While I Was Sleeping - Christianity Today Magazine
So, we still don't know what Terri Schiavo's actual mental state really is, but this article should certainly make anyone think twice about pulling the feeding tube. It's written by a woman named Lindsey O'Connor, who was in a coma for 47 days after complications relating to the birth of her fifth child. She recalls how bleak and hopeless things looked for so long, and how close her husband and family came to giving up on many occasions. However, they didn't give up, and despite all medical opinions to the contrary, she eventualy came out of the coma, and is alive to tell the story today.
Now, from everything that I have been able to read, I think that Terri Schiavo's medical condition is a bit different. So, I don't think we should read Lindsey's account and jump to the conclucsion that since she came out of a coma, so could Terri. I think it does show that doctors tend to see the glass as half-empty most of the time, and that God can and does work amazing miracles.
But really I think the bigger story within Lindsey's account is that God can work in amazing ways to impact huge numbers of people through traumatic circumstances. Lindsey recalls the amazing way that her tragedy affected those around her, including her eldest daughter, Jacquelyn, who dropped out of her freshman year of college to help care for her newborn sister. Lindsey says:
"One night, in her car in the hospital parking lot, she pictured her life two ways—with God and without. Was her faith in God just her parents' teaching to invoke good moral choices, or was it real, hers, and worth anything at all? She pondered that age-old question: How could God let something so terrible happen? She decided that as difficult as this was to get through with God, going it alone terrified her. Her faith became her own that night."
Sure, she could have come to this conclusion any number of different ways, and certainly God didn't *need* such a tragic situation to work so powerfully in Jacquelyn's life. But, God did use that opportunity to bring faith alive in her heart. And that's the real message behind Lindsey's story - that God works through and beyond suffering and tragedy and death in ways we can't even begin to imagine. As she says at the end of her article:
Would I want to live without cognitive awareness? Well, no. Wanting to avoid suffering is human. Even Christ asked if his suffering could be avoided. I believe there are times when it is acceptable and ethical to remove medical treatment from our loved ones. But in all cases, we should weigh our desire to be released from suffering against a greater desire to glorify God. If I had predetermined no life support (or only short-duration support), as some have in advance directives, I'd be dead. I'd also perhaps have missed the greatest opportunity of my life to bring God glory, because he can use us for his purposes in any bodily state—even while we're sleeping.
While I Was Sleeping - Christianity Today Magazine
Now, from everything that I have been able to read, I think that Terri Schiavo's medical condition is a bit different. So, I don't think we should read Lindsey's account and jump to the conclucsion that since she came out of a coma, so could Terri. I think it does show that doctors tend to see the glass as half-empty most of the time, and that God can and does work amazing miracles.
But really I think the bigger story within Lindsey's account is that God can work in amazing ways to impact huge numbers of people through traumatic circumstances. Lindsey recalls the amazing way that her tragedy affected those around her, including her eldest daughter, Jacquelyn, who dropped out of her freshman year of college to help care for her newborn sister. Lindsey says:
"One night, in her car in the hospital parking lot, she pictured her life two ways—with God and without. Was her faith in God just her parents' teaching to invoke good moral choices, or was it real, hers, and worth anything at all? She pondered that age-old question: How could God let something so terrible happen? She decided that as difficult as this was to get through with God, going it alone terrified her. Her faith became her own that night."
Sure, she could have come to this conclusion any number of different ways, and certainly God didn't *need* such a tragic situation to work so powerfully in Jacquelyn's life. But, God did use that opportunity to bring faith alive in her heart. And that's the real message behind Lindsey's story - that God works through and beyond suffering and tragedy and death in ways we can't even begin to imagine. As she says at the end of her article:
Would I want to live without cognitive awareness? Well, no. Wanting to avoid suffering is human. Even Christ asked if his suffering could be avoided. I believe there are times when it is acceptable and ethical to remove medical treatment from our loved ones. But in all cases, we should weigh our desire to be released from suffering against a greater desire to glorify God. If I had predetermined no life support (or only short-duration support), as some have in advance directives, I'd be dead. I'd also perhaps have missed the greatest opportunity of my life to bring God glory, because he can use us for his purposes in any bodily state—even while we're sleeping.
While I Was Sleeping - Christianity Today Magazine
posted by Jonathan Ziman at
11:26 AM
1 Comments:
Your posts made me think of something. I was thinking the other day about an old episode of ER that I saw. I used to love that show -watched it every week. In 1999, George Clooney left the show, and the plot line surrounding why he left continues to resonate with me.
It relates to the Terry Schiavo case, I think.
In the final episodes, Clooney risks his job, his medical board certification and all his relationships to steal morphine for a mother who's son is dying a very painful death from a rare disease. She wants him to not suffer. So does Clooney. So he steals a machine from the hospital, which is a captial offense, I think. I'm unsure whether the show implied that the boy's mother killed him with an overdose, or just upped the dose to make him peaceful, and he died naturally.
Either way, it goes back to your original posting on avoiding suffering. If all we have is this life, and this world and this body, then suffering is to be avoided at all costs.
But. But. If there is something beyond this world, and this life is simply the opening chapter in a book where each chapter gets better and better - then maybe suffering and dying isn't so horrific.
Especially if we know that our part has been written by a master storyteller.
By
David Tieche, at 12:14 PM
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