Healing Purpose: Finding Satisfaction in a Healthcare Career

by Mark Topazian

Publisher:

IVP Academic

, 2025

Overview

Rediscover Meaning in Your Healthcare Career

Working in healthcare can be immensely satisfying, but it can also be challenging. As a doctor, nurse, dentist, therapist, or other practitioner, you find purpose in solving problems and helping sick people get better. In fact, that’s probably why you chose healthcare in the first place. But your days are often filled with stress, responsibility, and face-to-face encounters with suffering. Maybe you’re on the verge of burnout, or perhaps you’re wondering if there’s a deeper meaning to your daily tasks.

In Healing Purpose, physician and professor Mark Topazian helps you find satisfaction in your work by recognizing and embracing the spiritual aspects of your profession. He shows you how seeing God’s presence at the point of care can bring joy, enhance your effectiveness, and renew your sense of purpose as a healthcare professional.

Using stories from his experience treating patients and training healthcare workers around the world, Topazian combines biblical perspectives with current research and practical advice for everyday situations. This book

• Explores what the Bible says about health, sickness, suffering, and healing
• Provides techniques for connecting with the spiritual dimension of patient care
• Explains how spiritual resources can help counter work-related weariness
• Features discussion questions and practical exercises at the end of each chapter

If you’re a healthcare professional suffering from compassion fatigue, this book will help you recover a healthy perspective—and decide what needs to change. If you’re content in your work, this book will open your eyes to the deeper purpose of your daily routine and new ways to thrive. If you’re a healthcare student or trainee, this book offers a foundation for a fulfilling career. Transform your approach to your career and get your copy today.

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Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part 1: Anatomy
1. Being Human
2. Body
3. Soul and Spirit
Part 2: Sickness and Health
4. Health and Healing
5. “Why Me?"
6. Healing and Repentance
7. The Fear of Death
Part 3: Suffering
8. Integrity
9. Lament
10. When We Ask "Why?” God Says "Who!"
Part 4: Good News
11. Healing and the Gospel
12. Why Jesus Went into Healthcare
13. How Much Faith Is Enough?

Conclusion
Scripture Index

Praise for Healing Purpose

"I first met Mark Topazian when we shared a room in a Muslim family’s home after the fall of the Albanian dictatorship that had made God illegal for a generation. He has worked most of his career as a Mayo Clinic physician and has more recently served in healthcare ministry in Ethiopia. I bring this up to focus on his authenticity and authority to speak for both science and faith. He has done so beautifully in this biblically grounded, scientifically accurate work that guides us and compels us to seek the wonderful wholeness that God has planned for us and those we serve."

"Mark Topazian’s book does accomplish its purpose. His honest and forthright accounts of patient encounters and a search for spiritual meaning in our work did indeed fan the flames of my own passion to practice nursing as ministry. There are reflection and application exercises at the end of each chapter to personalize learning. Dr. Topazian makes us feel it is okay to struggle, to doubt, to embrace our calling, and to use our faith as a resource to combat fatigue and burnout. This book is a breath of fresh air for all those called to ministry in healthcare."

"Globally, training in the healthcare disciplines typically excludes the acknowledgement of God as Creator, source of all wisdom, and the ultimate healer. In Healing Purpose, Mark Topazian uses his personal experience, numerous references, and biblical truth to fill this gap in our understanding and practice of medical science. He provides a sound context for those who desire to practice their noble professions to their full potential in promoting health and caring for the sick, in the way God intended."

"Those of us who work in healthcare have an incredible opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Jesus when we bring hope and healing to our patients, but it’s not always easy to do so when we are confronted with overwhelming suffering and crushed under heavy workloads. This book examines the many challenges that faithful practitioners face and provides practical guidance on how to overcome them."

"Dr. Mark Topazian weaves together powerful clinical stories, biblical accounts, and evidence-based research to insightfully describe the need we all have to receive wholistic care. He gives us concise and accessible ways to integrate Christian faith into our daily work in healthcare. From practicing repentance and lament to praying with patients, Dr. Topazian offers practical next steps for those seeking to discover deeper meaning and purpose in their work. I am excited to share this book with healthcare students, faculty, and professionals!"

"Healing Purpose provides much-needed insight and awareness regarding the importance of addressing our patients and ourselves as whole beings—mind, body, and spirit. Too often, we feel unprepared to assess and address the spiritual needs of others. We close off these parts of ourselves as burnout and compassion fatigue take hold. This book fills in the gaps and provides a primer for balanced, whole-person care. It sees each of us for all that we are."

"God has graciously gifted me with a longtime friendship and fellowship with Dr. Mark Topazian. In these pages, Mark conveys a biblical understanding of God’s purpose for healing the sick, garnered from decades of patient care as a Christ-follower in academic medicine. Medicine has been a powerful tool in his life as a gastroenterologist to introduce patients to a healing God. Mark reminds us that all healing is the result of God’s common grace, and we, as healthcare professionals, are ministers of that common grace. We have daily opportunities to point patients and their families to the author and sustainer of shalom in our own lives and the lives of those entrusted to our care. Mark also reminds us that restoring whole health to patients (i.e., body, soul, and spirit) brings some of the greatest joy to a healthcare professional’s life. Because this is true, we must do a better job equipping the next generation of Christian healthcare professionals to address this holistic care. Healing Purpose is a book that I would urge every Christian medical or dental trainee (student, resident, or fellow) in the US or around the globe to read before they graduate or start their practice."

Product Details

• Title: Healing Purpose: Finding Satisfaction in a Healthcare Career
• Author: Mark Topazian
• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2025
• Logos Release Date: 2025
• Pages: 208
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781514012390, 9781514012383, 1514012383, 1514012391
• Resource ID: LLS:9781514012390
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-17T01:22:35Z

About the Author

Mark Topazian is a gastroenterologist and professor of medicine. He has practiced and taught at Yale University, at the Mayo Clinic, and in multiple sub-Saharan African countries. He is a regular speaker at the Global Missions Health Conference and a Saline Process trainer, coaching healthcare professionals on the integration of faith and medical practice.