We have become a society filed with experts. In almost every field you can think of. We have dream specialists, medical specialists (in every part of the body). We have scientist covering every aspect of the world we see and don’t see. We have space specialists, technical, practical, creative, admin, HR, you name it……..
Yet at the same time we have a very individualistic culture (in the west I mean). And yet with all these experts, we still find ourselves lost and alone sometimes. We still have unknowable stuff out there.
Let me explain it this way. If we go into the medical field alone. And for argument sake we go to a dentist. When the dentist gives you advice he/she will only comment on your teeth (because that is his/her specialty).
Likewise if you go to a heart surgeon, I highly doubt that he/she would comment on your teeth. Since that is not their focus in life.
And I could go on, but I am sure you get what I am saying. Its also quite normal to be referred to a few specialists depending on the severity and uniqueness of your case. Thus when a diagnosis is given there is quite a footprint in the wake of the diagnosis and not always by the initial doctor.
I guess my question is….Is that right? I mean our body is a complex symbiotic living organism. I doubt that just looking at your teeth (by the dentist) tells the full story of how your teeth ended up in the predicament you are in.
Now before the doctors (and nurses) start jumping down my throat. I do have a point (somewhere here). If we go back a few decades, it was not uncommon for the town doctor to cover all aspects of the people they treated. And they were quite good, since they had a long term relationship with their patients. Also they looked at the entire person and could draw on the historical knowledge.
I am well aware of course that our current situation is way more sophisticated now and we can do much more with better results (sometimes).
What I wanted to focus on today is the disconnect we often find in life. We often have a problem and we stop everything in life to deal with that problem. But like in the specialist climate we become “specialists” in that area and forgetting that this problem is a small part of the bigger body of life that we are in.
I think a lot of our problems in life can simply be solved by connecting the dots. Where seemingly unrelated things can maybe bring the very unclear things into perspective for us.
Like in the medical industry now, I think if we could consolidate some fields and look at things holistically….we could maybe solve some problems and discrepancies.
Just a thought……….
the Honest One
I appreciate what you’ve written here. As I am reading I am thinking of how this applies to the body of Christ. You said, “our body is a complex symbiotic living organism.” That describes the body of Christ perfectly. When I think of the “experts” and “specialists” I think of the “five-fold ministry” of Ephesians four. Too often it seems we look to only one of these “specialists” (generally the pastor) to fix all the ailments of the body of Christ, when God has given all five to the church for her health and healing. We need the input and expertise of the prophets, alongside that of the evangelists, the pastors, the teachers, as well as the apostles, for a holistic approach to the wellness of the Body. The most holistic specialist of all of these, the family doctor if you will, is the apostle. He is a well-balanced mix of prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher, as well as being a “father” (1 Cor. 4:14) and a “mother” (1 Thes. 2:7). We need the genuine apostolic restored, along with the prophetic, to balance out the “medical team” today. My God restore the joint working together of all of those he has given for the equipping and building up of the body of Christ. May we learn to “connect the dots” in this way as His body!
Thanks for your thoughts today, bro.!
Hi David
Firstly thank you for commenting and you hit the hammer on the nails head. I could not agree more.
My blog is about scripture and truth in everyday life, I don’t always spell it out for people. But I must admit I could not have made the analogy better than you stated. 🙂
Granted I might differ a bit on the five fold ministry outworking though
At a more mundane level, it seems the church, since the 4th century, has moved away from the heart (the understanding) to the intellect. We are far too analytic and become confused by excessive reasoning. The intellect, with regard to scripture, is merely a means of funneling the word into the understanding and allowing it to work without interference, thus bringing about inner change and transformation.
I agree that we have moved from the heart understanding to the intellect, more so in our information era than ever before.
I am an expert in nothing, but a student of everything, I like to think. Really cool post 🙂
Ha ha ha, thanks.
I really enjoyed this post and in many ways I agree. Currently in our country the education system is really faulty and in my opinion this is a problem that can only be understood and myb altered if one looks at South Africa, its people and its history holistically. For me, this is key to understanding problems in order to be able to solve them even in small steps.
Funny how everyone reading this post still applies it to their area (or focus) in life. One to the body of Christ, another to the education system. I think that specialising is a part of life. We cannot be good at everything. That is why the body of Christ is made up of different parts; each has its own “special” job. The Lord designed it this way for a reason. Similarly, with the Education, Medical, and whatever other system there is. Each has specialists working together to achieve a untied goal. The key I believe is specialising together, or as Lynley put it, connecting the dots.