Stages of Life

From Decisions, Decisions

So what about the other fork in the road? What should I study in college. This was a crisis of sorts on career decisions. When you first go off to college, you either know exactly what you want to do, you’re not sure, or you don’t have a clue. Let me just say to you up front that God will guide you if you let Him. This reminds me of one of my life Bible verses: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5–6).

From my earliest memories, I wanted to be a doctor. That was all I ever wanted to be. However, my parents had eight children, my mom never worked out of the home, and my dad never made much money. Therefore, I had no earthly idea how I would pay for my college, let alone medical school and postdoctorate training. When I went to Mississippi State University, since my brother was there in engineering school, I figured I might as well major in chemical engineering. To this day, I have no idea what a chemical engineer does.

I was reading my Bible a lot then and often found myself reading Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5–7. There we find, “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself” (Matthew 6:31–34).

So I changed my major to premedicine and decided to trust God for my needs. With borrowed money, scholarships, summer work, and trusting in His provision, I was able to complete three years of college, four years of medical school, four years of postdoctorate training, get married, have two kids, and buy three cars before ever having a decent-paying job. God is good! I did, in the end, owe $10,000, which was not a small sum in 1967.

Those verses have continued to sustain me and bless me all my life. Embrace them; they will do the same for you.

From Talk to Your Heavenly Father

What about miraculous cures and answers to prayers today? Is God still in the business of performing miracles? I’m sure you have read of such occurrences and possibly have personal experiences. I believe Jesus does perform miracles today. The thing I don’t understand is why some get the miracle and some do not? Why is it that the nominal Christian, or even an unbeliever, gets the miracle and the devout Christian does not? Why do some get healed and some do not?

I am reminded of the lame man healed at the pool of Bethesda in John 5:2–7. There were many others there who needed a healing, so why didn’t Jesus heal them all? I don’t propose to know the answer, but I do know He heals today. Let me give you several examples from my experience.

In my practice of medicine, I committed the care of my patients to the Lord, the great healer. I prayed for wisdom because there were times when I really did not know what to do. I can tell you this is the experience of every physician, whether they want to admit it or not.

Quite a number of years ago, I had an elderly lady on a ventilator under my care. It was touch and go, and her daughter asked, “Don’t you sometimes just feel like throwing in the towel when someone is so sick?”

My response was, “No, it is my responsibility to treat and offer the patient every chance to recover. God makes the decision on when a person is to die.” Amazingly, she came off the ventilator, walked out of the hospital, and two years later was able to take a long-desired vacation to Hawaii!

Over many years of medical practice, I witnessed many people survive when it appeared unlikely they would. I want to tell you about one very dramatic case. The patient was a man who had a heart attack. He was being cared for in our intensive care unit when he had a cardiac arrest. Immediate resuscitative efforts were begun and continued for at least forty-five minutes.

Reluctantly, after prolonged efforts without success, I called off the team and prepared to go out and talk to his family, who had been fervently praying in the waiting area. As I backed away from the patient, I glanced up at the cardiac monitor. Where before there was no heart activity, his heart started beating. The most amazing thing was that about three days later, the same thing happened again. Cardiac arrest, resuscitative efforts, no heart activity, my decision to cease efforts to revive the patient, backing away, and glancing up to see a strong heartbeat. This man walked out of the hospital and returned to his home in Arkansas. The rest of the story is that he lived in the same town as my sister, and he told everyone what a great doctor he had in Texas. I told my sister to be sure and tell him he was alive not because of a great doctor in Texas but because of the great physician! The last I heard of him was about two years later, when I received a newspaper clipping about he and his wife celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary.

From Those Turbulent Teen Years

Raising kids is kind of like flying a kite. You struggle to get it off the ground, and it comes crashing back to earth. Finally, you get it about halfway up, and it starts to take a dive. You jerk on the string a little and give it a course correction. Then the day comes when it flies high and steady. That’s when your parents see a very capable young adult. They take a pair scissors, cut the string, and let you fly, satisfied they have done their best to raise a young adult of whom they can be very proud. The “obey” command kind of drifts into the sunset, replaced by seeking advice and input about your future. But the command to “honor” them remains for the rest of their lives.

From Marriage: Blessings or Battleground?

As you are probably aware, many marriages end in divorce. God doesn’t like this outcome and speaks against it in His Word. For this reason alone, marriage should be entered into prayerfully and with much thought. I want to tell you how you and your spouse can “divorce-proof” your marriage. But before I do, I want to make a few observations about marriage in general.