It was so refreshing to be able to join like-minded ophthalmologists at the recent COS conference in Greenville, South Carolina. I am an ophthalmologist practicing in Sydney, Australia and I have been asked to share how I came across the COS in the first place, which I am very happy to do. I hope it will be an encouragement to some who will read this.
In 2019, I was preparing for my final exams and attended a strabismus workshop run by a strabismologist who happened to include a quote by J. Lawton Smith in his lecture slides that intrigued me. I cannot even remember what the quote was, but I must have been so struck by it that I decided to find out who this J. Lawton Smith man was all about.
I came across his famous neuro-ophthalmology “tapes” which are available via the NOVEL website – well-known to most ophthalmologists, including those in Australia. At this point I had no idea who J. Lawton Smith was aside from the fact that he was a well-known neuro-ophthalmologist. I was doing a rotation in pediatric ophthalmology at the time and one of the first tapes I listened to was titled, “Pediatric Neuro-Ophthalmology”. The recording was so informative and engaging that I listened all the way through to the end and was about to stop it when all of a sudden, JLS decides to pray for the listener to conclude the tape. This really got my attention.
I think it was a combination of his brilliance at teaching and explaining perhaps what many ophthalmologists find to be a more challenging aspect of ophthalmology combined with his passion to integrate his faith into his tapes. I had never seen anyone do that in my sphere. In the subsequent weeks and months, I listened to many more of JLS’s tapes, with many of them ending with the reading of the Bible or the saying of a prayer. I even decided to listen to his tapes on “the Macula”, even though this was not really his area of expertise. In those tapes he is accompanied by Donald Gass, who is considered by many to be “the king of the macula”. I cannot recall what exactly was said in those tapes but there was some indication that Don Gass was also a Christian. So that led me to do some research on Don Gass and I came across a couple of things which once again, encouraged me a lot.
In his famous textbook, Gass’ Atlas of Macular Diseases, you will come across the following statement by his daughter in the introductory section titled, “In Remembrance of Dr Gass”:
Whether one knew my father as a physician, colleague, mentor, friend, neighbor or family, he was respected and loved for his kindness, his gentleness, his patience, his sense of humor, his integrity, his steadfast faith in the Lord, and a genuine humility rarely seen in others.
In his acceptance speech of the Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research in 2001, Don Gass does not fail to acknowledge God in his ways, and you can watch that speech here:
https://helenkellerfoundation.org/j-donald-m-gass/
I also came across the famous article, “The Legend of Lawton” included in the journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology as a legacy to “the man who taught us Neuro-Ophthalmology” (quote from one of my mentors in Australia) and discovered the story of his conversion at the age of 33. His description of what happened, including how his life changed and the way he practiced medicine challenged me deeply. He would pray with his patients, especially when things were looking pretty grim, and he cannot recall any patients save a few who did not show appreciation for that simple act which would take less than a few minutes at the end of a consultation. He even recalls a regular patient who refused to leave the room until JLS prayed for him – because JLS had forgotten to! I think that says a lot about what patients need from us as doctors. Perhaps they need us to get down to their level and admit that we are both (doctor and patient) dependent on help from God.
Anyway, it was through these avenues (God’s guidance, no doubt) that I came to discover the Christian Ophthalmology Society. Although I have known about it for some time now, it was not until this year that I was actually able to make it to the annual conference. It was a long plane trip from Australia, but I’m so glad I made it. I cannot say I have experienced anything like it – ophthalmologists delivering lectures about their field of expertise but also having the liberty to share what God has taught them through their various experiences. It really has blown me away. I feel refreshed, encouraged and challenged to be first and foremost, an ambassador for Christ and to use my profession as a tool to accomplish that overriding goal.
May God bless all those who labour and sacrifice of their time, effort and money to make this event happen and I will surely be making plans to attend the next one, should the Lord will.
Your brother in Christ,
Nader Beshay
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. — 1 Corinthians 15:58
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