Soul Care for the Medical Marriage

Everyone Is Looking for You! “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 It helps to know Jesus understands. The Great Physician healed without being in a medical office, but His hours were brutal. There were days filled with teaching and healing, long nights of meeting the needs of others, and weeks on end of being “on call.” Even without a cell phone, Jesus answered every call that came His way. But even the perfect, holy Healer got exhausted. Jesus needed to step away for a bit. Don’t you love His humanness? He was all God, but He also knew His body needed refreshing and time away from sick, needy people if He was going to be effective. If your spouse works for a corporation, “productivity” is a common business model, and medical employees often get paid based on how “productive” they are. Doctors must see a certain number of patients, nurses click checkboxes on their computers, and everyone must churn out paperwork. The love of medicine can be somewhat dampened because treating patients and spending time with those who need extra attention doesn’t fit with a money-making mindset. Mark 1 gives a glimpse into one of Jesus’ busy days of healing. After commanding an evil spirit to leave a man at the synagogue, Jesus was needed at the bedside of Simon’s feverish mother-in-law. He took her hand and helped her up, but His healing work was not yet done. That same evening, the sick and demon possessed were brought to Jesus for healing. Mark 1:33 says, “The whole town gathered at the door”! THE WHOLE TOWN! This is overwhelming! Even if your spouse is extroverted, there’s not a chance they’re going to be stoked about an entire town sitting on y’all’s front porch waiting for medical care. You probably wouldn’t be happy about it either. Especially if a few hundred of them needed a bathroom. Or a snack. After this, Jesus tried to get a little rest: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (v. 35). He needed rest and rejuvenation. But, as it goes when you are a healer, He was found. Simon and his companions went looking for Jesus and what they said was something my husband has heard many times (Moms have heard it too!): “Everyone is looking for you!” (Mark 1:37) Our spouses know this feeling. People want something from them. Healing. Health tips. Advice. Sometimes handouts. But what do we do when those we love need some down time? When we need them and they are burned out and tired of people? We take these weary warriors to Jesus, the One who knows better than anyone what it’s like to be asked and overused, and we let Him breathe refreshment into them. Because we know Jesus understands what it’s like to be tired from healing all day. We trust Him to give our medical spouses exactly what they need to be the best caregiver they can be. Father God, my beloved is tired and burned out, so I bring him to You. There is no one Who knows my beloved’s heart and mind like You do. I ask that You breathe over him and rejuvenate him. Reignite his love for medicine, the patients who make him weary, and even us, his family. Making medical decisions for others weighs heavily on him, and I ask that You would hold Him up and give him Your wisdom and peace as he comforts those he encounters. In the Name of Jesus, the Healer. Amen!