressing me you know all my autonomy is out the window your quality of life is nothing but I'm an image bearer of God and that makes the difference you have to wake up in the morning and remember that thank God for my disability because I don't think most people wake up in the morning and think hey I'm a reflector of God ah I bear His image that's a big responsibility it is and it's not based on pride which of course is the essence of autonomy and personal choice no when we reflect on the fact that we are image bearers of a great Almighty God it humbles us it makes us humble we we receive happily anything from the hand of God even if it was from the left hand of God affliction pain aging disappointment despair I mean these are things that are tough to grapple with let me ask you about that because we've covered in other programs we've done together but I know someone's listening today who is in a spot where they are bitter toward God it may not be you know physical ailment it could be but it might be something else a broken family divorce wayward child whatever is in their heart where God has let them down their expectations have not been met how with your experience with your physical constraints how would you coach a person to say this does not matter how I love my God how I love my lord how I trust my lord how I depend upon my Lord you walk it every day and I use that word correctly you walk it every day but talk to that troubled soul and again we we could have all of our physical capability and we're broken in this area how do you do it well first it's totally understandable Jim there are so many mornings after 50 years of quadriplegia where I wake up and to be quite honest my quadriplegia is somewhat of a walk the park next to my struggle with chronic pain it is so difficult please don't ask me to explain how a quadriplegic feels pain I can't explain it but I have other quadriplegic friends who feel the same and it just wears at your resolve it erodes your joy like corrosive acid it just eats away at your peace of mind you begin to doubt the goodness of God I understand I get it i resonate when people struggle with these things but not only do i resonate the bible resonates with people I mean even the Apostle Paul in Corinthians he said to his friends my brothers I don't want you to be uninformed about the hardships we endured in Asia we were overwhelmed far beyond our ability to endure we even had in our hearts the sting of death now basically what the Apostle Paul is saying there is I'd rather die to go through this you guys don't understand it was hard we were totally overwhelmed and Jim I just know there are listeners right now who can identify with that statement take heart an apostle knows exactly how you feel not just Johnnie Erickson tada a biblical apostle knows how you feel but and the right at the end of that little list of his woes he says but and I love lights in Scripture don't you yeah but these things happen that we might not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead oh my goodness if God can raise the dead he can raise me up in the morning out of my chronic pain he can raise our listeners when they are overwhelmed by the needs of their disabled child their elderly parent for whom they're caring God's grace is sufficient and that sometimes I don't think we as Christ followers understand how deep and wide and great the grace of God is unless we suffer but Jim I've told you this before I wake up in the morning and say I'm gonna believe I'm okay today I'm gonna believe what I say a chapter 60 verse 1 arise shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rest upon you I'm gonna believe that psalm 119 verse 50 says my comfort and suffering is this your promises renew my life and so sometimes Ken drives me to Johnny and friends down the 101 freeway for 18 minutes and what am i doing rehearsing the promises of God because God you tell me that these things were to renew my life so I'm gonna believe you and I think that's what Jesus meant in John chapter 6 what he said you need to eat my flesh you need to drink my blood that was an offensive statement to most people and only a few followers understood what he meant you have to ingest His grace you have to feed on it not just daily moment by moment when you suffer yeah but I tell you what when you do you discover Jesus is ecstasy beyond compare and it's worth anything to be his friend he's that precious and that sweet and that is why I want people not to look to despair and hopelessness and physician-assisted suicide and mercy Kelly I want them to find Jesus in the midst of their afflictions many can't but the onus is on the church to get a biblical view and suffering and apply it to their neighbors their friends their relatives their co-workers who are despairing Johnny you've written the first edition of this book I think twenty-five years ago and you re-released it updated it when you look at the change in the culture in 25 years what have you noticed I mean you're seeing this every day many of us aren't looking at it in the same way you do so you've been at the helm of this movement to protect life what did the changes like and what scares you what gives you hope well my concerns about physician-assisted suicide began really in 1982 and I was on an airplane reading newspaper it was about a child an infant with Down syndrome it was starved to death on a hospital and it was upheld by the state Supreme Court and I looked at that and thought oh my goodness you know this is what the abortion ruling in 1973 is bringing us people warned us about this Francis Schaeffer warned us about this in 1973 and we're seeing it come to reality connect those dots quickly because some people may be people that aren't Christian they don't understand this they make be Christian not pro-life why do those dots connect for you well because in the Supreme Court ruling back 1973 judges determined that there is an inherent quote right to privacy in the US Constitution and when that was determined that opened the door to an exercise of personal rights in every single realm however over the time that's become morphed into this into this competition between whose rights are more important than whose and so not no longer our rights moral claims they are based on the Word of God but rights over over the years have become nothing more than people's willful determinations all dressed up in politically correct language calling them rights but really it's what I want when I want and I want it now including my own death exactly and including the the entitlement culture that we find ourselves in and when people start viewing rights as willful determinations such as that and when they disengage rights from their moral basis in in the Word of God then the exercise of Rights becomes nothing but a national competition between who is more victimized than ku and I think we see that happening in our country now we have become a hanging group of individuals who have radicalized rights based on the interpretation from 1973 s ruling and and now it's it's no one does anything for the common good of the country all moral consensus has has unraveled and we've become a bunch of forgive me spoiled brats yeah just want what we want when we want it very much the me culture and it's getting more me centric it seems each and every day well there was a movie what was it last summer or two summers ago me before you and it was a story of a quadriplegic who felt that his quality of life was was nothing and even though he loved his personal care assistant he opted for suicide and all of his family and all of his friends said he made a courageous noble dignified decision and I'm sitting there in the audience as a quadriplegic thinking no he didn't he opted out he he took the Cowardly way out now there may be some people think you know wait a minute I'm suffering pain I'm going through intractable pain well if we are dealing with pain and I'm one with you then let's pour our resources not into the advancement of giving people special rights to die known as poor our resources into developing better pain management techniques better Hospice better palliative care let's help people deal with anger let's give them social supports bring them out of social isolation let's provide spiritual community let's be a friend to these people and walk the journey with them Jonny also mentioned back when you were at the beginning of this journey that people helped you get this perspective that you did have down days I mean you're very buoyant spirit you see that and in fact some people who have followed you and know your ministry would say yeah Johnny's got that capacity to stay on top of these things but talk about the help that came around you those that picked you up in your despair what did that look like back then it's still painful for me to remember it I would I'd been released in the hospital I was spending that summer in a deep depression I I didn't know what to do where to turn I would drink I have found some friends who were Christians who would come every one a Friday night and they'd sneak me their beers and and you know scotch and Soda became a favorite and I began to deaden my pain with alcohol of course I was what only 18 19 20 years old but but the alarm went off in my head and God introduced me to a couple of Christians who intervened and started to make a difference and they didn't treat me like a project I wasn't there you know despairing neighbor who you know needed to have a friend so I'm gonna do the admirable thing and become her friend oh they were my friends they got engaged with me they they they took me to Bob's Big Boy to get burgers they took me shopping they they you're just one of them I was one of them and it made all the difference in the world and I think it was those Christians who began to share with me perspectives from the Word of God the fact that we don't own our bodies God wants to honor him with our bodies which he paid for with his own death mmm God is against murder he's against suicide which stands to reason he would be against self murder God loves life death is the last enemy and and we're to do all we can to sustain life as long as we have a breath there is a purpose there's a meaning even if it's a small gesture of encouragement that you might offer to others I'm thinking of a woman named Kim real quickly she had a neuromuscular disease she was despairing of her life her elder at her church called me and asked if I would please call and talk to Kim because she was considering opting out of life and not going on a ventilator she was so depressed and I got her on the phone and after some long conversation about prayer and and heaven and and courage and whatnot I I said to her Kim I'm gonna give you a Bible verse that's gonna change your life it's from first Peter chapter 3 verse 8 and it says a day with the Lord is such a thousand years and a thousand years are as a day I said Kim we all know the old adage that God looks at a thousand years as just a couple of days gone by but if you ever thought the other side of that verse that he looks at our days as worth a thousand years a thousand years worth of opportunity to invest in his kingdom I said Kim when your mother comes to give you your meal tonight and syringes you're your meal into your g2 because she would spend with the reining tube watch it mom should just say to your mom let me say a blessing let me say a blessing over my food before you syringe that into me just do that Kim I know your focus is to herself and your pain but try reaching out because that small momentary act of courage has got to pan out to at least 579 years worth of eternal benefit to your mother bliss for yourself and glory to God start living that way look beyond yourself even though you're on your quote deathbed and care about others me look at Jesus he was on his cross and he's what's he doing he's dying but he's also ministering to this man crucified next to him he's counseling his mother about who she should live with and I mean he's doing all these things miss Kraus is on deathbed she began to take my advice when people would come over to do a Bible study by her bedside she with great effort because her breathing was labored would say let me share with you my favorite bible verse of course everybody is stunned silence listening to her this courageous woman and it was so encouraging and her mother told me that Kim lived another I think it was three months after our conversation but she said Johnny those are the most meaningful months my daughter ever lived because she believed that what she did with her small gestures of encouragement and courage and boosting the spirits of others and bolstering others perspectives on her suffering she believed it panned out to at least fifty nine thousand years worth of eternal benefit to her and bliss for others and glory to God and she put a value on it that Bible verse in 1st Peter chapter 3 gave her and that was for some of the most meaningful week she lived thank you she said and to be honest Jim Kim is not alone it's the way I live every day I have to push in the back of my thinking I have to push back pain I have to find something that's more interesting that demands my focus that's more engaging than my pain and what is it first Peter chapter 3 verse 8 I don't want to diminish my eternal estate I don't want to jeopardize it I want to live life well I want to live life well I think that is dying with dignity because we're all dying each and every day we die to self each and every day right but we rise to Jesus and we're all preparing for that final exit and I just want to make certain that my death will be a good death because I have lived well Johnny that is well said I mean all of us pass through that that threshold no one's going to escape it whether you're able body or you have some physical disabilities and you have expressed it so well today well it's why I wrote that book when is it right to die I really wanted to give Christ followers a keen understanding of the arguments surrounding physician assisted suicide as well as give them a language so that they could engage their own neighbors and friends and church goers in a biblical worldview of not only life but death yes Johnny Erickson tada thank you for being such a great example of how to do that so well in your book when is it right to die what a resource for every Christian home thanks Jim hey I'm John fuller and thanks for watching get more info about focus over here and more from our guests over there and be sure to subscribe to our channel as well

Channel: Focus on the Family

Views: 551,985

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Keywords: focus, on, the, family, focus on the family, focus on the family broadcast, daily broadcast, Joni Eareckson Tada, Suffering, Right To Die, Mercy Killing, End of Life, when is it the right time to die?, joy, Faith, Life, Love

Id: TqFGewmz04o

Length: 23min 22sec (1402 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 28 2018