Have you been to a doctor’s office lately? Because you were sick or for a check up?

Perhaps due to the abundance of youngins in my home, my “visits” (like that phrase? Makes it sound like something pleasant) anyway… my visits to a doctor are more often than not due to an illness. Deciding to make that call to the doctor to schedule a “sick” appointment isn’t always easy.  Trying to triage whether or not someone is ill in a way that needs a doctor verses an ailment which just needs some time and rest can be a tricky thing. I don’t want to waste time, money, or end up feeling stupid if the doctor says there is nothing wrong… Sometimes it is easy to forget that the doctor is there for the sick.

In fact, at one of my last “visits”, in a waiting room FULL of people… there sat a woman who I think forgot that the sick often visit the doctor. There she sat, or didn’t sit, since most of the time she was shifting in her seat, shuffling papers/magazines, leaning forward and sighing audibly enough that I heard her three rows away…

And then it happened. I am not quite sure what “it” was but from what I gathered a man was having a discussion at a window and the already-irritated-woman had enough.

“Should wear a mask, “she muttered.

A few seconds later:

“SERIOUSLY?!”- a little louder still.

Moments after that:

“Maybe you should have stayed home.” Almost at, what’s the phrase, oh yeah, a fever pitch.

I want to be clear that I for one am certainly on the side of proper hygiene and etiquette so as to not to risk spreading infection to others. And yet, in that moment I thought, “This woman must have forgotten that sick people NEED to see a doctor.”

And in that very second scripture burst into my mind:

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17

Just like that woman (seemingly) forgot that sick people need a doctor, often we forget that sinners need Jesus. We forget that we are sinners too.

Do not be shocked when Jesus calls sinners. That is why He came! And just as a doctor does not intend for a patient to leave the office unchanged, still ill, living a life negatively impacted by illness… Jesus calls sinners to new life as ONLY Jesus can change them by offering salvation, redemption, a life lived in and through grace.

Never fail to remember the only reason we are “healthy” is because of the healing, redemptive work of God in our lives. Here is something hitting home with me tonight: Just like we still need to see the doctor even when we believe ourselves to be healthy so that tests/lab work can be run to look for signs of illness… Spiritually, while we may look to be on the “right” track, we cannot forget that it is only due to Jesus redemptive work and that we need to continue to allow the Holy Spirit to work righteousness in us.

Today,  ask God to give us HIS heart for the “sick”… ask  that God help us to be a part of bringing people to HIM because God is the only cure for what ails us… right now, come before God to admit where we still need his healing/transforming work in our own hearts, minds, and actions.

~Jillene