What Dying People Want.

Book Review.

Kuhl, David.  M.D.  What Dying People Want.  Practical wisdom for the end of life.  Public Affairs.  2002.

D.K.- Ai the time writing (2002) David had had a career in palliative care for fifteen years.  He has developed a palliative care program for people with terminal cancer and AIDS at St. Paul Hospital in Vancouver.  He lives in Vancouver.

Comment. Henry.

Here is a resource that will be helpful for health providers who deal with those who have terminal illnesses and for those who have relationships with people who are terminally ill.  David approaches the topic of “dying people” with compassion and genuine care.  This book is the result of an in-depth series of interviews by a physician who specializes in palliative care.

This book seeks to answer the question, “What is the lived experience of knowing you have a terminal illness?” (Intro.)  Listening to people who are dying provided answers to that question.  “People who are dying are still living.” (Intro.)

The revelation of the diagnosis of a terminal disease usually comes with the experience of extreme emotions.  A response of ambivalence is normal.  Dying produces an anxiety that is “perhaps the anxiety at the core of all anxieties”. (18)  When the dread can be translated to fear “it can be met with courage”. (21)  The option of suicide focuses more on killing the pain than killing yourself.  An interesting exercise is suggested to “get a sense of chronis and kairos”. (29) 

 “To speak to anyone about terminal illness without adding to their suffering is an art that requires communication skills and self-knowledge”. (51)   Skilful communication is difficult and must include compassion.  There must be an effort made to avoid “iatrogenic suffering” (55) for the patient.

Pain management is an important factor for patients with a terminal illness.  “Through touch- both touching and being touched- a healing process begins.”  Touching is a very strong non-verbal message.  A “life review” (137) is common in the experience of dying. This process is made more difficult by unresolved issues.  Emotions will be ‘all over the map’.  “Speaking the truth” (166) is very important and essential in experiencing forgiveness as part of a relevant life review. Thirteen specific steps are presented on how to break this silence and facilitate speaking the truth.

The “longing to belong” (199) is a part of every phase of life but it is heightened in the presence of a terminal illness.  “Self-realization” (223) and the answer to the question “Who am I?” (223) need to be faced with genuine reality and honesty. 

The end of life experience (death) is describes as “transcendence- a human spirit stripped to the literal substance of itself before God”. (254)  Alcoholics Anonymous has coined the slogan, “Let go and let God”.  It is a concept of spirituality, a relationship with God, “or some higher power”. (261)  It is in this experience that resolution is experienced and it is personal.

David includes a very practical ‘appendix’ (293) in which he explains how a doctor might talk to patients that are terminally ill.

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Divine Conquest

Book Review.

Tozer, A.W.  The Divine Conquest.  Christian Publications.  1950

Comment.  Henry.

The reading of older ‘classics’ helps with maintaining balance in our ‘world view’.  I felt that way about this book, stimulating and thought-provoking.  Tozer writes with great confidence and authority.  His ‘colors of interpretation’ are pretty much black and white.  He does not mince words. His views on liberalism and fundamentalism and some other ‘isms’ are very clear.

“The worst thing a book can do for a Christian is to leave him with the impression that he has received from it anything really good; the best it can do is point the way to the God he is seeking.” Preface.

To be able to know the God of “eternal continuum” (9) is a wonderful truth.  There is a huge difference between knowing the Word intellectually and knowing it in power.  The transition from pleasing man to pleasing God requires a “supernatural act”. (41)  The old life is replaced by the new life.

Tozer maintains an interesting position with reference to the sovereignty of God and the free will of man.  Man can choose to say ‘no’ to God’s offer of eternal life but it God (not man) who chooses to say yes to those who are predestined to be drawn. 

The life of joy and victory is by way of the cross.  Eternal life is preceded by death, victory by defeat.  Before Jacob could enter into the relationship with God that resulted in him becoming the patriarch he was he was defeated by the Lord in a way that left him with a permanent physical reminder. 

“The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is buried dynamite.” (66)  “God is never anywhere present in one person without the other two.” (73)   The comprehension of spiritual truth does not happen without the illumination by the Holy Spirit.  The intellect reveals the shell only of truth.  The Spirit reveals the kernel within the shell. 

Tozer unpacks the meaning of Acts 1:8, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”  Although no human language can adequately describe who God is he is often represented in Scripture by the idea of fire, e.g. the iron is in the fire and the fire is in the iron and so they become one even though they remain different. At Pentecost he appeared as a flame.  This flame is “moral, spiritual, intellectual, and volitional”. (99-102) 

The contrast between the flesh and the Spirit is set forth very strongly and the pitfalls of compromise are clearly explained as totally unacceptable, e.g. tolerance.  “Be filled with the Spirit.” Eph.5:18  This is both a command and a promise.