Is There a Doctor in the House?

(Originally posted April 23, 2010) 


I can honestly say I never aspired to be a doctor. I know it's one of those things all parents want their kids to grow up to be, but pursuing that career path never even crossed my mind. And every time one of our kids gets a serious injury, I remember WHY I didn't want to be a doctor: It's just a dirty, gross job!

My four-year old fell and split his chin open a few months ago. I honestly didn't know if I was going to make it through those stitches, and all I had to do was hold his hand and stare at the opposite wall. Yes, I'm a wimp. The doctor was the one who administered the pain relieving shots and sewed up the wound. It's the brave medical professionals (nurses included, of course) who can see past the blood and the yuck to the job that needs to be done, the healing that needs to happen.

But, in a sense, as Christ-followers, we ARE all doctors (so tell your mom to be proud :). )

Remember what Jesus said when He was criticized for having dinner with tax collectors and “sinners”: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 3:17)

Jesus, often called The Great Physician, was always right in the middle of the fray, the spiritual war-zone. He gladly went to the most badly injured, torn-up soul and freely offered whatever kind of healing was needed.

Now, as His people, we must have the same ambition: to bring healing to the sick. We hold in our hearts and hands the life-saving medicine of love and truth. There's an old song that goes, “Freely, freely you have received – Freely, freely give.” We have been healed, and now it's our job to bring healing to others – those lost in sin, depression, suffering in physical or spiritual poverty, the outcasts, the lonely, the misunderstood. (Tangent: And, contrary to what many have often been taught, that goes a lot further than just pounding someone over the head with scriptures. It takes a connection, a touch, an honest love for the hurting person. Okay, tangent over.)

If you're like me, though, you may seldom find yourself in a spiritual triage area, because often those are the “unsafe” places we avoid. It's easy to get comfortable. And, honestly, getting your hands dirty in the blood-and-guts work of touching hurting people is just that – a lot of hard, messy work.

But, we are CHRIST-ians, and we are to be LIKE CHRIST, right? Aren't we to see past the infections and injuries to uncover the person beneath who is desperately in need of healing?

And the medicine doesn't do much good if it just sits in my pocket – it takes initiative to administer it. It's so hard sometimes, but, God will give us the strength to go to those who need Him. And let us not be afraid if we get a little blood on us along the way. Because our Savior did, too.