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Posted At: 6:39pm by Rachel Engebretson
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A veterinarian was feeling ill and went to see her doctor. The doctor asked her all the usual questions, about symptoms, how long had they been occurring, etc., when she interrupted him: "Hey look, I'm a vet - I don't need to ask my patients these kind of questions: I can tell what's wrong just by looking. Why can't you?"
The doctor nodded, looked her up and down, wrote out a prescription, and handed it to her and said, "There you are. Of course, if that doesn't work, we'll have to have you put down."
I love my job as a vet assistant, yet I knew I had gone crazy at the clinic when I started talking to the patients. They sometimes respond better than the owners do. When you walk into an exam room meeting a person for the first time, and their golden retriever is leaking from his anal glands, it’s an interesting experience to try and strike up small talk.
“Hello! Nice weather we’re having today!”
“What are you talking about?? My dog smells like hell!”
“Er…Yes, if the absence of God for all eternity were the rear end of a dog, I suppose it would smell that way…”
They say 70% of veterinary practice is dealing with people. It’s true. You usually end up talking to the owners, or look like a lunatic telling a cat the Packers are expected to have a great season, when you neither care about the Packers or if you are projecting the appearance of a possible mental disorder.
When I was hired at our local veterinary clinic, I never expected to be so thrilled cleaning up maggots. The gratifying event of pouring bleach on squirming little white organisms is a lot more satisfying than trying to find the right thing to say to a person whose pet is dying. As you watch the life drain from an animal’s eyes, hear its last gasp of breath, and watch the sobbing owner, you wonder what - if anything - you can do to comfort them. Slowly you bring out the tissue box from the drawer next to you, and edge out of the room to find a body bag. I’ve come to the conclusion there are few situations more awkward than this.
And then you’re rewarded later with a warm, soft puppy. They’re my favorite patients; not only because they’re so cute, but because they don’t care about shots, they wag their tail so hard their entire body quakes, and they jump spastically for treats. It’s much nicer seeing an excited, smiling owner than a depressed one angry at God for taking away their 15-year-old poodle.
When making the decision to become a veterinarian, I often wondered what my role would be as a Christian in this atmosphere. After all, the entire job is cleaning up after what sin and a deteriorating world has done to animals, and rubbing shoulders with the liberal, lifetime-PETA-membership crowd. Is there really a chance to proclaim the Gospel to them?
I have yet to see an owner of a dying pet who doesn’t nod vigorously to any mention of hope. If the veterinarian says, “This medicine might be the last shot for Fluffy,” the owner will give up their right arm for it, clawing with desperate energy for the animal that has given them so many years of companionship.
God’s word is the last shot for us. If we didn’t have faith, our fates are sealed. Yet Christ Himself came to us and took us as his own, giving us the medicinal food of His own body and blood, and clothing us with His righteous forgiveness in Baptism.
What more of hope could you possibly ask for?
I guess you could make any place a mission field, and we are encouraged to do so. I see the veterinary profession as a venue to step away from the comfortable, secure surroundings of church life and right into the midst of people who know nothing of it - Through the healing of animals. It might not always be the most encouraging when a client spouts off about how much he hates President Bush, or when a country-western fanatic straight from the bars badmouths Christians right in front of you, regardless of what your beliefs may be. That’s the supposed “real world” grownups keep telling me about, I’m guessing. A place where you’re constantly challenged to your limits, often hurt or embarrassed, surrounded by people different than you. Hooray for secular society!
Is this where God wants me the most? I can’t say for sure. I don’t have a magic oven mitt to tell me (Although maybe Pastor Borghardt will let me borrow his…) but I pray Christ will use me in whatever situation. Maybe it will eventually be when I’m inserting a needle of Euthasol into a dog’s leg, and telling its distraught owner in passing a comforting word of Christ’s salvation from a sinful world as their pet dies. Maybe that’s all, and I don’t need a full-time church position to witness to people - I can still do it while fulfilling my aspiration to help the animals I love.
Okay, so maybe I’m not doing much mission work as I scrub urine off a surgical table or fill prescriptions, but I’m happy to know that I can fill the capacity of a Christian witness even outside a church or Higher Things conference. It might be frustrating sometimes, but then again, so is getting blood stains out of vet smocks. If I can do that, then surely I can be productive as Christ sets me to do. We’ll see.
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Posted On: August 20th, 2006 at 10:57pm by John Bartucciotto |
honestly, I'm not sure how much mission work you can do while putting a finger up a dogs anus, but as long as you are happy caring for God's creation, I guess that's a mission work in itself. Just showing that you care
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Posted On: August 21st, 2006 at 10:44am by luvable lutheran |
Great post. There are many honorable vocations that seem less than honarable by their descriptions. If any of you have seen, "Dirtiest Jobs," on the Discrovery Channel you know what I mean. There we are serving our neighbor in whatever profession we are in. In addition, we have the opportunity to share the Word of God and hope that is within us if given the opportunity. Many times the opportunity will present itself over seemingly small things or challenges within the workplace. A colleague might notice how you aren't worried or how you handled a rough patch in your life or see how you seem cheerful at work. They might ask why? They might also just notice your positive demeanor when you perform your job duties, even more so in a profession that doesn't seem to have much to be cheerful about.
I too work in a similar profession, the clinical laboratory. Some of my vocational duties include performing urinalysis on urine that can come in various colors. Many times I can tell which patients have a urinary tract infection when I take the lid off the container. We joke in the lab with phrases such as you are the "Pee King or Pee Queen" tonight or "Urine (You're in) Luck!" However, all laughing aside, we also know that doctors wouldn't order laboratory testing without a reason. There must be an ill patient and the information we provide physicians is used in 75% of medical decision making. In other words, we can let the doctor know important information about the patient so they can privide patient care. Sometimes our patients are just minutes old such as the newborns we do blood glucoses or cord blood gases upon. Sometimes they are in the last hours of their life as we sometimes find out with organ donors. Most of the time we never see our patients and they just know us by our colleagues that collect their specimens and then the words they hear or actions they receive from their physicians.
Back to the mission field, you never know what God's Will is and where he might use you. Now you are providing loving care for owners and their pets. I bet a lot of folks think you need to be a missionary or pastor to do God's Will. However, there is a missionfield that is plentiful right in our backyards.
For those of you trying to figure out what you want to be when you grow up... God can use your talents in the various vocational hats you wear each and every day whether you realize it or not. Choose a career path in an area you enjoy doing so you can serve your neighbor with joy. Share the love of God as he has first loved you by sending his only begotten Son FOR YOU.
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Posted On: August 26th, 2006 at 12:51am by John Pawlitz |
Actually, it's absurd to think that the Christian faith is spread by arguing the fine points of doctrine with customers at a clinic (although there will be the day when that person walks in too), but it's not absurd to suggest that you can do mission work in a clinic. It's just not so simple that one flips a switch and all of a sudden! Wala! I am doing mission work. Okay, now I'm done doing mission work, sorry guys. Of course, we all know it doesn't work that way--why does Paul talk about watering the seed and all the different steps of planting "but God makes it grow."
I had to use such an dumb analogy, sometimes just being a Christian shines a ray of light like sunlight that God uses to make the plants grow--if that's any encouragement (I hope it is). I hate to deviate too much from Scripture-speak on the issue of mission.
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Posted On: August 26th, 2006 at 11:16am by Rachel Engebretson |
Actually, it's absurd to think that the Christian faith is spread by arguing the fine points of doctrine with customers at a clinic (although there will be the day when that person walks in too), but it's not absurd to suggest that you can do mission work in a clinic. It's just not so simple that one flips a switch and all of a sudden! Wala! I am doing mission work. Okay, now I'm done doing mission work, sorry guys. Of course, we all know it doesn't work that way--why does Paul talk about watering the seed and all the different steps of planting "but God makes it grow."
I agree that mission work is never black and white or simple. No one, including myself, would start talking about theology when the real issue is animal health.
I have struggled with my career choice, in part, because I wondered if my talents could be used more directly to the church, rather than in the secular environment of a veterinary clinic.
However, I realized that I don't need to hold a full-time church position in order to witness daily, everywhere, as you mentioned with "planting the seed", and it's okay if I want to help animals. There are numerous other ways to primarily serve the church.
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Posted On: August 26th, 2006 at 7:54pm by John Pawlitz |
You're right on target, it may seem, with distinguishing between church service and world service. And in fact, it does make an important point about serving Christ in the world, but remaining part of the church. But what is this distinction really going to get in the discussion of using talents? It is not so admirable to deem that one can do whatever he wants, so long as he can justify his talents as being more "applicable" to one or the other. It's not a firm foundation. Yes the chuch and the world are two different things, no duty does not change whether it leads one into the churchwork or into other work.
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Posted On: August 27th, 2006 at 11:53am by Rachel Engebretson |
But what is this distinction really going to get in the discussion of using talents? It is not so admirable to deem that one can do whatever he wants, so long as he can justify his talents as being more "applicable" to one or the other. It's not a firm foundation. Yes the chuch and the world are two different things, no duty does not change whether it leads one into the churchwork or into other work.
It's probably too easy for us to try and pinpoint our "gifts" or "talents." Some people spend a lot of energy trying to figure this out, when it doesn't really matter anyway. If you have talents, fine. "Let us use them: if prophesy, in proportion to our faith; if service in our serving..." etc. (Romans 12:6-7)
It's really not our work that does much or helps, anyway. If it weren't for the gifts or abilities from the grace of God given to us, and the Word itself, we could do nothing. Christ works for the good of His people, we don't by ourselves.
However, I fell into the trap of, "Should I waste my life working on animals in the secular kindgom when I could be working in the church, such as a deaconess?"
Well, I was wrong - Nothing is a waste. If I want to help animals, so be it. I never, however, discontinue being a child of Christ, working through the lenses of my faith. I never stop making the distinctions between good and evil, clinging to the Gospel, even in the midst of an unchurched atmosphere. Who knows what will happen in the future, or what opportunities arise, but as far as my dream of being a veterinarian, I'll go for it.
I hope this makes more sense...Cleared it up a bit. 
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Posted On: August 27th, 2006 at 12:50pm by luvablelutheran |
what is this distinction really going to get in the discussion of using talents? It is not so admirable to deem that one can do whatever he wants, so long as he can justify his talents as being more "applicable" to one or the other.
I am not sure what you are saying here, can you please clarify further? What do you mean about doing whatever you want- do you mean in sin or in love for one's neighbor? What do you mean by justifying applicability? Hopefully Rachel's reply helps too.
I do not believe that we are trying to justify talents or distinguish mission work in everday vocations versus church vocations. As it notes in the title of this blog, we are sinner and saint simultaneously. Likewise when we work in whatever job/vocation we are placed, we are serving our neighbor, both the christians and nonchristians. Now if it happens that through situations via the Holy Spirit that a nonchristian or christian has a seed that begins to be nurtured and their faith grows according to God's Will then so be it. We may be in situations where this doesn't happen in our day-to-day lives. We just don't know God's Will and where he works(or I shold say instead that there may be times where God's Will isn't apparent to us as His ways are higher than our ways, but sometimes we can see how God uses us to help those around us). God always works thorugh situations both good and bad to bring good to his people. This is how God uses our talents in our various vocations to serve our neighbors and so his Will be done, whether or not his servants are christians. However, in some of our work, family and other relationships with people, as we get to know them, they might ask questions about our faith or we might get the opportunity to invite them to church. Think about how you became part of the church whether it was through infant baptism and being nurtured by your parents or whether later in life as an adult convert. Usually it is via these relationships with others, and more likely not from the Mormons or Jehovah's Witness (strangers) knocking on your door that people are drawn to the church where God gives us his gifts of Word and Sacrament and nurtures us in the faith.
fwiw
-luvable lutheran
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Posted On: August 28th, 2006 at 5:42pm by Kelly |
When I read the subject line, I swear I thought you were going to be talking about a fool returning to his folly..
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Posted On: August 29th, 2006 at 6:36pm by John Pawlitz |
Yeah, there's no doubt about the matter of whether we can witness among the unchurched without entering a church profession. (It happens.) However, there is a great deal of doubt as to whether we will happily receive from God the talents he gives us and use them, or simply shrugg them off unfortunately not good enough. So that was what I addressed--our wanting our talents to be other than they are, even merely for the sake of the gospel, is wrong--and (amazingly) Rachel seems to understand that above, more clearly than my second comment does.
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Posted On: August 29th, 2006 at 6:52pm by Rachel Engebretson |
Yeah, there's no doubt about the matter of whether we can witness among the unchurched without entering a church profession. (It happens.) However, there is a great deal of doubt as to whether we will happily receive from God the talents he gives us and use them, or simply shrugg them off unfortunately not good enough. So that was what I addressed--our wanting our talents to be other than they are, even merely for the sake of the gospel, is wrong--and (amazingly) Rachel seems to understand that above, more clearly than my second comment does.
Well, I'm glad we're on the same page. :-)
Admittedly, it's easy to be misunderstood when talking about talents. I'll be sure to be more clear next time.
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Posted On: August 31st, 2006 at 12:34pm by John Pawlitz |
I am someone who--almost exactly as you described-- "fell into that trap of 'Should I waste my life working on . . .' " a non-church working field--and now face what seems a great deal of penalties. So I admit, in addition to a more than random interest in HT blogs, there was that perhaps imperceptible motivation driving me and arguing not so much against the words as against a mere possibility that someone else should value less her gifts because of piety to the church and desire to be removed from the world. But it was a great post, and thanks for the discussion.
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Posted On: September 03rd, 2006 at 2:40am by Ethan [ + ] |
Luther's doctrine of Vocation-- You serve God by doing what you are called to do. Yeah! 
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Posted On: October 18th, 2006 at 12:18pm by luvable lutheran |
Happy National Veterinary Technician Week!
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/10/18/69441
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Comment on entry entitled "The Exciting Kingdom of Vomit and Puppies"
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