Thanks God for healing (and to modern medicine )

[Emergent, RN]

I am bemused by people who thank God for healing their friend or relative, when the CABG, chemotherapy, antibiotics are what did the trick, in actuality. I'm not denying God here, but let's face it, He/She doesn't intervene much in human affairs.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Reminds me of the time the person cutting my hair was going on and on about God saving a premature baby that had been born into her family. I said something along the lines of ... "The years of education and hard work of the professionals who work in the NICU actually deserve most of the credit."

Everyone got quiet -- and I learned one way to get some peace and quiet in a beauty salon.

[bagladyrn, RN]

I find those stories about miraculous healing offensive in that they seem to imply that those who succumb to their disease or injury are somehow less deserving of god's help. Is there a threshold number of people praying for an individual before it gets god's attention. Are the friendless out there just SOL?

[kalycat, BSN, RN]

Reminds me of the time the person cutting my hair was going on and on about God saving a premature baby that had been born into her family. I said something along the lines of ... "The years of education and hard work of the professionals who work in the NICU actually deserve most of the credit."

Everyone got quiet -- and I learned one way to get some peace and quiet in a beauty salon.

IIg, I always love your posts... but this is gold. I may need to use that next time I sign up for a haircut!

I always try to be respectful of my patient's and their family's religious beliefs but... lately we have had some very emotionally difficult cases in our picu (think multiple abuse and suicide cases), and the "miraculous healing" issue has come up a lot. Far from being a source of comfort or praise, it seems to have contributed to the overall stress of the situation.

My game face is developing at an almost exponential rate.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Since this forum is about spirituality and nursing, I'm comfortable saying that I believe God often works through doctors, nurses, medicine etc. The fact that people die doesn't mean that He ignores some people's needs while attending to others. My husband died in July of pancreatic CA, but we got three (mostly) good years of survival thanks to his excellent doctors and the drugs he received. I will always be grateful to God for allowing us that time to be together.

[TuesdaysChild]

I have to say, when I sit down and really consider scripture, I'm somewhat envious of the childlike faith of others. I would consider myself to have unshakeable faith, but I often intellectualize it a great deal. For instance, I don't believe in a 6-day creation or an actual Adam and Eve, that Genesis is actually allegorical and was never intended to be literal as "literal" human thought as we know it today hadn't really developed in the time of its authorship. I could go on and on. As logical and scientific as it all seems, I think it can sometimes create a chasm between myself and the beautiful simplicity of childlike faith. So when someone indicates they fully believe in 6-day creation, or miraculous medical intervention, or giving thanks to God for everything, I just smile and try to appreciate their willingness to not need to be in control of everything and I find that helps me put it in a different perspective. The moral of the story in Genesis was, after all, man's own demise because he wanted to become a god unto himself.