The Difficulty Of Faith-Based Decisions
by Dan Jones, M.D.
Genesis 6:11-22
Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.
I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them."
Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
How hard it must have been for Noah to begin working on this project. Out in the middle of dry land, he began gathering the materials to build a huge boat. When his friends and neighbors asked what he was doing, they must have thought him crazy when he explained. It took great faith for Noah to commence building the ark when there was absolutely no logic to support the decision. But isn’t that what faith is about – making decisions and taking action without evidence to support the decision?
As health professionals we are taught to make evidence-based decisions. It is at the very core of our medical education and training. This training may, at times, make it difficult for us to execute faith-based decisions in our lives.
Several of my physician friends haves chosen lives and practices located in small towns in Mississippi. They have made decisions against the logic most of the world uses in making decisions. They knowingly have chosen specialties, practice types, and locations sure to be associated with less pay, longer hours, more frequent call, and more challenges in recruiting and retaining partners. This is not logical evidence-based decision-making.
Among those friends, there is a diversity of ways they express the reasons they have chosen to practice in rural areas. There does, however, seem to be a common thread among many of these decisions. In one way or another, the decisions were faith-based decisions. One particular friend working on this situation was among the brightest in his class with ample opportunities for any practice type and any location. He was heavily recruited by practices offering more money and an easier lifestyle. But from his earliest days of feeling God wanted him to use medicine as a professional calling, he knew God was calling him to serve in a rural area. And, in faith, he acted on that call. Sometimes, our biggest decisions as professionals should not be evidence-based.
Lord, give me the faith to do your will when logic does not support it.
Dan Jones, M.D., MACP, FAHA, a board-certified Internist, a former medical missionary to Korea, professor of medicine at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Dean of the School of Medicine, and Chancellor of the University of Mississippi until 2015. Dr. Dan Jones is a member of CMDA.
Dr. Jones welcomes any comments or questions about what he has written and can be reached at - djones@umc.edu
Rounds with the Master, Spiritual Pearls from the Great Physician Devotionals are released every Monday and Thursday.
Photo by Elias Null on Unsplash
