heart in the right place….

I just read a great thought-provoking book. It was a memoir written by the daughter of a Smoky Mountain rural general practitioner. Heart in the Right Place by Carolyn Jourdan. It just so happens that we were also simultaneously watching a wonderful television series, Doc Martin, about a Cornish village GP. I had read that the seemingly wacky medical issues portrayed on the show had all actually happened to the show’s advising doctor, so they were totally legit. Both gave a very similar picture of what small town doctors deal with on a daily basis. Heart warming and horrifying in equal measure.

What a noble endeavor though. After the cost and effort of medical school, what character qualities lead one toward a small community and the fundamental act of placing their attention outside of themselves and onto people who needed it most? And, to use the talents they have been given and whatever simple medical tools available to do what needed to be done. They didn’t have the fancy equipment to make the diagnosis. The Smoky Mountain doctor was once asked by his daughter if he didn’t wish he had an MRI machine so he could see the whole inside of a person in incredible detail. His answer was surprising. He said: No, because nobody’s normal. I’m all for making the diagnosis, but there is a lot of harmless abnormality that we’re better off staying unaware of.” I once had an old school doctor that I loved. He would always say….Look for horses, not zebras. Wise words for a worrier like me. There is still a deep well of mystery about the interactions within the human body….he just could be right. Somehow I can’t help but feel that we have lost something with what we think we know.

These doctors’ lives are never 9-5. They make house calls, and middle of the night visits, and run off to an emergency in the middle of an office visit with another patient. It’s not easy or neat and didn’t adhere to a traditional schedule. It was not about the big money, the famous hospital, the fancy equipment, or the visibility of recognition from peers, but I believe that they lay their head down at night in exhausted satisfaction. It was about taking the skills learned and applying them in the best way possible. It wasn’t about collecting fees, but about healing people for maybe a chicken or a goat or whatever they had to give. It was never about getting financially rich but rather being rich in good deeds. Isn’t that what we are all called to do in one way or another Another great quote from the book: “a lot of the most important things don’t look like much. In fact, the most important things are down right invisible, and rightly so. We’d do them for the wrong reasons if they were”.  

Our world certainly has an idea of success that tends to run counter to these ideas. I would be willing to bet that any one of the recipients of these good deeds, though, would call all those with their heart in the right place a resounding success. Much pondering!

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. ~ 1 Timothy 6: 18-19