A true physician must be able to see life from the perspective of the spirit, soul, and body.

• A true physician must be able to see life from the perspective of the spirit, soul, and body, and even though patients may face difficulties that can be compared to winter, they will help them to embrace the hope of spring. -
• For over a decade, I have attended retirement ceremonies of professors, listening to their life stories and their words to their students. I wanted to learn from their lessons if there were any. However, most of their stories were about their classrooms and their lives, and there were few who spoke wisely about the future.
  After that, I wondered what kind of beneficial story I should tell at my own retirement ceremony.
  There is also a saying that when you leave, you should not look back without a word, but walk quietly forward. In a way, I agree with that. Everyone leaves when their time comes, so why would they need to say anything?
• However, I felt a strong desire to leave a word or two, or a message, at my retirement ceremony. Because sharing the importance and gratitude for life is not limited to myself, it is important for all professors, students, and those who are suffering who study and research life sciences and medicine.
• This is a news item I heard a few years ago. It happened overseas, and a boy trapped in the ruins of a building was miraculously rescued after a week. After being rescued, the boy was interviewed by the media. He said that he was holding his father's hand when the building suddenly collapsed, and he was trapped alone. He said that he ate the bread in his hand and drank the water around him, and never gave up hope that his father would come to rescue him.
  He was luckily rescued by the rescue team after a week, but he was able to endure the darkness alone because he had faith that his father would come to rescue him. Was the true strength not the faith born of trust and love for his father?
• As we go through life, we are visited by various misfortunes without warning, and we spend a harsh winter. Those misfortunes sprout from money, power, fame, and human relationships, but sometimes they come from nowhere.
  No one can survive if this harsh winter of life continues for too long.
  However, like the child introduced above, if you have faith in your heart that your father will rescue you from that darkness, you will be able to endure that winter and one day the seeds of spring life, hope, will sprout within you.
• Doctors often see patients with cancer or medically intractable diseases depending on their specialty. Sometimes, they may feel helpless when the treatment outcome is not good, or they cannot see the results, or they have to watch their patients die.
  However, if we can view the process and outcome of such diseases from the perspective of winter in the cycle of life, the doctor's and patient's thoughts may change.
  Even in the case of patients with intractable or incurable diseases, if the seed of life grows within their hearts, the light will shine on their dark hearts filled with despair and loneliness, and they will come to embrace the hope of life.
  
  
• When you reach this level, you will go beyond just fighting for survival, and you will discover a new true life within yourself. In other words, even though it is a harsh winter now, you can see the spring life in advance through faith.
  The book of Hebrews in the New Testament says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The boy's words in his interview after his rescue proved the words of the book of Hebrews about faith.
• Human life is made up of spirit, soul, and body. In the scientific world, which is based on logic and reason, life is only dealt with in the physical and mental dimensions. We cannot know what happens in the subconscious world. The spiritual world is hidden in the subconscious world, so it cannot be known in the conscious world. Therefore, it is limited for science to talk about this.
  
  
• In the New Testament, a Jewish man named Paul the Apostle was originally a very learned man. He was on his way to Damascus in Syria when he accidentally heard the voice of Jesus, the essence of life, and lived a new life. He lived a life of so-called regeneration. After that, he did not see life from the physical perspective as true life. It is a difference in perspective, but when a person meets the Lord, who is the light and the essence of life, change occurs. That's why, even though he was originally a scholar of high caliber, he talked about all the things he had learned as elementary learning. This change occurs because he sees it from the perspective of a born-again person after enlightenment.
  
  
• A true physician must be able to see life from the perspective of the spirit, soul, and body, and even though patients may face difficulties that can be compared to winter, they will help them to embrace the hope of spring.
  
  
• In this world, no matter how difficult things may be, even if death approaches, if you have faith that "my father will come to rescue me," you will live. In the case of adults, when each of us meets Jesus, the essence and light of life, as our father, even if we are in darkness or going through a harsh winter, the love of the Lord dwells within our hearts, giving us strength to endure, opening our eyes to the spiritual perspective of life beyond the physical body, and as eternal life dwells within us, we will be able to sing “winter is over, spring has come."
  
  
• First, I would like to thank the Lord of light and life for giving me life so that I could reach my retirement. I would also like to thank my family, colleagues, relatives, and friends who have taken care of me and supported me.
• August 27, 2019, Department of Radiation Oncology, College of Medicine, Chonbuk National University, Kwon Hyung Cheol