THE DOCTOR, CANCER AND THE DEAD PATIENT

 by Adam Harbinson

There’s a hospital in Mexico called The Oasis Of Hope. The director and founder is Dr Francisco Contreras. I interviewed him a few years ago when he published his first book, The Coming Cancer Cure. Interesting book, in it he argues for the use of Complimentary Medicines, he believes that some of the conventional treatments of cancer are so toxic that they permanently damage the body. He also sees mental well-being as important in preventing cancer as well as contributing to a cure. In other words he believes in a holistic approach, he treats the whole person, and he’s convinced that the day is not too far away when cancer will join the ranks of once incurable diseases, like TB or Smallpox.

But the medical establishment doesn’t like Dr Contreras, for like Dr Patch Adams he refuses to restrict his thinking to the boundaries of their inflexible mindset.

He tells the story of an occasion when a controversial article he’d published in a medical journal caused a stir and he was summoned to a major conference to face his critics. To cut a long story short they rubbished his findings, regardless of the evidence, but he was insistent. So a contest of sorts was agreed upon. Dr Contreras was allocated a cancer patient who volunteered to travel with him back to Mexico for treatment, and another cancer patient was allocated to one of their own. They each were to return at the end of a year to compare results.

Next year they met again and Dr Contreras’ patient was alive, she looked radiant; bright eyes, glowing complexion and shining hair – but she still had her tumour. The conference claimed victory for their patient’s tumour had gone.

‘How can you claim victory?’ protested Dr Contreras. ‘Your patient is dead!’ But they had won, for while Dr Contreras had set out to treat the person, their aim was to treat the illness. The moral to the story is that you’ll never know whether you’ve succeeded in life if you don’t know what you set out to do. And Christians are no different.

To many, being a good Christian is being a good preacher, or a good pastor, or a good worship leader, and that becomes the focus of their life. And like the doctor with the dead patient they miss the point, they become so obsessed with the work of the Lord that they lose sight of the Lord of the work. And God draws along and says, ‘Let’s sit and yarn for a while about your life.’

‘But, but Lord, you don’t understand. I’ve got to get this sermon finished; and I need to arrange for someone to visit old Mrs Smith; the Praise Group is responsible for the music in the morning.’ And God says, ‘OK, but I’m here if you need me.’

Do you know what the Christian’s ultimate purpose is? It’s to receive the Father’s love and pass it on. Like breathing; breathe in – receive his love, breathe out – pass it on.

Have you any idea how simple that is? How freeing? How fulfilling? If the Praise Group is your life and someone better comes along, you feel threatened, angry – Right? And if the assistant minister is a better preacher than you, you want rid of him – Hmm? 

But in the utter simplicity of breathing in, and breathing out, there can no competition, no conflict, no stress. Isn’t that how it should be?