May 1, 2014

I was somewhere in the middle of a Friday.  80 patients had signed in and I was seeing number 40 or so.  The previous patient had kindly but troublingly told me that she had been waiting 2 and a half hours to see me.  The thought crossed my mind that dozens more would wait at least that long until they saw me.  I try not to let that bother me more than it should, but I do feel the weight some days more than others.  The very next patient was a 41 year old man from Prachinburi, an area about an hour from here.  He came to see me because he was troubled by a couple minor symptoms and just wanted an annual check up.  Usually, for these folks, I finish their physical check up with a spiritual check up and ask them about the health of their soul and share Christ’s plan for eternal soul cleansing.  But when I walked in the room and introduced myself, my next thought was “I don’t have time to share Christ with this man.  I’ll just see him as quickly as I can and try to move on to help the next person.”  But when it came time to end our time together, I just couldn’t do it – I had to at least give him a chance.  I said, “Physically, different people have different diseases, one guy has high blood pressure, another has diabetes, and some people have back pain.  But spiritually, all of us are afflicted with the same illness – sin.  What are you doing about your sin?” 

He stammered, looked  troubled, and asked, “What can I do about it?”

I almost groaned.  Of all the people to be interested!  Throughout the week I had probably talked to 50 people who flatly refused to talk to me about God, and now, when I had just decided to speed things up, this guy wants to talk.  I began talking to him, but admittedly, I was distracted by the 40 people still waiting to see me. 

    
I asked him, “Have you ever heard about God?” 

    
His answer was shocking.  I went to church with a friend once.”

    
“Really?”  (I don’t hear that line very often here.)  Tell me about that.  

    
There wasn’t much for him to tell.  He went to church, but never followed up ---but what he heard there always stayed with him. 

    
I told him of what Jesus did on Calvary and how His death was able to take away sins – something our merit could not.  Soon we were engaged in a heavy conversation over the fate of his soul, and at the end of it, he bowed his head and raised his voice to God and prayed a prayer of repentance and acceptance of Christ as his Lord.

    
We traded phone numbers and a plan for discipleship.  He went on to get his meds and talk more with my staff.  I went back to the long line of needy people – still troubled by their wait, but humbly grateful that I got to see my Father work in the middle of a hectic day.