Here.

Some of you may know that I was trying to go overseas on a mission trip this summer. If so, you also probably know that housing was an issue and, well, I’m still here in the US. Never left. Don't have any plans to for a while yet.

Listening

I was watching the interaction between a doctor and a patient a little while back. The doctor wanted to go home and was trying to hurry through and be done with the appointment, and the patient picked up on it. At one point, the two were nearly in a shouting match. The patient was saying, you’re not listening to me, and the doctor was saying here’s your diagnosis, and there's no way to know the answer to your questions. Interestingly enough, this appointment took just as long as the time a different doctor saw that patient. Other interesting point - during that appointment, there were 2 fewer frustrated people. Because that doctor wanted to care for the patient, even if that meant listening for an extra three minutes to the same story repeated in several different ways. I realize that there isn’t always time to sit and listen. However, attitude matters. 

How many times do we go through interactions with people like this? Listening but not listening, technically present but actually elsewhere. Here’s to truly engaging with the people we meet.

Reflections: Right Now

So, I’m kind of moving. Well, I should say that actually at this point, I have moved. Kind of. It's more accurate to say I have moved once out of a few moves I am expecting to make in the near future. I feel like I’ve never really settled down since finishing high school. A rather odd statement to be making 5+ years later, I realize. Everything feels really temporary. Right now, half of my stuff is in Boston, and half is back in DC. I’m here to work – as evidenced by the types of things I’ve brought with me. Work clothes – 85%, exercise/change-into-after-work/free T-shirts 15%. Going out for fun clothes – 0%. To some degree, I’m completely fine with it - at least for now. I have applications to fill out. Work to do. All in pursuit of becoming what I think God has called me to be. A doctor. Why? I can’t write it on my personal statement for medical school but here’s one reason: to reach out and touch people’s lives and to show them that God loves them and He cares for them. To tell them that I’m there to make a difference in their lives because Christ has made a difference in mine. That because He cares about them, so do I. How do you explain to an unbelieving world that the whole reason that any of this matters is because your life has been touched by Christ? How do you tell them that He can make a difference in theirs too? I don’t know any better way than to show them. We each have our own way that we’ve been called to show others. So far, I think mine is medicine, but I could be wrong. I just have to follow and see.

Lessons from the Kids

So, this was a little while ago, but I wanted to write it down while I remembered. Every month or so, there’s a group worship session where all the classes gather in one room to sing praise songs together. The kids were singing along at a fairly normal volume, but when we got to the chorus in the Chris Tomlin song The God of Angel Armies, their voices just surged as they sang with all their hearts. And for me, that was special. Special because the little children who were singing it wholeheartedly believed every word of it. Special because it was a reminder that God is all-powerful, and like those little kids, I can trust Him without worrying about tomorrow.

While I'm remembering lessons I learned from the kids, here's another story. Sometimes, kids make the strangest statements. One time, Mrs. B asked the class, when is it easiest to trust Jesus? The expected answer: when things are going well. The actual answer: When we’re young and still don’t know what’s out there. I thought about it, and it's really true. As children, we rely completely on our parents and we trust them to take care of everything, including the problems. In that sense, it’s easiest to completely trust God at that point. As we get older, we become more used to taking matters into our own hands, and unfortunately, that often manifests in our spiritual lives as well. So I suppose that’s why we learn to make conscious decisions as we grow up – because the decision we have to make is whether we will choose to trust God and place all matters into His hands.

Because it's (not) all about the money

I was recently reading an article on CNN about what college you ought to attend to get the best "value" for your money. My immediate reaction was well, just because you get a high-paying job after college doesn't necessarily mean that you got the best "value" for your money. I think there's more to learning and becoming an adult than simply checking off the boxes so that you can make money and progress in your career, land that dream job so that you can make more money, and keep on going until you're set for life.

There's value to learning to work harder than you've ever worked before. Those late night cups of coffee, 5 o'clock alarms to get essays finished, and philosophical discussions with friends all shape who you become. For me at least, there were multi-page essays written in a panic and written with the stated acknowledgment of God, I need inspiration. I can't write this by myself. Writing obituaries for our student newspaper was so hard. It was so sad to read about these people, their lives, and to know that they were gone. Gone just like that, with no hope for eternity. I hated writing obituaries because the finality of these deaths all weighed so heavily on my heart. All of this - the work, the stress, the realization that death is so real, and for some people, so utterly lacking in hope - was hard, but looking back now, it was so worth it. It pushed me to lean more on God because I realized that there was no way I was going to get through it by myself.

If we listen closely to the message that is projected at us each day, we hear the subtle, yet not so subtle message that it's the fame, the money, and the prestige that define success. (To be fair, there are the heroes that are lauded in the feel-good stories every once in a while.) For the most part, attention is given to those who hold power or a certain level of notoriety.

Yet, what are we called to do? To look beyond the distractions of a crazy and broken world and follow the call that has been placed on our lives. To follow Christ. To live according to His will. And when we look up from a dizzying world we realize that it's not all about the money. It's not all about the fame or the power. And at the end of the marathon, hearing the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant" will be worth far more than any trinkets we have accumulated here.

So as I move on from one job to another, here's a reminder to myself - it's not about the money, about a career, or about getting ahead. It's about living each day in His will.