Dr. Craig’s work has influenced me in a special way over the past six months or so. As much interest as I have in medicine, it pales in comparison to my interest in history, anthropology, and perhaps most importantly, theology. I began medical school in part because I felt that to understand God’s “very good” creation would offer some insight into our Creator; this indeed it has offered, but my experience is that these other fields, theology chief among them, contain the richest and purest expression of this insight.
A recent example illustrates this point – I lead a Bible study with my classmates on Thursdays. A few months ago, we agreed to discuss freedom of the will; preparing for that discussion planted burning, unquenchable questions in my mind. For my own sanity, intractable questions surrounding pre-volitional counterfactuals of creaturely freedom and the apparent threat against God’s aseity prompted me to read significant portions of Dr. Craig’s works God Over All, The Only Wise God, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview, as well as some of Thomas Flint’s work on Molina. These works were enormously helpful. The very next Thursday we agreed to discuss the Atonement, which inflamed me with recalcitrant questions about the ability of the Second Person of the Trinity to take our place, so I read Atonement and the Death of Christ, which was similarly illuminating. In both cases, I conducted this research after my wife and daughter had gone to bed so as not to sacrifice family time. For about two weeks, I stayed up late and woke up very early to research these topics through Dr. Craig’s and others’ writing, yet I felt no fatigue because I experienced a fervor, excitement, and thrill that veritably eclipsed my interest in other subjects.
As such, I have decided to withdraw my application to the very demanding field of Emergency Medicine, and instead apply to Occupational and Environmental Medicine, known for offering its applicants much more time for family and other avocations. I plan to use this extra time to spend with family as much as possible, raising our kids “up in the way they should go”; and when it doesn’t impinge on this important family time, to read voraciously about these other non-medical subjects that are so much more thrilling to me. This specialty also involves a shorter time commitment to the military, which will allow me to retire earlier, and perhaps pursue a second career. I am strongly considering either theology or something adjacent to it, or perhaps going to seminary school and becoming an Army Chaplain.
The most important point is that Dr. Craig’s work has helped me greatly in terms of my own understanding of the faith, the ability to communicate it to other believers in Bible study, to communicate with non-believers (many of whom are patients that I encounter in hospitals), and in terms of what I want to do after medicine. The thrill I experience diving into Dr. Craig’s and other thinkers’ works, in comparison with the strain and friction I feel studying certain other subjects, has provided the essential contrast needed to identify what I believe is my true calling. Dr. Craig’s work is the gift that keeps on giving and I am deeply grateful to him and to Mrs. Craig for all they’ve done for me and the millions of others who have been similarly affected.
-Anonymous
