Tool Time

As cardiac surgeons, we are not people known for patience.  Surgeons, and cardiac surgeons in particular, are people who want to see the results of their work right now.  Often, we can see immediate improvement in someone's heart after we have fixed a valve or restored circulation to blocked arteries.  Sometimes, our patients are so sick that even in the intensive care unit while having the usual postoperative pain, they still feel better than before the surgery.  We can see improvement in their hearts in minutes and in their overall condition within hours. 

Other physicians are the more patient type, often treating chronic illnesses over years.  Improvement is measured in weeks or months.  I myself have a dry eye condition that requires that I use eye drops.  The eye doctor told me that it would take six to nine months before I would see any improvement.  That certainly is too slow for my liking.

One of the rewards of being a Christian and a heart surgeon is that I am a tool.  In our day and time, that concept would repel many people.  We are a culture based on autonomy and self-direction.  People want to be in charge of everything and would never want to be used to achieve someone else's purposes.  However I think that for the Christian, one of the highest rewards in life is for the Lord to use us as one of His tools.  I find it ironic that as a Christian heart surgeon I have my own set of instruments which I use, and God in turn uses me as an instrument.  God is the author of all healing, the Supreme Physician, and he uses sutures and forceps and scalpels and heart surgeons.  This is a temporary necessity; when Christ returns there won't be any need for heart surgeons in the New Jerusalem.

All of us can be used by the Lord in some way.  We are all expected to bear fruit.  For us impatient types, it can be frustrating to not see immediate results in this arena.  God's timetable is not our own.  We do not get to see what He is doing behind the scenes.  We plant a seed, and nothing seems to happen.  What is dangerous about this expectancy is that we translate delay into futility.  Because we do not see an immediate effect, we assume our efforts were a waste of time.  The Bible warns us against this in John 4:36-38 when Jesus instructs His disciples: "And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.  For in this the saying is true: 'One sows and another reaps.'  I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors."

I was overwhelmingly blessed in the last few weeks by a few people.  About five years ago I met a fellow about my age who needed heart surgery.  I offered to pray with him the day before surgery, as I do with all of my patients.  The majority of people are very receptive and happy to do this.  Yet some are indifferent, and make comments such as, "Well, go ahead if it makes you feel better."  Very, very rarely does someone outright refuse to have a prayer said with them or for them, but it has happened from time to time.  Although this particular patient agreed, I really couldn't tell how he felt about it. 

I see this man from time to time, and was talking to him the other day when he told me that moment five years ago had changed his life.  He had gotten away from his faith, but had returned to it as a sincere Christian.  I was dumbfounded.  I had no idea that our brief prayer together years ago had such an effect.  God had been working in his life for all of that time, but had chosen to reveal it to me only now. 

More blessings occurred when two people tracked me down at different book signings to tell me that my book had profoundly changed their lives for the better.  I didn't even know that these people had gotten the book or read it. There is no amount of money you can earn from writing that would in any way compare to the blessing of knowing you had made such a difference.   

I must be clear with you that I am not writing this to promote myself as a heart surgeon or author.  I am really hoping to encourage you  in your work for the Lord.  The results may take some time, but the efforts are not futile.  You may only see some of your work come to fruition, and many of the seeds you sow will be reaped by others.  But when God does give you a glimpse of the fruits of your labors in the lives of others, you will be tremendously blessed.  Like me, you may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but you will be the happiest tool in the toolbox.