Some people talk about their “jobs” and their “careers.”
People who discuss this topic in faith-based terms will say that they have “vocations” or “callings.”
How do you know the difference between these two ways of thinking?
That was the subject that loomed in the background this week when “Crossroads” host Todd Wilken and I discussed news coverage of the suicide of Dr. Lorna M. Breen, medical director of the emergency room at New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital. The final weeks of her life were dominated by the coronavirus crisis since — in addition to her work at the center of the New York City crisis — she contracted the disease, beat it and then went back to the ER.
The hook for the podcast (click here to tune that in) was my post: “Faith played major role in life of New York ER doctor who took her own life: What was it?” A fine New York Times story about her death featured moving testimonies about her leadership and self-sacrifice during this emergency, including her own efforts to increase safety for her team. Then, way down in the story, there was this:
Aside from work, Dr. Breen filled her time with friends, hobbies and sports, friends said. She was an avid member of a New York ski club and traveled regularly out west to ski and snowboard. She was also a deeply religious Christian who volunteered at a home for older people once a week, friends said.
The faith reference — with its connection to her volunteer work with the elderly — was like a door that opened for a second and then closed.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Note that the “friends said” attributions are plural. Apparently several people who knew Breen thought that her faith was linked, at the very least, to her volunteer work. I think it’s safe to say she was volunteering her services as a doctor, as a kind of companion and healer (in several senses of that word).
The pressure was just too much. In the NBC report at the top of this post, her sister Jennifer noted that the deadly scenes Dr. Breen faced at work, day after day, where “like Armageddon.” But she had a “calling” to help suffering people, so she couldn’t give up. Her “deep faith” helped her carry on. Her family is backing research — DrLornaBreen.com — into whether the disease itself affected her brain and state of mind.
I looked through other New York and national coverage of this case and didn’t find additional information about this religion “ghost” in the story.
However, a story in her hometown paper — The Daily Item in central Pennsylvania, in the Susquehanna River Valley — found a friend from the doctor’s past. Mary Williams grew up with Breen and here is some of what she had to say:
"We were in Danville High School together," Williams said. "We sort of grew up together in the church, First Baptist Church. I grew up in Riverside, she grew up in Danville. We didn’t get together (in school) until the Diehl School. …
"We would have graduated together, but she left in our junior year and went to Wyoming Seminary, which is a college preparatory school," Williams said. "She was brilliant." …
"The things I really want people to take away from this was she was a beautiful woman, inside and out," Williams said. "She had a bright light and she had a compassionate soul and was a lover of people. Becoming a doctor was her best calling. I just want people to know that she was a hero, truly she was, in every sense.”
As I said, “calling” is a common word among religious believers who believe their work is tied to their faith.
Take, for example, the well-known story of Dr. Kent Brantly, who in 2013 moved with his family to serve victims of the warfare in Liberia and got caught in a completely different medical crisis. Thus, the title of his memoir is: “Called for Life: How Loving Our Neighbor Led Us into the Heart of the Ebola Epidemic.”
You can hear the same kind of faith-language in a new Christianity Today feature that ran with this double-decker headline:
How Doctors and Scientists Apply Faith on the Front Lines
Six medical professionals share their spiritual practices in the midst of a pandemic
Writer Rebecca Randall noted:
Sociologists Elaine Howard Ecklund and Christopher Scheitle reported in a 2017 book that when you look at those working at scientific jobs in the United States, such as doctors or nurses (and others), 65 percent identify as Christians, and 24 percent as evangelicals. While the percentage of Christian scientists at elite research institutions is smaller, they are an active bunch and many apply their research out of a sense of service.
CT reached out to a handful of these scientists and doctors to ask them how they’re staying grounded. We contacted people doing research on treatments or vaccines, improving patient care, or contributing to public health responses, some of whom are also working in hospital wards. While we could not include all of the responses we received, we talked to scientists in the US, the UK, Italy, Singapore, and Australia. We asked them how they’re coping and how they’re praying amid this crisis.
I was struck, especially after reading media reports about the death of Dr. Breen, by the testimony of Dr. Julia Wattacheril, who is identified as a physician in a New York City “university hospital.” In addition to front-line work in triage, her research is now linked to efforts to understand COVID-19.
This section of her remarks is entitled, “How she’s holding onto hope.”
Wattacheril described how she became discouraged recently, as she hoped for changes in leadership — such as a new tone of messaging, more emotional intelligence, and a readiness to comfort others in pain. “I prayed my anger and yelled at God on my roof. Later that day I was reminded — through John 15 about Jesus as the vine and we as the branches — that my job was to abide in Christ. I was too concerned with the fruit and anxious and distrustful of what God was doing.” That reminder helped her remember her purpose, and “hope came online quickly after that,” she said.
Wattacheril also talked about processing grief, saying she uses practices she developed several years ago after experiencing grief. She stays “anchored in prayer,” either by herself or with others. She meditates, seated or on walks, and listens to music or sermons. Also, “I have a beautiful community aligned to help and rally and remind me of what I tend to forget about myself as well as my well-worn Scripture verses with decades of history,” she said.
How does this relate to the work and tragic death of Dr. Breen?
We don’t know. It does, however, appear that some of her friends in New York City knew about this side of her life. It appears that they knew details about her church and her volunteer work. They knew that her faith was important in her life.
Was that information crucial to understanding her story?
It appears that the Times team was told about this angle of the story, but something just didn’t click. They didn’t get the connection. The Times moved on.