Control, Destiny, Hope and Humility
It is said that we are supposed to be on the “downside” of the curve here in NYC. The weather is getting nicer, people are coming out more, there are fewer and fewer cases as the days go by overall. In fact, things have seemed to look so good that our governor in NY State, Andrew Cuomo, recently announced proudly, “...the good news is... we are finally ahead of this virus and we are in control of our destiny.”
It seems we should be happy, right? If anything, I honestly am more concerned. What exactly should we have learned along this journey? That human beings can in fact “control their own destiny” and defeat nature? That in the end, as so many have said around me, “things can finally go back to ‘normal’ again”? Many are racing to grab whatever credit they can for their part in “defeating” this virus. I am not so sure we can claim to have defeated anything yet.
Is that the final lesson, then, that we will come away with — that human beings can conquer anything that comes our way through sheer ingenuity and willpower? Do we sweep all the losses we all have experienced under the rug, like a number of physician colleagues, politicians, patients and others have commented to me personally? We have hope, yes, but are we truly seeing that our hope has to be that God alone is in charge of healing us from this virus — if He chooses to do so? (After all, there is nothing to say this can’t come back; as an emergency planner, I am already preparing everyone around me who will listen for the next emergency...) Have we learned to “humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord?” Has the church been able to overcome its own fears to help people outside God’s family realize that God is trying to tell us something? I am not sure. I fear, to answer all these questions, that we will have too much of the human and not enough of the eternal in our approach going forward.
I was watching my pastor, David Bisgrove, talk in his online Sunday message about patience. Certainly, we have all had to practice patience of some sort, and I am sure we all know people who have become incredibly impatient. Interestingly, note during this Sunday online service that patience is not a passive event during which nothing happens. Even as impatience is ultimately a sign of rebelliousness against God, and can manifest as a statement of our own sense of independence from God and the hope and pride we have in ourselves, Godly patience, when practiced (even against the backdrop of suffering), ”...produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5) If anything, the role of Christians in healthcare has never been more important than now. We know that our communities need healing. We know that our fellow physicians need healing. We especially know that students and residents need healing, and more than that — hope... I hope that this “winter season” is how God is using you to prepare for whatever future He holds for you once “spring” comes and you bloom fully into the healthcare professionals God has called them to be. Will we all realize that God is trying to tell us that we Christians in healthcare are just “broken people being called to heal other broken people, because we know that ultimately, by His stripes we have been healed”?
I had a conversation with a young fourth-year medical student last week who was referred to me by a friend because he hadn’t matched. He was stressing out about his future, about coronavirus, about what he would face “when this is all over.” He was so focused on what he needed to DO next. I reminded him that he was a “HUMAN BEING,” not a “HUMAN DOING.” I have been wondering and praying more about how God is using this cataclysmic, world-shaking event to help us figure out what we are to become, as opposed to wondering what God is asking us to do. Would you all join me, as we consider this question together? The world may depend on how we answer this question. God has surely allowed this to happen to help us advance even more into who we were meant to be. As we continue to walk through the “valley of the shadow of death,” we pray that through all we have experienced, we can continue to be reminded of who we have been created by God to be, and realize what God wants us to become. And let us help those who God sends our way — patients, fellow colleagues and people in general — discover the same incredible and wonderful realization in them. May this realization, that ”God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1, NKJV), be one of our first steps in reconciling, healing and rejoicing in our being in Him.
