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.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
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!!
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!!
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