Destined for Greatness

Thursday, 15th March 2007

Just last Saturday, we were special guests at our previous cell's potbless, and that was when I found out that RevBarnz's youngest son, Josiah, is left-handed and wants to be a doctor when he grows up.

I happen to be left-handed too, and because we left-handers use the right-side of our brain, we are said to be more creative. I happen also to be an accountant, which is a strange combination, because accountants are supposed to be boring people who spend their time counting beans. I also tell people that they should be wary of left-handed accountants because we have a propensity for creative accounting :-)

But I digress...

Coming back to the earlier story, I notice that those who want to pursue medicine tend to know what they want in life at a tender young age. When I was in primary school, I had a classmate whose ambition was to be a doctor. Well, he is now an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at KK Hospital. I also read in the papers recently about the top PSLE student from RGS, who also mentioned she wants to be a doctor.

I recall when I was in Kindergarten being asked by an aunt what I wanted to be when I grew up. Back then, I was fascinated with huge vehicles like cement mixers and tow trucks, so I told her I wanted to be a lorry driver. I think my parents' jaws must have dropped all the way to the ground when they heard that.

I have shared in a testimony about how I felt I had let my parents down by not studying hard enough to pursue medicine. My relationship with my dad was strained for several years when I was a teenager because both of us struggled with the "what could have been", and to come to terms with the "what was".

Well, I thank God for restoring my relationship with my dad. The turning point came when my dad told me when I was an undergrad, "Son. I know of people who are miserable as doctors because they were never interested in medicine, but pursued it nonethless because of family expectations. I would rather you be a good accountant, than a lousy doctor."

Those liberating words were the breakthrough, and I can tell you that my relationship with my dad has never been stronger. Just about a month back, I spent quality time with him and my mom having breakfast and lunch, and we went to various parts of Singapore to take pictures of places that are of sentimental value to him.

Speaking of which, our relationship with our earthly father is but a shadow of the relationship with our Heavenly Father. When He first created Adam and Eve, His intention was to have an initimate relationship with the creation that He considered to be "very good". He must have been disappointed when they disobeyed Him to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Yet, already then, He already had plans to redeem man back unto Himself when He told the serpent in Gen 3:15 that Jesus would be the one to crush its head.

Being made in God's image, we are all destined for greatness. God tells us in Jer 29:11 that His plans for us is to prosper us and to give us hope and a future.

So whether we are doctors, accountants, taxi drivers or janitors, it does not matter to God. The most important title is not PhD, MBA, BBM or PBM. It is COG -- Child of God.

Shalom
Malcolm