A successful and meaningful life as a doctor
In May 2013, I went for a medical trip to the Palawan island province of the Philippines. The medical team was organised by Cru Singapore and hosted by Agape Rural Program ARP. We had 3 doctors, 1 pharmacist, 1 nurse, 9 medical undergrads and 3 working adults. We held 3 days of free clinics. The first two days were held in a rural school. The last day of clinic was organised in a village church and then in a town church. Doctors ran the clinics while the other members were involved in triage, registration, pharmacy and health education. Volunteers from ARP helped as translators. Patients and their relatives had the opportunity to listen the gospel while waiting. I was invited to give a evangelistic message at a Christian medical fellowship. The title was " A successful and meaningful life as a doctor"
Below is a transcribe of my message.
I want to thank Dr Ding for making this medical trip possible. For inviting our Singapore team to come over here. The last time I came to Palawan was year 2000. I remembered I flew here in a plane with propellers. I remembered walking through the same airport and going back to the main Philippines island by boat because there was no flight on that day. Now you've got a mall , a Robinsons mall. And I will flying back by jet next Tuesday.
I am a doctor, not a preacher. I know many of you here today are medical staff so I will share with you using medical terms so you can identify with what I am sharing. Dr Ding want me to share on how to have a successful and meaningful life as doctor in Singapore. And I have also put in my thoughts on the bible.
I will talk about why I became a doctor. When I entered medical school, the interviewers asked me why I wanted to be a doctor. All the students answered with the standard answer “ because they want to help the sick” and I too said that. Because I wanted to enter medical school. But along the way, I realized that privilege and honor of being a doctor was a real thing. I want to quote from the bible, 1 “Jesus said it is not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick.” From this statement it means doctors will not go out of work. because there will always sick people and they will always need doctors. They can’t self help but going onto the internet. The second thing is there was a story that Jesus told about the sheep and the goats. 2 He told the good guys ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me. The people replied I never saw you. The king said if you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ So I believe all of us in healthcare have a very special blessing in helping the sick.
I am doctor. I talk in terms of evidence. Nowadays, a lot of patients will ask us, ‘ are you sure?’ , ‘does the medicine work?’, ‘what are the alternatives?’. So even now when I am talking about a successful and meaningful life, you will asking me to give the evidence for the things I am saying. So let go through the classification of evidence. We learnt this from medical school and drug reps you too get this asked from doctors. The worst form of evidence is my neighbor said this helps my sickness. Usually here there is no evidence and probably it doesn't work. The next level of evidence is personal experience from a respected physician. The great doctor said this and said that. That is evidence but it is rated as low level of evidence. The next one level up are facts from science and society; the best being double blind randomized trial. But for me there is one level of evidence that surpass all and that is the bible. If the bible says something, then it must appear in science, society and personal experience.
Let’s now talk about success. I come from Singapore. How many of you have come to Singapore? Singapore prides itself as a very successful country. There is some arrogance is saying this. But I want to put the facts straight. Singapore is 1st to 3rd richest city per capita in the world, not country. America is the richest country in the world. You got to divide our Gross domestic product among Singapore 4 million people, and that’s about US$ 56000 per person. That makes us 1st to 3rd richest city in the world depending on which statistics you use. When you come to Singapore you won't see gold on the streets. but you will see lots of expensive cars. Let me give you some statistics. Last year 2012, the best selling cars was BMW and Mercedes. BMW and Mercedes each sold 5000 cars, Audi sold 1600 cars and Jaguar sold 400 cars. The next line are Japanese. Toyota sold 800, Nissan 600 and Honda 500 cars. Supercars are Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Porsche. If you add all these supercars up, 700 were sold. So for every 1 Toyota, car, there is 1 supercar on the road. Most of them ( supercars ) are not driven Singaporeans. Let’s talk about housing. Singapore dollars value is about 80% of US dollars. Most Singaporeans including me, stay in government homes . Government homes are about half a million Singapore dollars on average, so there is joke we need to be a millionaire so we can buy a government house. Half a million dollars can buy many things.
How did Singapore get so successful?.We don’t have natural resources in Singapore. But Singapore is good at one thing. This one thing is called showmanship. Let’s use medicine as an example. When you talk to a patient, when you present a case in an examination, there are 2 things. One you must have good knowledge and two you must show it. If you have knowledge but can’t show it, you fail. If you have some knowledge but can really show, you can get a pretty good grade. It is the same when we see patients, if you can talk well and show you know your stuff, the patient will think you are good. It is the same for Singapore. We are very good at showmanship. We learnt this from Lee Kuan Yew our ex prime minister. So how do we show it?
We are a clean city. You see dustbins everywhere. If you are caught littering you can be sent to do hard labor, and you can’t protest. Singapore is almost corruption free. There is no one taking bribes from you. In fact if you try to bribe anyone, you can be charged and the person will be given a medal for it. So on the surface, we are corruption free. We have very low tax for the rich people, not for the poor people. And we have 2 gems which are our 2 casinos. The 2 casinos earn more money than all the casinos in Las Vegas combined. Macau casinos earn the most money in the world. It is because most of the people who gamble are Chinese. Chinese are genetically inclined to gambling addiction. Certain races are prone to certain things. Chinese people are addicted the risk taking and gambling. I learnt this during my psychiatry course. Anyway in Singapore most locals don’t drive fast cars, and most people don't drive, and most people stay in half million dollar house that we will take years to pay up. So that’s Singapore. You can come and visit us, if you have lots of money, the government will welcome you because when you put your money here, your money becomes the government money and that’s why they are so rich. They have nothing but your money. 4% of private wealth in the world goes through Singapore which is a lot for one little city.
Let’s talk about doctors. Are doctors successful? Doctors are successful in whatever country they are. Am I very successful? Well , yes and no. I was a very good student. I did very well in school and was able to enter medical school. Only good students can enter medical school, Obviously because you would not want to see a doctor who keeps failing exams.You would want to see a doctor who is doing well academically. In medical school , everyone was smart. But when I became medical student, and you look at the bell curve or distribution curve in medical school, I was on the left hand side. Which means I was not so smart among them.
Now listen medical students, if you want to successful, you must enter these fields of medicine. In surgery you must enter ophthalmology orthopedics and plastic surgery and you will earn lots of money. And if you do medicine, you have to do dermatology, cardiology. Geriatrics and psychiatry don’t earn much money, neither does infectious disease. I wasn't too bright in medical school but bright enough to know that it was futile for me to compete with my better colleagues for these specialties Besides I was getting tired during medical school. It is tough to study in Singapore. Almost every year it got worse. I thought things will get better after being a doctor but things got even worse. So I went into family medicine because I wanted a break and I did not want hospital calls. So that is where I am now. I am a government servant. Government servants don’t earn much money so I don’t earn much money but definitely more than a regular government servamt. I drive a car but not a German car; and my wife doesn't need to work. She looks after the kids. So that is how successful or how not successful I am.
But is all this success meaningful to doctors in Singapore?. Of course there are lots of studies to show the money you have, the happier you are. But is this more meaningful? I would like to point out some verses from the bible. This comes from Psalms 90.
Moses says
“Our days may come to seventy years,
or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow”
So lets look at this from a medical point of view, Moses says if we are strong, we can live to 70 or 80 years. So do you know what is the life expectancy in Philippines? You are right. It is 68 years according to Yahoo stats. Singapore is again among the best at the low 80’s , same as Japan, Hong Kong and most European nations. And for many years we have been in the low 80s. Why? Because God has set the top limit of life. Of course there are older people. But how many? Patients more than 90 years old, maybe I see one about once a month, patients who are more than 100 years, maybe once every few years. Among patients who are 80 years or older, most of them are using a walking stick or wheelchair accompanied by someone else. Just look at your own patients. If they are already 80 years old, are they strong? If there any evidence that there is any treatment, medicine or device that promise to help you live more than 90 or 100 years old. In primary health care, our one objective is to help treat chronic illness. Even if the chronic illness is well controlled, I cannot promise my patients to live beyond 70 years old. So if the bible is true on point 1, then the bible is also true on point 2. That is your life is full of trouble and sorrow. In fact all of us know that it is a fact that our lives on earth are difficult. But why is this so? Let’s look into an older time in the bible , the book of genesis. After Adam ate the forbidden fruit, God told Adam 3
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,”
So what does this mean? Everyone is saying life is very tough. Doctors say working life is tough, so do the nurses, and everyone else in the work force. All of us need to work to earn a living. Think for a moment, if everyone in the world were to stop working, the world will not survive. There won’t be enough food and anything. Just think about it, God provides almost everything, - the sun, the rain , the soil conditions but yet man needs to plant a little seed, toil the soil and harvest it. Because of sin, God has made it so difficult for us to do our little bit , and our survival depends on it. Many people will try to make their lives a bed of roses, but God will make it such that the nett effect of everyone lives become a bed of thorns and thistles. Some will have more thorns and some less thorns. Just think about what I said if this is true. Don’t think about someone you hardly know, but think about someone whom you know very well and envy.. Do you just envy that part of his life or his entire life? Is his life all a bed of roses?
A good example that comes to mind is someone I know. A junior medical colleague Dr Richard Teo. In Singapore, if you want to be a really rich doctor you cannot work in public sector. Medical students listen to this :A honest government servant cannot get too rich. When you start off in medical student school, you want to be a doctor because you want to help the sick, but there is second part to this desire after you graduate. Just like politicians who get elected, you will realize that you need to help yourself first before you can help others. You always hear from politicians that they will promise if you vote them in, they will do this and do that. But once they are in office , they will help themselves first before they will help you. That’s why many politicians are rich. It is the same for rich doctors. Before the doctors can help you to be healthy , you must make them rich. And in Singapore there are so many rich people who are willing to make doctors richer so that they can be healthy. You can’t be a rich doctor by helping the poor people. Dr Richard Teo did better. He did not become a rich doctor by helping the sick. He treated the not sick. He was into aesthetics like botox, liposuction, face contouring, skin treatments. Aesthetics is part of the vanity business like cosmetics. Many people are vain and vanity is a big business. How many of you watch Korean movies; especially the ladies? My wife loves Korean movies. It is well known many Korean actors and actresses have been under the knife. Just check out the websites of Korean stars before and after surgery. Dr Richard Teo was very successful. Before 30 years old, he was a millionaire. By 40 years he died of lung cancer. Check out his you tube testimony 4. He talks about his life in the fast lane, the rich and famous people he met, the fast car he drove and dream house. His testimony was also published in the newspapers . When he knew he was dying, he realized all his money was nothing. He said I can't hug my Ferrari in my grave. Richard is an exceptional example. I have been a doctor for 17 years. A lot of friends are now in private practice. Many of them are doing very well. They may doing well in terms of money but they are doing poorly in their family lives. It is not because God gave them problems but they gave themselves problems. Some guys have mistresses. Now ladies you know if your husbands have a mistress, no amount of money can compensate the emotional injury. You would rather had been poorer and your husband belonged to you. You know, the tendency to look for women is a guy’s thing. Men have this temptation and you guys here know what I mean.
How about me? Compared to my better established colleagues, I don’t have much. But God has given me what money cannot buy. God has given me a prudent wife. The bible says a prudent wife is from the Lord 5. Prudent means good judgment or common sense. The bible also says a quarrelsome wife is like a dripping roof 6. Have you heard of this statement? Husbands you will know what that means. Why is this so? Just like being tempted to women is a guys thing, females are tempted to talk a lot. I know this because I have a daughter and a son. My daughter talks a lot and my son is much quieter. Even my wife can’t stand my daughter talking so much and will ask her to talk less. But my daughter says she cannot stop talking. My wife asked me how I could stand my daughter talking so much so I told wife I was well trained by you ( my wife ) . People have no insight into their own faults. It is strange that when women are girlfriends, they don’t talk so much but when they change their status to wife, they suddenly talk a lot. It is called nagging. Remember I was talking about the balance in life is thorns in the end? I know another very successful medical colleague of mine. He is doing very well in private practice. He was one of the first to become a specialist and then move into private practice. He has been in the newspapers and TV shows. But once you know his wife, you will realize the balance is real.
If I end here, it would sound discouraging that life is just thorns and thistles. But there is a way out. Paul wrote while he was still in prison.
Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!.
Another apostle wrote in James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.
So I can choose to have joy even when I am burdened with my work and worries in my life. I consider myself successful because I know Jesus. I don't try too hard for good things in this life because the end result will be thorns. I am already 43 years old. I don't think I can work for many more years. Maybe after 55 years old I may have to slow down and work part time, because of health reasons. Definitely I won't be working full time for another 20 years. And after 20 years it would not have mattered what I have done in my career. All the fame, all the money would have been over. At 60 years old, I would not be able to drive a fast car. And I wouldn't want to stay in a big house. My back and legs may be painful, weak and easily tired. Those of you who are getting on in years or have treated the old would understand. Old people prefer smaller houses. Where it is easy to just walk a short distance from the bedroom to the living room, toilet and kitchen.
So for me success as a doctor means believing in Jesus and to fulfill my calling as a doctor to help the sick. Because that is the role God has given me. I don’t have the power to heal the sick through miracles like Jesus did. I heal the sick through skills I learnt from medical science.
References
1 Matthew 9:12
2 Matthew 25:31-40
3 Genesis 3 :17-19
4 You tube testimony of Dr Richard Teo. This video can be a very good evangelistic tool for people in the medical field because we can identify if what Richard is saying. And in this video there are no references to Christ so it is non offensive for non believers to watch. This video went viral among the medical fraternity in Singapore in 2012. Many Christian medical colleagues have used this video followed by the good news to share Christ. There is a second Dr Richard Teo you tube video on his christian experience.
In May 2013, I went for a medical trip to the Palawan island province of the Philippines. The medical team was organised by Cru Singapore and hosted by Agape Rural Program ARP. We had 3 doctors, 1 pharmacist, 1 nurse, 9 medical undergrads and 3 working adults. We held 3 days of free clinics. The first two days were held in a rural school. The last day of clinic was organised in a village church and then in a town church. Doctors ran the clinics while the other members were involved in triage, registration, pharmacy and health education. Volunteers from ARP helped as translators. Patients and their relatives had the opportunity to listen the gospel while waiting. I was invited to give a evangelistic message at a Christian medical fellowship. The title was " A successful and meaningful life as a doctor"
Below is a transcribe of my message.
I want to thank Dr Ding for making this medical trip possible. For inviting our Singapore team to come over here. The last time I came to Palawan was year 2000. I remembered I flew here in a plane with propellers. I remembered walking through the same airport and going back to the main Philippines island by boat because there was no flight on that day. Now you've got a mall , a Robinsons mall. And I will flying back by jet next Tuesday.
I am a doctor, not a preacher. I know many of you here today are medical staff so I will share with you using medical terms so you can identify with what I am sharing. Dr Ding want me to share on how to have a successful and meaningful life as doctor in Singapore. And I have also put in my thoughts on the bible.
I will talk about why I became a doctor. When I entered medical school, the interviewers asked me why I wanted to be a doctor. All the students answered with the standard answer “ because they want to help the sick” and I too said that. Because I wanted to enter medical school. But along the way, I realized that privilege and honor of being a doctor was a real thing. I want to quote from the bible, 1 “Jesus said it is not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick.” From this statement it means doctors will not go out of work. because there will always sick people and they will always need doctors. They can’t self help but going onto the internet. The second thing is there was a story that Jesus told about the sheep and the goats. 2 He told the good guys ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me. The people replied I never saw you. The king said if you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ So I believe all of us in healthcare have a very special blessing in helping the sick.
I am doctor. I talk in terms of evidence. Nowadays, a lot of patients will ask us, ‘ are you sure?’ , ‘does the medicine work?’, ‘what are the alternatives?’. So even now when I am talking about a successful and meaningful life, you will asking me to give the evidence for the things I am saying. So let go through the classification of evidence. We learnt this from medical school and drug reps you too get this asked from doctors. The worst form of evidence is my neighbor said this helps my sickness. Usually here there is no evidence and probably it doesn't work. The next level of evidence is personal experience from a respected physician. The great doctor said this and said that. That is evidence but it is rated as low level of evidence. The next one level up are facts from science and society; the best being double blind randomized trial. But for me there is one level of evidence that surpass all and that is the bible. If the bible says something, then it must appear in science, society and personal experience.
Let’s now talk about success. I come from Singapore. How many of you have come to Singapore? Singapore prides itself as a very successful country. There is some arrogance is saying this. But I want to put the facts straight. Singapore is 1st to 3rd richest city per capita in the world, not country. America is the richest country in the world. You got to divide our Gross domestic product among Singapore 4 million people, and that’s about US$ 56000 per person. That makes us 1st to 3rd richest city in the world depending on which statistics you use. When you come to Singapore you won't see gold on the streets. but you will see lots of expensive cars. Let me give you some statistics. Last year 2012, the best selling cars was BMW and Mercedes. BMW and Mercedes each sold 5000 cars, Audi sold 1600 cars and Jaguar sold 400 cars. The next line are Japanese. Toyota sold 800, Nissan 600 and Honda 500 cars. Supercars are Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Porsche. If you add all these supercars up, 700 were sold. So for every 1 Toyota, car, there is 1 supercar on the road. Most of them ( supercars ) are not driven Singaporeans. Let’s talk about housing. Singapore dollars value is about 80% of US dollars. Most Singaporeans including me, stay in government homes . Government homes are about half a million Singapore dollars on average, so there is joke we need to be a millionaire so we can buy a government house. Half a million dollars can buy many things.
How did Singapore get so successful?.We don’t have natural resources in Singapore. But Singapore is good at one thing. This one thing is called showmanship. Let’s use medicine as an example. When you talk to a patient, when you present a case in an examination, there are 2 things. One you must have good knowledge and two you must show it. If you have knowledge but can’t show it, you fail. If you have some knowledge but can really show, you can get a pretty good grade. It is the same when we see patients, if you can talk well and show you know your stuff, the patient will think you are good. It is the same for Singapore. We are very good at showmanship. We learnt this from Lee Kuan Yew our ex prime minister. So how do we show it?
We are a clean city. You see dustbins everywhere. If you are caught littering you can be sent to do hard labor, and you can’t protest. Singapore is almost corruption free. There is no one taking bribes from you. In fact if you try to bribe anyone, you can be charged and the person will be given a medal for it. So on the surface, we are corruption free. We have very low tax for the rich people, not for the poor people. And we have 2 gems which are our 2 casinos. The 2 casinos earn more money than all the casinos in Las Vegas combined. Macau casinos earn the most money in the world. It is because most of the people who gamble are Chinese. Chinese are genetically inclined to gambling addiction. Certain races are prone to certain things. Chinese people are addicted the risk taking and gambling. I learnt this during my psychiatry course. Anyway in Singapore most locals don’t drive fast cars, and most people don't drive, and most people stay in half million dollar house that we will take years to pay up. So that’s Singapore. You can come and visit us, if you have lots of money, the government will welcome you because when you put your money here, your money becomes the government money and that’s why they are so rich. They have nothing but your money. 4% of private wealth in the world goes through Singapore which is a lot for one little city.
Let’s talk about doctors. Are doctors successful? Doctors are successful in whatever country they are. Am I very successful? Well , yes and no. I was a very good student. I did very well in school and was able to enter medical school. Only good students can enter medical school, Obviously because you would not want to see a doctor who keeps failing exams.You would want to see a doctor who is doing well academically. In medical school , everyone was smart. But when I became medical student, and you look at the bell curve or distribution curve in medical school, I was on the left hand side. Which means I was not so smart among them.
Now listen medical students, if you want to successful, you must enter these fields of medicine. In surgery you must enter ophthalmology orthopedics and plastic surgery and you will earn lots of money. And if you do medicine, you have to do dermatology, cardiology. Geriatrics and psychiatry don’t earn much money, neither does infectious disease. I wasn't too bright in medical school but bright enough to know that it was futile for me to compete with my better colleagues for these specialties Besides I was getting tired during medical school. It is tough to study in Singapore. Almost every year it got worse. I thought things will get better after being a doctor but things got even worse. So I went into family medicine because I wanted a break and I did not want hospital calls. So that is where I am now. I am a government servant. Government servants don’t earn much money so I don’t earn much money but definitely more than a regular government servamt. I drive a car but not a German car; and my wife doesn't need to work. She looks after the kids. So that is how successful or how not successful I am.
But is all this success meaningful to doctors in Singapore?. Of course there are lots of studies to show the money you have, the happier you are. But is this more meaningful? I would like to point out some verses from the bible. This comes from Psalms 90.
Moses says
“Our days may come to seventy years,
or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow”
So lets look at this from a medical point of view, Moses says if we are strong, we can live to 70 or 80 years. So do you know what is the life expectancy in Philippines? You are right. It is 68 years according to Yahoo stats. Singapore is again among the best at the low 80’s , same as Japan, Hong Kong and most European nations. And for many years we have been in the low 80s. Why? Because God has set the top limit of life. Of course there are older people. But how many? Patients more than 90 years old, maybe I see one about once a month, patients who are more than 100 years, maybe once every few years. Among patients who are 80 years or older, most of them are using a walking stick or wheelchair accompanied by someone else. Just look at your own patients. If they are already 80 years old, are they strong? If there any evidence that there is any treatment, medicine or device that promise to help you live more than 90 or 100 years old. In primary health care, our one objective is to help treat chronic illness. Even if the chronic illness is well controlled, I cannot promise my patients to live beyond 70 years old. So if the bible is true on point 1, then the bible is also true on point 2. That is your life is full of trouble and sorrow. In fact all of us know that it is a fact that our lives on earth are difficult. But why is this so? Let’s look into an older time in the bible , the book of genesis. After Adam ate the forbidden fruit, God told Adam 3
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,”
So what does this mean? Everyone is saying life is very tough. Doctors say working life is tough, so do the nurses, and everyone else in the work force. All of us need to work to earn a living. Think for a moment, if everyone in the world were to stop working, the world will not survive. There won’t be enough food and anything. Just think about it, God provides almost everything, - the sun, the rain , the soil conditions but yet man needs to plant a little seed, toil the soil and harvest it. Because of sin, God has made it so difficult for us to do our little bit , and our survival depends on it. Many people will try to make their lives a bed of roses, but God will make it such that the nett effect of everyone lives become a bed of thorns and thistles. Some will have more thorns and some less thorns. Just think about what I said if this is true. Don’t think about someone you hardly know, but think about someone whom you know very well and envy.. Do you just envy that part of his life or his entire life? Is his life all a bed of roses?
A good example that comes to mind is someone I know. A junior medical colleague Dr Richard Teo. In Singapore, if you want to be a really rich doctor you cannot work in public sector. Medical students listen to this :A honest government servant cannot get too rich. When you start off in medical student school, you want to be a doctor because you want to help the sick, but there is second part to this desire after you graduate. Just like politicians who get elected, you will realize that you need to help yourself first before you can help others. You always hear from politicians that they will promise if you vote them in, they will do this and do that. But once they are in office , they will help themselves first before they will help you. That’s why many politicians are rich. It is the same for rich doctors. Before the doctors can help you to be healthy , you must make them rich. And in Singapore there are so many rich people who are willing to make doctors richer so that they can be healthy. You can’t be a rich doctor by helping the poor people. Dr Richard Teo did better. He did not become a rich doctor by helping the sick. He treated the not sick. He was into aesthetics like botox, liposuction, face contouring, skin treatments. Aesthetics is part of the vanity business like cosmetics. Many people are vain and vanity is a big business. How many of you watch Korean movies; especially the ladies? My wife loves Korean movies. It is well known many Korean actors and actresses have been under the knife. Just check out the websites of Korean stars before and after surgery. Dr Richard Teo was very successful. Before 30 years old, he was a millionaire. By 40 years he died of lung cancer. Check out his you tube testimony 4. He talks about his life in the fast lane, the rich and famous people he met, the fast car he drove and dream house. His testimony was also published in the newspapers . When he knew he was dying, he realized all his money was nothing. He said I can't hug my Ferrari in my grave. Richard is an exceptional example. I have been a doctor for 17 years. A lot of friends are now in private practice. Many of them are doing very well. They may doing well in terms of money but they are doing poorly in their family lives. It is not because God gave them problems but they gave themselves problems. Some guys have mistresses. Now ladies you know if your husbands have a mistress, no amount of money can compensate the emotional injury. You would rather had been poorer and your husband belonged to you. You know, the tendency to look for women is a guy’s thing. Men have this temptation and you guys here know what I mean.
How about me? Compared to my better established colleagues, I don’t have much. But God has given me what money cannot buy. God has given me a prudent wife. The bible says a prudent wife is from the Lord 5. Prudent means good judgment or common sense. The bible also says a quarrelsome wife is like a dripping roof 6. Have you heard of this statement? Husbands you will know what that means. Why is this so? Just like being tempted to women is a guys thing, females are tempted to talk a lot. I know this because I have a daughter and a son. My daughter talks a lot and my son is much quieter. Even my wife can’t stand my daughter talking so much and will ask her to talk less. But my daughter says she cannot stop talking. My wife asked me how I could stand my daughter talking so much so I told wife I was well trained by you ( my wife ) . People have no insight into their own faults. It is strange that when women are girlfriends, they don’t talk so much but when they change their status to wife, they suddenly talk a lot. It is called nagging. Remember I was talking about the balance in life is thorns in the end? I know another very successful medical colleague of mine. He is doing very well in private practice. He was one of the first to become a specialist and then move into private practice. He has been in the newspapers and TV shows. But once you know his wife, you will realize the balance is real.
If I end here, it would sound discouraging that life is just thorns and thistles. But there is a way out. Paul wrote while he was still in prison.
Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!.
Another apostle wrote in James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.
So I can choose to have joy even when I am burdened with my work and worries in my life. I consider myself successful because I know Jesus. I don't try too hard for good things in this life because the end result will be thorns. I am already 43 years old. I don't think I can work for many more years. Maybe after 55 years old I may have to slow down and work part time, because of health reasons. Definitely I won't be working full time for another 20 years. And after 20 years it would not have mattered what I have done in my career. All the fame, all the money would have been over. At 60 years old, I would not be able to drive a fast car. And I wouldn't want to stay in a big house. My back and legs may be painful, weak and easily tired. Those of you who are getting on in years or have treated the old would understand. Old people prefer smaller houses. Where it is easy to just walk a short distance from the bedroom to the living room, toilet and kitchen.
So for me success as a doctor means believing in Jesus and to fulfill my calling as a doctor to help the sick. Because that is the role God has given me. I don’t have the power to heal the sick through miracles like Jesus did. I heal the sick through skills I learnt from medical science.
References
1 Matthew 9:12
2 Matthew 25:31-40
3 Genesis 3 :17-19
4 You tube testimony of Dr Richard Teo. This video can be a very good evangelistic tool for people in the medical field because we can identify if what Richard is saying. And in this video there are no references to Christ so it is non offensive for non believers to watch. This video went viral among the medical fraternity in Singapore in 2012. Many Christian medical colleagues have used this video followed by the good news to share Christ. There is a second Dr Richard Teo you tube video on his christian experience.
5 Proverbs 19:14
6 Proverbs 27:15
Article 1st published on 30 June 2013
by Benjamin Cheah
6 Proverbs 27:15
Article 1st published on 30 June 2013
by Benjamin Cheah