Not just a patient

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, April 16th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: how vocation, suffering, and the unnoticed tasks of daily life can reflect the image of God.

BROWN: Mark Topazian is a gastroenterologist and professor of medicine who has taught and practiced at institutions including Yale University and the Mayo Clinic, and works in healthcare ministry circles. He’s also the author of a new book exploring the spiritual realities of healthcare and what those realities mean for all of us, regardless of profession.

The book is called Healing Purpose: Finding Satisfaction in a Healthcare Career, published this past fall.

REICHARD: I spoke with Dr. Topazian recently about lessons he’s learned over decades of medical practice.

He connects work in Genesis to the image of God. I asked him how people in any profession can start to see their daily tasks as spiritually meaningful.

TOPAZIAN: I think that it's easy in almost any work that involves interacting with people to have a very transactional form of interaction. You know, you have a need, I'm here to meet the need. We deal with each other on the basis of transaction. But as humans, we're made for communion. And that's an old word, often a religious word, but what it really means is just to share life together. And so with a patient in a busy medical or nursing or therapy practice, you don't have time for a lot of extended conversation. But I love to find out something about my patient, about who they are, beyond just the facts of their illness. So I might start off by saying, ‘Tell me about yourself,’ or for someone I've seen in the past, ‘How's your summer been?’ Or again for a new patient, ‘what kind of work do you do?’ And then, oftentimes, the best communicators, you not only ask about facts, but ask a follow up question that gets at sort of the underlying proclivities or nature of the person, like, ‘Why did you go into that line of work?’ Or ‘What do you like the most about that?’ Or ‘What do you do for fun?’ And, you know, a question like this takes a few seconds to answer. But to me, it makes a difference, because I’m for myself pausing just to recognize this is a whole person in front of me, and I think some of my patients don't like that. They sort of duck the question, and that's fine. They don't have to answer. 

But a lot of people actually enjoy revealing something of themselves and appreciate that, and it forms a basis, oftentimes, for a therapeutic relationship that's so important in healthcare. So that's just the simple thing of recognizing the person before you and getting to know them as a person before you get to know them as a problem or an issue that needs fixing. The Scripture says that we're all made in the image of God, but the image of God in all of us is broken. It's shattered, and theologians have used the image of a shattered mirror. But we all sort of intuitively value the reflections we still get from those shards, those bits and pieces of the image of God in all of us. And the New Testament says that the spirit is putting that mirror back together in each of us, making us more like the image of Christ. So I love to reflect back to people the glimpses of the image of God that I see in them. You know, whether they're brave in the face of illness, or they've maintained their sense of humor in the face of illness, or they really are concerned for their family, or many other things. To be able to reflect that back to someone I think is beautiful, and again, very helpful in understanding each other and working together.

REICHARD: Theology gets real personal when suffering hits. Get an illness, suffer a loss, or when disappointment strikes people will ask, “Why me?” You describe how Scripture shifts the focus from “why” to “who.” How does that shift from “why” to “who” help people move toward peace during personal crises?

TOPAZIAN: People are often asking themselves that question, although they might not voice that question to someone wearing a white coat unless that person in the white coat shows an interest and asks about their spirituality. But to the answer to the question, ‘Why me?’ The Bible gives us three broad themes: Our world's a broken place, not through any fault of yours or mine, but it's a broken place and suffering and sickness and unfair things happen all the time in our world. 

It also says that our own shortcomings are sometimes part of the issue for why bad things happen. And it says that bad things, suffering are an opportunity for God to display his work from John 9. You know, we've got Job's friends who are dead wrong about why he's sick. We've got the man born blind in John 9, Jesus’ disciples were dead wrong about why that man was blind. 

So when a patient says to me, why me? They're really asking the spiritual question: what is the meaning of this, and how could God let this happen? We can say—but we do know, or I do believe—that there is a God who loves you and that He has not abandoned you, and He's here with you, and He's going to walk through us and help us through this journey. And so this is shifting the focus from why to who, from ‘Why did this happen?’ To ‘Who is God, and is He here now? And how can I connect with Him?’ I think that that shift is very helpful. I think that at our best in responding to suffering, that we can seek a new experience of God. Yeah, so that's what I think it means to stop focusing on why, and to start asking “Who.”

REICHARD: When you study scripture, what do you see that God wants us to understand about our work?

TOPAZIAN: I'd say that God wants you to find joy in the work he's put in your hands, the work he's prepared ahead of time for you to do. And that might be changing a diaper, it might be picking your kids up from school, it might be serving people at work, in a situation where you don't get a lot of kudos, a lot of credit or recognition, and it can be tough, but satisfaction in all of those things I really believe comes from recognizing that God is present, that He's put this work in your hands, that He has a purpose for what you're what you are about and what you are doing, and connecting to Him in real time will help you find that purpose, and will help you find joy In what you're doing. I really believe that, Mary. That's been true for me in my own work and my own profession. I think it's true for almost all of us. And nothing makes me happier at this point than talking to a colleague who has read my book and says, I'm really enjoying seeing patients again. I mean, that is just so sweet.

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