For The Sake Of The Gospel
by Dan Jones, M.D.
I Corinthians 9: 23
I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
Every day, health professionals make medical decisions using the risk/benefit concept. A therapy for a life-threatening illness may be acceptable even if the risk is high, because of the great potential benefit that may come. A therapy with a very high risk of serious adverse effects is not considered acceptable for a minor illness.
In our spiritual lives, we may find it harder to apply the risk/benefit concept, especially because the "benefits" are spiritual, and not worldly.
One person who influenced my life understood well taking risks for the sake of the Kingdom. I met Pastor Roubik Housepian in Tehran, Iran in 1990. I was there with a team of Korean physicians to work with Kurdish refugees living in camps along the Iran/Iraq border. They were there to escape the army of Saddam Hussein. My presence was controversial because of the strained relationships between the governments of the United States and Iran. Permission to enter Iran had been difficult to achieve. Since American hostages had been held for months inside the American Embassy compound in Tehran several years earlier, travel to Iran by Americans had been banned by both governments.
Pastor Roubik, as I called him, was a member of the Armenian community in Iran. These small minority communities were allowed to quietly practice their Christian faith, but any "Christian" contact with a majority Arab Iranian was strictly forbidden. Activities of Christians were closely monitored. In the months prior to my visit, there had been an escalation of government activity against the small community of Christians with many jailed and one pastor killed while in prison.
As plans were being made for the physicians from Korea to travel to Iran to help with the refugee work, we sought someone in Iran to coordinate and facilitate logistics for us. Because we were visiting as representatives of a Christian Hospital in Korea, we knew our activities would be closely monitored. And we recognized that any Iranian citizen helping us would come under close scrutiny and put themselves at significant risk of imprisonment and harm. In spite of recognizing all these risks; in spite of not knowing me or my Korean colleague physicians; in spite of being a member of a different denomination; in spite of having been jailed several times himself over the previous months for "Christian activity", Pastor Roubick volunteered to serve as our guide and facilitator.
When I asked Pastor Roubick why he was willing to take on all this risk for strangers , he replied with the words of the Apostle Paul: "I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."
Lord, help me understand that the full blessings of the gospel are available to me if I am willing to take the risk of trusting you.
Dan Jones, M.D., MACP, FAHA, a board-certified Internist, a former medical missionary to Korea, professor of medicine at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Dean of the School of Medicine, and Chancellor of the University of Mississippi until 2015. Dr. Dan Jones is a member of CMDA.
Dr. Jones welcomes any comments or questions about what he has written and can be reached at - djones@umc.edu
Rounds with the Master, Spiritual Pearls from the Great Physician Devotionals are released every Monday and Thursday.
Photo by Loic Leray on Unsplash
