LIVING “A COMPLEX GOD,” CONTINUED... track every other sin to that. I am someone who’s just used by the Lord,“ he says. “I realize that I am flawed, and that gets back to what makes me, I hope, a little better doctor — and I don’t mean that in a bragging way. My accountability to God is something maybe patients don’t notice, though I do hope they notice the fruits of it.” As a heart specialist, Wyrick frequently conducts end-of-life counseling. He says that his Christian views on death — namely, that eternal life in Heaven follows this one on Earth — often provide comfort to patients, though he’s careful not to foist his religious beliefs on those who wouldn’t welcome them. Nor should his beliefs suggest that he looks upon death with any kind of perverse joy. When Wyrick recalls his own mother’s death from cancer two years ago, there’s every indication that the emotional sting is still fresh, regardless of the unflagging strength of his convictions. “Death is a huge thing. Boy, as I found out on March 22, 2012, it’s very painful to lose someone. I’ve dedicated my life to physical medicine, and obviously my goal
Before a procedure, Dr. Jared Wyrick prays with his patient Greg Boyle at Deaconess Medical Center. YOUNG KWAK PHOTO is to help people live as long as possible. I take that very seriously.” Despite his concept of this physical life as being distinct from an afterlife, Wyrick doesn’t view re-
ligion and medicine as mutually exclusive. Quite the opposite. “I see science as being propped up by Christianity and such,” he says. “I look at
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