Faith

In a year or so I will be beginning my clinical clerkships- where I'm working full time in a hospital as a medical student and learning as I go. Clinical clerks are required to get a license, and if I want to do these practicums in BC, I have to get a license through UBC. I went onto their website the other day to look at the procedure and find out when I needed to apply for them.
Under no circumstances, it stated, does UBC grant electives to students who are not from a medical school in the following list. I read it carefully. Foreign medical students were allowed from Ireland, South Africa, USA, and several other countries. No Caribbean schools.
Now, I have no idea why they wouldn't allow Caribbean students to do electives here, but as I read that I had this distinct feeling: If God has called me to go to medical school, he has the responsibility to make sure that I graduate and get the appropriate licenses. I laughed to myself. Another opportunity for God to work miraculously!
I admit I felt slightly discouraged when I went to bed last night. It appears that this whole journey for me of going to Antigua has been a huge journey of faith. Actually, it started long before then. And at every step along the way, I have become more and more convinced of God's trustworthiness. I remember being 17 and applying to nursing school and being told it wasn't possible. Yet God had other ideas. When I wrote entrance exams I scored the highest marks in the history of the college and they made an exception and let me in. Am I that smart? Not really. Especially when it comes to math.
But you know what? God is that smart. The fear of the Lord, I read this morning, is the beginning of wisdom. Not all of us have a chance at being brilliant, but we all have a chance to fear the Lord. And 9 times out of 10, if I could choose wisdom over knowledge, I'd choose wisdom. (And the other 1 time would be when I was trying to show off.)
This morning I called the organization that licenses all physicians and students in BC, and I asked them if I could skip going through UBC and apply for a license through them. You'll have to send in an application, the woman said. You mean there's a chance? I asked. Yes, she said, you can apply. That's excellent, I told her.
I got off the phone and thought, if they will allow me to put in an application, then God can see that it gets approved.
The trick is: I've learned to let it go now. It's not that I don't care, because I do, but it's that I recognize that God's plans are way better than mine and as much as I like to think I do, I often have no clue what God is doing. Trusting him means putting everything on the altar, so to speak, and giving him permission to do what he wants with my life. Maybe that means I'll be a wealthy Canadian doctor. Maybe I'll be a poor African doctor. Maybe I'll never graduate from medical school and end up working in a florist's shop. (Actually, that is definitely my second choice in careers)
God can absolutely be trusted. I know that because I've seen him work miraculously, especially in the last few months, to provide things for me and make a way in a place that seemed impossible. I know that neither a licensing board nor a large sum of money nor any other thing is intimidating to God and can stand in his way. He is the one who decides what happens on this earth. God can be trusted.
Some people have huge mountains to be moved. I only have small ones! But I am watching God move them. And if any of my dear readers reading this today are feeling discouraged about something in their life, an unanswered prayer or an impossible situation, let me encourage you. God can be trusted! He will move your mountain for you!
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."