In a world where professional excellence is sometimes seen as separate from spiritual life, Dr. Beat Winkler is quietly challenging that divide—not with sermons or slogans, but through love, diligence, and a quiet, constant walk with God. For Dr. Winkler, being a Christian in his workplace in Switzerland means doing his work with excellence and letting God’s love speak through his actions.
Decades of Faithfulness
For over two decades, Dr. Winkler has served in the medical department of a major pharmaceutical company in Basel, Switzerland. Starting out with an internship, he specialised in occupational medicine—a field that includes hands-on care, medical assessments, and the complexities of workplace health. From managing a walk-in clinic and doing preventive checkups to supporting employees through burnout and reintegration in collaboration with counselors and HR, Dr. Winkler always has enough to do.
‘’Let me find a way’’
“I’m really busy,” he says with a gentle smile, a fact confirmed not just by his workload, but by the emotional demands of caring for people navigating both their physical and mental struggles. He encounters employees who have to deal with cancer, burnout, depression and more. And yet, Dr Winkler has enough energy every day to take care of the people that he meets.
‘’My relationship with God starts early in the morning. Every day when I get up, I pray.’’ Then, during the day, amidst the chaos and busyness, he is aware of his need for God and for His solutions. He shares: “Even if it’s hard to stop and pray during the day, in heavy situations where it’s difficult to find a solution, I cry to God and say, ‘Please give me the right words or let me find a way.’”
I cry to God and say, ”Please give me the right words or let me find a way.”
Spreading hope through words and acts
Dr. Winkler does not only pray for himself—sometimes he also has the chance to pray with his patients. Although it is not forbidden to pray for people in his workplace, he always tries to be sensitive and feel out how people are in the sense of their relation to God. If they seem open, he says, “I can just jump on that and say: I think there really is a God.””
If they seem open, I can just jump on that and say: ”I think there really is a God.”
Dr. Winkler describes how many people struggling with mental health problems, have difficulties due to experiencing injustice in the work. He shares: ‘’I can say, look, there is injustice in this moment, but you can know that there will be justice one day.’’ Through sharing these little inputs, Dr. Winkler wants to show people that there is not just a ‘hoping’, but an assurance of hope through God.
One time, Dr. Winkler even got to pray for a patient who had tinnitus. He testifies: ‘’He was a Christian also. I prayed for him and then he said it was much better or it even disappeared.’’
Bridging the secular-sacred divide
Although Dr. Winkler does not serve in full-time ministry through a church or religious organisation, he displays the character of Christ beautifully through his work as a doctor—breaking down the divide between the sacred and the secular.
He believes his profession itself is a form of service to God. ‘’Every time people come to me, they should feel help, support, or relief. It’s my job to have patience for the patient. I’m not the one who constantly goes and preaches the gospel. If there’s a possibility or if they ask, I can do this, but I’m not in their face.”
Every time people come to me, they should feel help, support, or relief.
Excellence and the power of His Presence
People quickly look at what you say and how you work. And if you are very enthusiastic and you talk a lot, but you don’t do your job well, you have lost. For me, to do the job well is the basis on which—if there is a possibility—you can preach the gospel,” he adds.
For him, the heart of witness lies not in preaching, but in carrying God’s presence as he does his job professionally, with excellence. “They feel good when they are with me,” he says of his patients and colleagues. “I believe that the Holy Spirit lives in us. Because of this, people feel Him, and they can feel that I’m trying to help them.”
Character of Christ on display
And help them he does—by listening carefully, offering wise medical counsel, and caring for each person with dignity. “Often I see that when they are really also mentally stressed, many times when I talk to them, they come very sad… and they can really leave and have some hope. They feel very grateful.”
Walking in His way
Even when the days are long and emotionally draining, he finds renewal in quiet places. “After work, I’m really very exhausted. So I need to recover again—go outside for a walk, to the forest, be in the garden, or be together with my lovely family. This is the best way to recover.”
It’s a gentle challenge to anyone who feels pressure to speak when their faith might best be shown through quiet, faithful work. Dr. Winkler refers to Ephesians 2:10, “God also has already prepared the good things in which we should walk in.”
And so he walks—in the corridors of clinics, in quiet garden paths, and in the hearts of people who have experienced Christ not through words, but through the healing love of a doctor who listens, who prays, and who serves wherever he goes.
