Discouraged? There is help! Dealing with Discouragement Part 2

Fear and discouragement are common. I learned a lesson on how to deal with it in an unexpected location- a huge rock in Waimea Bay.

I was paralyzed with irrational fear. There I was, standing on the edge of a boulder that jutted out into Waimea Bay on the North Shore of Hawaii. It was about a 25 foot drop to the water, and at my son's urging I had followed him and several other illiterate tourists up the rock. (I say illiterate because we had all ignored the large sign that read “Warning- do not climb or jump off of rock” on our way to the jump off point!). I had stood in line as one by one people jumped off the edge into the water. My son had done it several times already and had assured me it would be fun. When I got to the edge and looked down I was suddenly reminded of my rather intense fear of heights. In an instant I was transformed from a bold 45 year-old physician into a frightened 5 year old. I could not move. After several seconds I staggered back of few feet to gather myself. As I did I caught the eye of the man who was behind me in the line. He was a slender man who looked to be in his 70's. He shook his head pitifully at me and then joyfully jumped in the water.

He was followed by a little girl of about 8. She gave me a similar look and shake of the head before she took the plunge. Embarrassed that an elderly man and a little girl were unafraid I looked over the edge into the water. I quickly observed that neither they nor my son were floating dead in the water. Taking encouragement from those that had gone before me I took a deep breath and jumped.

My son was a liar. There was nothing fun about the experience. At all. In fact, the landing was painful. Yet, like everyone else, I had made it, and learned the lesson on overcoming fear and discouragement that the writer of Hebrews 12 wanted his readers to understand.

According to the writer of Hebrews 12, a source of encouragement and endurance in the race of life is the testimony of those who have gone before us. In chapter 11 he shared a lengthy list of heroes who through faith had accomplished great things and been delivered from incredible trials. He shared those stories to help us gain confidence that the God will guide and strengthen us in the same way.

He described those heroes as being so numerous as to be “a great cloud of witnesses.” So many witnesses, testifiers to the faithfulness of God, that we are surrounded in every direction, so many that as we consider their stories we cannot help but be encouraged.

I don't think that encouraging tales of faith heroes are limited to the names in chapter 11. Most of us have been blessed with people in our life who have gone before and faithfully completed the race. For me, my in-laws are those kind of heroes.

My father-in-law, Chuck, was an amazing man of faith. Not the “stand on a street corner preach the gospel” kind of faith, but the much more significant “faithfully use the gifts God has given me” kind of faith. He died at the age of 75, and by all rights should have died 25 years earlier when a massive heart attack left him unresponsive for over 7 minutes. God was not done with him then, and he lived that truth out with vigor for the rest of his days. He could always be counted on to serve, to fix, to build, and to be there when needed. Three days before he died he delivered shelves he had refurbished to my office. He was facing open heart surgery and he did not want the promised shelves to wait for his recovery  so he plowed through the twinges of angina to fulfill his promise. That was Chuck Rehm.

The night before the surgery, which he did not survive, two pastors came to pray. One of them asked him how he was doing. His simple statement, “I am ready,” was and is a powerful statement of his faith. God had been faithful to Him his whole life and he trusted his whole life to God. He met his Maker without fear. he remained faithful to the end.

My mother-in-law, Shirley, is also remarkable. I don't know why I expected differently, but when she lost the true love of her life she did not quit. 8 years later she still serves as a volunteer counselor at the church and continues to be a prayer warrior. My children say that when you really need prayer, call Grandma.

Their sustaining faith is an encouragement to me, and they make up the most visible part of the great cloud of witnesses that surround me. God has sustained them throughout their lives and this encourages me to trust him in the same way.

They remind me of how important it is to maintain relationships with those who are going before, and to remember the stories of those who are gone. I am encouraged by the tangible proof in their stories that God is faithful.

Discouraged? You can make it. God is there and He has demonstrated His desire and willingness to help you in the lives of others who have been through similar circumstances. Reach out to those people and ask for help. If you need encouragement and do not know where to find it. Contact me through the blog. Or call me at the office 714-960-4500. I will call you back!

This is the second post of a series on Dealing with Discouragement. If you have been touched by these posts, please share them with a friend. If you would like to subscribe to this blog and receive future posts by email, click on the subscribe link. Beneath my photo upper right on a computer screen or scroll to the bottom on your mobile device.

Finally- there is a new Small Group Study Guide for my book! It is available for free on the "book" page. For a limited time I am offering the book free to any interested small group!

How to deal with Discouragement- Part 1

Every once in a while a patient comes in with depression with a story that once heard causes me to think, “I'd be depressed too!” Had one of those visits recently. A man in his late 70's came in with depression. In the last year he had struggled with a rare cancer that required uncomfortable radiation treatments and the collapse of a replaced hip. The hip was replaced 7 weeks earlier in a massive reconstruction that required him to bear no weight at all for months. An avid athlete, this was a tough pill to swallow. A few weeks into his recovery he came down with a severe pneumonia that nearly did him in and required an 8 day stay in the hospital, sapping what little strength remained. He was emotionally and physically exhausted, deeply depressed and discouraged.

As we talked I thought of a sermon on depression I have preached several times. The sermon, titled “Dealing with Discouragement," seems to resonate with so many people, because everyone struggles with discouragement. The principles are universal and worth sharing and were helpful to him that day. In the hope that they may help others I will be sharing them in the coming posts.

Reading Hebrews 12 one of the things that jumps out are the repeated exhortations to not give up. In verse 1 the author tells the readers that they should "run with endurance the race that is set before them." In the running analogy he is suggesting that we remember life is a long race and fatigue is common- It seems to me that he would not say endurance was needed unless we were going to be running for a while!

It reminds me of lessons I learned from watching my brothers run track and field. They ran the 800 meters and cross country, and it is a fact of running that sprinting out to the lead is not a good way to win a long race. Sprinters tire quickly and are seldom in front at the end. It seems the author was saying the faithful life is like that. If we treat it like a sprint, expecting it to be over soon, we will be disappointed.

Later in the chapter we are told that as we run we are to consider what Jesus endured in His life, so we will "not grow weary and lose heart." Sounds like there must be a danger of getting tired and discouraged! This is a common theme in scripture. Reading through the New Testament we are often reminded to stand firm, persevere, and endure to the end. We would not be repeatedly reminded to hang in there if dropping out was not a real possibility. Life is often hard!

It sounds funny, but it is encouraging for me to know that I am not the only person who battles discouragement! If you are feeling discouraged, you are not alone either and encouragement is available.

The Bible gives us ways to deal with this discouragement and we will be covering these in the next few posts.

This is the first post of a series on Dealing with Discouragement. If you have been touched by this post, please share it with a friend. If you would like to subscribe to this blog and receive future posts by email, click on the subscribe link. Beneath my photo upper right on a computer screen or scroll to the bottom on your mobile device.

What Other People's Heart Attacks Taught Me About Life

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in America. It is also one of the major reasons people are hospitalized. A huge chunk of medical training is centered on taking care of heart disease and keeping people alive after heart attack. But what if we weren't saving lives like we thought? Shortly after I started my medical training a study revealed that we weren't doing such a good job of saving lives after all! It also taught me a lesson about life that has lasted a lifetime.

One of the greatest dangers after a heart attack is an irregular heartbeat, especially when the extra beat begins in the ventricle, the bottom of the heart. If it occurs at the wrong instant the electrical impulse that initiates these beats can lead to a heart rate so rapid that the heart just wiggles instead of pumps, resulting in death. These extra beats, called Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVC's) are more common, and more dangerous, in the damaged heart muscle of patients after a heart attack.

To combat this problem, medications were developed to stop these PVCs. And stop the PVC's they did, decreasing the frequency of these beats by over 90%. These medications caught on rapidly and were soon being prescribed to all heart attack patients.
Until someone asked an important question- “We know that these drugs stop PVC's, and we assume this will save lives, but what if they don't?”
Enter the Coronary Arrhythmia Suppression Trial. Patients after heart attack were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group received a PVC killer, the other group a sugar pill. The study was called off early due to a surprising result- people on the PVC drugs were dying at a rate three times higher than those on the sugar pills. There were fewer PVC's, but the meds changed the impact of the ones that were left, making them more deadly. The drugs were quickly pulled from the market.
There is a life lesson to be learned from the CAST project- make sure you are measuring the right thing. It is so easy to focus on the wrong thing, on things that do not help us achieve our ultimate goal.
I have made this mistake too many times. As a parent, I have at times focused on specific behaviors instead of the heart of my child. As a leader in the church, I have gotten caught up in making a sermon perfect, writing a great Sunday school lesson, or organizing a successful event instead of caring about people. As a doctor I have seen how easy it is to treat symptoms and diseases and forget the person sitting in front of me.
In my home, in my practice and in ministry it is possible to succeed in small meaningless areas and fail in the ultimate objective. The CAST study reminds me to pay attention to what is most important.

Has your Child been told a Lie?

Misled by a teacher's seemingly innocuous but tragically false advice, the young man wasted 5 years of his life. While others his age had jobs and established relationships, he had a recently kicked drug habit and an uncertain future. What happened?

In high school his favorite teacher had encouraged his students to pursue their dreams and passions with the words, "Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life!" The advice seemed sound and its message was appealing, so the young man purposed to find a joy infused career. If he had thought harder and gotten wiser counsel he might have seen the lies implied by his teacher's exhortations.

Implied Lie 1- Difficult work is to be avoided. There are many well paying careers that are not particularly fun and fulfilling, as illustrated by every episode of the television show "Dirty Jobs". Someone has to do these jobs, and those who can discipline themselves to perform them well will find a good measure of success.

Implied Lie 2- Happiness comes from outside of us. If we rely on our outside circumstances for our joy we will be unhappy people. It is possible to work a seemingly boring and repetitive job and be happy. In my 7 years in the grocery business I worked alongside many men who took pride in stocking shelves. There is nothing exciting about putting boxes and cans on shelves but these men worked hard at it, were good at it, and felt good about themselves at the end of a productive shift. Their happiness came from within.

Implied Lie 3- Everyone's dreams can come true. What a crock this is. People in affluent cultures lose sight of the fact that not everyone succeeds. For many life is one struggle after another. Implying that everyone has the ability to love their job ignores reality.

Implied Lie 4- Pursuing a dream makes you happy. Even for those who do something they love, there is a good chance that the path to the goal required a lot of unpleasant work and sacrifice. I love being a doctor , but I definitely did NOT love biochemistry, neuroanatomy, organic chemistry and statistics. I did not particularly enjoy the 100 hour work weeks of residency training, and for many years private practice was a struggle as I learned the hard way how to deal with patient and employee personalities and the challenges of running a business. Although I love my job now, it was not always fun or easy.

Implied Lie 5- In your perfect job you will always be happy. Nobody loves everything about their job. Two words- rectal exams. To this I could add  filling out disability forms, insurance company appeals and medication authorization requests, and giving babies shots. The advice I gave my son when he was 16 is still true today- If you can learn to work hard at something you don't enjoy, you will succeed where others don't.

This misguided student is a victim of a culture that encourages self-indulgence and self-centeredness, a culture filled with unhappy, unfulfilled young people who are engaged in a futile struggle to find a dream job and external fulfillment. Our young people deserve better. They deserve the truth.

12 Perfect Gifts for your Valentine

Flowers wilt, and cost a fortune in February. Chocolate melts and makes you fat. Cards end up in the trash and the air is gone from a helium balloon before the week is out. So what can we give to someone we love on Valentine’s Day? How about gifts of love that last throughout the year? Here is a list of 12 things we should all give to that special someone.

1. Patience. Allow others to learn and grow without feeling rushed or pressured.
2. Kindness. Just be nice whenever you can. Speak positive and encouraging words and don’t point out mistakes.
3. Contentment. Don’t be jealous of what they have and you don’t
4. Humility. Don’t toot your own horn. If you have done well, let them tell you. Don't try to "one-up" or be better.
5. Service. Do things for them instead of expecting them to do them for you.
6. Calmness. Don’t lose your temper, it hurts when you do.
7. Forgiveness. Put the score pad away. Quit keeping track of how you have been wronged or hurt.
8. Be good. If there is bad stuff in your life, get rid of it.
9. Care. Look out for their emotional safety, defend their feelings
10. Trust. Don’t question every motive..
11. Belief. Assume and believe the best in them. Give the benefit of the doubt.
12. Don’t give up. Endure the tough times together.

Why did I pick these things? These are not just the expressions of love, according to the Bible, these are actually the definition and description of love. (1 Corinthians 13). Give the gift of love this Valentine’s day!