Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/doctors/devotion/?day=2&id=devotion&month=1
'Then came a man called Jairus... and... knelt before him, pleading for his help... Jesus went off with him, followed by a large crowd jostling at his elbow. Among them was a woman who had had a haemorrhage for twelve years.' Mark 5:22-25 (JBP)
Interrupted on the way to one patient by the urgent need of another, incessantly distracted, constantly in demand, jostled, hampered, harassed, tired -- a description of my day? No, a day in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. His response was willing, attentive, gracious, healing: in a word, loving. `This woman touched his cloak... At once, Jesus knew intuitively that power had gone out of him... But he said to her "Daughter, it is your faith that has healed you. Go... in peace and be free from your trouble."'
What is my response to similar pressure? Resentful, curt, irritable, hurtful -- loving myself more than my patients and more than my Lord? I forget that nothing happens to me without his consent. He has permitted each exasperating `phone call and every extra booking in the clinic. Each irritation is a chance for me to show his control, not my own lack of it.
My life should be so full of his Holy Spirit that when I am jostled, his love overflows and brings healing and calm. Too often, it is self-love which spills out and brings discord.
Lord Jesus, like all your other patients, I need healing.
I confess that I have a short temper and a hasty tongue.
Among all the jostlings of today, please help me to
keep in touch with you, so that your power, peace and
patience fill my heart and spill over into our work together.
Further reading: Mk 5:22-34.
JG
