As I was preparing for my next medical mission, I began to
think about the word “minister”. Obviously, from a religious standpoint, it has
certain connotations one of which is “to serve”. When you are ministering to
someone’s needs you are serving them.
This caused me to think of my dear friend in Nepal, Fahad.
Fahad is a young Muslim physician with whom I had the privilege of serving and
working during my first two medical missions to Nepal. I will never forget the
first day we served together, working side-by-side. In the four and a half days
of clinic we saw just over 4000 patients many with significant physical and
medical needs. It was overwhelming with only 8 providers to see them!
The first day was particularly hard as we had not
anticipated such large numbers of patients. The weather was also very hot and
humid. At the end of the day we were all emotionally and physically exhausted.
It was then that Fahad came to me with tears in his eyes and said these
words that I will never forget, “Dr. Andy, I have never seen people like you.
My entire life I have been told to take care of myself, work hard, and prepare
myself so that I could be successful. Then, if I have time, I could help others.
But today watching you and the team I am learning that I am to put others
needs before my needs, to serve others first!” I was completely blown away by
this. He learned a lesson in one day that many people never learn or come to
understand.
Servants have a
servant-heart – a heart that is loving, obedient, and humble. People understand
the concept of being loving and obedient but being humble, the act of showing
humility, can be harder to grasp. Often humility is seen as being timid, or
passive, or even weak. The reality is that humility is not that at all! In my
office, I have framed on my wall a definition of humility that I came up with
from different sources. I display it prominently so as to be a constant
reminder of how I am being. It says:
“Humility is not
timidity. It is not an attitude toward ourselves. Rather, it is an appreciation
of other people. It is a respect for them as persons of worth, a recognition of
their abilities, a willingness to receive from them what they have to offer.
We clothe ourselves
with humility by helping others do what they are capable of doing and by
recognizing their successes. We do so by listening rather than talking to them.
We do so by supporting them rather than competing with them. We clothe ourselves
with humility in other words, by putting others ahead of ourselves.”
Every day in the hospital
and in your practices, when taking care of patients, healing them, comforting
them, you are ministering to them. You are serving them. You are putting them
first. You are a servant with a servant heart and I am most grateful for you!
Humbly,
Andy Lamb, MD
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