Life Changes

Life has changed a lot and it's changed dramatically. I maintain order and structure in my days by doing what I've always done - reading the Word, praying with companions, attempting to wake up and go to bed at roughly the same time each today. But a few months into medical school, when I survey how different my life is compared to the blessed bubble of the full time training, I realize that I am infinitely more adaptable than I ever imagined.

Life changes. Life has also had so many changes recently. I am studying more than I've ever studied in my entire life. I'm also having more fun in brand new ways - having so many life experiences that I could have never predicted. God is really good at being God.

For example - this past week I've been on a cooking spree. I went to the Korean market for the first time since moving here and it was wonderful. I made japchae for the first time! It turned out well and I fed it to my roommate and a prospective medical student interviewing from Harvard. I also made lasagna and apple cake for my best friend's birthday. For all the times I've eaten lasagna and watched my mom make it, I had never attempted it myself. It was really fun.

I also had new experiences in class. I cut into a cadaver for the first time and held a human heart in my hands. I used a bone saw to slice through ribs. I neatly separated layers of skin, tissue, muscle and fat. The blade was so sharp, I lightly nicked my own finger through the gloves I was wearing and drew blood.

I have to say - anatomy lab is sobering. The first time I touched my scalpel to my cadaver - I had to pray, out loud in front of my dissection partners: "Thank you Lord for the life of this person." Death and life are inexplicably intertwined. I know that from spending two years of my life searching the Scriptures to find life - embodied in a Person. Those were two blessed years on a ocean of life, a respite period from a world filled with death. Death is sobering. It equalizes man - what is mortal man? I think anatomy has filled me with a fresh burden to be a person who lives by another life. I don't know what that means. I'm just going to keep doing what I've always done.