Friday, June 27th

I started writing this entry at 2 pm this afternoon and never finished it.  I didn't really like what I had written down anyway.  A fresh slate is always good...

So last night I was watching TV and came across a show called Hopkins.  It profiles doctors at John Hopkin's Hospital in Baltimore (Of course I could not turn down an opportunity to watch a tv show involving Baltimore).  One of the doctors who was being profiled was going through a rough patch in his marriage.  He was having to work 80 hours a week for his residency while his wife mostly took care of their three children.  She asked him to move out while they sort everything out.  He said "a good doctor will always put his patients first."  By this very definition his family would have to come second.  This man, who is a very good doctor, was willing to risk losing his family and the love of his life so that he may save the life of a patient.  I don't know if I should give him a metal or slap him.  

This lifestyle is the same lifestyle Christ is calling his followers to lead.  The message that Jesus was teaching was not well taken at the time.  The message that Jesus was preaching was to ignore what separated  us as a people and work together to provide the needs of everyone around us.  This is what Jesus says in the 10th Chapter of Matthew.  

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

The road that Jesus is calling us to walk on is not well paved but it is full of pot holes and individuals who are set on robbing us.  I can remember telling my family that I wanted to be a pastor.  Everyone was telling me I was foolish and I should not follow my calling.  I lost many of my friends from high school because I was no longer the Matt Day they were friends with.  I was now Pastor Day.  The road of following Christ is not easy but we are still called to follow Jesus.  Even through all the hard roads that I faced, I kept pursuing what I felt was my calling.   My family eventually came around and I learned who my true friends were.  Throughout this whole time of discernment I do not doubt for a minute that God was not with me.  

So I don't know how I feel about this doctor who is putting his patients before his family.  God has called him into medicine to save lives and he needs to do just that but God also gave him the responsibility of being a father to his kids and a husband to his wife.  The debate goes on...