July 11, 1944 — Phil writes home, don’t use V-mail and send another package!
July 11, 2024
My reflections: “Faith in Practice: A Journey in Family Medicine and Faith”
July 17, 2024I’ve started receiving congratulations from friends and acquaintances far and wide on the anniversary of my 50th year as a member of CMDA. Below is the back story and a summary of my reflections.
My History with CMDA
In 1974, as a freshman medical student at Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, I banded together with five other Christian freshmen medical students (Donnie, Jim, Mark, Keith, and Ronnie) and three amazing faculty doctors and mentors (Drs. David Aiken. Lee Happel, Paul Brand), to navigate the integration of our studies, our future profession as physicians, and our shared faith as followers of Jesus.
I heard about what was then called the Christian Medical and Dental Associations (CMDA) and became a student member. That led to membership as a physician and later to my becoming a lifetime member.
CMDA’s mission is to “Bring the hope and healing of Christ to the world through Christian healthcare professionals.” To do this, CMDA, “educates, encourages, and equips Christian healthcare professionals to glorify God.”
It was CMDA that introduced Dr. William Carr (Bill) Peel and I. We became life-long dear friend and ministry partners and co-developed: (1) The Saline Solution, (2) Going Public with Your Faith: Becoming a Spiritual Influence at Work, and (3) Workplace Grace: Becoming a Spiritual Influence at Work.
These ministries led directly to the International Saline Process, which has spread around the world, and one of CMDA’s most recent ventures, “Faith Prescriptions, a new video-based teaching program to equip healthcare professionals to share the love of Christ with their patients and colleagues.”
It was CMDA that founded, fostered, and funded each of these efforts. It has been, for me, a fruitful and fun partnership for which I’ll be eternally grateful.
My Reflections on How God Has Used CMDA in my Life and Ministry
But, far more than what CMDA and I have done together, is the story of how CMDA’s resources, speakers, teachers, and staff have encouraged, equipped, and enabled me to grow as a follower of Jesus.
When reflecting on what Jesus has done in and through me, I distilled my many thoughts and emotions into this response to those who have written:
The purity of Christ, and any purity that has been manifested in and through me, are identical. Christ’s purity is the fountainhead; mine has its entire source in Him as it flows out of Him. My life, work, and writing, I pray, have been stamped with the beauty of His thought, work, and life.
To the extent that my inner and the outer man are harmonized in any kind of holy, Christ-like music, it has been the mind, the word, and the example of Christ that have been the controlling influence that inspires me. It has, I trust and pray, been Yahweh that has overflowed out of me, and not my way.
(Adapted from St. Gregory of Nyssa, c. 335–c. 394, from a treatise on Christian Perfection.)
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