Most people are curious about the Mayo Clinic and how it grew to be globally acclaimed in the medical world. Interestingly, its origin was like many other start-ups: really small.
Though the Clinic currently employs some 29,000 people, 124 years ago when it began it was just 27 beds in a small building located in the middle of a cornfield. Patients were served by a handful of Franciscan Nuns who were mostly school teachers, not nurses, unaccustomed to blood and bandages.
The only physicians were two brothers, Will and Charlie Mayo, and their father William. Will and Charlie had no hospital experience, and their father was already 70 years old when the clinic was just getting off the ground. By all rights this humble beginning ought not to have grown into a globally recognized medical empire.
There was another problem, too. In the small town of Rochester, many people were critical of a partnership made between Protestants (the Mayo family) and Catholics (the Sisters). But in spite of their sometimes divergent beliefs, they shared an overriding mission: to care for not just bodies but each person as a whole. Protestants and Catholics found common ground in believing their hospital work was more of a ministry than a business.
But isn’t that always true when God is the Initiator of something new? He sees to it that insurmountable odds are overcome and the impossible is made possible. If we cooperate with him, taking care not to superimpose our ideas over his, he takes responsibility for the outcome, which always concludes well. But if we insist on tweaking his plans, we’re headed for conflict.
That can be true in business, ministry, marriage, friendship, government, and the church. When we let God lead (which includes us being content to hang back and follow), the results will be spectacular. Opposing sides will find themselves getting along, and divisions will melt away.
The picture of Mayo Clinic’s divergent founders accomplishing something significant in unity is a good illustration of another pair of groups originally in opposition to each other: humanity and divinity. These two were about as far apart as any two groups could be, with no hope for compatibility or unity. It was permanently impossible… until the day Jesus died on the cross.
That willing sacrifice changed everything. As a result, human lives can now intersect with the divine, not as enemies but as friends, a reconciliation that will have dramatic consequences throughout eternity.
Though the Mayo Clinic’s history is a remarkable one, salvation’s story far surpasses it. Not everyone will be part of the Clinic’s story, but all are invited to participate in salvation.
“God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Col. 1:19-20)
Mary’s Prayer Requests:
- For the feeding tube to work well. Since it is currently clogged, pray for an uncomplicated repair at the hospital tomorrow
- For abdominal/gas/hunger pains to cease.
- Praise for God’s Word, particularly for the book of James Mary is currently studying, and for Barb, who types and sends notes each week from the group study Mary is missing
- Praise for a good report from Dr. Truty today and the hope of returning home soon, to rest up for chemo