Piety

I don't hear the word "piety" much anymore, unless it is the rare occasion that I get to read something non-medical.  The word, at least formerly, carried a positive connotation about a devoutly religious person and seems to have generally referred to a sincere person.  I am not sure that this is case any longer, fair or not.

I have been confronted on multiple occasions with a very anti-religious viewpoint.  Maybe the most surprising encounters have come from those within the church and those sympathetic to Christianity.  Let me explain further, there is a very real movement away from religious acts and toward spiritual being.  While they are elements of Christianity (called sacraments) that I believe are necessary to practice regularly (by definition, religious), I have also found that there is a something to learn in this idea, and it relates to humility and sincerity.

Again, I am not advocating rejection of the sacraments, but I do believe that the church in America has too often attached a Pharisaical set of ideals, rules, and/or expectations to the gospel and thus presented a stumbling block.

A list of rules to follow so often leads to a sense of religious pride, the idea that by accomplishing that list, we are better than we were, or better than someone else.  However, we know that the Law was given to us for the opposite reason.  Law is to show us our utter insufficiency, not proficiency.

There are certainly principles of conduct that are divinely right and true - love, justice, purity, sincerity - to name a few.  Jesus taught us that simple rules like "do not commit adultery" and "do not kill" are not enough for true obedience or conformation to God's character because when we lust or hate, we are guilty all the same.

So, what's my point?  My point is that piety, adherence to religion, can lead to pride.  Pride is the enemy of  sincerity in our lives, and pride and piety (in this sense) undermine the gospel.  To promote obedience as any kind of measure is to undermine the grace of Christ, the righteousness of Christ, the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.

This, I believe, has led to the current sense of repulsion by many in America to religion and the move among Christians for spirituality.  This is a cry for sincerity and humility.

Paul states of his ministry, "For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ."

A peddler has something that you can have for a price; we are ambassadors for one who offers a free gift.  Those to whom we preach do not deserve the gift, and as "men of sincerity," we know that neither do we.

An Update

It is a rainy Sunday in Cincinnati.  Sounds a bit like the start to a dime novel.  Nevertheless, it seems like a good day to update the old blog and tell everyone about my plans for the next few years.

I finished general surgery residency in South Carolina this last June.  Now, I am in Cincinnati at the Colorectal Center for Children (see 'My Work' in the links to the right).  I will be here for the remainder of this academic year, then on to Columbus, OH for pediatric surgical critical care.  Right now, I am also applying to pediatric surgery.  I hope to start that fellowship the year after Columbus.  In the meantime, I can beat anyone in a contest of "potty talk."  (Not dirty talk, but the kind of potty talk that any parent knows all too well, the kind that happens from infancy to potty training.)

In case anyone is keeping count, that's 4 years med school, 5 years of general surgery residency, 1 year of pediatric colorectal fellowship, 1 year of pediatric surgical critical care fellowship, and 2 years of pediatric surgery fellowship.  I can add as well as you can, so there's no need to tell me how long this is taking.  Besides, I learned some time ago to enjoy the process because it's too long to try to look past.

It's hard to see much further down the road than all of that, but you know that I don't hesitate to tell anyone that asks about my plans.  There will still be some school debt left to pay, but I do plan to get back to Africa on a mission trip as soon as I can.  I actually have not been back to Africa since I began surgery residency.  It will be a lot of fun to actually be a surgeon the next time I go.

Angela is now doing PRN physical therapy.  Although, she plans to quit that when we move to Columbus.  Instead, she wants to focus on taking care of our new baby.  Yeah, we're pregnant.  It's still early, but we can't keep it quiet.  We still haven't told everyone, so I'm sorry if this is the first you are hearing of it.  We love to tell people in person.

Well, that's the bulk of the updating.  I periodically get my hopes up about having some consistency to this blog, but so many things get in the way of that vision.  We'll see what happens...