“A certain weightiness has settled on the hospital.”

Here is part of an email from a missionary doctor and his wife, who serve in a mission hospital in Africa. Healthcare missions can be discouraging, even in a reasonably well-functioning setting. And while we can be discouraged, hope arises when we step back to gain a wider, gospel perspective.

As we head into this Christmas season, I think [my wife] and I would admit that our hearts are heavy.  There is a certain weightiness that has settled in at the hospital.  In the last several months it feels like we’ve faced an unusually high number of setbacks including ongoing staffing shortages and major equipment failures.  Our staff are hurting as they face inflation which has quadrupled the price of many foods in the last 8 months.  Ongoing gas and diesel shortages have made finding transport more difficult and expensive for our patients.  Rising costs have led to rising hospital bills for those who do find their way through our doors.  It feels like darkness even on the sunniest of days.

Can you feel their heaviness?  Have you experienced something similar, maybe even in a mission or healthcare context?  Where do you look when dark days arise?

One of the most challenging aspects of dark days is knowing where God is. Why has he allowed these challenges, especially where we have worked hard to bring Him glory? We sacrifice and work to serve him and others, yet face personnel, equipment, finances, government policies, or corruption setbacks. Our world is broken in so many ways that we may never get ahead.

How do we respond to brokenness?

Let’s first sit alongside this brother and sister in Christ and lament with them.  This is NOT the way things are supposed to be.  It is hard when our efforts are undone, evil prevails, or when we meet the howling headwinds of circumstances working against us and our patients.  Many of the Bible’s psalms are written as laments. They start by acknowledging the painful reality of the situation and crying out to God. A lament does not deny or minimize the pain but admits it and brings it to God, leaving it to His sovereign control. Ultimately, it means asking for God’s perspective on the situation, trusting that while things are not as they should be now, in the end, he will conform everything to his perfect will for his glory.

I fear that we often want quick answers.  We develop our solutions rather than waiting on what Jesus may be doing amid our brokenness.  The apostle Paul warns us about putting confidence in ourselves.  He said, “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted loss for the sake of Christ.” (Phil 3:7) We want to rely on our expertise, training, or wisdom, yet Paul reminds us to let Christ work “by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” (Phil 3:21) Our role is to lament the situation, bring it to Christ himself, and see how he will transform it for his glory. 

“It feels like darkness even on the sunniest of days.”

Renewed hope and vision

The heaviness of our situation can lead us to examine where our vision is taking us.  What is God’s will for these patients and this mission hospital?  How can this hospital be a blessing over the long term, not just to the patients that arrive today?  How might it be used to transform the community around us?  How can we partner with the local churches or believers for a Kingdom-sized vision?  Sadly, a hospital is often run independently of the community, church, and local government.  This is not the way it ought to be.

It has been said that we should use the problem to develop the people rather than the people to solve the problem. God changes the world by changing people. How can this situation help us as a community of believers serve more like Jesus?  Is there prayer and unity among the Christian hospital staff?  Is there partnership and unity with local churches and other believers?  Does our hospital partner with these local entities?  Consensus emerges as we pray and speak together about God’s will for the hospital.  In seeking this consensus, we are developing people with a gospel mindset – healthcare professionals, staff, and community members who are willing to discover what God is doing and join it.

“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted loss for the sake of Christ.” – Philippians 3:7

Building up the body of Christ, the church

Moving from the stage of disbelief and anger about our situation into faith and hope requires us to move ahead with other believers. Ultimately, it is all about being and making disciples of Jesus. God works in ways we cannot see to subject all things to Jesus—even us. In the process, we meet impossible problems and even experience pain. But knowing His providential control over all circumstances helps us persevere and grow. The outcome is fruitful disciples.

Jesus uses our suffering to bring us as His people into conformity with Himself, ultimately transforming us and then using us to glorify Him.  Paul said, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Phil 3:10-11)

The Lausanne Seoul Statement points out that the church is often misunderstood, resulting from a distorted understanding of the gospel.  Suffering and setbacks should drive us back to the biblical gospel, the real story of what God is doing in the world.  As Christian healthcare workers, we are called to be a holy community, set apart for God’s purposes to glorify God and show the love of Jesus to others.  And we cannot ultimately do that without joining hands and hearts with believers outside of the hospital, who are also called to proclaim and display Christ to the community. 

In practice, one is not more important than the other.  There should be no cultural pre-eminence among us, and no one should be dominant because of culture or profession. Doctors, lab techs, nurses, and warehouse workers are all one in Christ and must work to proclaim and display Christ together. Hospital staff and local believers share the glory of God given in Christ.

Inflation, staff shortages, and diesel costs all work to undo the best of what we want to offer others.  As God’s community in the hospital, we can best proclaim and display Christ when we partner with each other and believers outside the hospital. God will be glorified when the hospital and community partner together in love and unity.