Drama & explosion - the good kind

Abraham (Who’s Who in the OT)

When God flooded and drained the world to start it over, He saved Noah and his family on a literal lifeboat. That whole situation wound up being a picture of God’s deeper, bigger rescue plan for humanity. You see, the world, as it turns out, is still doomed, but God is doing something about it. And just like with Noah and the boat, He’s picking a family - and one specific person in that family to make the rescue happen. The real plan wouldn’t use a boat, but a cross. This time, the Rescuer wasn’t going to simply outrun or outlast the destruction, but  face it, head-on and take it all in - every single instance of human failure and sin, all the wrong and all the debt and all the punishment to pay for that wrong on Himself. But, wait - we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Before we get to Him, the Rescuer, let’s meet the family that brought Him into the world. 

God picked a guy in a place called Ur (which is now called Iraq) and told him to pack up his stuff along with his wife and head to some other place called Canaan, which they had never heard of. His name was Abram, which was a little awkward because that name means, “exalted father” though Abram and his wife Sarai had no children. What’s more, they were long past the age of having children when our story began - 75 years old and 65 years old, respectively. When God called his name, Abram didn’t know or follow God in any way. Up to this point, he was worshipping some moon god with a really funny name, so when the Real God - the Creator of Heaven and Earth showed up and started talking to him, he started listening.

God made big promises to this childless ‘exalted father’ which included the complete possession of the land of Canaan for him and his descendants forever. He promised Abram a family - kids and grandkids and great grandkids and so on. At one point, God told Abram to look up into the night sky and try to count the stars. He said, “So shall your offspring be.” In other words, just as you can’t count all the stars, your descendants will be so numerous, they’ll be uncountable. Wow. Not only that, but He promised Abram a special descendant - one particular person born from his genetic line that would bless the whole world. God changed his name to Abraham (which means ‘Father of Nations’) and made this covenant - this extremely serious and binding agreement: a land, a family and a Special Ancestor who would one day bless the whole world.

God reissued these promises a few times throughout the ups and down of His relationship with this old man He had chosen and one night, after re-upping the promises yet again, Abraham had his best moment. It was that night he was told to count the stars. Genesis 15 says Abraham “believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Faith in God’s promise equalled a right standing with God. What did he believe? God was giving him land, and a family, sure - but more than that, God was sending a Special Descendant who would save the world. Jesus. That night, somehow, in some way, Abraham believed in Jesus. He believed and was declared righteous. This was the moment sinful humanity had been waiting for. 

I’ll tell you a secret. 

Ever since I became a medical student I have dreaded becoming a senior clerk (year 4 of med school). Yes, ever since. 

Yes, a lot of people think I’m in medical school because I loved it from the start - they think it’s always been my dream - but, no, it has always been my parent’s dream. Over time, I’ve realized that God leads me in unlikely places by opening doors for me. I was and still am a hesitant medical student. The difference is that I’ve decided long ago to let go and let God. 

God knows me - He knows my desires, my dreams - that I want to see the world (in my 6th grade grammatically incorrect essay, i wrote down, “I want to travel the world" ), that I want to open up a restaurant and that I want to get married and have kids.

He also knows that I’m careless, shaky, fearful, extremely shy and nervous-y. He knows that I don’t have the skills and I feel incompetent everyday. 

He knows all of that and I’m content with that because I know that obedience will have rewards. Sometimes, I mean most of the time, I think of my friends and I envy them with their businesses, the vacations and even the time to do mundane things and then I think to myself "What am I doing here?" 

And then God decides to reveal himself to me in the unlikeliest of people or events. Yesterday when I was on 36 hour duty, he told me "I can be your rest” when I got a call to accompany a patient for a 2D echo and I got to nap  in an airconditioned room for and hour and a half while waiting for the cardiologist. Earlier today He told me “I’m happy you’re here” when a mom of a newborn that I’ve been following up with my resident daily exclaims for joy when we told her that she and the baby could be discharged. He told me “I’m proud of you” when a nurse commented on my blood extraction skills. He told me “I want to give you the best” when my mom and I found a very comfortable shoe for clerkship at 60% off. 

I live for those days. Those days when God is sooo present - so tangible - that I can’t contain it. 

If you ask me, I’m doing a dangerous thing - living by faith, that is. It’s dangerous because I never know what to expect. On my second night as an intern, I got a page to the Post Anesthesia Care Unit because a baby from surgery needed an OGT (Orogastric Tube) wherein we insert a tube down a patient’s mouth to his/her stomach for feeding. While walking towards the PACU, I was so so so frightened. I had nobody with me. When I came in, the nurse who assisted me was a newbie so she didn’t know how to, all the worst. What I know of OGT was only through book, youtube videos and 2 demonstrations from my resident. But by God’s grace, I was able to do it even without knowing what to do. It was followed by a 2 hour terrifying thoughts of possibly asphyxiating the patient - I even checked up on the patient twice at the Surgery ward just to be sure she was still breathing. I prayed so hard that night and I even laid my hands on the patient to pray for her! Afterwards, I texted my resident and told her everything - she was pretty cool about it. And then I was okay. 

Those moments? Those moments make me feel like I’m in the right place - that I’m where God wants me to be. 

Awesome God!!