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Questions & Answers

Discouragement

Faith Q&A › Metropolitan Youssef › Spiritual Life › Discouragement

The question

I am currently in my fourth year of Medical School and have been preparing for my residency applications. I have a strong interest in a certain specialty and struggled very hard to get connections, do my electives and research, and by investing a great deal into the process. It was a very difficult and dark time because I felt very alone, stressed, and afraid. I did it all with hope and love because I push myself to do my part and believed the end will justify the means and God will do the rest. I have applied to these residencies, but I have gone unmatched. I decided to apply in the 2nd iteration into many diverse specialties. I am feeling quite sad, disappointed, and angry. Everyone tells me it was an extremely competitive year and that God has another plan for me, but I am struggling with it. I feel He has forgotten me and the world is against me. I feel God does not love me even though in my head I know it is not true. I feel like all the time, energy, and money I poured into my career is wasted and lost and that hurt. In addition, I am not in a relationship and have gone through a difficult rejection in pursuit of one.

The answer

It is a very frustrating and competitive process, but I do not want you to be discouraged. It is important that you acknowledge all of the triumphs which you have already accomplished. It is not easy to enter into medical school and have the opportunities to do research and the many other achievements you mentioned. Is it not the same God who has always helped you in the past? Perhaps you need to spread your net farther and wider into other specialties and locations. When accepted, you can decline if your preference is available. Being optimistic is a preferred disposition. Learn to be content with all that you have. Just because God loves us, it does not mean He has to deliver on every prayer as we state it. Never doubt that every prayer is heard and considered by God. If your heart trusts in His divine will, then do not be discouraged, but persevere and seek His grace. See the good in everything and be confident and triumphant in the Lord in all things. Sometimes setbacks are important to help us build character and develop other essential Christian virtues. Do not reject these opportunities any more than not achieving a personal ambition.

 

"But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:5-11).

Answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab)

Questions answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab) of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Question 1735 on the Diocese’s Q&A site. Questions and answers © Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. All rights reserved.