HTH Episode #13: Your Spiritual Growth: Milk versus Steak?

Heal the Healers: Navigating Spiritual Growth as Medical Professionals

In this episode of Heal the Healers, host Inga Hofmann, MD discusses the struggle of maintaining strong faith amid the busy lifestyle of Christian physicians. She challenges listeners to move beyond 'baby steps' Christianity by deepening their understanding of God and His Word as an all-consuming aspect of their lives - beyond a sideline hobby. Inga addresses the illegitimate prioritization of academia and other aspects of life over the pursuit of spiritual growth. She calls for a return to faith, spiritual maturity, and discipleship, urging listeners to see the urgency of this in the current season. It’s time to mature from “Milk” to “steak” (or solid food as apostle Paul shares in 1. Cor 3: 1-2). She also invites listeners to join the Heal the Healers Mentorship Program to journey through this process in a community of like-minded individuals.

00:56 Introduction to the Episode

04:01 The Importance of Spiritual Growth

06:05 The Struggle of Balancing Faith and Career

16:10 The Need for Spiritual Growth and Maturity

25:15 The Importance of Prioritizing God in Our Lives

26:59 Invitation to Join the Heal the Healers Mentorship Program

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Transcript

0:56

Well welcome everybody to Heal the Healers, and today we're gonna talk about an episode that is really dear to my heart and I'm gonna ask myself and you the question, since when have we become so soft as Cristian physicians since when we have lost our way to really have hunger for God and for the things of God. So please stay tuned, and this is gonna be a really important episode for you to listen to. And I want you to stay all the way through the end and really stay engaged and ask yourself, is this in any way speaking to me? I believe this is for a lot of people. This has been on my heart for a while, so stay tuned for after the intro will be wired back. Welcome to the Heal the Healers podcast, where we explore the intersection of faith and medicine. Discover your God-given potential and experience Christ's healing in the midst of medical burnout. I'm your host, Ingar Hoffman, a pediatric key mock doc, physician, coach, and follow of Jesus. Together we will navigate the challenges of medicine, integrate faith into our personal and professional lives. Experience, spiritual renewal and find restoration in Christ. Welcome to the Heal the Healers, where Christ heals one physician and one patient at a time. Well, welcome back to Heal the Healers. My name is Inga Hoffman. I'm the host for this podcast and channel. I'm really happy and grateful you are here. And I'm wanna talk with you about something that is really dear to my heart and that's been really important to me. As I kind of unravel this, I want you to really hold this with an open hand and with an open heart. Because I might ruffle some feathers. And that is a good thing because anytime God speaks to us and reveal something to us in, in, through our Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit in us, that is actually important because he's trying to tell us something. And I felt this is really something he laid on my heart. So I'm gonna share that with you, and I believe that it will bless you and, and. Speak to some of you on a deep way. So thank you also for tuning in. So before I go too far, I wanna remind you to please subscribe to this podcast or to this YouTube channel. Click subscribe and a thumbs up so that it can reach more people and share it with other people. Also, follow us here on YouTube, on Facebook, on your favorite podcast platform at Heal the Healers that is so appreciated. Because that way also the podcast and the YouTube channel will come to you so you don't have to go look for it. It will automatically alert you when a new episode goes live. So thank you so much for doing that and for sharing it with friends, colleagues, people that are in your life that you feel would. Benefit from this that will enjoy this, that will be built up in this. Thank you so much and I really appreciate it. So let us dive in today though in this episode, and I've entitled this spiritual Growth. I. Milk versus steak, and you will see in a few minutes why I gave it such a quirky title. But this one is really critical. You know, for a while I have felt in my spirit this kind of longing and hunger and, and groaning in a way for asking myself this question. Since when have we as Christian physician become so soft in our spiritual walk? When have we started to kind of drift away from the things of God and let everything in our life take over? And take priority and precedent over the things of God. And that really got to me as I was working through this. And honestly this has been in my, in my spirit, in my heart for quite some time, months, months and months, in fact. But it took some time to say, okay, I'm gonna actually speak it out loud. And I felt like now is the time. Probably sometimes I wonder, should have done it earlier. Have I been disobedient in holding this in? But today, this morning when I sat there and I was like, okay, I'm gonna record a podcast episode. I'm gonna record this episode. What am I going to share about? And I have a list of things usually that are on my heart that I'm working through that the Lord has shown me. And, and kind of lay out a schedule and what happens week to week is often that a fresh thing comes in my mind right there and that I have to speak it out when I know it is sort of ripe to, to speak it out and, and release it. You know, there is a timing for everything and I feel this is kind of a, a thing that we have to really. Think about and embody in ourselves right now and chew on this bone right now. So the question is really when have we become so soft in our spiritual growth, in our lack of hunger for the things of God? I. And what about our spiritual cv to, so to speak our CME credits in, in the spiritual, in the biblical sense, right? We make sure we get CME credits and ongoing medical education and take board exams and all these things in the medical realm, and we qualify that as being very, very important to be a good practicing physician. But since when did we decide that for everything else. For things related to the things of God that we hold. We say dearly, we actually do not make time. There is no CME for that one, right? We, we don't even. Invest any time we barely scrape by and then we wonder why we are struggling. And I really want to address that today, and please hear my heart in this. I'm saying this with all love and everything I'm sharing. Here are things that I had to work through. So when I share something, it is not something that. You know, I have a theory about I read somewhere, or I just wanna belittle or, or or call out other people when I have not myself dealt with this. Typically what happens is I had to work through something. I beca it became a revelation to me sometimes a while ago, sometimes very recently, and I feel the weight of that thing to share. With you guys, with you question physicians that are here and watching because you say, I really want to have, faith has a more important priority in my life. I want to integrate that question faith fully in my life. I don't wanna live into the two worlds and want. Big part of not living in the church world over here and in medicine over there and being constantly divided in mind and time and spirit and everything is that we get back to the core of things of God if we really call ourselves questions. So I want you to know that this is something that I had to work through on a very deep level. So, so here we go. I really have encountered this this urgency and sense of we have to go return back to the basics. We have to go back to say, I have a hunger for God, and I'm longing for that and I wanna cultivate that. I want to know him more and more because I know that without him I can do nothing in my life. Nothing is possible without. Or it will be very short lift or lead to not such a good path. And by the way, if you are watching this and you are not a believer of God is not real to you, you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior this might not make sense to you and that's okay. I encourage you though. Explore, investigate treat it like a scientist and say, Hey, maybe those Christian things are not all that crazy. Let me dig into what the Bible and the scripture actually says and approach it with a scientific mindset of curiosity and exploration. And you might be very surprised what you find. So now back to. Addressing though, if you are personal faith and you found yourself kind of in the dry lands, in the desert land and you're like, you know what, God is actually not the priority in my life. Many other things have taken priority in my life and have let go of things of God, then this is really for you. So, and I'm kind of peeking at my notes here in between to make sure I really capture what I wrote out because this kind of flowed through me as I was preparing and I really prayed and I was like, okay. And, and then things usually come to me, so. One thing I heard very clearly that we all want things to go well in our life, right? We want things to go well for our career in medicine, for our families, and we worry about all those things, but we, we care very little about the things of God. They kind of fall by the wayside. Our faith has become a site product versus the center. Piece of our life and who we are. Let me repeat that again, and I should have probably put a quote in the bottom here. Our faith has become a site product versus the centerpiece of who we are, and that is a core issue. That is a really important issue to address because God cannot be here on the side. He. Demands that he is the centerpiece, not in a authoritative, ugly way, but he knows that when we put other things first, that it will be ultimately to our self-destruction. And because he loves us so much, he said, come to me, right? Who are weary, who are broken hearted. Who are burdened, come to me for advice, come to me for instructions because he knows and he knows above all. So it is God. Often in our lives are found as Christian physicians who are busy and busing around and hustling and bustling and put everybody else before God, and sometimes themselves are struggling with this tremendously. And it's that God has become. It's kind of under these long list of things or accolades we do. Perhaps if you think about your cv, God is kind of after all these other things. Your training where you went to medical school, your wonderful paper and your grants and all these things, and after all that, you have this little bottom section on the hobbies and interest, right? God gets maybe a word there, and I'm speaking literally. But also metaphorically speaking, now you might have a CV where actually you mentioned that faith is an important part and that's great. And yes there is structure to a cv. So please don't misplace or misunderstand this, I'm speaking. Literally a little bit, but mostly metaphorically, your God has become this bottom line, little thing in the corner of our sea. We, where we boast everything else up. So our bio sketch is all about me, me, me, me and what I accomplished. But yet our. Physical bio schedule of our life shows very little of the things of God who actually has given you the ability, who has given you the brain, who has given you the opportunities, who opened wonderful doors for you to get through this training. And now the training and your accolades, and your PhD and your md and your letters behind your name and where you trained have become more important than the God. Who gave you all those things in the first place and throughout scripture we can see that that leads to disaster. And to challenges and difficulties because we have misplaced order and structure and authority. If we are people of God, God belongs in our hearts and minds and everywhere first. Above. And really we need to set this right in this season. If we wanna be sustained through this season, I cannot stress how important that is. So please, please hear me with urgency on this. Get your life right, get your life in order. Go back to the things of God and if you have drifted, okay, that's okay. Repent and move. Move back and go start fresh. God is not. God is waiting. He is ready for you, but you have to take the step to turn around and pick it up. So if you find yourself in that place, please hear me. There is grace for you. God is waiting. He loves you, but you cannot keep on wandering off. It will lead to nowhere. So going back to the thought though, that everything else really has taken weight and attention. Above everything in our lives. So weight and attention on all the other stuff we have in our cv in our career, and even often our families, I've been guilty of that be, be before God. And that is out of order. Out of place. In the Biblical Word sense. In the biblical sense. So please, we have to. Return through the things of God and we have to be stopped. We have to stop to be so wishy washy in our faith with no spine, with no knowledge of God and with no. With no even zest of learning, we've become wishy-washy Christians. And that is sad to see because we just, like the Bible talks about right, you cannot be wishy-washy. You're gonna be tossed and turned and tossed and turned. And also you are not gonna be the type of. Person that Jesus instructs us as as a model to live, right in Matthew, who talks about the bee attitudes on the sermon of the mound. Often we display nothing and then we worry why people complain that Christians are a bunch of hypocrites and losers because they actually, right. They're calling you out on our, and. The person that actually points to Jesus by our lifestyle, by our convictions, by how we speak, how we talk, how we help, how we serve patients, how we represent the Kingdom of God, even in our organizations with our incredible broken to the core. And maybe our leadership isn't all that godly either yet. You are called to stand out and to represent something versus complain and bitch about something. So that I digress. That was a side note, but that is really, really important. So I encourage you, build your CV around the knowledge of God, grow in your spiritual maturity and go beyond the baby steps of A, B, C. Jesus is my savior and he loves me and God bless y'all. Yes, he's your s but if he is your saver for longer than a few days, like step it up people like we cannot stay in this wishy-washy soft no spine Christian faith. What's that for you? Gotta you, you train in medicine, we wanna get better, but how come we don't train in the things of God in our spiritual growth with some real discipline and discipleship and perseverance. Yes, it will take all of this perseverance. It will be hard. It will be grueling. It will be sometimes taking a lot of difficult steps. It will be testing, it will be pressure. Paul talks about this. The whole Bible is full of that. Yes, that is what we signed up for. And that we run that race with endurance and grace because he is all so worth it. Now, if we are just staying in the ABCs, then what we are really doing is exactly what Paul says in Corinthians, and I'll put this up there. We are staying. As little infants who still need milk. And I wanna tell you the side story because I was reminded in recent times about this quite a bit. When I was a resident back in the day as a pediatric resident at UCSF, I was, whoa, over 2025, whenever that was, a long, long, long time ago, over 20, almost 25 years ago when I started training. I was always the person that was eager for subspecialization. I became a Peds Hem/onc doc, and even with that, I highly specialized in one disease, pediatric myelodysplastic syndrome, and one area which is a treatment in terms of bone marrow transplant focused. Even just on that area, that is my expertise and that is what I. Walked the distance for, because that was my deepest core passion in the things of medicine. Now, I was not so interested, even as a resident, because in me was placed this hunger and this thirst to learn more and to take care of the most complicated, sickest, rare diseases that one can imagine, however. When I was sitting in grand rounds, what did I get? Fed General ped stuff for the community, pediatrician and God bless your heart because you're really important. I couldn't do your job, but I was dissatisfied because I'm like, let me grow beyond milk. Let me grow to something more solid. Lemme get. Give me a bone to chew on, to use my neurons and have critical thinking. Let me have a scientific mindset and dive deep into deeper things. It didn't even have to be him on, it just needed to be mentally, scientifically, and intellectually challenging. And to challenge my, my stinking thinking, but I found myself in Gen Pete's lectures that kind of bought the crap out of me. Pardon my language. I get really passionate about it. And so I was bursting out to my colleagues. I am done with the Infamil Grand Lounge lectures. I'm ready for some steak. And people laughed and kind of chuckled and it became pretty famous because in my residency class and the classes around me I was the one that was quoted she one's steak not Enfamil formula. And that is very true. I. And these are the things of God. Why did I quote that back? Then? It bursted out of my mouth because of this scripture I'm gonna pull up here. So Paul talks to the Corinthians church here and he says in one Corinthians three, one, brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the spirit, but as people who are still worldly, more infants in Christ. And he goes on and says, I gave you milk. Not solid food for you are not ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. And then he goes on to say, I encourage you to read the rest to say, because you're still worldly. Because they were quarreling about things of Apollos and Paul and, and the different leaders in that area and who did what. No, but what he would but also what I get from this is we have to go. Beyond the things of baby steps, Christian, we have to be in our spiritual growth and put some, some strength on and some bones on here. And a baby won't drink breast milk or formula until. They're grown up and a grown adult won't get them there. Right? Eventually they wean off of those things and get solid food. So this is a really great metaphor. Our analogy Paul is using here, and in the same way we have to get off. The baby steps, the milk of Christian growth and go into deeper levels. Now you might think, well, if I read any of Paul's letters, nothing was very superficial, although he often reminded and corrected and also encouraged them what was important when what Christ was really revealing and teaching. So I really want to encourage you. I urge you, I really press in on you. Go. Get your spiritual growth on, get your CME in your Christian discipleship and discipline. Get into the word and really in God's face and understand what he is saying. This does not happen by, give me a verse a day, or I show up on Sunday when I can, or I'm really busy. Let me just do Zoom Church. What does that do? That was very nice during Covid. What a nice distraction. And it has its role in its place to certain degree. I am coming to you digitally right now, right? We are not meeting in person. It has its role, but it also has its limitations because if you are just one way listening to somebody, there is zero accountability, there is zero correction unless you put it on yourself. So I urge and encourage you. Go get in the word, take this seriously. Really, really this is nothing to just toy around with. And if, if that's how you feel, like, why are we doing it in the first place? Christian is not just some club. We show up on occasion for some social events to have a potluck dinner. And, and I show up to a sermon once in a while if I feel like it. And I'm not saying. Making you trying to make you feel guilty. When you are on call, you cannot go. I understand. I've been on call, I've worked nights and weekends and on Sundays and couldn't go. I understand I'm, I'm a physician, I get it. But then still find time to get in the word and then pray and listen. Pause the moment and actually listen what God is telling you. People say, I cannot hear from God. I used to say that well, because I never took the time actually sit there and trying to listen what he's saying because I just dumped my request off and then ran off. That's not how it works people. So please, please. Go and pray and ask yourself and ask the Lord, Lord, how can I get a fresh start here? I really long to know you more. I really under want to understand you more, and sometimes I'm having a hard time understanding. Sometimes I misunderstand scripture or I don't know what it means. Ask him the Lord. The the Bible says, when we lack wisdom, ask the Lord. He's gonna freely give it to you. So please take this seriously and take a fresh step back. So if you'll find yourself in a place where you had a hard time and you feel like I'm not growing, I'm not doing much. I show up at church when I can, that now save time to repent. To really ask the Lord for forgiveness and say, I'm struggling, and he's here to help you. He is here and he's waiting and he's ready to instruct you. He has not brought you here and given you all this draining. You haven't gone through all the process for nothing. He is here to lift you up, but you have to also go do your part. You have to go invest your part. That means time being uncomfortable, being stretched, and in fact, that's what we're gonna talk about next time. So the last thing I really wanna tell you. Oftentimes we say, you know, my faith is important to me. That's part of who I am. I say that too, right? I would say that on podcast and to people, faith is, you know who I am, and that's a core part of who I am, and that sounds lovely, but really I encourage you and me is my faith, my belief in God, the creator. An all consuming fire that consumes everything in my life Above all, that is really where I want you and me to get to that it is an all consuming fire. And then everything else, what you do in your career, what you do in medicine, what you do with your family, what you do with your time and your health and all the problems around you will flow from there much more easily, and didn't say easy, but easily. So please. Go dig in. Go get your spiritual CV set. Go get your CME credits in the House of God under his guidance, under his professorship.'cause everything else we do is in vain and won't lead to a lasting returnal result. And I know that often things stand in the way when we do this. And this is what we're gonna talk about in the next episode. What I have found, there's two things that stand in people's way and we're gonna dig deeply into this next time, but they have to do with time commitment and sometimes being a bit bit uncomfortable. So I en encourage you, tune in next time again, share this episode with other people. So. That you can also bless others with this. And then if you are saying, you know what, Inga, this sounds all great, but it's really hard to do this journey on my own. You're absolutely right. It is difficult to do this on your own. It is quite challenging. We never meant to do this alone. So find a local church, number one. If you're not plucked into one, find a. Biblical Bible-based local church and get connected and get involved there the best you can. And then I also encourage you to go and check out the Heal the Healers Mentorship Program. I opened it up in January. Right now I have a. Close to focus on those that are in the group, giving some first training and classes. And I really want to shepherd that process. So, but I will open this again. So if you say I want some discipleship and I want to be amongst physicians that actually understand my life and my specific challenges, then this is really for you. So then you can enter a community that teaches you, instructs you. Christian discipleship and discipline, spiritual growth, Christian leadership, all things healing, mentorship and coaching, and all those things that will help you be equipped as the Saints. Okay, if that is of interest to you, scan this QR code right now and you get on the wait list when I open the doors for the Heal the Healers Mentorship program again, that you can join. I don't know exactly yet when that is. Probably sometime in the spring. So scan the code that gets you on my email list. I sent you weekly encouragement as well so that you can be encouraged in the board of God and in your faith, and that way we can stay connected and when there is another opportunity to join this group that you will be the first to know. So with that, I say, God bless you have a. Wonderful rest of your day and of your week. And again, be encouraged in the word of God. And I see you next week. My prayer is that you were encouraged, strengthened, and perhaps even convicted with this episode today. If this podcast has blessed you, would you help share it with your friends and colleagues and even share it on social media? Also, leave us a review on the podcast platform where you are listening to this content. It would help us a lot. Together we can share the good news of Jesus and transform medicine one physician. And one patient at the time. Have a great day. God bless.