Waiting.

There are different seasons of medical school.  Spring, the newness of first year and the steady hum of lectures and quizzes continuing on until second year.  Summer, third year, a flurry of activity found within clerkships and sub internships during early fourth year.

I am currently in the midst of autumn, the in-between season.  Applications have been submitted and preparations are complete to get back on yet another interview trail.  More suits, more dinners, more important conversations.  More being "on-point".  All of this to lead to a carefully considered, ordered list, followed by a Nobel-prize winning algorithm which will tell me (hopefully) where I will wind up for the next five years of my life.

The grooves of perpetual activity run deep.  After so much time of continually having things to do - the next quiz, the next rotation, the next shelf - all that I have currently is time.  Time to sit, time to read, time to have dinner with friends.  Time to wait.

It is into this place that the Word comes and speaks.  Do not be anxious about anything; consider the lilies - not even Solomon in all of his splendor was clothed as these; but those who trust in the LORD will renew their strength.  The season of waiting is an opportunity to be deepened in reliance in the plans that have been made, plans that are made to give a hope and a future.

A hymn from my past comes to mind, when I think about the uncertainty that permeates this autumn season:

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!