200 words on... Christianity in action

I was at the San (Sydney Adventist Hospital) visiting someone this week. Walking around the corridors I kept seeing these signs up –

“Christianity in action: caring for the mind, body and spirit of our patients, colleagues, communities and ourselves.”

So I picked up a brochure that explains what their mission means. They believe that the mind, body and spirit are all linked and we need to take care of them all. They want to provide the highest quality health care in the spirit of Christian compassion.

I think we have some things to learn. Sometimes we forget that what we do to our body matters. We don’t want to create a false dichotomy between the physical and the spiritual. We could also think more about how being a Christian affects the way we care for people. Lots of us are on about social justice, but sometimes we make it a separate box in our life without realising that it’s not an optional extra. At the same time, it’s not in place of telling people about Jesus. Both of these things are part of the Christian life. We are to be Christians in action.

In the end, I don’t like their idea that ‘the best way to show our love and respect for God is to be the best we can be – physically, mentally and spiritually’ but it’s not a bad thing to do nonetheless.