Instruments

As you all know, I am in the midst of reviewing for The Exams, and it is once again a scary time in my life. A scary time for anybody who has ever gotten wet, treaded and eventually forged through the sometimes calm, often turbulent, icy waters of medicine.

A couple of my classmates have taken time out from their busy schedules, to go on a medical mission to one of our friends' place in Sibonga, Cebu. And if you ask, why I didn't go, well, 1) I wasn't asked, 2) I didn't know until the last minute, and 3) I didn't want to put it on my friend to have to ask me to go. Maybe they had full slots, and I'd be dead weight. 4) Lastly, I think they were worried enough about the boards to let me study. (Rationalizing) Haha, don't worry, no problems here guys.

Anyway, I knew most of the guys going, since they were my brothers in med school, but there were other people.

After the mission, they were going to the church in Simala to pray and ask for the blessing of passing the boards. I haven't gone there but I keep hearing people say that they have to go to Simala before the boards. Others have gone, others are planning.

I overheard someone say that couldn't they just dispense with the medical mission and just go directly to Simala, so as to not spend the whole day and have some time for studying?

I was taken aback.

Here is a chance to be able to give back to others, the chance to show Him who grants us our licenses, that we deserve them by being instruments of His healing, and throw it away just to have some extra time to review? Isn't it a bit ironic that you choose to go to a church and ask help from the Divine and not help in return? Or maybe you went and helped grudgingly?

I am not the perfect Christian. Nor am I a perfect person. But I do know that my heart is in the right place, and I want this not just for me but for my family, for my friends, and for my would-be patients. Healing would not be possible without Him. I believe He said, "what you do for the least of my brethren, you do for Me," worded of course in a more profound-sounding Bible text.

I can't speak for that person, but I do hope she went, helped, for even a second, wholeheartedly, and helped in the healing of someone who has so much less than her.

I pray everyday that I, my friends, my classmates, my not-so-cordial friends as well, that we pass. 100%. But let's not forget why we get to do what we do. Let's not trade the Mission for just a few more minutes of what we probably won't remember come boards time, because it is impossible to ever be ready, right? Or so they say.

I do pray that God sees us worthy to be His physicians.

and I truly hope that we are.