Wrong Diagnosis

I could tell that the cardiologist wanted to diagnose me with sleep apnea. The problem for her was that I don’t have it. Still, as we talked, she kept steering the conversation back to the problem she wanted to treat.

“Do you snore?” Only a little.

“Do you wake up feeling tired?” No.

“How is your snoring?” I think we covered this.

I suppose I fit the profile of a sleep apnea patient—older than the doctor, overweight, sits at a computer all day. However, I have been tested and I don’t have it.

Do you ever get focused on a wrong idea or a misconception and then have trouble opening your mind to a new idea? Acts 25 tells the story of Paul speaking before Porcius Festus and King Agrippa, telling them the story of his conversion. Suddenly, Festus began shouting, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind!”

Like the cardiologist, Festus assumed he knew the diagnosis—Paul was insane. To think that Paul had gone mad was easier than considering that he might be right. If only Festus had dug deeper, he might have arrived at a better diagnosis.

For those who are willing, the Bible invites us to dig deeper. Romans 12:2 advises, “Do not be conformed to this world,” which means we should not accept culture’s diagnosis. Instead, we are to be “transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”