How to Share Your Faith Using House
Mystery meets medicine in the award winning Fox TV series House. Dr. House is a brilliant, but egotistical and abrasive doc who specializes in diagnosing mysterious infectious diseases. Solving the medical puzzle is House's first priority and he demonstrates a single-minded determination to unlock the diagnosis for the diseases he faces down in each episode.
Bedside manner is a non-issue to House. He ignores the normal behavior standards of decency and compassion that might be expected of a doctor, routinely bullying, badgering and belittling his patients and co-workers alike. However no one would deny he's brilliant at diagnosing disease. It seems that in addition to specializing in infectious disease Dr. House also specializing in pushing people away.
Yet in the life and death environment of a hospital, we tend to expect that compassion (at least toward patients) would be part of a doctor's routine. But compassion is not a language Dr. House knows, all he knows is brutal honesty and crushing satire.
What do you think? Does being right make up for being nasty? Does knowing and speaking the truth mean that you don't need to relate to others with kindness or compassion? As Christians, we have Jesus as our model. Jesus perfectly balanced grace and truth in the midst of his interactions with sinful, broken, and hurting people. Check out John 8:1-11 for an example of how Jesus used grace and truth in his interactions with others.
As we share our faith with others, being 'right' should never be a license for being 'rude'. Neither is it a license for arguing simply to 'win' the argument. Our discussions about Biblical truth should be motivated by God's love and grace, not by our debating skills. Eph. 4:15 puts it this way,
"God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love--like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do." (The Message)
The medical drama unfolding on each episode of House can be a great conversation starter for talking about spiritual things. Try some of these questions to help you move your conversation with friends toward God talk.
- How do you think you'd react if you came down with a life-threatening infectious disease? Ask your friends if they're confident they'll go to heaven when they die? Share about your faith in Jesus and the free gift of eternal life that He offers.
- Do you think Dr. House is deliberately trying to push people away with his biting words and brutal honesty?
- Does being right ever make up for being nasty? How do you "speak the truth in love"?
- Do you think House has let his own physical disability and constant pain make him bitter toward God and other people?
- Have you ever thought of our sin nature as a "mysterious illness" that needs a cure? Why or why not? How do other religions try to diagnose and cure evil in the world? Share how the cross is the only true cure for the evil inside us.
- One of Dr. House's favorite lines is "Everybody lies." Does this House-ism point toward the Biblical reality that everybody has sinned and is in need of the forgiveness God offers through Jesus? For help discussing this, check out the 'Our sins separate us from God' section of the GOSPEL Journey.
Ask God to give you opportunities this week to speak the truth in love and share about His incredible gift of forgiveness and salvation.
