Pathways – January 19, 2003
The dusty paths that crisscross Africa have been accommodating footsteps for thousands of years. Here the shepherd, the teacher, the mother, the child, even the warrior slowly make their way in the heat of one season and the rains of the other. And yet, this path, so familiar to locals, was very unfamiliar to Albert Schweitzer – a concert organist, theologian, and professor – who gave up modern society and his throngs of admirers to learn medicine and dedicate fifty years to serving the poor. The path, less traveled by many, was trod by Dr. Schweitzer.
After years of healing the sick and the lame, he wrote of the things he learned on his path, not through medicine but by the spirit: “Our remedies sometimes fail, especially in patients with chronic illnesses or in those who are terminally ill. Then we must have the courage to share the pain, the patient with his body and we with our hearts. If we can stand his pain, then our patient can too…When such a person finally…becomes humble, …a truth not know before…will lend the patient a strength that allows him to rise above pain.”1
That truth is faith – learning to trust God – even when another way is so well trodden. This faith will lead us to our greatest victory – what Dr. Schweitzer describes as “the triumph of spirit over matter.”²
In Proverbs we read: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”³
Perhaps those paths will take us away from the crowds, as they did Dr. Schweitzer, but they will always lead us closer to God.
Program #3831
- Quoted in Louise Jilek-Aall, M.D., “Reverence for Life,” Working with Dr. Schweitzer: Sharing His Reverence for Life (Louise Jilek-Aall, 1990), in Internet Mental Health (Phillip W. Long, M.S., 1995-1999), www.mentalhealth.com/books, cited 10 Jan. 2003)
- Quoted in “Reverence for Life, Working with Dr. Schweitzer.
- Proverbs 3:5-6