Patch Adams

I'm not sure how many people have seen the movie Patch Adams. It is a movie about a medical student who bucks the medical system by spending time caring for his patients. The Professors don't like the way he goes about with the patients and puts himself down on their level. He is even criticized for being excessively happy. But he is also crude and can be very stubborn. I saw the movie recently and was drawn to consider the striking similarities between the doctors of the movie and today's Christians. As believers we understand and know what death means. We devote our time and money to save as many people as possible. Our goal is to save them from Hell and it is an extremely worthy goal. Sometime we neglect the secondary part of our job. We help the to be saved from spiritual death, but we don't take care of them in their physical life. We ignore the social systems and structures, the physical poverty and need, when Jesus' message was a message that the Kingdom was near. In the Kingdom no one is in need. Jesus met people's spiritual needs but many times began by meeting their physical needs. Here are some good Quotes from the movie:

Hunter Patch Adams: You treat a disease, you win, you lose. You treat a person I'll guarantee you'll win.

Hunter Patch Adams: Our job is improving the quality of life, not just delaying death.

Hunter Patch Adams: All of life is a coming home. Salesmen, secretaries, coal miners, beekeepers, sword swallowers, all of us. All the restless hearts of the world, all trying to find a way home. It's hard to describe what I felt like then. Picture yourself walking for days in the driving snow; you don't even know you're walking in circles. The heaviness of your legs in the drifts, your shouts disappearing into the wind. How small you can feel, and how far away home can be.
Hunter Patch Adams: Home. The dictionary defines it as both a place of origin and a goal or destination. And the storm? The storm was all in my mind. Or as the poet Dante put it: In the middle of the journey of my life, I found myself in a dark wood, for I had lost the right path. Eventually I would find the right path, but in the most unlikely place.

Hunter Patch Adams: We need to start treating the patient as well as the disease.

Arthur Mendelson: You're focusing on the problem. If you focus on the problem, you can't see the solution. Never focus on the problem!

Arthur Mendelson: See what no one else sees. See what everyone chooses not to see... out of fear, conformity or laziness. See the whole world anew each day!