My flat is also only yards from the River Thames and one of my favourite sights in summer is watching swallows flit above the water. Swallows are migrants and they spend the winter in southern Africa, thousands of miles from the UK. When the weather gets warmer the birds fly north and, for many people, their arrival in Britain in late spring heralds the start of summer. They will have flown a lot further than many of the passengers in the planes above them, completely unaided.
The Bible tells us that God knows each of these tiny birds. He created every one of them and it is him that sustains them on the long journey they make twice a year. How much more does he love and care for us, his servants (Mt 10:29-31)? He knows each and every person who passes through Heathrow - 65 million each year - individually and intimately, where they've come from and where they are going. What's more, he loves them in ways we can't begin to comprehend.
Do we remember this when we approach our patients? Do we see them as unique individuals loved by God, or do we just regard them as a name or number, a tick in the box to be dealt with as quickly as possible? The pressures of medicine can make it easy to forget our responsibilities before God and, if you're anything like me, our relationship with him often gets left at the front door each morning as we rush out of the house in a flap.
On p22-28 CMF Chairman, Chris Summerton, encourages us to get out of this habit and start allowing our faith to impact our practice. Drawing on situations he's encountered, he offers practical tips about how we can bring God's agenda into the consultation. We are called to bring God's love to our patients, but this needn't always mean packing our bags and moving somewhere hot; there are plenty of people in real need a lot closer to home. Becky Macfarlane shares her experiences of working amongst asylum seekers and outlines how we can imitate God in caring for the weak and vulnerable (pp29-35).
Finally, it is tough when our duties as medics come into conflict with our faith. It will surely get harder for us to stand by our beliefs as we progress in the medical profession. One such 'sticky' area is that of abortion. On pp36,37, as part of our Ethical Enigmas series, John Wenham outlines some ways we might deal with a patient requesting a termination of pregnancy.
