"To Everything a Season and a Time for Every Purpose under the Heavens" - Ecclesiastes 3:1

When I was four years old I received a brown, plastic toy doctor's kit. Inside were mysterious and wonderful instruments of the learned: a plastic stethoscope, a toy syringe, a small basin. I cannot recount the many hours I spent gleefully "diagnosing" adults who, in turn, exercised what could be described only as saintly patience.

Later, as a young pre-teen my uncle would refer to me jokingly as "doctor". "Hey doctor!" he would say loudly as I entered a room. I turned my precocious 12 year old self towards him one day and said with mock seriousness, "Not 'doctor', professor!". He thought that was funny.

When in high school I was only one of two students in my class who went to a cadaver lab, an exercise for those who hoped to one day go into medicine. I was 17 when I held my first human heart.

While in the military I served as a combat medic, traveling the world and patching up troops on multiple continents. How many times did I grab my aid bag and run towards the voices yelling, "doc!" - more than I can recall.

These are wonderful and treasured memories. I cannot help feeling, however, that they all have been leading up to this moment. Today, after decades of experience and years of study, I have finished my final medical school requirements. Today, I am finally a physician.

Honestly, it hardly seems possible. My mind has not yet grasped the enormity of what has happened. With the passing of that final exam and the last "click" of the computer keyboard, I have at long last received that for which I have for a lifetime labored: I am a doctor. I am a healer. God has favored me with this profound privilege and staggering responsibility. I know it will be by His Strength alone that I shall live up to this sacred title.

I have much to share with you concerning the details and nuances of medical school. This experience is surely not for the light hearted. Neither is it for those who are not absolutely sure they want to spend their lives in the service of God and humanity. Over the next several weeks I will be casting some illumination on particular experiences and challenges in the hope that this may prove helpful.

Until then, no more books for me. I think I will sleep in tomorrow.

A Very Special Day

Today is a remarkable day, a day for which I have been waiting since I resumed my undergrad studies in 2012. Today, at 1700 hours Central Standard Time in the United States, I officially finished my last day in medical school.

Honestly, I can hardly believe it. This journey has been so much more than I imagined and required so much more than I had to offer. It is God Who has carried my family and myself on eagle's wings (Exodus 19:4) and brought us through tribulation, trial, and triumph on levels heretofore unknown. He has guided us through extraordinary blessing and crippling want, academic success and biting poverty. And, through it all, we have come to know and love Him and appreciate each other as a family more. I will never stop celebrating the reality that I am a physician because of Yeshua (Jesus).

Please note I am not bouncing off the walls in wild exuberance. Though I am terribly thrilled at finally being done with my medical rotations and school work, there remains on final exam (a COMAT shelf exam in surgery) hanging over my head. This is unusual as most students by this time in their academic careers have finished all their academic requirements. When taking this particular exam many months ago, there was a computer glitch that required me to stop and restart, thus robbing me of precious time. I ended up failing by one point. My school has asked that I retake this exam. Until I do, I am not completely done.

I must be honest: this is a frustration. But, I know if God can carry me through undergraduate studies and four years of medical school with a large family and two special needs children, He can get me through this final, petty, exam. It will take about three weeks of study and two additional weeks for the results. God willing, I will pass and then I will be, officially, a doctor. It is at that point, Dear Reader, I will be exuberantly bouncing off the walls!

Despite all, today is a very special day and, though muted, a day of celebration. Shabbat has begun and my family and I will be resting. After shabbat, for me, it will be back to the books.

Thank you for your time. I will keep you posted.

P.S. I'm actually in this picture taken at my med school in 2016. Good times!