Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
(Matthew 7:7, KJV)
Looking back over the sixty-six years since my graduation from medical school, I am thankful for God’s guidance along the way. If we accept Christ, we can be assured that, as we ask Him in faith to guide us in making decisions, He will do so. As a young students working my own way through college, I didn’t see any possibility of getting training in the medical field. However, that changed when I was drafted into the United States Army during World War II.
I was a dental technician, and one Sunday I was working alone in an army dental lab in San Francisco, using steel wool pads to scrub plaster of Paris off denture molds. And then it happened. Now I didn’t hear God speak or have any dreams, but I felt very impressed to go back to college, finish pre-med, and apply for medical school. Three years later I had completed my goal, and, with God’s help, GI tuition support, and a working wife, I was able to complete medical school. I am indebted to the Seventh-day Adventist Church and Loma Linda University for an excellent Christian and medical education.
After graduation, I spent three years in general practice in a small Washington state town, four-and-a- half years in mission service in the Philippines, and then another four years training in internal medicine and cardiology. I then joined the LLU faculty in Loma Linda as the school was making its transition from Los Angeles, California. Through answered prayer and open doors, I feel God has helped me make decisions all along the route.
One such example of God showing me the value of prayer and His ability to guide me came when I was a member of the LLU Overseas Heart Surgery team in Greece. During our time there, the Greek press reported our excellent results in major Athens newspapers. The news articles stated that results were so good because, while part of the team was in the operating room doing surgery, the other team members were in a room praying. We can never overestimate the importance of influence and God’s direction.
We are faced with many decisions in our lifetime, and it is comforting to know that God is always available to help us. Can we still make wrong decisions? Certainly, and we do, especially when we try to make them by our own feeble reasoning. But we have the assurance that if we make bad decisions, we can sincerely pray to Christ for forgiveness and our request will be granted. We may live with the consequences of a wrong decision, but it will help is when we use those experiences to do better in the future.
-Roy V.Jutzy, LLUSM class of 1952