Letter to the Editor: Health Care Providers Must Be Brave, Smart and Listen to Scripture

Posted

While fighting the current pandemic of coronavirus (COVID-19), we need to remind ourselves as health care providers to be both brave and smart. As a doctor and as a seminary student, I thought I could share a little of what I have learned from scripture about this.

God spoke to Joshua and said, “Be strong and courageous.” (Joshua 1:6) I find it interesting that God said, “Be strong.” How can you be strong just by deciding? You only have so much muscle power. In this passage, God promises Joshua that “No man shall be able to stand before you.” (Joshua 1:5) God is not telling Joshua simply to believe he is strong. God is giving Joshua a promise and then telling him to believe in that promise. To trust God’s word is faith.

Jesus gave a promise to his disciples before he was taken up into heaven: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) That is also God’s promise to you if you follow Jesus. God wants you to make this promise the foundation of your courage, the source of your strength. No matter what happens, Jesus is with you forever.

There is another theme in both the Joshua passage and the Matthew reference: that of obedience. God does not call people simply to be brave and then use that as a license to do whatever they feel like. After telling Joshua to be strong, he immediately adds “Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you.” (Joshua 1:17) And Jesus told his disciples to tell people “to observe all that I commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19) The choice to be brave must go with the choice to do right, or the world winds up with more people bravely doing the wrong thing.

What does scripture tell us about being smart? Of course, you get smarter by gathering information, as I did intensely in medical school. But Solomon says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Gathering information without the fear of the Lord, according to scripture, does not lead to true knowledge. Much of the book of Proverbs is about how people who know better do dumb things. They are called fools. The Bible says that wise people are those who do the right thing with the knowledge they have, including admitting they are wrong when confronted with truth. 

Some people are more brave than smart. Some are more smart than brave. And some think that there is no God, or he doesn’t matter. In the current outbreak, some “brave” people thought they didn’t need to take precautions, which meant more rapid spread and unprepared medical systems. Some “smart” people bought up all the toilet paper and the masks. Some of this imbalance reflects a lack of foundation on which to build both courage and intelligence. That foundation is God himself. 



 

Paul Bunge

Olympia,

Employed at Providence

Centralia Hospital