scrubbing in

I scrubbed into my first surgery the other day. Sounds exciting huh? Well.. it seems all exciting and stuff on TV but it wasn't too exciting; my job wasn't too spectacular. Maybe it'll be more exciting when I'm actually the one doing the surgery. You know on TV when doctors yell out for a scalpel or a retractor? Well.. I was the guy in the surgery than hands them the instruments. The procedure was a removal of a foreign body. I didn't even get to see the surgery.. oh well.. I don't think I would have had time to watch anyways. I had to be on the ball. Anticipate everything they needed before they needed it. Hand them instruments and medicines and specimen cups and whatever else they needed in a timely fashion so the surgeon could do their work without delay. It was pretty fun, even tho it was boring and tedious work. That's the life of a surgeon tho.. you gotta start with the basics and step your way up. Next year when I'm in the OR I'll get to retract! Nice. I have a couple years before I actually get to cut skin and bone in a surgery :P. Gotta pay my dues first I guess. I understand how it works tho.. learn the basics first before you go onto the complex.

Isn't that how it is though? We so often want that "solid food" and yet we have yet to learn how to drink "milk" (Heb 5:12). We need a good foundation first on which to base the more complex things in life. There are times in our lives when we look forward to the future - when we look to the spectacular and the exciting things we might be doing then. We may try to "skip steps" and do the things we'd like to do in the future before we learn all the basics. We may not like our situation presently - we may even can't wait to get out of it so that we can move on to more exciting things. But before we move on to those exciting things - whatever they may be - we need to learn the basics first - essentially the gospel message. We need to learn how to love, how to wait, how to long, how to have faith, how to forgive, how to relate, etc.. Life on Earth is just a detour to heaven. I believe that the character we develop here on Earth will impact who we are in heaven. We are told to finish the race strong (Heb 12:1), and to prepare for the Day of His return (Matt 25:1-13). The present shapes our future. The basics shape the complex. The building blocks shape the building. Its nice to look forward to things in the future - be it opportunities, situations, relationships, skills you'll attain, or heaven! But if we don't focus on the present and all that we can learn from it - we may be robbing ourselves of the best future that we can have.

"In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!"
~Hebrews 5:12