Dear Theophilus:: September 2003

Sola Cristo

by Insung Chung

This summer I had the opportunity and privilege to go on a medical missions trip to South Texas and Mexico. The theme for Summer Medical Institute (SMI) 2003 was Sola Cristo, which means "In Christ Alone" in Greek. Throughout our summer, we strived to make Christ the sole purpose of our time there. Whether it was by medicine or any other profession, we wanted to serve God. We yearned to learn how to live our lives so that everything that we did in life was to give glory to God.

While we were in Texas, we studied the book of Philippians. There were a plethora, yes a pleeethora (shout out to the Three Amigos) of lessons learned from Philippians but I would like to share two passages in particular.

"Then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves" (Philippians 2:2-3). Now it's usually not a good thing to have a room full of type-A personalities trying to perform a certain task. Tempers will tend to flare and egos will be stepped on. But through the grace of God, we were able to work as a team when our focus became Christ and nothing nor anybody else. Because Christ humbled himself to death on the cross while serving mankind, God calls us to do the same whether we're on the missions field or working at a Starbucks.

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:7-8). God showed me that my life is not my own to live but for God to do as He wills. I'll be honest. I used to have aspirations of becoming a world-renowned doctor making hundreds of thousands of dollars while raising my future children and wife in the lap of luxury. Those were my dreams. Unless God has called me to such a life, everything would be acting in disobedience. My identity is in Christ - not in my profession, not in my relationships, and not in my titles. I was incredibly inspired by witnessing doctors who have given up their lives to follow Christ. They were no longer constrained by their own desires of wealth, prestige, and fame. They found their joy in following Christ - whether or not it meant that they and their family sacrificed everything.

I was also encouraged by other students that participated in SMI. Being able to spend my days in fellowship with other brothers and sisters was incredibly edifying. Whenever I had a particularly bad day or tough time, I was able to rely on the strength of my brothers to minister to me and pray for me. Likewise, I was able to help and encourage those around me as well. God has taught me that true fellowship is integral to one's Christian walk. I would encourage those reading this article to seek out Christian fellowship and to serve one another in love. The Christian walk is definitely not to be walked alone but by the strength and grace of God, that is shown to us through the Bible, prayer, and fellowship.

The lessons that God taught me this summer could be summarized into three T's: uniTy, humiliTy, and identiTy. These are the tenets that God has engrained into my heart and the tenets, which I will strive to follow as I embark on a journey to know and follow Christ Jesus.