It's Not About the Medicine
This weekend, I attended the 30th annual medical missions conference in Dallas, Texas. Going to classes, visiting booths, networking with missionaries, seeing familiar faces, and meeting new people who are also interested in missions were the highlights of the trip...just to name a few.
I also spent the weekend with my team serving in Tanzania, Africa, this summer. Seven nursing students, two instructors, three doctors, their wives, plus two children will make this trip a blast.
I walked away from the conference with new medical knowledge about diabetes, wound care, and dehydration. More importantly, I left with a refreshed spirit towards mission work and a confident heart in the power of God around the world.
Perhaps the most important thread throughout the speakers and sessions at the conference was this: it's about so much more than medicine.
The reason we do medical missions is not to give shots, perform surgery, or dress wounds. It's really not even about healing disease. The reason that we do what we do is so that people can hear about our God and come to believe in Jesus. If we treat the illness and cure the disease without telling the patient about the spiritual healing we have through salvation in Jesus Christ, we have not done our mission. The reason we care for the sick is so that they can live to hear about Christ. We reach out to the desperate and dying so that they can discover the healing and hope found in Jesus.
All this reminds me of 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.
If I treat malaria, start IVs, and deliver babies in Tanzania, but do not have the love of Christ in me, I am nothing.
If I study for all my nursing classes, pass my tests, and go to clinical prepared every week, but do not share the love of Christ, I am nothing.
If we drive to work, do our jobs, and make money, but do not show the love of Christ through our words and actions, we are nothing.
Even if we go to church, attend devotionals, and participate in service projects, but do not have the love of Christ spilling over, we are nothing.
In whatever we do, whether we are administering medicine, designing structures, answering phone calls, cleaning houses, taking photos, driving trucks, hanging out with teenagers, or raising children, let's do it all in love. After all, it's not about the success, money, productivity, status, or even service. It's about loving others and speaking boldly about Christ so that all peoples and nations may come to know Him for eternity.
His love makes our every move matter. It makes every moment important and impactful. It makes every day a miracle. It makes even the smallest acts turn into the most significant events.
Our mission is not about the medicine. It's about the amazing, incredible, life-giving love of Jesus.
I also spent the weekend with my team serving in Tanzania, Africa, this summer. Seven nursing students, two instructors, three doctors, their wives, plus two children will make this trip a blast.
I walked away from the conference with new medical knowledge about diabetes, wound care, and dehydration. More importantly, I left with a refreshed spirit towards mission work and a confident heart in the power of God around the world.
Perhaps the most important thread throughout the speakers and sessions at the conference was this: it's about so much more than medicine.
The reason we do medical missions is not to give shots, perform surgery, or dress wounds. It's really not even about healing disease. The reason that we do what we do is so that people can hear about our God and come to believe in Jesus. If we treat the illness and cure the disease without telling the patient about the spiritual healing we have through salvation in Jesus Christ, we have not done our mission. The reason we care for the sick is so that they can live to hear about Christ. We reach out to the desperate and dying so that they can discover the healing and hope found in Jesus.
All this reminds me of 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.
"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love,
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have a faith that can move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and
give over my body to hardship that I may boast
but do not have love, I gain nothing."
If I treat malaria, start IVs, and deliver babies in Tanzania, but do not have the love of Christ in me, I am nothing.
If I study for all my nursing classes, pass my tests, and go to clinical prepared every week, but do not share the love of Christ, I am nothing.
If we drive to work, do our jobs, and make money, but do not show the love of Christ through our words and actions, we are nothing.
Even if we go to church, attend devotionals, and participate in service projects, but do not have the love of Christ spilling over, we are nothing.
In whatever we do, whether we are administering medicine, designing structures, answering phone calls, cleaning houses, taking photos, driving trucks, hanging out with teenagers, or raising children, let's do it all in love. After all, it's not about the success, money, productivity, status, or even service. It's about loving others and speaking boldly about Christ so that all peoples and nations may come to know Him for eternity.
His love makes our every move matter. It makes every moment important and impactful. It makes every day a miracle. It makes even the smallest acts turn into the most significant events.
Our mission is not about the medicine. It's about the amazing, incredible, life-giving love of Jesus.
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