“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9, NIV 1984).
I was seeing Jason for the first time for a blood disorder and he was going to be fine. I had frankly forgotten that I had cared for his father with pancreatic cancer about 10 years prior. When we were through with Jason’s problem, he reminded me, “I will never forget that you prayed with us when my father died. You don’t know how much that bolstered my faith during that difficult time. We even had a few family members start going back to church after that.”
I nodded and smiled, not remembering the experience but grateful that God had been there.
It’s time I get back to praying more with my patients.
I go in spurts. Some months I feel God’s presence clearly with my patients and other months seem to fly by with my hardly noticing He is near. Usually, it is a patient faithful to our Lord who wakes me up and reminds me how much God wants to enter my examining rooms.
How do I become consistent with my personal witness in a world that demands I focus on so many other issues in a rapid-fire manner?
There are some things I know I need to do:
I need to pray each morning that the Lord will let me speak when I serve.
I need to pray as I enter each patient’s room, “What is God doing?” (as Dr. Walt Larimore teaches us in Grace Prescriptions).
I need to, throughout the day, repeatedly refocus on my purpose for living:
“Dear God, may I rise up and meet you and empty myself for you. Fill me—that the lost may be brought home to you, the broken made whole in you and you may be glorified.”
How many times in this life must I leave my mission and return, leave and return, leave and return?
As often as necessary.
Dear Father,
Bring me back again into the center of your mission for my life, for the sake of my patients, for the sake of your people and for your glory.
Amen
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