Communion Meditation 5/15/15

I had written a meditation that I took to church with every intention of delivering. Holy Spirit changed that during Sunday School and the following is an approximation of what I said. The communion meditation that some of you may have seen posted earlier today will be reposted later this month when I use it.

This week's events in Berkeley County, notably the shooting of Lieutenant Rogers, have prompted me to change what I'm going to say today. I'll start today by reading 1 Peter 5:7:

Cast all your anxiety on him for he cares for you.

The ICU rooms at MUSC are all designed the same. Each room has a desk sitting outside the room with a computer. There is a window into the room that allows you a view of the patient. Having spent many hours in the ICU's of MUSC during residency, I am very familiar with those desks. Physicians typically sit there and enter orders while trying to oversee the, sometimes chaotic, scene unfolding in the room.

You find out a lot about yourself at those desks. I know I did. As an ICU physician, your job is to essentially wait for catastrophic things to happen and then you are expected to fix it. The truth is that you learn a lot about your limits while sitting at those desks. You are witness to great feats of teamwork and hard work sometimes, which are incredibly rewarding. You are also witness to situations that you are simply unable to change. Physicians don't like to talk about it much, but there are quite a few situations where we simply have no control or idea of what is going on.

On those nights sitting at those desks outside those rooms where Lieutenant Rogers is now being cared for, 1 Peter 5:7 got me through. I take great comfort today knowing that those walls have heard that verse repeated countless times. I have said it over and over again late at night when I was the lone physician sitting there trying to do my best to help patients, just like the ICU team is doing now for Lieutenant Rogers.

The reason that 1 Peter 5:7 can get you through situations like that is because of what Christ did on the Cross for us. Today, we commemorate what Christ did and how that gives us power now. We remember that 1 Peter 5:7 still applies, whether you are Lieutenant Rogers and his family or the physician trying your best to take care of him. We should remember that power every day in our daily lives.