An Amazing Example of Christ Centered Health Care
If anyone follows my twitter account it has been no secret about my struggles to find a job. While I have been searching for a Job, I have kept myself busy doing evangelism and ministry work. However, a major concern recently was not having medical care. Recently it became serious when I began to have severe headaches every other day, leaving me useless to even fill out applications or sit up straight. Without a job I was unable to even go to a urgent care clinic.
Then my Mom discovered the Lackey Free Clinic.
The Lackey Free Clinic is unbelievable. It is a Hospital that is dominated by a Christian worldview. It is run off of donations from local churches, individuals and doctors.
Upon walking into the Lackey Free Clinic one is bombarded with Bible verses painted on the walls. Good Bible verses, not prosperity driven verses but verses such as John 11:25-26.
They do not hide the fact they Christ centered. It’s not a behind the scenes thing. It’s the foundation of the clinic that extends to every level, not just paint on walls.
After I got approved to be seen I was told to come on a walk-in day. Twice a week they serve the first fifteen visitors. I was number fourteen. I came expecting a long wait with a fully charged blackberry and iPod touch. I prepared for a long wait and that’s what I got. A really long wait.
I got there at 8:30 and was not seen until 12:30.
I know what your thinking. See, long waits, universal health care. Bad Idea.
Well long waits are not a good thing, that is unless there is a good reason for your long wait.
There was a good reason. At 11:45 when my name was called I was seen by the nurse who took my blood pressure, took my weight, and temperature. Afterwords I was sent out to go sit and wait in the waiting room again. This time for only a few minutes until they had a room available for me and then I waited some more.
Finally around 12:30, the doctor came in. She greeted me and apologized for the wait. For the past several minutes while I was waiting she was reviewing in detail, all of my medical history. She went through everything, past heart surgeries, recent medical complications, everything.
Then she talked about my headaches and for one hour she asked me every fathomable question about them including giving me a simple neurological exam.
The reason my wait was so long was not because of the multitude of people swarming the clinic because there was not a lot of staff in an attempt to keep the budget down. The reason I had to wait so long was because the doctors actually cared about the patients enough to spend time with them, to look into their history and question their lifestyle. They are there to practice medicine, not just write prescriptions as soon as possible so they can move on to the next patient. That’s where Christ comes into play.
When we run an organization or business with Christ as the focus it permeates every layer of that business. It seems as if so often we Christians cry out to the Government for help. I think this was a fatal error of the Religious right, all though they tried to make the Government moral they still saw the Government as the source of hope for the nation and not Christ.
Maybe instead of looking to the Government to save us, we should just go ahead and do the work ourselves. Remember, the Gospel doesn’t just change lives as the postmodern worldview would like you to think. The Gospel changes every single fiber of society.
Below is a promotional video from the Lackey Free Clinic. Please watch it and let it challenge you no matter what business your in to devote every area of it to the Gospel.
Tags: Barack Obama, Christian Worldview, Health Care, LAckey Free Clinic, ObamaCare, Post Millennialism, Universal Health Care
