How to Share Your Faith Using Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy won the People's Choice Award this week for television drama. Now in its third season, Grey's Anatomy has joined a long list of medical dramas that seem to fascinate us - House, ER, Scrubs, to name a few. What is it about the world of doctors, hospitals, disease and healing that grabs our attention and keeps us coming back for more?
Perhaps we like watching the likes of Meredith Grey, Izzie Stevens or Mark Sloan because doctors are generally smart, successful people. Or maybe we're fascinated by watching from a 'safe distant' while the drama of the various patients' life-threatening diseases or injuries unfold in each episode. Are we intrigued by the tensions in the doctors' and interns' personal lives and relationships? After all, the high levels of stress and fast-paced decisions of the medical world make the sniping and bickering believable and feed into the inevitable relational melt-downs and resulting high drama!
No doubt all of the above are part of the reason we're drawn in to Grey's Anatomy and other medical dramas. But another hook is our fascination with issues of life and death. We are intrigued because, deep down, every human wonders about what's coming next after this life, and can't help but be curious about how other people handle dealing with life and death decisions.
So given the widely-held interest in TV shows like Grey's Anatomy, try moving the conversation about this week's episode beyond the usual 'he said, she said' banter. Move the conversation toward God-talk and issues of life and death - both physical and spiritual. Here are some specific conversation starters to help you:
- Do you like watching Grey's Anatomy or other medical shows? Why or why not?
- Do you think you would like to be a doctor and be 'responsible' for life and death decisions on a routine basis? Why or why not?
- How do you think you would handle it if you were seriously injured in a car accident or learned you had some terrible, life-changing or life-threatening disease?
- Are you afraid of death? What do you think happens when you die?
- Do you know for sure that you'll go to heaven when you die? Check out 1 John 5:12-14. If you need help explaining God's gift of salvation, learn more at GOSPEL Journey.
- Share about the peace and comfort you get from having a personal relationship with God. Do you know that you can count on God to carry you through the really hard stuff that life might throw your way?
Let your friends know about the greatest healer of all - Jesus. Even back in Bible times, people were drawn to 'medical dramas'. Did you know that Jesus described himself as a 'physician'? He was a healer of physical disease and spiritual disease. The Gospels are filled with stories of his healing the sick, and of the resulting crowds of people who were drawn to him because of his healing powers. (Matthew 4:23-24) And people are still drawn to him today...that is, when they find out what an amazing 'physician' He truly is - so are you willing to pass along the good news?
