During my first year of medical school, an internal medicine specialist taught us how to perform a physical examination. We took turns examining one another while he watched and offered guidance.
When he looked at the skin on my back, he stopped.
“What’s this?”
The other students gathered around me. I couldn’t see what they were looking at, but I could hear the concern in his voice.
“I’m not a dermatologist,” he said, “but I remember learning that if it’s blue, it must be bad. You’d better get it looked at right away.”
My heart pounded. Was I about to be diagnosed with skin cancer? I had barely begun medical school, and already I imagined my career ending before it started.
I went upstairs to see a dermatologist. He examined the spot and decided to biopsy it. Then I spent an anxious week waiting for the result.
It was a blue nevus. Benign.
The dermatologist was right to examine it and obtain a diagnosis. What frightened me was the verdict I had already heard—and the one I had begun repeating to myself. It’s blue. It must be bad.
One feature had become the whole story before we knew the answer.
God’s Word warns us about reaching conclusions too soon:
If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.
Proverbs 18:13 (ESV)
My professor had told me he wasn’t certain, but his memorable rule sounded certain to a frightened student. I took that uncertainty and filled it with the worst possibility. The biopsy answered a question that neither his first impression nor my fear could settle.
I have done the same thing in other parts of life. I hear a few words and decide what someone meant. I see one troubling moment and assume I know what will happen next. Sometimes the concern deserves attention, just as the spot on my back deserved a closer look. But concern is a reason to seek the truth, not permission to declare a verdict before I have it.
What am I calling “bad” today when I do not yet know the whole story? What might I learn if I listen, look more carefully, and resist the urge to let fear supply the answer?
The blue nevus was harmless. The lesson has stayed with me: take a concern seriously, but give the truth time to be heard.
Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.
#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #bluenevus #proverbs18:13
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My professor was right to tell me to get the spot checked. But “it’s blue” became “it must be bad” in my mind before the biopsy gave us an answer. Have you ever feared the worst from a first impression, only to learn there was more to the story?