a labor of love

The appetite of laborers works for them; their hunger drives them on. - Proverbs 16:26

Something that I have always struggled with but just put on the back-burner is how to glorify God through school/work. In college, school really was not a priority of mine -- my grades were not the best and occasionally I would think about boosting my resume for med school (hence the one year, and only one year, of research). Especially toward the end of the four years, I really forgot about placing school as a priority. I think we all say that as a way to confirm that our priority is God, but that excuse no longer sits well with me.

Now that I am in med school it really does not apply anymore because heck, all I do is breathe school. I see my classmates around me labor day after day on our syllabus, memorizing every minute detail, highlighting every other sentence, red circles all over the place marking what is important or "high yield". I sit and wonder to myself, why don't I have that voracious passion to do well? The easy answer would be that it's not my #1 priority, God is. And while that is true, there must be something else missing here. As I read this verse, the first thing that came to mind when I read "hunger" was knowing Christ. That is our goal as Christians, right? Our hunger in life to know God more fully and to bring him the glory? So how does our hunger for God drive us to labor? The most obvious ways are through ministry, in our quiet times, in fellowship and communion with others. But going beyond that, how does it manifest in our daily life, our current "work" for God?

I have not found the exact answer to this question as a medical student, but I have some ideas. I know that every time I read some new minute detail in cell biology or understand how our lungs take in air in physiology or grasp the thin line between having a normal child versus a child with a harmful genetic mutation, my mind is blown. There's no way to explain this; even if you go to the finest detail, there is always something that cannot be explained, something yet to be discovered. And although I do not have the researcher's thirst for scientific knowledge, I can appreciate the greatness that God has already revealed to us through his creation. If I have taken away anything from this past semester and right now, it is that God is bigger, more beautiful, more wonderful, and more intricate than I have ever imagined. Furthermore, as a student who is first a Christian, I realize that my hunger to know God starts with knowing his creation more and learning about the fine details that he has mapped in us. It can be rough (especially when you read 20 pages and realize you have retained absolutely nothing), but I hope that in the difficult late nights I will have God to be my hunger, that he will be the appetite that works for me and drives me to succeed for his glory and honor.

personal bodyguard

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4: 7

Oh Lord Jesus, please guard my heart. Please protect me.

2 peter 1:5-8

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

May we take joy in the sanctification we are a part of as God's children and ultimately possess all these qualities and grow in them so that our faith through our words and actions may point others to our precious Savior that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.