"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.