Let me back up to a National Day Calendar celebration that was on September 7th. A couple of days late won’t matter because this is something we should express regularly. Allow me to set up where I’m headed with this.
The medical profession has really taken a beating lately. There is a lot of distrust towards doctors, especially with accusations that they are only in it for the money. When procedures are denied, the doctors are blamed. When it takes too long for results to come, the patient often lashes out at the doctors, accusing them of not taking time to look for the results. And when we try to schedule an appointment only to learn that it might be a couple of months before we can see our GP, we get very put-out, commenting that they must be on the golf course again or taking another exotic vacation on our dime! We can get a bit salty and saucy, can’t we?
When we are going through some sort of medical dilemma, the patient wants answers yesterday and expects everything to get fixed in a matter of hours rather than weeks or months. Then, when bad news is delivered, we blame the doctor.
Here’s another angle. We went in to see our doctor, and he told us what we needed to do. We walked out of the doctor’s office and proclaim, “What a quack!” as we ignored every bit of his/her instructions. We don’t want to cut out the foods that are elevating our sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, and weight. We don’t want to exercise. We don’t want to change our lifestyle. But after we’ve doctored ourselves for a while and things aren’t working out, who gets the blame? The doctor.
September 7th has been designated as National Grateful Patient Day. It’s a day for us to tell our health care provider thank you for their care. After all, they are people, too! They need to be encouraged and applauded for their work.
Often, we refuse to go to a doctor, stating that all they ever tell us are things we don’t want to hear. They are just the bearers of more bad news. It reminds me of something Paul said in Galatians 4:16. “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?”
David Guzik writes, “In light of the great love and honor the Galatians had shown towards Paul and in light of the great blessing they received from God when they showed such to him, the Galatians should not think that Paul has now become their adversary when he confronted them with the truth. They needed the truth more than they needed to feel good about where they were at.”1
Jesus experienced hatred for telling people the truth. He said in John 8:40, “But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.”
As Paul dealt with the church of Corinth, he had to tell them things they didn’t want to hear. The results were less than desirous! 2 Corinthians 12:15 says, “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.”
It should be true of all pastors that they will tell the truth when they preach. Paul told
Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” God’s Word is “sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
Today, thank that doctor who will tell you the truth and who has been there with you in the ups and downs of your medical life. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend…” (Proverbs 27:6)
1Enduring Word Commentary, e-Sword.net module
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