When I live now in the scent decade of my life, I have an advantage to look back over the last 40 years of my professional life. I have viewed work as an expression of myself. That helped me to regard work beyond being a task or an activity or a job. Work is an expression of our being. As doing comes from being, being is the resource for doing.
On my way back from work one evening, one of the children with whom I have regular chats, stopped me and asked, ‘Are you tired at the end of the day?’. I was tired enough to stop doing what I was doing all day long, but had not felt that the day was over yet. Seeing my long pause for replying, he asked whether I would go with him to see something interesting. He led me to a bush where there was a nest with two eggs. We saw the mother bird flying away as we approached the nest. We talked about it and decided to have a nature walk the next day to look for more nests, as it was the season of breeding for birds. When I arrived home, Anna mentioned to me that I looked fresh and ready to start work again.
Some of us are often tired, whether it is the beginning of the day or the end of the day. Some others have backlog of work that does not seem to finish and carry a guilt feeling of not being able to cope. When we are younger, we are on regular clinical roster that we get caught into a pattern of working for long hours. We attribute our tiredness to work and take holidays to get away from work. But we return tired from a holiday.
Somehow, work does not seem to be the only factor, which adds tiredness. Something external or internal can make us tired or stressful. Life is in equilibrium, because we follow the rhythm of work and rest. Some experiences can trigger within us a new enthusiasm and displace tiredness or boredom, however occupied we are at work or have long working hours for days together.
Let me try if I can suggest from my experience an overview to integrating Life and Work.
1. Called into being.
There is enough indication in the Bible that we are created beings and our origin is from God. Our parents are God’s chosen people to bring us into being and give us the shelter and nurture of a home. In psalm, 139, vs. 13 to 16, the psalmist gives a vivid description of this process, which God oversees for our formation. The propositions that ‘..thou did weave me in my mother’s womb....’(v.13) and ‘My frame was not hidden from thee, when I was made in secret’ (v.15) are authentic expressions of God’s foreknowledge of our formation. Just as the earth had no form or substance and was void, before the Spirit hovered over the space and water (Gen.1: 2) to bring into being what the Lord God called forth into creation, we too have been formed into a being from the pre-existing chromosomal and genetic substance of our parents. There is a creative and formative activity of God in this process of our conception, birth and growth. While this takes place in the setting of intimacy of a loving physical union of our parents, God is the initiator of this process because the gift of love for procreation is a gift from God.
A Japanese friend while walking in the Botanical garden in Singapore, picked up driftwood, which I happened to kick unintentionally, looked at it intently and secured it in his pocket. A year later, when we met in Switzerland, he showed me a beautifully carved wooden spoon. He had carved it from that driftwood. He had a design for that wood and crafted it according to his intention. This illustrates that our formation is according to a design and plan. God owns our creation and formation. We are owned by him, which gives us an identity- God is our father and we are His children.
A three-year-old child expressed his obligation to his mother in a moving way on her birthday. Having nothing else to give his mother on her birthday, he picked a banana leaf kept for serving lunch, sat on it in front of his mother and said, ‘ I am yours, because you brought me into being’. The psalmist refers to it, in a touching confession: ‘Thou hast enclosed me behind and before..(v5) and in v 18 of Psalm 139, ‘When I awake, I am still with thee’.
As health care professionals, let us honour this divine heritage we are blessed with. We were forewarned not to get preoccupied with, the existential dimension of ‘ what you shall eat or what you shall drink …or what you shall put on’ (Mat.6:25). We are to live celebrating and remembering our heritage that we are ‘created by Him and for Him’.
2. Called to belong
Fish belongs to the water; a baby belongs to the parents; a wife belongs to her husband and husband to his wife; a heart belongs to the pericardium; fingers belong to the hand; Red Corpuscles belong to the blood… all these are inherent physiological associations. It presupposes inseparability, unity, and connectedness. Our belonging to God has this foundational character, that we, ‘live, move and have our being in God’, in the words of St. Paul. It is God’s initiative towards us that reinforces our belonging to Him, because He loved us, while we were estranged from him (Romans.). His self giving initiative of love at the cross and His accompanying presence according to Christ’s promise, ‘I am with you always’ (Mat.) make this belonging a sacred reality intended to prime us into a loving response to Him.
I like this sense of belonging beautifully symbolised in the way Ruth responded to Naomi in the book of Ruth. Ch1:vs.16 and 17, Ruth asserts her allegiance to Naomi, out of her choice, ‘where you go, I will go and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God, my God….’. Orpah chose to return to her family, while Ruth clung on to Naomi. It was from then own, Naomi’s responsibility to offer protection, provision and prospects for Ruth. Naomi carefully guided Ruth into a fruitful marriage and family life.
This decision to belong or not is a personal choice. Not all who acknowledge that, they are ‘called into being’ by God, will travel this path of affirming by their consent that they are also ‘called to belong’ to God. Some will falter when this choice has to be made.
I begin to wonder whether young doctors, who acknowledge that they are, ‘called into being’ by God experience a desperation for post graduate training that many spend one or two or three years attending coaching classes to get into post-graduate training. Instead should they not be spending those years in clinical work, which will give them work experience, learning opportunities and a broad range of skills doctors need such as communication, debriefing, team work, hands on experience, critical decision making!
If we believe that we belong to Him, He will initiate us into what is good for us. That is why, personal pilgrimage of following Jesus of Nazareth is a faith journey.
3. Called into a vocation
Late Dr. C.K.Job, former Principal of Christian Medical College, Vellore, made up his mind after his under graduate training, to pursue General Medicine for his specialty training and to become a cardiologist later. But the professor of Pathology, Dr. Gault explained to Dr.Job the need of a pathologist for Leprosy work, and Dr.Job responded to that invitation. Later Dr.Job became a world renowned Pathologist, who described the electron microscopic findings of nerve damage and multi-organ involvement in Leprosy, and published the highest number of articles on Leprosy. When he was asked, how he could change his mind to take up pathology, he said in an interview, ’God called me into medical training. I wanted to go the way he led me. That was my vocation’.
Let us be more satisfied with God’s ways in our lives than desperately be driven by our longing. That is how we can convey that we believe in the One who has planned a vocation for our lives.
I almost failed in my post-graduate examination in Paediatrics as I did not present well the clinical discussion of a child with neurological illness. I decided then not to have anything to do with Neurology in the future. I was all set and at the threshold of joining for training in cardiology to become a Paediatric cardiologist. Following the arrival and home call of our daughter Anita, and through some trying times after that, I was led to Developmental Paediatrics and Child Neurology, which is what I have been practicing for the last 35 years. Now, I love this specialty as if it was my first love. Through circumstances of disappointment, failures, interruptions in our plans, denial of opportunities, God may be showing us another way than what we have set our heart on. It is good to consent than resist God’s surprising ways.
I like the way, Jeremiah was given a call for a vocation, when God spoke to him: ’Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations..’ (Jer.1:5). St Paul also had a similar calling in to his vocation:’ But, when, He who had set me apart, even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His son in me that I might preach Him among gentiles, I did not immediately consult flesh and blood..’(Gal.1:15, 16) . This calling is often to attempt something beyond our normal abilities.
When we choose a career path, we estimate our capacity and skills and make a proportionate decision consistent with what can be naturally achieved. When God calls us into vocation, it can be disproportionate to our skills and current stature. Moses was called to a spokes person to Pharaoh, even though he stammered. God provided Aaron to be his companion. Together they released the people of Israel form captivity in Egypt.
I have a suspicion that many settle into naturally comfortable and compatible positions of vocation!
4. Called to be content
Anna and I have known Drs. Frank and Val Garlick for about thirty five years now. They lived and worked at Christian Medical college, Vellore for about ten years in the sixties. Dr. Garlick felt called to spend his time with medical students and graduates, which led to the formation of EMFI in 1974. After his return to Australia, he was involved in establishing an Emergency medicine department in a large hospital in Brisbane, offering leadership to Patan Hospital at Kathmandu, leading marriage enrichment seminars, visiting India and Nepal regularly until recently. He has had several changes to cope with, and face adjustments and setbacks. In all such situations, he conveyed gentle confidence in the good purposes of God and reliance in the mercies of God. I have found Dr and Mrs. Dr.Garlick in a state of contentment, whenever I met them in the recent years. Their lives pursued the call of God. It was not ambition or prosperity, which determined the course of their lives. They felt at home in what unfolded before them. They did not live passively, but making choices all the time to conform to God’s general direction in their lives.
Let me suggest that positions may evade us; opportunities may pass us by; friends may let us down; the path ahead may look long and stressful. But all of these are subject to the authority of God, ‘who holds all things together, by the power of His word’ (Col.) It is this which shall give us peace to resound in our hearts the words of St Paul, ‘ I have learnt to be content in whatever circumstances I am’ (Phil.4;10).
We invite misery on ourselves by striving to get what we think we deserve. This will push us to live driven lives. Often the more we chase what we think we should have, the farther it may move from us, which makes us live in a perpetual state of discontentment. This unsettles us individually, professionally and emotionally.
The parents brought home, presents for their three-year-old twin boys in connection with their birthdays. The family were to have the birthday celebrations next morning with their gifts. Joshua went to sleep as usual at 8.30 pm. But Jesusha slipped to into parent’s bed room, while his parents were in the drawing room, talking to guests and opened one of the presents. That is when mother came to the bedroom hearing a noise. Jesusha was caught in his naughty act. As adults we can behave like children who are not prone to wait, or be content when there is a delay or hold on when there is an uncertainty. This contradicts our claim of rootedness in God.
5. Called to live restfully
Our pace of living has become faster with many things in the list of items we need to do before the end of the day. We attempt to do many things quicker; we drive faster; we walk and speak faster; we attempt to perform surgeries in shorter time; we rush in and rush out even while visiting friends. The concept of leisure, taking time to do what we do with mindfulness or a sense of presence and living with a measure of ease and gladness have become estranged from us.
We normally move from rest to work and from work to rest. It is yet anther experience to work restfully, which is an experience of being fully present in the given situation without wanderings of mind, preoccupations with other thoughts and drawing energy and fulfilment from what we do. There is a concurrent interior well being we can experience while being immersed in work. Whether it is listening, performing a surgery, preparing for a meeting or performing some chores at home, the activity is not energy draining, but energy giving. Our body and mind would need sleep and recuperation. It is one source from which we replenish our energy levels. The other source that supplies us energy is work itself.
This is well expressed in the way Jesus approached the challenge, when called upon to feed the five thousand people. The disciples chose to let them go home, as it was too difficult to find money for food or search for food in a lonely place. But Jesus was quick to ask, ‘What do you have?’ It was a searching question to arouse in them a sense of presence, and awareness what is beyond them. It reinforces that resources are present within or around us even when we are desperate to look for them. This generates a measure of confidence and comfort. There is freedom from anxiety and liberation from stress. This spares energy from being dissipated by worrying, blaming, manipulating or straining.
Rest is a creative response to stress. When we feel or go under stress, we fight it with depleted energy or clouded perception. When we get used to letting go of the heaviness that is associated with a difficult situation or a disappointment, then we have the prospects of finding a new direction- to receive the situation with greater openness. Our disappointments can be like a tall tidal wave, causing initial fright. What remains on the shore after the tide recedes is a variety of unusual collection of corals or shells of beauty brought from the sea bed. Every mountain has a valley. It is in the valley there are springs and meadows. To seek only a mountain peek experience in the journey of life is to deny the abundance of insights and learning which come from the valley experiences. This freedom from expectations or a compulsive pursuit after one's own desires is the experience of rest. We live freely and leisurely without an addictive passion for one tract journey path. We learn to live no matter what might be the circumstances, because life is becoming richer and deeper through the convergence of different experiences.
I share the above from my experience on a theme which is close to my heart. I continue on in this learning journey of making life as the learning resource!
M.C.Mathew (text and Photo)
(Most of this reflection appeared in an article earlier elsewhere)
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