Verle Bell M.D.
[Originally published as Sick People Need Doctors]
It’s me! It’s me! It’s me, dear Great Physician, standing in the need of help!
Did you know that one quarter of the New Testament was written by a physician? Jesus himself claimed to be a physician. In Matthew 9:12, Mark 2:17, and Luke 5:31 he says: “Don’t you realize that well people don’t need a physician but sick people do?” This was in response to his being criticized for reaching out (as a physician) to obviously needy people who admitted their own need.
Did this mean he was implying that the Pharisees were healthier and did not need a physician?
I have often suggested that there are only three types of people in this world
- Messed-up people who don’t believe that they are messed up.
- Messed-up people who admit they are messed up but have given up and feel too damaged to bother trying to change.
- Messed-up people who admit that they are messed up but have a sense of hope and dignity so they reach out to the “physician” for help in changing, so they are a little less messed up and getting better all the time.
I found that you can ask almost anybody whether they want to grow and be happier and healthier, and they will all agree that that would be good. However, I have found that God does not help people whose only goal is to grow so they can be healthier and happier. Sure, when Jesus was on earth his valuable time was constantly being eaten up by people demanding to be healed physically. He tried to avoid this by telling those he healed not to tell anyone so he would have time and energy to teach us about the real need: dealing with our sin.
God helps people who, number one, identify that it is their own inner responses to life that need to change: people who want to change so they can help others, and who are desperate for that change.
Do you often feel that you are just the worst ever, too much water under the bridge, too messed up for God to use? Then you are God’s type of guy!
As a physician, I take an almost perverse delight in the real tough cases that are going to stretch me and help me prove that I am a good doctor. I love to appeal to God on the basis of all the glory he will get when he fixes a mess such as I.
Do you wish that you could help the needy people around you more effectively? Then you’re God’s type of guy!
Do you feel desperate that something has to change? Then you are God’s type of guy!
“Great physician, like Isaiah, in your presence I see my need for I am a man of unclean lips and dwell amongst a people of unclean lips (Isaiah 6:5). Please cleanse me with your purifying fire and then let me go for you into this needy world to bring the healing you want to bring.”
