The Right Physician

As seen in the  "The Heartbeat" and published in the Hot Springs Village Voice

Many of us can remember going to our doctor when we were young. If you grew up in a small town like I did, there was only one and everyone knew Doc Bailey. He treated people for just about every ailment they had. He was calm, collected, and had a confidence about him that eased the fears of the patients in his office. Only when something was very serious and required surgery did people head to the hospital.

The medical community has changed in the past 50 years hasn’t it? What used to be the family doctor (a great title) is now known as a PCP – a primary care physician. This new name denotes they do primary care only and anything past the basics requires a physician called a "specialist." There are doctors just for eyes, just for your ears, nose, and throat, for the outside of you (dermatologist), and even one who sees patients just for the feet. From a medical standpoint, the parts of the human body have been reduced to the lowest common denominator for treatment and healing.

We navigate this maze of specialists when we need treatment. We search, research, and ask our good ol’ family doctor to refer us to the next level. Hopefully, we choose wisely relative to our necessary illness. But I ask you, why do we not go to a podiatrist for a tooth filling? Or why do we not go to an ophthalmologist for knee replacement? These are silly questions at best. We go to the right doctor for the right procedure.

But what about our spirits? It’s said that a person with a broken spirit is a broken person indeed. There are doctors and medications to help us mentally, but do they really address our spirits? We need a specialist for that, and his name is Jehovah Rapha – the Lord your Healer.

There are many names for God and for Jesus as well throughout the Bible. Jesus is even referred to as the Great Physician in the John’s gospel. In chapter 5, Jesus heals a 38-year-old man who has been crippled since birth. Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be healed. The man thought only of his physical condition, but Jesus was also referring to his spiritual condition of being a sinner.

We often think of our physical conditions first just like the man by the Pool of Bethesda. I submit we should be thinking of our spirits first. If we are in tune with God, we can easily carry out the greatest commandment: to love God with all our hearts, our minds, and our spirits.

As we get anxious about our world, or maybe even our physical ailments, let’s first turn to our Heavenly Father as our "primary care Physician" and have a "spirit check-up!" He can accomplish things no other earthly physician can. Praise God!

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