Medicine seemed so…I don’t know…heroic.
Romantic even.
Treating sick patients, seeing them healed and eternally grateful.
That warm glow of appreciation that I could bask in for weeks.
Yes there’s lots of exams, but the rewards would make it worth it.
Right?
Right?
And yet time and again patients are ungrateful. And sometimes they don’t
get better!
What’s more
It’s hard to be friendly with my colleagues on my 5th night
shift
It’s hard to do as my registrar asks me even though he’s really getting
on my nerves
It’s hard to go the extra mile and reassure the agitated 86-year-old on
Spencer Ward who everyone else is ignoring
It’s hard to treat with dignity the drunk who everyone else on my team belittles
and curses, and who belittles and curses me
Outside of work,
It can be hard to get home and put my wife (who is also tired), first
It can be hard to let my children inconvenience me and play ‘My Little
Pony’ rather than doing what I want to do on my day off
It can be hard to spend time with a friend who is low because you know
what, I just can’t take any more…
Of course there are times to be balanced.
And yet these choices face us several times a day.
My preference or his?
My security, or hers?
My vulnerability, or theirs?
My children’s freedom, or mine?
The simple call of the Christian life is
IT’S ME OR THEM
When God killed the firstborn way back in Egypt, the choice was:
It’s the lamb or the boy.
When Abraham took Isaac to sacrifice him, the choice was:
It’s the ram or the boy.
In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus is in agony. The anticipation of what
he was about to do caused his great physical and mental distress.
Will he drink the cup of punishment or will we?
Will it be him, or us?
And Jesus says – ‘Father, Your Will be done’.
‘LET IT BE ME, NOT THEM’.
Let it be me, not John.
Let it be me, not you…
That’s how much he loved us.
When we have grasped the depths of Jesus’ substitutionary sacrifice, we
are empowered to do the supernatural - to truly love others.
To say:
Lord, let it be me, not him
Let it be his preference, not mine
Let it be my loss of security, not hers
Let me risk my vulnerability, not theirs
Let me lose my freedom, not my children’s
So my prayer is that I would be ready to lose
my security
my vulnerability
my time
my convenience
my energy
my professional pride
my notion of ‘what’s in it for me’
and instead be who God is calling me to be to them.
I know I fail using my own resources (I’ve tried and it doesn’t work -
for long!), and I am called to imitate Christ, who at the cross most profoundly shows us the
way; more than that, who enables us as we trust Him and receive His Spirit to
be able to say along with him:
"Let it be me, not them"
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24
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