As I slow down from the day, I tend to watch mindless television shows. I’m addicted to one of those oldie television stations. I can tell you what happens in every Perry Mason episode after only ten seconds of the episode. After Perry Mason one station broadcasts two episodes of Emergency.
That television show follows the exploits of a cutting edge idea back in the early 1970’s: paramedics. There is little blood and gore and there is very little anxiety about how situations will turn out. This was the 1970’s after all, good guys and gals were good and bad people were bad. In these shows justice usually triumphs, and the doctors always cure the patients. When someone dies, it is turned into a pedantic lesson about life.
What I have noticed is the functioning of the doctors in the hospitals.
These ER doctors seem to do it all. If the patient needs a little heart cath, the doctors throw on their green scrubs and get after it. Need some brain surgery, well they drill holes right there in the ER and then the patient is transported to surgery. I look at the technology that was cutting edge fifty years ago and give thanks for all the advancements that have been made.
Right now, I’m dealing with medical professionals. They are being professional and eventually this thing I’m dealing with will resolve. What has amazed me is how doctors have divided up the human body in order to specialize.
There are podiatrists who specialize in the right foot and you need to find another doctor to work on your left foot. You can find an old-fashioned surgeon, or you can find a surgeon who specializes in robotic surgery. I didn’t know robots needed surgery. It all staggers the mind. Maybe I’m feeling nostalgic for the doctors I remember who were called General Practitioners. I believe they are called Family Medicine Doctors today. They take care of the whole human.
I watch Emergency and see the doctors at Rampart General doing everything from blood draws to heart surgery.
We in the church world are guilty too of compartmentalizing, specializing, and targeting demographics. Sometimes I think the church has been infected by a virus called the Harvard Business Review. Jesus told us the fields are white unto harvest, the Harvard Business Review would say that we need to have a target audience for our messaging.
We are called to give our lives to Jesus. However, we too have become good at specialization. We think we can hold back parts of our being for ourselves and not give them to Jesus.
Are you giving the whole to Jesus?
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