Brittany Maynard finally ended her life late last week after fighting against terminal brain cancer since this past January.
While I oppose euthanasia, we can note some positive life lessons surrounding her death. Lessons, that I think, Christians struggle with a lot.
LESSON ONE
1. She planned well. She knew her time was limited and so she made the most of her time, putting together a bucket list and following through in completing those tasks.
Too often, people just die without talking about it. No plans. It is ironic that our days are so brief and our legacy can be so lengthy while our time reviewing our own end of life is nil.
Again, I say, I oppose the way she ended her life, but I will also tell you that she took the time to weigh out the pain she was enduring and talked this over with her family. We, too often, assume that because we are Christian and going to Heaven, that everything will just turn out fine. We accumulate our meager wealth, amass lots of friends, then one day without warning, we are gone. Eulogies are given. Regrets are experienced. Grief is entered into. Then…life moves on, and we get back into whatever routine we were in before death struck.
THEREFORE: let’s plan on living a rich Christian legacy by way of living well through the planning out of our last days.
LESSON TWO
2. Brittany lived out her faith. Though, it appears, it was not Christian, she acted upon her belief that life was not worth living in her condition. We can argue about this long and hard, but my point is that she took her faith to the mat, and did not -as some Christians do- only talk about how life should be.
Here is, even, a bigger life lesson: she believed so deeply that euthanasia was right that she advocated for others to have access to this end of life measure. I wonder how many Christians, though believing euthanasia, is not part of God’s plan, have advocated against this with equal passion?
THEREFORE: take time today to access what you say you believe and what you are actually living out. A good place to start is by writing out what you believe (maybe read over the Apostle’s Creed) and then by asking yourself at the end of each statement of belief: ‘what does this mean to me? am I living this out? why/why not? Sure this will take time, but it help you to become more congruent on your stated beliefs and actual beliefs.
In closing, Brittany taught us lessons that when learned by us Christians will really show us how well we are standing in our faith. This is hard work, but necessary, and that is why we have the Discipleship Journey: we really do need one another.
Hope this helps you as much as it helped me writing it.
Blessings on your journey,
-Michael