Provision of Grace...

This blog post has been a long time coming! To believe it's almost a year since my last post is incredible - and to think that prior to that I had been posting so much more regularly, sometimes even more than once a week! I guess that blogging, a reflective (almost self-absorbed?) activity is one that easily fades into the background when you're married, and have someone else as a sounding board for ideas, complaints, innovations etc. Nevertheless, I feel determined not to let a year slip past between posts, so here I am again contributing my morsels to cyberspace.

Life once again settles down - after a year of marriage, we find ourselves in a stable situation where contentment and peace are the order of the day. All relationships have their roller coasters, though, and ours is no exception - occasionally the emotional second-guessing puts a seemingly insurmountable ocean-wave between us, and washes over us, so that we are shaken back into the reality that good relationships are never to be taken for granted!

Thank God for the blessing of a great marriage! And thank God for the reality and truth of His love in our lives, sustaining us from day to day. Like marriage, though, our relationship with God can easily be taken for granted - and much of the time we could do with a wake-up call. The low points in people's lives seem a great catalyst for change - they make one acutely aware of their desperate need for God, and they embark on a quest for meaning. Soul-searching, some people term it. Many people still call for the priest at their death bed, even though they may not have previously professed faith in Christ. Suddenly, knowledge of God becomes more important than ever, because meeting God becomes imminent. It's truly amazing that God indeed welcomes people back into his presence, at the last minute, even though they may have lived the remainder of their lives in complete rebellion against Him. But this is just the nature of God's amazing grace.

Working as a doctor brings with it the privilege of working with people at those low points in their lives. It's not an easy thing to bear witness to, and when patients are so sick, one often feels helpless - unable to offer hope, comfort and peace. Because the medical profession is so geared to circumventing death and disease, we find ourselves feeling defeated when there is nothing further medically that we can do.

But it is at these times when we should be most able to offer hope, comfort and peace, because vulnerability brings with it an amazing sensitivity to simple measures of care - a kind word, a gentle smile. I am as guilty as anyone else of being afraid to approach the sick patient, because I feel I can't do anything for them. Sometimes the kind word, the gentle smile, is in and of itself therapeutic. After all, being a health care provider has never been about defeating death itself - we are just setting ourselves up for failure, if this is our goal! Rather, it is about being able to provide for the wellbeing of our patients. And, as we are reminded from time to time, wellbeing is not merely limited to the physical domain, but extends to the psychological and spiritual as well.

Next week, Sal & I are attending the IMPACT conference, run by CMDFA (Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia). We attended this same conference last year, and learnt a lot about the role of Christians within the health profession - especially about how to be first a Christian, and then a doctor. I hope that we can be reminded of this again, and in doing so, be encouraged and empowered to be what God has called each of us to be!