It has been several months since I returned from this mission opportunity in San Cristobal, but I am not a person who rushes into sharing my stories really quickly. After a long period of reflection, I think I'm ready to begin.
I think if I were to sum up this experience in a single idea that was shared with the group, it would be that we are to be Christians who happen to be physicians, not physicians who happen to be Christians. When I entered medical school, I would say I had a very superficial understanding of what being a Christian physician looked like. I had heard stories from family friends about praying with patients and that some people even went on mission trips to distant lands, but I didn't really know what any of that looked like in practice. I was under the mindset that I was supposed to by a physician first - fix the physical problem with all the science and the learning I was doing. Then, if the individual were satisfied with their physical healing, you might have a chance to share the Gospel.
I realized in this experience that I had this backwards. Not that the science and the learning are unimportant of course - as Christian physicians God has called us to use the cerebral gifts he has given us, to make use of the ordered universe he created and the fact that the scientific method works to advance our ability to solve the physical problems we as humanity face. But my realization was that this is not the fundamental issue the people we interacted with needed. No short-term or even extended term mission trip could provide someone with a liver transplant or a lifetime supply of HAART or definitively treat retinoblastoma. And even the simpler medical problems we treated were only temporary solutions to the systemic problems the people we served faced. But what we could offer these people was the truth of the Gospel: the solution to the real problem of sin these people, and all people face. I came to understand what the true purpose of us being in this community was. To spread the message that leads to true healing and regeneration that will never be corrupted again.
Being a "Christian who happens to be a physician as opposed to the other way around" is one of those things that, in the abstract, sounds pretty straightforward. But this trip led me to realize what this really looks like in practice, and it is so much more joyful than what I had previously imagined.
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God"
1 Corinthians 10:31
I think if I were to sum up this experience in a single idea that was shared with the group, it would be that we are to be Christians who happen to be physicians, not physicians who happen to be Christians. When I entered medical school, I would say I had a very superficial understanding of what being a Christian physician looked like. I had heard stories from family friends about praying with patients and that some people even went on mission trips to distant lands, but I didn't really know what any of that looked like in practice. I was under the mindset that I was supposed to by a physician first - fix the physical problem with all the science and the learning I was doing. Then, if the individual were satisfied with their physical healing, you might have a chance to share the Gospel.
I realized in this experience that I had this backwards. Not that the science and the learning are unimportant of course - as Christian physicians God has called us to use the cerebral gifts he has given us, to make use of the ordered universe he created and the fact that the scientific method works to advance our ability to solve the physical problems we as humanity face. But my realization was that this is not the fundamental issue the people we interacted with needed. No short-term or even extended term mission trip could provide someone with a liver transplant or a lifetime supply of HAART or definitively treat retinoblastoma. And even the simpler medical problems we treated were only temporary solutions to the systemic problems the people we served faced. But what we could offer these people was the truth of the Gospel: the solution to the real problem of sin these people, and all people face. I came to understand what the true purpose of us being in this community was. To spread the message that leads to true healing and regeneration that will never be corrupted again.
Being a "Christian who happens to be a physician as opposed to the other way around" is one of those things that, in the abstract, sounds pretty straightforward. But this trip led me to realize what this really looks like in practice, and it is so much more joyful than what I had previously imagined.
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God"
1 Corinthians 10:31