By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president
Have you ever inadvertently eavesdropped on a conversation?
Or sometimes has someone been talking so loud that you couldn’t help but hear the conversation? I have had many such experiences.
Recently, I overheard a conversation between two people. One of them was a doctor who works in an intensive care unit at a hospital. He was asked, “What is the one thing that you enjoy the most about your job?” He thought for a moment and said, “When you help someone live a bit longer.”
There is no doubt that would be very rewarding. To see someone come in to an intensive care unit, many times with their lives on the line—very ill and no doubt very worried about what comes next. Surrounded by beeping machines and hooked up to all sorts of monitors, with needles stuck in your veins and medicine being administered, it can all be a bit overwhelming. Then there are the constant interruptions all day and night by the dedicated doctors, nurses, and others who are looking out for you. They are all trying to help you live a bit longer. They all want to see you get up and walk out of there to your family and the life you live.
Think about it, friends. We, as Christians, have this opportunity before us all the time.
Jesus made it possible for us all to live a lot more than just a bit longer. He made it possible for us to live for eternity. It also calls us to be His staff—to be the ones who help others see Jesus and live through eternity. We are always around people who come into our space, and they have the illness of sin overwhelming them. Each one of us has different gifts and abilities that can help someone see Jesus.
The Bible says that God is “longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance,” 2 Peter 3:9. God is offering each of us the best intensive care unit in the world, and He is using us to be His staff in nurturing and discipling the people in the unit. He calls us all to go and make disciples, Matthew 28:19, 20.