I’ve hesitated to write this post for the last week because I have been at a loss for words. 

Last Thursday, I matched into a General Surgery residency.  It was an exciting day — for those of you who don’t know, a residency is on-the-job training after medical school.  Getting a residency is a complex process – you submit your application to programs, they offer you an interview (or they don’t), you go interview, and then you submit a rank order list, and they submit a rank order list.  Whatever program is the highest on your list that also wants you, is where you end up going.  Or as we call it, “matching.”

After you submit that rank list, you wait for Match Day.  On Match Day, you are handed an envelope. It literally holds your future, as you only get one offer.  And get this — you are obligated to take it!

It was about 11:45 a.m. on Thursday, March 18th, when the dean finally said: “Okay, you can open your envelopes!”  I fumbled to open mine. I pulled out two sheets.  Opened the wrong one first.  Switched to the other one — and suddenly, there it was!  My fate — and a testament of God’s unfailing faithfulness to me. 

I can’t help but think about how things have come full circle.  It was just four years ago that I had a similar experience — logging in to the computer to discover where I was going for medical school.  It was just three years ago that I, in the midst of some of the hardest and most frustrating days of medical school, literally cried on the floor of my bedroom, and told God I wasn’t going to make it through without His help.  It was just two years that I took my first licensing exam, and walked away knowing that a passing grade would be by His grace.  And it was just one year ago, that I was discovering the wonder of surgery and exactly how few hours of sleep on which one can function. 

God has been faithful.  So faithful.  I really have no words.  I am so grateful.  Grateful for when things were hard, and Jesus was sweet.  Thankful for the moments of clarity when I knew I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing.  Incredibly humbled by those times when I have felt that I am a part of God’s grand work here on earth.

And so excited about the next five years.  God is so good.  So sweet.  So faithful. 

“The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.”  Proverbs 10:22 NKJV

P.S.  Can you guess where I’m headed?