Before I made a commitment to follow Jesus I had many misconceptions about Christianity. However, one thing I was certain about was that becoming a Christian would mean handing over every aspect of my life to the lordship of God. When God finally overcame my resistance and drew me into his kingdom, it was therefore a natural step to begin to work out the lordship of Jesus within the context of my work. I became a Christian as a first year medical student and began to ask questions about whether it was right to share faith with patients as well as about the nature of God's healing. Was I to be confined to the physical tools of medicine or was I also to exercise a ministry of healing prayer in the lives of my patients?

As a young Christian it seemed difficult to find people with answers to these questions. There were some who told me categorically that it would be an abuse of my professional position to share my faith with patients. I respected their experience, but felt uncomfortable that the standards of the profession seemed to be usurping something of God's lordship. As I looked further I found others who were trying to work out their calling in the context of the workplace. Many of these people were involved with the organisation Christians in Caring Professions (CiCP).[1] I began to hear stories from general practitioners (GPs) who touched their patients' lives with more than just medicine. They told of individuals who came to faith in the surgery and who received healing and freedom through prayer. I was inspired by these tales but daunted by the apparent maturity of those who told them. I was uncertain whether I could emulate their faith and commitment, but I was rash enough to pray a prayer. I simply told God that I wanted to be available to him. If he would bring me opportunities in the workplace I would do my best to respond to them in conversation and in prayer.

Small steps

From that moment God seemed to lead me through a variety of experiences. Each proved slightly more challenging than the last, but in this way God developed my faith and expectation. It started in a simple manner. I was on call as a senior house officer in cardiology and was asked to see a patient who was very anxious about the angiogram that he was due to undergo the following day. The nurses wanted me to write up a dose of diazepam, but I felt that I should at least talk to him. A few simple questions revealed that he was a believer in numerology and felt that his fate was governed by the power of numbers. The digits on his hospital wristband added up to a total that indicated a dire omen. The numbers above the door of his room were also very inauspicious. He was quite convinced that he was going to die the following day during his procedure! It seemed a natural step to address his anxiety by talking to him about the God I knew who loved and cared for people as individuals and did not rule the universe through the whim of numbers. I lent him my pocket New Testament and avoided prescribing diazepam. He had no problems with the angiogram and thanked me the following day as he left hospital. It was a small beginning for me, but an important step of faith and obedience.

Seizing the opportunity

As I look back over a number of years in practice, I have had many opportunities to share God's resources and wisdom with patients. One of the highlights concerned a patient who became a Christian following an outpatient consultation. I was a gastroenterology registrar in a teaching hospital and saw a man with symptoms suggestive of irritable bowel syndrome. He happened to mention that his symptoms became worse when he meditated and explained that he was a Buddhist. Before I became a Christian, I too had been interested in Buddhism and meditation, so I had some understanding of his beliefs and practices. I talked to him about God, and although I cannot now remember the words I used, I do remember a strong sense of God's presence in the consulting room. A few days later, I had a phone call from him. He explained that he had left the outpatient clinic in tears as he realised for the first time that God was personal and actually cared for him. He asked if he could meet and talk further about the Christian faith. I invited him to meet with my wife and me in our home. In our front room he gave his life to Jesus. It was a very special moment.

I can point to many patients who have spoken with gratitude of the time I have spent with them and the prayers that I have prayed. However, it would be dishonest to claim that I have not had some difficult experiences too. I remember a referral letter from a GP regarding a patient I had seen previously in clinic. The letter asked that she should be seen on this occasion by someone who would not talk to her about faith. As a registrar, I also once received a letter of complaint from a psychiatrist asking why I had told a patient that she was demon-possessed and telling me to keep my faith separate from my work. I had seen this particular patient in clinic after she was referred with a possible food intolerance. Taking her history, she talked about seeing faces emerge from the wall speaking unpleasant things to her. I suggested that her problem could be physical, psychological or spiritual. I recommended some tests to exclude organic illness and also referred her to the psychiatrists for further advice. I had never talked about demon possession and would never use this phrase with a patient. However, she had obviously interpreted my remarks in this way. I had to address this when I next saw the patient and also had to bring the situation to the attention of my consultant. I was fortunate to have the complete backing of my boss, who felt that the letter from the psychiatrist was very inappropriate. God was looking after me, but it still knocked my confidence and I think it made me more cautious for a while. On the positive side, it may have helped me to learn greater sensitivity in my words and actions.

I have now been working in hospital medicine for 20 years but I am still trying to work out the challenge of living as a Christian within medicine. I want to continue this article by presenting some observations drawn from my experiences.

The call of God

One of the things that stops us being God's witnesses in this world is a misplaced sense of ownership of our careers. As we progress in medicine many choices are placed in front of us. We experience different specialties and eventually narrow our choices down to a particular career commitment. Sometimes I think that these choices reinforce the notion that we are the owners and captains of our lives and that our career is our personal possession. In addition, if we are ambitious and wish to succeed, we will need to make a good impression upon our peers and supervisors. The opinions of people become important and we risk becoming less adventurous and radical in the steps we are prepared to take for God. Jesus reminds us that the perspective of God is more important than the opinions of men.[2]

We need to recapture the sense that our lives do not belong to us; we have been bought and redeemed by God at the cost of his own Son's death. Any natural abilities and talents we possess are his gift to us. Our career choices are part of God's sovereign plan, enabling him to lead us in good works that he has already prepared for us.[3] However, if he has called us to be in medicine, we need to do our work as if working for God.[4] We need to ensure that we remain competent in all the skills we need as doctors. We need to temper that competence with compassion and understanding appropriate to our calling as God's children. However, we also need to be aware that there are spiritual needs in the lives of our patients and it is part of our call to recognise and address these needs. Even doctors need to take account of Peter's exhortation: 'Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.'[5]

Breaking the mould

The Scriptures encourage us to avoid being squeezed into the world's mould. Paul writes: 'Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.'[6] In the early years of my medical career I became aware that my training was indeed squeezing me into a certain way of thinking. I had begun to look at people's problems and automatically construct a list of differential diagnoses and possible treatments. I would congratulate myself when I had successfully analysed a problem and found the answer.

God disturbed this mindset by confronting me with a number of experiences of people healed through prayer. On one occasion I prayed for a friend with cellulitis affecting her arm. I offered a ten-second prayer asking that the doctors would have wisdom in treating her. I opened my eyes to see that the cellulitis had suddenly resolved. I was completely astonished by what I saw and had not expected this consequence of prayer! I was convicted that the possibility of God's healing had not even entered my thoughts and that there was more to illness than just a list of diagnoses. I had been failing to ask a fundamental question: 'What does God want to do in this situation?'

To ask this question breaks the mould of the medical mindset. We begin to learn that not all illness has its origin in bacterial infection or other physical causes. Perhaps, as the Bible suggests, some illness may have its roots in an individual's spiritual problems. In cases like this, healing will come through spiritual rather than medical means. Perhaps there are circumstances in the lives of our patients when God wishes to address the fear and distress caused by disease. In such circumstances, we might be God's agents to speak of his love or to bring help through prayer. There is a powerful force within medicine that would stop us from looking at these aspects. As Christians we must break the mould and recapture a biblical worldview of the nature of illness

Prayer

If we truly wish to be available to God in our workplace, prayer is an important foundation. I know from my own life that seasons of prayerfulness are often seasons of fruitfulness, with opportunities for witness. When my prayer life is barren, those opportunities seem to present themselves less frequently. Prayer is also the place where we learn to express God's compassion. By praying for those I am looking after, I am expressing love and service.

Praying for patients at a distance is the safest way of bringing God's touch into their lives. I am exposed to no risk of misunderstanding or rejection. There is no possibility of patients being disturbed by unwise or inappropriate comments. Through prayer we can only bless and never harm.

Recognising opportunities

Over the course of the years I have learned to look for and respond to the opportunities God brings in my day-to-day work. These opportunities arise in all sorts of different ways. Sometimes a comment during the course of the consultation will lead naturally to a conversation about God. Sometimes there may be a trigger in my patient's circumstances, causing me to ask further questions about whether they have any faith. There may be very practical pointers towards further conversation, such as a religious affiliation in their case notes or a Bible on their bedside locker.

I have also learnt to recognise the promptings of God. Jesus told his disciples that he did only what he saw his Father doing.[7] There have certainly been many occasions in the workplace when I have received a gentle 'alert' from God. This may occur when I am looking over the case notes in preparation for a consultation. In such circumstances I try to offer a brief prayer and then be looking out to answer the question, 'What is God doing here?'

Responding to these opportunities is always a risky business. Talking about faith and God's resources is like metaphorically taking off the white coat and stepping outside the security of my role as doctor. I am no longer an expert giving medical facts, but become just another person offering a perspective on the circumstances of another. However, unless we are prepared to take this risk, we may miss the good things God wants to do.

The importance of listening

It is very important that we understand the circumstances of our patients before leaping in with hasty comments. If we are genuinely prepared to listen to people then they will often reveal much about their circumstances, feeling that we are interested and open to their needs. As Christians we sometimes speak a language that is not understood by others. Words we take for granted such as 'Father' may evoke very negative responses in those we talk to. We need to understand their background in order to communicate effectively.

In addition to listening to people, we also need to cultivate openness to the Spirit of God. Jesus is our example here. He was often able to speak into the heart of peoples' circumstances because of special insights he received from God. He knew, for example, about the marital situation of the Samaritan woman and this caused her to recognise him as the Messiah.[8] I recall one patient that I met at the end of an afternoon clinic. As soon as he walked through the door, I had an immediate sense of his involvement in the occult. In subsequent conversations, I learnt that he was a nationally famous medium who had written a number of books about his experiences. We talked about faith and God seemed to give me words that I would not normally have used. At the end of the consultation, he said to me, 'I went past a church the other day and there was a sign that said that Jesus was coming again - do you believe that?' This was an amazing opportunity to talk about what is to come with a man who had spent his whole life trying to see the future! I do not believe that this conversation would have happened without the special insight and knowledge provided by God's Holy Spirit.

Training opportunities

We need to develop skills so that we can be effective witnesses for God in the workplace. Some of these will be learned naturally over time. However, we can pick up insights from the experience of others and there is now a formal training course available to help medics share their faith at work. This is known as the Saline Solution. The course has been developed in video and written format by the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, CMF's sister organisation in the United States. We have had experience of using this course in our own region and all the participants found it to be a very valuable tool. The course introduces concepts such as the 'faith flag' - a comment that arises naturally during the course of conversation that identifies us as a child of God. It gives another person the opportunity to explore this in greater depth. A simple example of a faith flag might be the phrase 'I find prayer helpful' when talking about ways of managing stress. The course also talks about our own faith story. This is a short account of the way God has been at work in our own life. By sharing this with people, they may be able to relate their own circumstances to God's resources. I would strongly recommend this course to anyone seeking to integrate their faith with their work (see box below).

Conclusion

It has been a great joy and privilege to have had a number of Christian medical students and junior doctors working in our unit. I am always moved and encouraged as I hear accounts of God at work in the next generation. However, after 20 years I am still learning what it is to be a witness for Jesus and I still aspire to work in partnership with the Spirit of God for the benefit of my patients. I hope by reading this article you too will feel challenged and inspired to open your professional life to God and walk a road of adventure and risk.