(This is the devotional that Jim sent to medical students at the end of another school year.)
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings. Proverbs 25:2
All around the world students are graduating after completing anywhere from four to eight years of schooling. They now proudly accept a new title: doctor, nurse, dentist or pharmacist. Every end corresponds with a new beginning. Along with these new titles we find new responsibilities and challenges.
The reality is during our years of training we have been transformed through the learning process into worldly providers of health care. Using God-given gifts and talents, man searches out the intricacies of God’s creation to learn what is normal and pathologic. God has concealed these mysteries in the biochemical structure and pathways of our cells. Each level of deeper understanding reveals an ever-increasing complexity which should increase our awe in the gloriousness of God.
As we learn just how “wonderfully and fearfully made” we are, along with how we can temporarily reverse the curse of sickness and death, we must be careful not to be tempted to become prideful and think to ourselves look what I have done. In God’s image we were created, but we are not God. He has graciously given us many of his characteristics but not to an infinite degree of perfection like Him.
Yes, those graduating have worked hard to master the knowledge needed to become competent medical professionals. Your minds have been transformed and renewed by your studies. But the scripture cautions us, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.” We must not forget who made us and enabled us to study His works.
Yes, you have searched out God’s hidden things and now you are basking in the glory of your accomplishment and your new title. To what degree have you become like your professors? What philosophies lie behind what you have been taught?
The Apostle Paul warns us in Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than Christ.” To what degree have you been influenced by evolutionary thinking, situational ethics, pragmatism or secularism? While the Bible is not a textbook of science, it does explain who we are, where we came from and what went wrong.
Therefore, whether you are still in training, just graduated or well into your career, be careful to give God the glory due His Name. If you must boast, then boast in what Christ has done for you and me. Christ has defeated death, and because of His resurrection, we can offer true hope through repentance and faith in Jesus to those who seek our care.
Read and Mediate on Deuteronomy 29:29; Psalm 139:14; Genesis 1:26; Romans 12:2; Colossians 2:8