I spend a lot of time with patients these days....Some are simply the sweetest and others are harder to show love to. I sat to read some Spurgeon the other day, and was blown away by these encouragements:
“I venture to say that our Savior never taught us to confine our giving to the deserving. He would never have bestowed His grand gift of grace on any one of us had He carried out that rule. We cannot afford to cramp our charity into a sort of petty justice and sour our giving into a miniature court of law. When a man is suffering, let us pity him, however this suffering has come...[Jesus] came to the sinner, not with reproach but with restoration. Jesus saw his disease rather than his depravity and gave him pity instead of punishment. Our God is kind to the unthankful and to the evil; be therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful...Let us imitate Him in this, and wherever there is pain and sorrow, let it be our joy to relieve it.”
“Our Lord was at home amid this mercy, for here was room for His tender heart and powerful hand. He feasted His soul by doing good. Let us learn this lesson, dear friend, that in the times of our brightest joys we should remember the sorrowful and find a still higher joy in doing them good....blessed are they who, like the Lord Jesus, visit the sick and care for them.” [1]
It's probably fair to say that it's our human nature to ponder if our patient is worthy of our kindness. When fits are thrown, voices are raised, complaints are made, or a patient is just plain difficult in some other way, is it my delight to show them the boundless love of Jesus?
I have been working in the emergency department for nearly two months now, and a recurring theme seems to be: "You need to learn to lay down the law with patients who struggle to make good choices. Don't be too nice to them."
We certainly have to be cautious with patients who are violent or emotionally unstable, but we must also remember that we walk with the Lord Jesus at every moment when providing care. When He was so worthy of our everything, we spat in His face and disdained Him. Even so, "when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6).
The passage continues:
"It is rare indeed for anyone to die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him! For if, when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation" (Romans 5:7-11).
Jesus has done this incredible work of redemption. There is something wrong with my perspective if I am still looking at others with a measuring stick and saying, "If you do this, and don't do that, then I'll care about you and be kind." If such a standard had been held upon us by our Savior, redemption would be completely impossible and I would be forever stuck in my sin, on my way to an eternity of destruction and torment. That is what I deserve! It's what we all deserve! "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). And yet He did not allow my unworthiness to stop His grand plan of redemption. In the midst of my mess, He showed me mercy.
Our God is all wise, and He Himself was moved at a heart level for the broken. He didn't shut up His heart because, "I'd burn out if I took all that to heart" (He is all-sufficient, after all). He let the sadness, sickness, and brokenness others were experiencing affect Him:
"And a leper came to Him, imploring Him, and kneeling said to Him, 'If you will, you can make me clean.' Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched him and said to him, 'I will; be clean.' And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean" (Mark 1:40-42).
The word there for "moved with pity" is splagchnizomai. Strong's defines this word: "[to] feel sympathy, to pity -- have (be moved with) compassion." [2] Splagchnizomai speaks of the seat of affections of the heart [3]; Jesus was not simply pondering head knowledge on the situation; He felt the depth of the need.
Whenever we feel tempted, as healthcare workers, to disconnect our emotions from our work for the sake of self-preservation, may we remember our Lord Jesus who wept with Mary and Martha over the death of Lazarus, to the point that the Jews who had been observing Him said: "See how [Jesus] loved [Lazarus]" (John 11:36).
May our work display the same; "See how Jesus has loved you." Because we know, as Elisabeth Elliot has said, "You are loved with an everlasting love; that's what the Bible says! And underneath are the everlasting arms" (Jer. 31:3, Deut. 33:27).
We have the opportunity to wrap the broken in hope or push them further into despair. By His grace, may we bear His light into the darkness sick people are facing. Jesus is the Light of the World, and He has placed us here--displaying His light--for such a time as this. May we feel compassion for the broken as our Savior does. May we stoop down into the mud with the dirty, listen with care and attentiveness to those who weep, advocate effectively for the confused, and--with every patient--be moved at a heart level; displaying the "splagchnizomai" of their Creator.
"Jesus, the Light of the World, caused His light and truth to dawn upon your heart, removing the veil and fog of unbelief that once blinded you to Him. He gave the light; He did the shining, and you found you could see God for who He truly is and love the Gospel for what it really is" (Kristen Wetherell). [4]
We know that hope is not merely a feeling or put together circumstances; Hope is a person named Jesus. And this Hope isn't bound to ease or situational peace; He is willing to rescue the lost and restore shattered souls.
"Wherever there is pain and sorrow, let it be our joy to relieve it" (Spurgeon).
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(1) Spurgeon, Charles, and Lance Wubbles. Discovering the Power of Christ's Miracles. Emerald Books, 1995, p. 15,14
(2) Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, as found here.
(3) HELPS Word-studies, Copyright © 1987, 2011 by Helps Ministries, Inc.
(4) Wetherell, Kristen, and Sarah Walton. Hope When It Hurts: Biblical Reflections to Help You Grasp God's Purpose in Your Suffering. The Good Book Company, 2017, p. 19
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