03/19/2021
This is a time of great weight and waiting for those in our line of work. Some are preparing for the biggest test of their lives so far, some awaiting the grades from it, and some waiting to find out where they will spend the next stretch of their training.
Most medical students are under some considerable stress each spring.
Ultimately all of our stress and worry comes down to our futures. Our plans and hopes for our futures weigh heavy on most of our minds. What if I don't match to my #1? What if I have to SOAP? What if I don't get a good enough STEP score to go into Orthopedics? What if my score isn't good enough to get me an interview at Scott & White?
The root of our distress over this lies in ourselves. We have to remember that, despite our intelligence and accomplishments, our understanding is finite. Narrow. Flawed. This, while we believe in an infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."
Clichés are cliché for a reason.
But take it from Paul, writing from prison (rather than Solomon's palace) in Romans 11:33-36 "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
For context Paul was pleading with the Roman Christians to mend relations with the returning Jewish Christians who had been previously in exile. Earlier in chapter 11 he asks them to show mercy as Christ did to them.
His wisdom is much greater than anything we could hope to attain outside of him. Returning to Solomon, "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9
This wisdom from God is being actively used to establish where we are going in spite of OUR plans and where WE think we need to go. And just in case you have only read Job (and didn't finish it) and thought his plan might be to punish, torture, or otherwise abuse you: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."
For a bit of my own analogy to wrap this up. You're excited, Dad's taking you out for a treat. You're sure you will get a blizzard. He knows you've been asking for one. You're riding with him down Broadway and before you're down to 20th he turns. You're distraught. No ice cream? You can't imagine why he would do this to you. Then, you pull up to Hey Mikey's. Dad orders the ice cream nachos and gives you the perfect plate of toppings. Not what you expected, but better than you had imagined.
As a parting word for those of us under some tribulations:
In God, whose word I praise,
in the Lord, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
Psalm 56: 10&11
