A Taste of His Own Medicine
Theme of the Week: A Different Way to Lead
Tuesday, September 16
Key Bible Verse: "Do for others what you would like them to do for you" (Matthew 7:12). Bonus Reading: Galatians 5:13–15
In the based-on-real-life movie, The Doctor, successful surgeon Jack McKee has no use for compassion. He views it as weakness. He tells the doctors he's training that a surgeon's responsibility is to be good, get in and get out, and save the patient's life. Being emotionally involved with your patient is a hindrance.
Then one day, Dr. McKee begins to cough up blood. "Doctor," says a brisk female doctor after an exam, "you have a growth on your larynx." Soon, minus his white coat and stethoscope, he's just another patient waiting his turn like everybody else. Following unsuccessful attempts to treat the growth with radiation, McKee is forced to confess his dislike and abuse of a fellow surgeon, and asks him to remove the growth. The surgery succeeds. Following a frustrating recovery, Dr. McKee begins to brief his surgeons in training.
This time it's different. The people they're working with are human beings, he says. Someday they'll be on the other end of the knife, so they'd better learn what compassion's all about. He orders them to remove their white coats, put on hospital gowns, and be patients for 72 hours to learn how it feels to depend on the professional.
—Harold Sala in Heroes
My Response: A time when I felt like a victim of "the system" was …
Thought to Apply: Those who love to be feared, fear to be loved … some fear them, but they fear everyone. —Francis of Sales (French prelate)
Adapted from Heroes (Promise, 1998) by permission.
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