Avenged Sevenfold (2007) "Brompton Cocktail"

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
As performed by A7X

(Out of time...)
Doc, I'm dying, I'm feeling compromised (feeling compromised)
and so dehumanized (and so dehumanized)
I lost my final fight to disease, I feel that this is where it ends
I need that shot to enter my vein
My Brompton Cocktail blend

'Cause I can't feel my face
I won't struggle on
In a world so cold
In a world so wrong

I'm not running away, been fighting this so long (so long)
Such a price that we pay, we gotta be so strong
in a lie...

I'm tired, induced euphoria (induced euphoria)
to help me move along (help me move along)
I wanna meet my maker in peace, i want to feel alive again
So put that smile back on my face and mix it strong my friend

'Cause I can't feel my face
I won't struggle on
In a world so cold
In a world so wrong

I'm not running away, been fighting this so long (so long)
Such a price that we pay, we gotta be so strong
And I take my life tonight 'cause I have the right to die how I wanna
and leave how I arrived, so alive

I believe my sins have been forgiven
and I believe my choice will save me from this life
please don't question why
my sins have been forgotten
I believe I'll find peace in afterlife
please don't question why
I left this way

'Cause I can't feel my face
I won't struggle on
In a world so cold
In a world so wrong

I'm not running away, been fighting this so long (so long)
Such a price that we pay, we gotta be so strong
And I take my life tonight 'cause I have the right to die how I wanna
and leave how I arrived, so alive
(Alive)

According to one source, "This song is based on the real life brompton cocktails which are, and sometimes still are, given to terminally ill patients to help alleviate their pain and make the more sociable as they start dying."

How can you and I not have compassion on someone who is dying, who is in terrible pain, who knows that what lies before them is more dying, increasing pain, decreasing ability to function, or to think about anything else but how much this hurts. I wonder if any of us can even really imagine what this is like for the person who is experiencing this end-of-life time.

What does God have to say to this person? And what does He have to say to the attending physician who knows that he or she is administering a medicine that will eventually prove lethal? Of what, really, does the dying person die of, in the end? Is this mercy or a cop out, that's the real question being debated today.

One of my favorite all-time authors, Luis Palau, addressed this and other heart-rending questions in his book "Where Is God When Bad Things Happen?" In his words, disease and death have been stalking the human race since the days of Adam and Eve. Untimely death and debilitating disease can strike anybody. It's a fallen world. The whole earth, and everything in it, groans under the burden that sin has put on it. There is no such thing as a lifestyle guaranteed to ward off all disease.

Even Elisha, one of the most famous prophets in the whole Bible, "was suffering from the illness from which he died," according to his biography in 2 Kings (in the Bible). Elisha restored life to two different people during his career, by God's power. But he himself contracted a lingering disease from which he suffered, and which eventually brought about his death. But he went to his death bed with as much confidence in God as he always had, saying with the poet,

I believe my sins have been forgiven
and I believe my choice will save me from this life...

my sins have been forgotten
I believe I'll find peace in afterlife

This pattern continues to repeat itself in our sick little world; over and over again. Paul, the guy who wrote at least half of the new testament, had a physical ailment which he begged God to free him of...but God's answer was that His grace (strength) was sufficient for Paul. Apparently Paul's suffering was something that Paul was strong enough to endure with God's help, and God intended some good to come out of it.

All of us die -- only the timing is unknown to us. Young people die; children, infants, moms and dads, lovers and spouses, siblings and best friends.

You and I must be ready to meet God right now because we don't know when the time will come. The reality of heaven gives perspective on serious illness. Sickness will not last; no matter how excruciating the pain, it will have an end. But heaven is eternal. As Luis Palau puts it,

"Heaven is not a doctrine only for the aged or for those who don't have long to live. And it isn't a fictional teaching designed to take the minds of suffering people off their woes, as if it were some sort of theological placebo.

"Heaven is a real place being prepared even now for those who put their faith in Jesus."

God may have several purposes for allowing someone to die slowly and in pain. Often such an experience is a wakeup call either for the person dying, or for someone close to them. People listen carefully when suffering men or women speak. Sometimes God has a purpose that seems hidden, and you and I may never know, this side of life, what that purpose is. But even death is not random. One of the great battle cries of the new testament is that Jesus is victorious over sin and death, and death no longer holds its sting for those who are reborn.

So what about the Brompton Cocktail? is it right? Is it wrong? Is assisted suicide something God speaks to?

There is a fine moral line between easing suffering and hastening death, for the one honors life and loves mercy, and the other dishonors God's rightful place as the source and giver of life and usurps His and that person's time together.

How often, in your life, have you come to the end of your rope, believing that you could no longer endure something...but then you did? You persevered beyond your resources, beyond what you thought you could survive. Jesus says that God takes care of every person on this earth out of His love. He quietly provides strength and succor even to those who reject Him, for so long as there is physical life there is hope that they will turn to Him and receive eternal life.

May it be that if you or I should ever face this kind of dilemma, we will be willing to love mercy, cherish life and trust with confidence in God's goodness, His power and His love to do what's right.

If this post got you to thinking, please leave a comment and join the conversation