Vision

It’s so easy to go on in life without a really clear idea of where we are heading, to lose purpose while riding the never-ending escalator of career advancement. This seems to be particularly true of medicine, because the training period is so mind-numbingly long. For the most part you’re trying to catch up on sleep, pass the next test, and well, when the time comes, apply for fellowship like everyone else.

Most of my career thus far has been on the straight-and-narrow, at first because I was obliviously self-driven, then because everyone around me seemed to be doing the same few things. Most of us go onwards without really asking ourselves: what are we here for? Where does God want me or us to be? What would my ideal life in ten years look like, and am I heading in the right direction for that?

D and I are both at that point of questioning in our lives, perhaps because he’s been disillusioned somewhat by how health care is practiced, and I’ve seen the fallacies of the high-end academic world. We both dream about a healthy home with lots of children, about integrating our medical, faith, and family lives, about traveling to places in the world that desperately need the skills we have to offer.

Rather than asking, how can we make a reasonable life out of the track we’re in? we’re asking, how can we choose our steps to best equip us for where we want to be? For the first time, I’m thinking twice before jumping through the next hoop—and I think the timing is right for that. At least it’s good to be thinking.

Week Seventeen