Opting for Life!

Opting for Life!

Lisa McCready, a consultant anaesthetist, who is married with three children, explais how a profund experience of God's love and revelation about the sanctity of life has led her, in the last year, to give up her well paid and successful career and retrain in palliative medicine.

Lisa McCready I have been a doctor all my life. When I was six years old I told my mother that this was what I was going to do. I never waivered; it was not an ambition, rather a deep-seated knowledge of where I was going in life. A vocation. By the grace of God, I have been blessed with a career that has brought me closer than I could ever imagine to the mystery and wonder of his most supreme creation - man himself.

A doctor has a tremendous quantity of knowledge. Education and academia mean everything in the modern medical world. Yet no amount of learning, no amount of understanding the 'how?', can answer man's most profound question about himself and his existence - 'why?'

" Brought to my knees by revelation of God's love"

It is in the answer to this question that we discover the awesome truth about ourselves and our existence. The 'why?' question brings us up short, shows us our frailty and inadequacy as humans, and reduces us to despair unless we find God. It is this discovery; the revelation of God's love, so perfect that he created from nothing, that has brought me to my knees. This knowledge, that we are loved beyond measure, by a being above all understanding, this is far more
powerful, ground-breaking stuff than I have ever read in a medical textbook.

A year ago, I was working in a London teaching hospital as a consultant anaesthetist. I had a job that was rewarding, challenging, and put me at the cutting edge of modern medicine. I had reached the pinnacle of my career, done all the training, passed all the exams, put in the hours. At this time, I have to admit I was complacent in my attitude towards the Church's teaching on the sanctity of life. I knew what I believed, that abortion and euthanasia were fundamentally wrong, but didn't really think that I should force my opinions on others, especially not patients. Surely the Christian thing to do was not to stand in judgement of others, but to let each person make a decision for themselves?

"All was not as it should be"

Then an extraordinary thing happened. A sequence of events that can only be ascribed to divine intervention. For some time I had been experiencing an increasing sense of unease, a sense that all was not as it should be. In my prayer I felt the Lord nudging me, but could not really put my finger on the problem. Was it the job? The patients? My colleagues? I tried all sorts of things - reduced my hours to spend more time with my children, changed my working pattern, looked at moving hospitals. In the end I felt the Lord was priming me by giving me a sense of being completely in the wrong place. So much so that I went to others for prayer, on my knees, and told him I was ready to do whatever he wanted me to do.

" Thou shalt not kill - ever!"

When the answer came, I was not expecting it at all. I was listening to a talk, given at the Celebrate conference by Lord Alton, when I was hit, as if by lightening, by the truth that is contained within the sixth commandment. Thou shalt not kill, at all, ever. There are no excuses, no caveats. There is nothing in brackets to say that this or that reason makes it excusable. You just don't do it. It is murder which ever way you look at it. How could I have missed it? What on earth had I been thinking all those years when I said " Well, I wouldn't do it, but everyone is entitled to make up their own minds as to what is right or wrong for them…"

"Bowled over by the clarity with which God has spoken to me"

I went back to work after Easter with a spring in my step. I had no idea what God was planning for me, but I knew one thing, I wanted more than anything to leave my boat and fishing net, and follow him. I was so bowled over by the clarity with which God had spoken to me that I was prepared to change my life to witness to his love and power. Over the next few days it slowly dawned on me that the key message
I had heard was about the threat of euthanasia.

The Joffe Bill was about to get a second reading in the House of Lords, and the pro-life campaign was well underway. In a matter of days I realised what the Lord was asking of me. To go and work in the area of medicine where this is going to become a real issue.

It is known as Palliative Care. These doctors work in hospices and hospitals, seeking to help those who are living with terminal illness. They work with patients and their families to lessen the impact of death and dying. The hospice movement was born in a profoundly Christian environment about 60 years ago, when a social worker turned doctor recognised the need for patients with cancer to be treated with dignity even if medicine could offer no further hope.

"Danger from the pro-euthanasia lobby"

It is precisely this environment which is now under threat from the pro-euthanasia lobby. The pressure to have a choice, to be able to request that one's life is ended at an appointed time or in certain circumstances, is growing. We have seen the fruit of legalising euthanasia in Holland and in some parts of the US. If it becomes legal to end life on medical grounds in this country, the flood-gates will open to allow those who are no longer able to speak for themselves to become vulnerable. Already in our secularised country 'quality' of life is more important than 'sanctity', and this is a dangerous place to be. Marginalised groups such as the elderly, infirm, chronically ill and dying are becoming less worthy of a place in society.

It took me a month to pluck up the courage to resign. A comfortable salary and a job I enjoyed, in exchange for a temporary position in a local hospice. What would my colleagues say? How would I explain this to my family and friends? My husband? Over the next few months, I began to relinquish control and allow the Lord to take over my life. He
gave me strength, peace and the courage to respond to his call.

"Renewed vocation"

Now, six months later, I have moved on a long way. I love my new job and I have found the place where medicine and faith meet daily. I will have to retrain to stay in Palliative Care, but as ever, when we trust and follow, God smoothes the path, and for this I am truly grateful. Through no doing of my own, I have been given exactly what I need in order to live this renewed vocation. I have a job closer to home, more time with my children, and a real sense for the first time in my professional life that the divide between physical and spiritual health is only a matter of human misunderstanding. Most of all I thank God daily for the knowledge that he has placed me, a fervent and noisy advocate of the truth, in a position where I will be able to make a real difference, when the time comes, to stand up for what I believe in.

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Praising God and Suffering

John Edwards reflects on how the power of praise helped him to cope with depression.

In Psalm 147 verse 1 we read: "Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is seemly." It is not always easy to live this out especially at times of distress and in particular depression.

After suffering from a chronic illness for a couple of years I entered into a state of depression. Many pressures on family, work and marriage left me not knowing where to turn. I tried the medical profession and for a time was on anti-depressants. I was consulting a Christian Counsellor which seemed to help a bit but I was still struggling. Then we came to week 10 in the ordinary calendar of the year and I heard the Communion Antiphon "I can rely on the Lord; I can always turn to him for shelter. It is he who gives me my freedom. My God you are always there to help me!" This had an immediate impact on me because I knew it was what I should believe and experience but I didn't. For me 'can' meant that if I chose to I could - it depended on me! However I grasped at this phrase and began to chant it frequently during the day. I even came up with a simple tune for it and used to sing it whilst driving in the car.

It didn't seem to me that it was having a great deal of effect but after six or so weeks I was driving up a road when tears began to run down my face and I knew that something had changed within me. I was now experiencing the truth of the phrase I had turned into a song of praise. 'Can' was no longer dependent on me; it had become a reality that I can rely on the Lord regardless of the way I feel; I just need to turn towards him and recognise his presence, for He is always there for me. It was not long before the depression began to lift. I still use the phrase from time to time and week 10 is always a special week for me.