TGIF
My cardiologist knows his stuff.
He can tell you everything you ever didn’t want to know about your heart.
He understands and can explain all the diseases common to the human heart.
He can give you precise details about all the procedures you’re facing.
He even will quote the mortality statistics for your age and illness, down to the exact percentile.
He answers questions you haven’t even asked yet, and does so with great assurance and authority.
He reminds me of some pastors.
I hate him.
When he walks into the examination room, I cease to be a person with a name, a family, or emotions.
I am a diseased heart… and that’s all I am.
I am severe aortic regurgitation, hypertension, and tachycardia.
His words and his eyes address only the disease, never the person.
The only things that differentiates me from anyone else he sees are the particulars of my affliction, not the person who I am.
Someday, he will hold my heart in his hands and his hands are cold.
I leave his office well informed and completely bereft of all comfort.
In the church we also identify people by their “heart disease”.
They do not know us for our love, but for our labels.
Those labels always refer to the sin we have imputed to them or to each other.
We act as if that is all the Great Physician is concerned with.
It’s as if God holds them in the palms of His hands and His hands are cold.
We are full of sound doctrine and little comfort.
Doctrine without love is a lie because all doctrine is grounded in the love and grace of God.
We are not our sins, we are human beings bearing the image of God.
God cares about you as a person…your name is engraved on the palms of His hands.
He will never leave or forsake you.
He’s already provided the cure for your disease…so you could have a relationship.
You matter.
All of you…
Make your own application…
“Doctrine without love is a lie because all doctrine is grounded in the love and grace of God.”
I’ve been thinking about this lately and am glad you brought this up. You are right here, in my opinion.
I hear so many statements made about those who are full of doctrine yet have no love, giving the impression that “sound doctrine” can be a dangerous if WE don’t add something to it, some sort of loving, peaceful nature that God clearly says I don’t have.
The source of that loving spirit is Christ and sound doctrine really is the source of the fruit of the Spirit.
If your mind is rich in doctrine and yet have no love, then there is something about your doctrine that isn’t sound or is a lie.
I believe I can safely refer someone to the true doctrines of the faith in oder to receive the Spirit that produces love, joy, peace and comfort.
Excellent analogy by the way… as usual. You have a special God given talent for this.
Thank you, CrucifiED!
I have some compassion for your cold-handed cardio dude. If he embraces the mortality of every person it may destroy his margins and make his hands less useful. I have had to make some steps to survive pastoral ministry. I have to tell people that after they have told me their story I will probably forget because remembering makes me live in their grief and I cannot bear it. There is a skill the doctor could develop; the skill of totally being present to those he is with. But the distance he builds from patients is likely the survival he needs to function.
Your pastoral admonitions are among the greatest work of your blogging. You cannot keep yourself from caring. It is why you seek justice. It is why you challenge power. It is why you pound away at the keyboard against the vile Philistines that mock the living God with their arrogance.
The doctor has his limitations. We have ours. This is not meant as a snipe at you post. It is meant as an affirmation of your call.
Miss Kitty is pleased, she has taught you much. 😉
BD,
Thank you for the kind words…and the perspective.
I am reclusive because there is only so much I can handle of all I see.
I carry it all and cannot shed most.
Ok, now I don’t hate him. 🙂
to turn this around … could not one say that doctrine that doesn’t produce love is not sound doctrine?
joining with the pray-ers here … God, strengthen Michael with Your strength now
Praying for your healing and well being.Psalm23 ……
Em…excellent point…and thank you.
Thank you, Dude as well…
Michael, your use of the word “label” is what stuck out at me, and not in the way you described. We label ourselves by what we do for a living and by what ghetto of the church we hang out in (I am a Calvinist, Lutheran, etc.) We label each other as well (well that total A**.) Sometimes we even rudely slap third party labels on people that they do not put on themselves (you dirty liberal you!) But we are much more than the sum of our labels. I am a hybrid of all the different churches I have been to. I am not what I do for a living. And I am certainly more than just another jerk arguing with strangers on the Internet. There is supposed to be living water that comes out of me flowing for others. That is more important than all of the arguing about systematic theologies.
Amen, Mr. J…
He is a surgeon. Surgeon’s are asshats. Therefore, he is an asshat.
End of story.
My dr is pretty direct and no nonsense and I like that. His name is dr House so maybe there is something to that.
I remember at my 2014 physical we went through all the blood work, he asked me 20 questions, poked, prodded, bent me over etc and said I was fine.
This is the part I love about him – I asked , “so you did all that but how do you know I don’t have a big cancer growing in me?” he replied “I do what I do, and you answer all the questions right – but you are right, you could have one and be dead in 6 months.” We shook hands and I left. 🙂
London,
I’m finding that to be very, very, true.
MLD,
My GP is like that.
I told him I didn’t want to take any more new medications.
He said “then die”.
I’m on a new med… 🙂
i’m in awe of any human being who can take a sharp knife and cut another human being open, mess around in there and sew things back up again with a good outcome … just sayin 🙂
Michael,
My dr put me on cholesterol medication 6 – 7 yrs ago. after 6 months I was getting leg cramps and I saw on TV during a cholesterol commercial the side affects – and it said if you get leg cramps stop taking it – so I did. I didn’t return to the dr for a couple of years (I think I was between insurance plans since I was self employed and couldn’t afford the $600 month).
When I went back he said my cholesterol was high and asked if I was taking the medicine. I said no the TV commercial said to stop. His response? Stop watching TV
MLD,
That…is rich. 🙂
Michael – if you didn’t get to see, this link has Steve Brown at 35 min and Preston Sprinkle at 1:50
http://livestream.com/willowcreekchurchpca/2016CHFCThursdayEveningMain
Thank you!
Two of my favorites…
a seer with a bum heart is still a seer me thinks
Michael,
It’s true. 🙂
We have just spend four months dealing with one after my mom’s surgery, I know this for a fact!
Spelled my own name wrong 🙂
surgeons do have a reputation – but it’s got me thinking a bit off the rails this a.m… they don’t see the person, just the physical body that the person inhabits and so we do feel marginalized and misunderstood…
are we too attached to our bodies? we aren’t what we see in the mirror, are we? ‘course it’s hard to function in this life without one 🙂
praying still for Michael and all whose physical selves are betraying them now – got some issues with mine, too – one of these days i’ll show it who’s boss and just up and leave it!
before i depart here however, MLD posted a comment that i want to comment on… he went off his cholesterol medication (sometimes we should listen to our 6th sense and do just that), and he was HONEST with his doctor – can’t imagine MLD being other than honest
however, if you are an old person or are a caregiver of an old person beware – there is a tendency for us old folk to lie to the doctor when he asks if you’re taking your meds and then he ups the dose because his tests show that the med isn’t working… i learned that lesson when i was taking care of my elderly mother – she almost OD’d
I have the benefit of going to a family doctor that is a friend. I have taught all four of his children! In a few months, I am having knee replacement surgery. My orthopedist is also a friend, I have taught 2 of his children. Great perks of being an educator!