"In 1990, I was in the last year of my ophthalmology residency at
With no companion but my fears, I went to the hospital prayer room and fell to my knees. A product of Christian-American heritage dating back to 1677, nonetheless this was the first time that I even partially recognized God. I say partially, for even then I prayed the prayer of a skeptic, "Oh, God, if you are there . . ." I promised that if God existed, and if He saved my daughter and then guided me to the religion most pleasing to Him, that I would follow. I returned to the neonatal ICU roughly fifteen minutes later, and was shocked when the consultant told me that my daughter would be fine. True to his assessment, within the next two days her condition resolved miraculously, without medicine or surgery. She grew to be a perfectly normal child.
As I said before, I am a doctor. And although the consultant provided a medical explanation for my daughter's miraculous recovery, I simply didn't buy it. I remember him explaining about a patent ductus arteriosis, low oxygenation, and spontaneous resolution. But I also remember thinking, "No," my daughter's salvation was not a medical miracle, but a divine one. Many who make promises to God in moments of panic find or invent excuses to escape their part of the bargain, once God relieves them of their distress. I could easily have assigned my daughter's recovery to the doctor's explanation rather than to a miracle from God. But faith had entered my heart, and it wouldn't leave. We had cardiac ultrasounds taken before and after, showing the stricture one day and gone the next, and all I could think was that God had made good on His part of the deal, and I had to make good on mine. Even if there was a medical explanation, that was nothing more than the pathway by which Almighty God chose to answer my prayer and affect His decree. I did not then, and I do not now, accept any other explanation" (Brown).
Some people might read this incident involving Dr. Laurence B. Brown and his daughter’s survival and say it was just a coincidence or an excuse to "give credit" to God. But how many "coincidences" will it take for some people to actually admit that what happened was meant to be and for a reason? Even in the news, we hear people take a similar stance. If an individual survived an accident, they attribute it to God. They say their survival had a purpose behind it and the ones who didn't survive unfortunately, died for a reason. I know it is a hard concept to grasp and accept for some, but this is what I believe. We may not know, understand, or accept the wisdom behind the event, but that doesn't mean it was just a coincidence.
Constantly hearing stories like this and experiencing events in my own life, even if they are not life or death situations, made me realize that whatever happens, happens for a good reason. Thank God, my life isn't difficult compared to others, but for the petty issues that seem to stress me out, they exist to test me; test my patience, strength, faith, etc. Thus, the saying "life isn't easy and is a test" is true in my mind. Additionally, I feel that whatever happens, occurs to teach a lesson.
I didn’t automatically come to this conclusion of accepting fate and believing it to occur for a reason. Nor do I go this route because it is "easier" to justify what comes in life and attribute/ blame God instead of arguing and putting up a fight. For some people like myself, events are taken as signs. There is so much a person can take before they realize they need to "open" their eyes, heart, and mind. Just as some interpret dreams and follow them, events, whether extreme or trivial, are looked at in the same way.
For example, I got my driver's license late unlike my older sister and many others around my age. Besides the fact that I didn't want to learn until recently, I just couldn’t pass the road test for one reason or another. This happened a few times. Of course I was upset at first, but then I came to realize that I was probably not passing until I was completely confident in myself and my driving skills. This in turn has probably saved me from getting into an accident and hurting myself or others on the road. This might sound like justification to some people, but I would rather be safe than sorry, especially in a case like this where my mistakes could hurt more people than just myself.
Another personal example was me entering a writing contest in 8th grade. My middle school librarian told me and some other students about a contest where we had to write a short story in Dr. Seuss style. Being a fan of Dr. Seuss's books when I was younger, I started writing my own story. Others quit, but I liked mine so I finished it, illustrations and all, and sent it in. To my surprise, my entry won 1st place in my category! Winning 1st place for the first time in my life was very exciting.
Doing well enough to win a contest motivated and kept my interest in writing. Ever since then, I have been writing for fun and love it. I have entered more writing contests, written a poem to a friend, and another to my high school teachers. Two of my other poems were also published in my high school's literary magazine. In addition to writing for fun, I learned to enjoy writing for school assignments where I get to choose the topic of my interest. During my senior year in high school, I took a journalism class where I became the Editor of my high school's newspaper. My editorial on "Teacher Pay vs. Student Performance", won 1st place in opinion writing!
If I had never continued my short story and submitted it, I would never have won and realized my potential and interest in writing. Due to that single event, I became interested in writing, got noticed by people because of it, won a few contests, and am majoring in English Writing to improve my skills. If all goes well, I may just publish a book in the future like I hope to!
As I've mentioned, my life has been relatively easy so I don’t have dramatic examples to prove my belief that everything happens for a reason. But even for good things such as the example mentioned above, we don’t see the good results until it happens, even if it is years later. Rather than be depressed or angry, I see the bright side of things without being naïve. I am optimistic, but still realistic.
I don’t know how many situations it takes to convince a person that there is always a reason behind everything. Some may not accept it, but I completely do. I am not just saying this because thank God nothing extreme happened in my life. For minor cases like mine, I believed this, so if anything severe ever happens, I am prepared to see it the same way.
Works Cited
Brown, Laurence B. "Conversion Story." Level Truth. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. http://www.leveltruth.com/author.html.
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