A dying Health Service?

Hospitals are "full to bursting" in England, creating a potentially dangerous environment for patients, according to Dr. Foster, a significant medical research project, published today. The situation is so bad, according to its carefully researched work in 145 hospital trusts, that too many basic health care practices don't get done. You can watch more about this in tonight's Panorama at 8.30pm. Many of us, from local experience, can see this happening all too often.

Isn't it ironic that the very places where we go when our health is poor are now so sick themselves that both the institutions and the patients are dying?

The very people who wish to bring hope and health are too busy that they cannot deliver the fruit of their skills, training, experience and passion to care.

If we think of our Church as a 'spiritual Health Service', we too can make the same mistakes. If we are too rushed off our feet, then quality falls, and we fail to be the sort of people who bring life and hope to those around us. Are we also a dying Health Service?

Our mission statement, 'To know Jesus better, and so to make Him better known', makes the point that our first priority must be to have Jesus as the focus and centre of our lives. St. Paul, facing his own death and reviewing his life, makes this point most powerfully. 'Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.' (Philippians 3.8-9)

We often sing songs such as 'Jesus be the centre', which may inspire us to want to put Jesus FIRST in our lives, but we need daily to apply this, to the small and big decisions in our lives. 

For St. Paul, this led him to say,' I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.' (Phil. 3.10) So his relentless ambition was changed from putting himself first, to putting Jesus first. 

'I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.' (Phil. 3.12-14)

Instead of being under pressure from the culture of our days, shaped by the relentless obsessions of the Christmas season, we could choose to press on towards knowing Jesus better. 

Then we would be able to bring to others, in our lost and weary world, the Good News of life in Christ. That is my prayer for us all, during this Advent season.

Best wishes,

Richard