The Dawn of a New Perspective

I will never forget the first time I met my husband. I had just begun my freshman year of college and I had only been in the US for a couple of months. It was nice to start with a clean slate, to begin a completely new chapter, knowing absolutely no one. I loved meeting new people and tried to get involved with as much as I could. The Baptist Student Ministry at my university quickly became home, and I spent many hours in that building making friends, eating free food, and building memories.

I had decided, with a couple other girls, to join the weekly Bible study offered and sheepishly walked into an old, mildew-smelling room, full of old couches. Little did I know that those people in that room would become dear and lifelong friends. Nervously, I tucked my long, straightened hair behind my ear and scanned the room. My eyes stopped on a relatively good-looking guy across the room. I could not help but stare aghast at him. He was reclined on his left side, taking up the majority of the couch with his right leg resting on the top back of the couch. His completely relaxed and nonchalant state left me, a recently transplanted third culture kid, fresh off the boat, utterly flabbergasted and confused. Culture shock was hitting. For a girl who grew up in Southeast Asia, this posture for a Bible study was completely inappropriate and rude. Lets just say, I was anything BUT attracted to him on that day.

After the Bible study, he came over to talk to a couple others and myself. I couldn’t help but laugh at him. However he chose to sit, he was actually a pretty funny guy . . . but what was his name again? Through the course of the semester I kept running into him, through mutual friends, at the cafeteria, in Bible study, and in the library. I would see him at late-night volleyball games and driving down the street. We became fast friends, and one night my perspective changed. I found myself wondering if he cared that I was going to a baseball game with another guy, or if he wanted to go to Taco Bell for a late night-snack. I started to notice how attractive he was and how he was so skilled at playing the guitar. He had such a way with people, and everyone seemed to know and like him.

Eventually he asked me on a first date that turned out to be a total disaster. I’m still not sure why I went on a second date with him, but I am so glad that I did! Almost fifteen years in and I am floored by the gift that he is. He is what every woman wants in a husband and what every child needs in a father. He loves deeply, and every day with him is an adventure.

I could go on and on about this godly man that is my husband, but I give you a peek into our story to make this point: if my perspective of him had not changed I would have missed out on a deep love, my best friend, and one of the greatest treasures I have ever known. Brothers and sisters in Christ, if we do not change our perspectives of our careers and those we encounter on a daily basis, we will miss out on a beautiful journey and some priceless treasure that God has in store for us.

How we view others is directly related to how we view God and how well we understand our relationship with him. Do you realize that you are loved, deeply loved, by God? He loves you with the fierceness of a Father and the tenderness of a husband. And his love for you is revealed in Jesus Christ. This is a deep love, the life changing kind. And it is a unique love, one you will not find elsewhere, because it is reflective of God love for his Son. 

God holds nothing back from his beloved Son. It’s a beautiful picture—unencumbered love fully displayed and reciprocated between the Father and the Son that we now see overflows to us. This deep relationship shows that the Father and Son are united; they are one. Everything that Jesus does is only in tandem with, in accordance to, what God the Father is doing. His will is the Father’s will because he loves the Father. Since God desires to bring the dead back to life, that is also Jesus’ desire. This is why Jesus came to raise the dead to life.

In John 3:16, Jesus tells us that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Also, as the apostle Paul says in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (NIV). He chose you in love, before you were you, for the specific purpose of adopting you as a loving father would. This adoption is not one of obligation, convenience, or gain, but one of deep love and a desire to be in relationship with you (Ephesians 1:4-6). Jesus’ sacrifice (death and resurrection) made it possible for God to pour out his love on you by adoption. This is a picture of a much-loved child drawn in, loved, and cared for by an incredibly loving Father.

In a letter to the early church, the apostle John describes God’s love revealed through Jesus Christ as “real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” (1 John 4:10). And he goes on to urge us to love one another because we have received such love: “Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other” (v. 11). This is why we must be loving toward others.

This passage is specifically talking about Christians loving other Christians; however, let me take this concept of loving others a step further. Let me argue that we should treat our co-workers, peers, and patients with such love, because the same Jesus and Lord who poured out his love for you, Christian, also poured out his love for your lost patient and your unbelieving friend.

Our love is unique; it is exceptional, because it is Christ’s love at work in us, propelling us to the lost in love.

Do you see? God is calling you to the unique work of his will. And it is his will to love and draw the lost to the world that they may be adopted as sons and daughters and ultimately experience the full and satisfying love of the Father. Your work and your life is your ministry, through which God will reveal the light, abundant life, and hope that is found in him.

Let me give you a picture of what I mean. Recently the specialty team I work with was advertising its groundbreaking work in other countries. Due to the success of our team, using cutting-edge technology, infants with chronically low blood sugar, a fatal condition, were not only living but thriving. Many young patients now had the hope of being cured, and others had a protocol that would allow them to live long and healthy lives.

One family came to our hospital, hoping for a cure, from a country in the Middle East. The nurses on our floor provided exceptional care, and those who were Christians loved the family. The nurses were not often treated with kindness, but Christ’s love shone brilliantly nonetheless. The family’s hospital liaison mentioned that they had asked her why everyone was so happy. They couldn’t wrap their minds around it. Sadly, she told them that it was just merely our culture to be friendly. When I heard this, my heart broke. Somewhere, we Christians had failed! We aren’t kind, loving, or joyful merely because it is our culture; we are all these things because we live in the love of Christ, who has saved us and given us hope, a future, and purpose! Beloved, it is good to be loving, to let Christ’s love overflow in your life. However, it should not end there! May we become a bold people who are ready and willing to shout from the rooftops the source of our love and joy.

Christ suffered and died so that he might reconcile the world to God. Therefore, we must approach difficulty and suffering with the same attitude, that we might, through God’s grace overflowing in us, draw others to Christ. It is this perspective change, this mind shift, through which the Holy Spirit transforms us. When we move beyond living for our own comforts, desires, ambitions, and passions to living to be used by God, his will can be at work in our lives.  And it is his will at work in us that impacts the lives of those around us.

In Matthew 9, Jesus looked out over the crowds and saw brokenness, oppression, and great need. And then he started talking about a harvest. It seems like a jump, but it’s really a vantage point change. He was trying to get his disciples to understand that there was something bigger going on than broken people following him en masse. “Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper may rejoice together . . . I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor” (vv. 35–36, 38). This gives us a better understanding of what Jesus was trying to communicate. God doesn’t merely see lost and broken souls but is at work gathering those lost souls for eternity to come. And this process of gathering souls is accomplished through your faithful work, beloved.

But to what end do we toil and labor? What is the purpose of drawing people to the Lord beyond their reconciliation to him? This is all kingdom work, which is a very “churchy” way of saying that this work is for the establishment of God’s kingdom here on earth. It’s a concept that is hard to imagine, because at this point in history we are talking in spiritual terms, with the hope of a future physical reality.

Beloved, our hearts should be heavy for the kingdom of God. We should be burdened by the lost, by the multitudes who do not know our good Father. The harvest is abundant, and God’s kingdom is coming. The multitudes are being gathered, and you are being called to participate in eternity.

Let me end with what the kingdom of heaven is. Once we move past the bitterness that sin brings to the story, we learn that God’s kingdom is a beautiful, harmonious mingling of God’s people. It is filled with the pursuit of holiness and deeper understanding of the Lord. It is rich community without sin tainting our relationships and interactions. It is people fully living in God’s power while his power is displayed in their daily lives. And in everything from the big to the minute, God is praised and glorified.2

The even deeper beauty is that this beautiful future is not only reserved for Israel, but for all the nations, for those who are “partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).Titus 2:11–14 tells us,

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

This is why we work. This is why God called us to care for the sick. For the purpose of drawing people to God, that they might taste and see that he is good. That they might come to know the hope and life waiting for them. That by one life at a time, creation might be reconciled to her Maker in joy and abundant life. Today, pray for your peers, that they might be saved. And ask your savior for boldness to proclaim the good news of salvation that comes through Christ Jesus!

2 Acts 2:42–47

This article is adapted from Hope in the Darkness: A Medical Professional’s Guide to Gospel-Centered Care by Sara Danielle Hill