The Ministry of Medicine

When most people think of "ministry," they usually think of pastors, missionaries, church music leaders, etc. However, Webster's defines ministry simply as "the act of serving." With this in mind, whether you are a pastor or a janitor, a CEO or a trash collector, all of us, as Christians, ought to be "in the ministry" every day. (Mark 10:43-45)

As a future physician, my opportunity for ministry is huge! Christ's earthly ministry was characterized by the ministry of healing. His focus wasn't on the masses as a whole, but on each individual. Every day, physicians have people come to us with a conscious, urgent awareness of the frailty of life. What pastor or missionary wouldn't pay to have a waiting room full of people willing to wait for an hour and a half to talk to him about their fears of death and the problems they are having in life? Yet a physician has this every day and we get paid for it??

Many patients, although they may not necessarily say it, aren't looking for the latest drug or treatment plan. Often times they just need someone to talk to and occasionally admit that they are searching for something to satisfy them in life and comfort them in regards to their fears about life after death. What an incredible opportunity to share the truth about the only One who can bring true comfort on earth and hope for the life to come.

The other role, particularly of the primary care physician is that of health maintenance and disease prevention. All of us need to be spiritual "physicians" to ourselves. We must daily "vaccinate" ourselves against sin by spending time in prayer and meditation. And we must "exercise ourselves unto godliness."

The Christian's responsibility is to daily become more like Christ. As physicians, our focus should be on serving our patients through the compassion and servant spirit that the Great Physician showed as He healed His "patients." But we would be fools to stop there. We must also point our patients to the God that not only can heal their physical illness, but their spiritual one as well. And although every patient's physical health will ultimately fail them, we must exemplify a life of ever increasing spiritual health.

Ministry isn't a title or position. It is an attitude of Christ-like service and compassion for souls.

The Great Physican

As the Jews looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, there were three miracles that they had classified as being things which only the true Messiah would be able to do. The first was the cleansing of a leper. (Before the time of Christ, Naaman was the only one to be miraculously healed of leprosy.) The second miracle was that of casting out demons and the third was healing a man blind from birth. It is the last of these that I want to talk about.

Have you ever seen a child with a lazy eye wearing a patch over their good eye for a period of time? The reason for this is that neurological development continues well into childhood. As the brain is developing, it is receiving signals from both eyes and processing them into a single picture. However, if one eye is unable to focus, the image becomes blurred. As a result, the brain essentially ignores the lazy eye and processes information only from the good eye. The patch is placed so that the "bad" eye is the only one capable of seeing. Therefore, it is trained to focus on the image that the child is trying to look at and strengthens the extraocular muscles and establishes the necessary neuronal connections to be able to see normally out of both eyes. Without this intervention, the child's brain as it developed, would eliminate all connections to the "bad" eye and even though anatomically the eye was normal, the child would be blind in that eye.

A person that is born blind would, as they developed through childhood eliminate all neuronal connections to both eyes. The entire portion of the cortex that is responsible for sight would be absent. This brings to light a little more of what Christ was saying when his disciples asked him: "who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" Christ's response: "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."

When Christ healed him, he not only healed his blind eyes. He completely remodeled his entire brain and established every neuron and every connection between them for the man to be able to see perfectly!!

I am reminded every time I pray for Christ's healing for someone that the God to whom I am praying is the Great Physician that has power to heal instantaneously and miraculously as He, in His infinite wisdom, sees fit. What a great God we serve!!

Time

Sometimes it seems like there's never enough time in the day to do everything that needs to be done. Many times I stayed up late studying every night for a week prior to a test only to realize that even if I stayed up all night, I still wouldn't have the time to really learn everything I was supposed to know for the test. I was sadly "forced" to trust the Lord rather than just trusting Him from the start. The demands of medical school are huge, there is nothing more important than my own personal walk with Jesus Christ. Our lives here on earth are short. Eternity lasts for ever. Everything that we do here on earth should simply be an offering of praise and service to our Lord who gave EVERYTHING for us. If we simply trust Him, He has promised to meet our every need. "Faithful is He that calleth you who also will do it." The following poem has constantly come to mind when I am trying to have my devotions in the morning and am being distracted by everything I have to study.

I got up early one morning,
And rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish,
I didn’t have time to pray.

Troubles just tumbled about me,
And heavier came each task.
"Why doesn’t God help me?" I wondered.

He answered, "You didn’t ask."

I tried to come into God’s presence;
I used all my keys at the lock.
God gently and lovingly chided,
"Why, child, you didn’t knock."

I wanted to see joy and beauty,
But the day toiled on gray and bleak.
I wondered why God didn’t show me.
He said, "You didn’t seek."

I woke up early this morning,
And paused before entering the day.
I had so much to accomplish
That I had to take time to pray.

Take time to pray...the Lord has already taken care of the rest. We just have to ask!

Testing

Being a student, my life seems to often revolve around tests. As a result, I have been meditating over the last several days on the similarities and differences between spiritual and academic testing. In school, testing comes following a period of lectures and studying and is supposed to give an accurate depiction of how much you actually learned. Ideally if you studied hard and knew the material, you will end up with a reward of a good grade. Spiritual testing isn't really all that different. The Holy Spirit is our professor. God's Word is our textbook and we are commanded to "meditate therein day and night." When spiritual testing comes along, we must be prepared. God has given us everything we need to "ace" every test He brings into our lives (I Cor 10:13). Not only that, but every test He gives us is "open book." We must lean on Him and His Word and simply trust Him no matter how hard the test may seem to be. God always knows the end from the beginning and His promises have NEVER failed. Praise God that his reward for passing the test isn't just a grade. He gives us tests so that we may be purified and come forth as gold. God's testing brings forth eternal rewards and we can rest assured even in the midst of trials that He is ultimately working everything for our good and His glory. Not only is God's reward better, but His course material is better too! When we read and meditate on God's Word, we aren't just studying a subject, we are learning of and developing an intimate relationship with the God of eternity!! Lord, may I learn to love You more!

The Medical Profession

The Christian Physician's Oath:

With gratitude to God, faith in Christ Jesus, and dependence on the Holy Spirit, I publicly profess my intent to practice medicine for the glory of God.
With humility, I will seek to increase my skills. I will respect those who teach me and who broaden my knowledge. In turn, I will freely impart my knowledge and wisdom to others.
With God's help, I will love those who come to me for healing and comfort. I will honor and care for each patient as a person made in the image of God, putting aside selfish interests, remaining pure and chaste at all times.
With God's guidance, I will endeavor to be a good steward of my skills and of society's resources. I will convey God's love in my relationships with family, friends, and community. I will aspire to reflect God's mercy in caring for the lonely, the poor, the suffering, and the dying.
With God’s direction, I will respect the sanctity of human life. I will care for all my patients, rejecting those interventions that either intentionally destroy or actively end human life, including the unborn, the weak and vulnerable, and the terminally ill.
With God's grace, I will live according to this profession.


The medical profession is not to be taken lightly. For the rest of my life, hundreds of people will literally put their lives in my hands. It is humbling and incredibly frightening to think about. The medical profession also inherently contains the opportunity for corruption. How many doctors have gotten themselves in trouble for self-medicating, drug addictions, etc.? At the same time, what a joy to spend a lifetime studying the handiwork of God and His marvelous creation. As a physician, I want to be like the Great Physician - Jesus Christ. Through Him, I can offer my patients not only physical healing, but spiritual healing through salvation as well. My prayer is that my life will be (even in medicine) a reflection of my great God and Savior living through me.

What is Truth?

Last week we were talking about religion's role in the family and marriage in one of my classes. One of my professors stated that he thought religion and spirituality were a state of mind that was simply important for our emotional well-being. He said "It's just about doing good by one another." One problem with that.... who decides what is "good?" Is it government? -- I think they have enough problems of their own. Is it each of us individually? -- The Bible says in  Proverbs 12:15 "The way of a FOOL is right in his own eyes." Praise the Lord that I don't have to depend on anybody else or even my own wicked heart to tell me what is right or wrong. Rather, "my hope is in the Lord." My standard of right and wrong is based upon the standard of the God who governs the stars and planets. He created me and bought me back from sin through his own shed blood on the cross. As I go through classes in medical school, I am constantly bombarded with the "fact" of evolution and different philosophies of development from the great human philosophers (like the sicko otherwise known as Freud). The world thinks they have all the answers. Their pride leads them to believe that man is the pinnacle of evolution and they are ultimately accountable to no one. However, when I study anatomy, embryology or even childhood development, I can't help but see the handiwork of an almighty Creator. The complexity and perfection (though tainted by sin) of God's creation in all of us is awesome. I am His creation. His Word is TRUTH!!!