Okay, we’ve rethought some easy things. I think you’ll really be challenged this week. I know I was when I started thinking this post through.

Ask any ten-year-old who says they want to be a doctor when they grow up why, and they’ll probably tell you they want to be a doctor to help people. And at ten, it’s probably true. It might even still hold true at eighteen or halfway through medical school. But eventually, doctors in training learn something about their chosen profession: there’s more to medicine than “helping people.”

To be safe, a doctor must carry malpractice insurance. To get patients, a physician will usually partner with several insurance carriers. And to keep the lights on and the staff paid, a doctor will pay very close attention to the bottom line. Soon, the practice of medicine necessarily becomes a job, like carpenter, clerk, burger flipper or window washer, less focused on helping and more on money.

Am I saying doctors don’t care about their patients or are in it exclusively to get rich? No, I’m saying that doctors have bills to pay like you and I. They work for income like you and I. And any service for which you pay is ultimately about making money.

Say it with me, “If a business charges you a fee for their services, they are a for-profit organization: they exist to make money.” There. That wasn’t so hard. And it’s not evil or wrong. Doctors have to eat, pay bills, repay staggering college loans, buy their kids shoes and get shots for the dog. So do hospital administrators, nurses, dentists, lawyers, morticians, policemen, store owners and all the rest.

Now, here’s another leap. The only one looking out for your best interest is you. With only a tiny handful of exceptions, no one in your life is concerned with what is best for you but you. Nope, not Oprah. Not the publishers of the magazine on the coffee table. Not the anchorman on the news. Not (here’s the leap) the doctor, lawyer, dentist, politician, pharmacist, policeman or anyone else.

Are you still with me? Each one of these paid professionals does his or her job to make money to pay bills and put food on the table. If a professional has no interest in money, but only in helping people, there are numerous charities where time may be volunteered. And it is a wonderful thing if your chosen profession is in a field you love. But we all work to pay the piper, don’t we?

Some of us are blessed with amazing spouses and parents who regularly sacrifice their best interests on our behalf. If we are even more blessed, we have children and spouses for which we exercise this same strength-building ritual. It’s a good thing to do and edifying in many ways. But it’s not something we should expect from those around us who aren’t personally invested in us.

It would be a mistake of the other extreme to view these people with suspicion or with a jaded eye. There’s nothing inherently evil in earning a living. We run into problems when we accept wholesale what one authority says and base our belief system around it. Because we must act in our own best interest, we must seek out a second or third opinion when a doctor gives us a diagnosis. We must ask questions. And if a professional doesn’t give us the time we need to ask, we must find a new professional.

Is there a professional in your life who gives you an acute case of “expert awe”? Are you able to make the step away from this awe to realize that he or she is in a for-profit business? What makes a professional worthy of your trust? How far does that trust extend? Strike up a conversation below, or post a link to your blog where you brainstorm this idea. Let’s encourage each other! Oh, and stop by on Thursday for my personal story.

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