I have been thinking through how my work with dying patients should interface with my personal faith and belief. I come from a conservative evangelical background, and therefore my church friends have made comments like,"It must be hard to look after patients who you know are going to go to hell in a few days' time." Well, I don't really look upon my patients that way, but I suppose it could be true. On the other hand, the workplace is quite secular, and "spiritual care" is provided in a very broad sense and focused on what it means for each individual. The chapel has recently been refurbished to become a very neutral "pilgrim room", with no religious symbols except for candles. And the "spiritual care lead" (previous known as chaplain) was very happy with the result.
Deep down inside, I feel that the longer I stay in palliative medicine, my theology will probably become more liberal so as to allow my faith to sit comfortably with my work. Which apparently is the route that Dame Cicely Saunders, the great founder of the modern hospice movement took. But part of me thinks whether that will be a bad thing and a sign of me "drifting away" from my faith. After all, our faith is not meant to sit comfortably in the realm of the secular world is it? So perhaps I need to "hold fast my confession" and accept that it will always clash with the worldly values.
Anyone has any thoughts or comments or recommendations of books or resources I could read?
Dearest Grace, I just discovered this part of your blog! And I find it very interesting and helpful since I am hoping to pursue a career in palliative care :). How are you? I hope work in Singapore is going well. We miss you both here. I have also been thinking about how I would one day approach my patients as a Christian and how I would feel seeing them pass from life in this world to another place...(and if they are not Christians, that other place would be hell.) I'm working in respiratory medicine now and I am facing dying patients quite frequently already. I think it is a privilege to be able to care for these patients at such a significant time. I would hope to be able to influence them in some way, however, small. However, I can see it will be difficult, especially since it is frowned upon to share one's faith when it may be unwelcomed. I hope that I don't shy away from showing Christ to them...loving them and possibly encouraging conversations about faith in Him if it naturally goes that way. I think that working in palliative care as a Christian can make our desire for people to be saved even stronger. When we see people dying without knowing Jesus and having a relationship with God, we hopefully can be stirred in our hearts to share the gospel and be a better witness for Him. Like you said, rather than becoming liberal in our faith (like Dame Cicely Saunders), we will unswervingly hold on tighter to the truth and be more desperate to see others come to faith in Him as well.
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