Work is the Ministry

This evening I feel the wear and tear of residency. This is my inpatient medicine month and I am definitely working 12 hour days with the responsibility of following both ICU and general medical patients. I suppose we residents can say at least we are learning! And I do feel that I am learning much each day. It is a blessing to learn medicine, and it comes through no other way than a few hard years up front to build up that confidence and knowledge base to serve later on with a more balanced life.

Something that I have felt impressed is that my work is my ministry; my ministry is my work. During medical school I found much of my worth and significance in serving in our local campus fellowship and in church ministries. I found more joy and significance in explicit and direct 'ministry' discussing spiritual things. As an intern in my residency program, I have little time to do any sort of ministry in the traditional sense. My life is mainly filled with work in the hospital. From writing orders, to communicating with RNs, to rounding with the team: much of what I do is not filled with direct and explicit conversation about God and the gospel and yet it is about God and the gospel if I have the faith to see it. At times I still feel the need to be involved with ministry in order to feel significance. But He shows me that my work is the ministry for today, and that my secular work has become significant in and of itself as something offered to God in worship. That I might worship God with my hours of work and rejoice in this great opportunity to worship Him.