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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Twice this week I’ve visited a friend in the hospital. He is doing well.
I’ve marveled at how medical technology has moved forward in leaps and bounds.
His heart began racing last weekend. He pushed a button and a tiny machine on his chest began recording an EKG. Push another button, and it was sent to his doctors. The examined the readout and told him to go to the emergency room. A pacemaker was installed through a tiny incision on his chest. He was up and walking the afternoon after the procedure and will be sent home today. In the future he’ll be monitored through an app on his cellphone.
All of this is nothing short of miraculous. Heart procedures used to be the most dangerous type of surgery. They’d cut open your chest. Not everyone survived. Now, it is almost routine.
And yet, we prayed over my friend.
Doctors have no idea why, but patients who pray and are prayed for have better medical outcomes.
We should not fall into the trap of thinking that medical science is the ever-marching-forward of humankind. It is God himself who gives us understanding of our bodies and our health. And the greatest medical mystery of all – how life is breathed into us and when life ends – are still unknown to our best medical minds.
I am reminded this week that if you are going to get sick, there is no better time than now. The resources we have to treat you have never been better.
But I am also reminded that health and healing are, fundamentally, gifts from God. Be thankful if you have received these gifts in your life.
Chris Conley
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