On #goals.

Earthen Only
Aug 25, 2017 · 3 min read

Deut. 6:10–12

And when Jehovah your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you great and fine cities that you did not build, and houses full of every good thing that you did not fill, and hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant, and you have eaten and are satisfied; be careful that you do not forget Jehovah who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the slave house.

In other words, “Welcome to the good land. Watch out.”

The children of Israel here are on the cusp of everything they’ve ever wanted, but Moses stops them short to warn this young generation (who have never known slavery in Egypt) about the subtle dangers of happily ever after.

Most of us are on some kind of cyclical trajectory as well, and tend to fall within three categories:

  • Setting goals
  • Working toward goals
  • Enjoying the fruit of reaching goals

*On large and small scales.

While in Egypt, the goal was simple. Get out of Egypt. Get into good land. How? Follow the Lord through the wilderness.

While in the wilderness, the procedure was (sorta-kinda) straightforward. Follow the Lord to the good land. [insert endnote about a holy cow, serpents, quails, plagues, giant rifts in the ground swallowing people up, the Old Testament is a crazy place]

While in the good land, suddenly once the big goal is reached, lots of little subgoals (side quests?) crop up. Raise the livestock. Drink from hewn cisterns. Groom your children to be more successful than Mrs. Neighbor’s daughter, starting with piano lessons at age 3. Before you know it, you blink and your years are gone, and where was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt?

Therefore Moses’ admonition showed a deep understanding of human nature. When we live to get what we want, anything and everything — even, especially God — becomes just another stepping stone to get there. And once we’re there, the stepping stones don’t matter so much.

In medical school (but let’s be real, everywhere), it’s easy to get swept up by the wide spectrum of ambitions that one meets: top-ranked residencies, sweeping systemic reforms, high-impact research, or even the most perfectly cleaned pectoralis major muscle on one’s cadaver. And I catch myself trying to use God to get me there. “Lord, I don’t like this smell. Get me through this lab.” And that’s not wrong. It’s easy to dichotomously relegate these goals into the category of “not God’s will” (surely God only wills for us to study His word in hermitude! /joke), but the truth of the matter is that God is mingled with us, and mingled with what we do. It’s our concepts that limit how much He can work in us. So it’s complex, and all that complexity means we have more and more opportunities to seek after the Lord and have conversations with Him. “Lord, are You in this? Can I seek You while doing this? Lord, if this is what You want, let’s do it together. You gotta help me out.” Like lilies in the bronze woven lattice of Solomon’s temple pillars, we just continue to simply trust that the Lord will lead us and cause us to grow, no matter how complicated our situation gets.

But once I get to whatever it is that was the goal, that’s when I have to be doubly careful; just because the Lord got me there doesn’t guarantee that I’ll remember to stay with Him. That requires 1. God’s mercy and 2. my cooperation.


This week’s FAQ, in Latin.

Q: Quid agis in schola medicinae?

A: Vescor, dormio, perlego, et cadaverum disseco. Ita vero, cadavera interdum foeda sunt, praesertim cadavera corporosa.


I pause my exam studying to deliver to you all the most succulent datum I have acquired in my mindless mind-stuffing: small, air-filled blisters on the outer lining (parietal pleura, for those interested) of the lungs are called air blebs.

Air blebs.

Clearly medical terminology is some srs bsns.

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