"Today is your birthday?" The lady asked. She sounded surprised, as though it was unusual for doctors to work on their birthday. "So what are you doing for it?"
I thought for a bit. "Well," I said. "I guess I'm going to go to the nursing home tonight." I could she see she was taken aback. "Oh, not to stay," I reassured her. "I have a couple more years till then. Our church sings at a nursing home in Lynchburg on some Wednesday evenings."
"That sounds interesting," she said.
"And then I thought for the rest of the day I would try to treat my patients with a lot of compassion. The way Jesus would treat them," I finished with a flourish. "But no, I'm not doing anything extra special today otherwise."
Birthdays roll around every year whether we want them to or not. They are typically days when I hear my children singing Happy Birthday and my Facebook account blows up with Happy Birthday wishes. They are days too of feeling a bit older and not so much wiser.
To me, though, birthdays feel like a time to take stock of my situation, not necessarily asking the question "What am I doing?" (Although that is a good question). But, "How am I doing what I am doing?"
I am taking care of people who are dealing with pain and illness and I have done that for many years. It is easy over that time to lose a sense of compassion and to become a little cynical about people and their motivations. Cynical doctors can still get through their days just as easily as non-cynical doctors, but I'm afraid they don't tend to leave their patients with as much hope and joy.
As I launch out into another year, I pray it would be full, not only of taking care of the needs of my patients, but of doing so in a compassionate way. If I can treat people as Jesus would treat them, I believe I can make a difference -- not because of me but because of His power working in me.
That's my birthday wish for this coming year.
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