So last night I went to a speaker session for the pre-med
society at Clemson. The speaker was a pediatrician who is involved in
international medical missions, having traveled to Kenya,
Brazil, and Honduras. This
is a field I have looked at going into, so I thought it would be interesting to
listen to what he had to say. The first country he talked about was Kenya…where my
team and I will be in a few months. He showed a picture of the sign in front of
the hospital there, called Tenwek, and it read, “We treat. Jesus heals.” I
thought that was pretty cool.
But then he began to talk about how, in third world
countries, the limitations on space and equipment cause them to sometimes put
two people to a bed, or have to choose between babies that need oxygen…and
often the one not chosen dies. He went on to talk about how common death is in
third world countries, how one day, you’ll be in a ward, treating a child, and
the next day come in to see an open bed where the child had been, ask where the
patient was, and be told they were dead, in such a nonchalant tone as if the
person was describing what the weather was like that day. The stories he told
almost made me cry.
I began to think, what do you do to help people like that?
And what will I do in the course of the coming year if I face something like
that, let alone if that IS the field I pursue? Am I, or will I, be strong
enough to handle that? Almost before I could finish the thought, though, the
shortest verse in the Bible came to mind: “Jesus
wept.” (John 11:35) Yes, he wept at the death of a dearly loved friend…but
He also didn’t leave it at that. Instead, He brought life to the situation –
literally. He raised Lazarus from the dead. When I thought about this, hope
flooded through me and a smile returned to my face. Because Jesus also said,
just before He left His disciples, “I
tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing.
He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Son may bring glory to
the Father. You may ask Me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
(John 14:12-14) Wow. So apparently, with the life and power of Christ within
us, we are capable of raising people from the dead? I believe Acts talks about
Christ’s disciples doing that after He ascended to heaven. I will be honest in
saying that I have struggled with the idea of this kind of thing still
happening today. I totally believe in spiritual healing, but I have a hard time
making the connection into the physical realm. That is one change I am hoping
to experience during the Race. I want to see and experience God’s power like
I’ve never seen and experienced before, not for the sake of just seeing
miracles and wonders but to draw closer to the heart of God and subsequently
draw others to His heart as well. God calls us to be salt and light, to bring
life and light to dark places. And the thought of doing so gets me fired up
inside.
