Six months ago today, I began another chapter in my life - Graduate School. I was accepted into the Occupational Therapy Program at Ohio State University, a profession I've desired to pursue since I was a teenager. While the dream has faded at times, I felt that being accepted into this program was God opening the door to a new opportunity that would direct my life's goals and desires.
Over the past ten years, I've learned and experienced occupational therapy in a variety of settings. My desire to learn this job and make it my own has grown. There's a great deal of excitement in helping someone regain independence in functional areas of his or her life. And helping people in that way has been the main motivating factor for me in pursuing this degree.
That is, until the last six months or so.
While I still find excitement in the thought of helping people with their daily occupations, I've been captured by new desires. I've started to realize that God might have much bigger plans in store than I had for myself. It all began when I was told about a website of an OT who works in Niger, Africa. I began following her blog, captured by her stories of life, therapy, and faith. A few months later, an OT in my church shared that he would be going on a missions trip to El Salvador with Joni Erickson Tada's Wheels for the World. He would have the opportunity to use his skills as a therapist to fit wheelchairs for people there, many of whom have never had a wheelchair before. During that trip, 145 individuals were given custom designed wheelchairs. And on top of that, 33 people not only experienced new physical opportunities with their wheelchairs, but they began a new life in Christ by accepting Him as their Savior.
I'm starting to realize that there are going to more opportunities to use this degree than I had realized when I began. Big opportunities. Ones that are life changing. Eternal life changing. When the studying gets tiring, when I'm feeling no motivation, this is what is keeping me going. Knowing that God has placed me here, this time and this place, because He has something planned for me. And I'm eager and excited to see what He's going to do through me in the years to come.
