A Reflection on "Physicianhood" - Part 1

So this is actually an assignment that we are completing in the South Campus Center as a small group. We just sat through a couple hours of lecture on "Physicianhood," which is basically all the gushy, emotional stuff attached to taking care of yourself and achieving "balance" as a physician. There were a lot of ideals put forward from the agnostic science-driven perspective about everyone's needs for love and approval and all that, and now I'm reflecting on what that means to me personally. Okay, end intro, here goes.

Christ is central to my life. Not central in the sense that I'm a Jesus superfan that goes to all His games and buys all his T-shirts and always bets on Him in the World Championships or whatever. Rather, He is central in the sense that my life is contingent upon His and that there is a flow that begins in Him that sustains and emboldens me. All of my philosophy, my "core values," and motivations derive directly from my understanding and knowledge of Him. This is not a convenient extract of a philosophy that I base on personal needs, but rather a realty that defines and reshapes my identity as I come to experience it more deeply.

So what do I do with all that? I'm more asking myself that than posing a brilliant rhetorical question. It means that my ideals as a physician, the standards to which I aspire, are not rooted in the values held by the medical community at large, nor even in my own personal beliefs and desires, but rather my ideals flourish where the Word has been revealed to the world. This is all very high-sounding talk simply to say that what God through Christ wants is what I want, even when I don't (temporarily) want it.

Some questions from the reflections paper we got:

What are your core personal values?

Rather than thinking about what pleases and motivates me most, I can respond with simplicity:

• Love.

More specifically:

• Seeking justice in the world I find myself in
• Delighting myself in kindness
• Recognizing my true strength and my true weakness in light of the glory of God.

I have not yet attained realization of those core values in my daily life, but to them I aspire and I persist.

After establishing such a base, my picture of physicianhood paints itself.

Physicianhood means committing everything I am and have to God and to the principles set forward by Him and learning how to share the light that I have with those around me, being Christ to a broken world.

Outro

I plan to finish up this writing assignment over the next few weeks to months, and I'll plan to post it up here as it takes shape.