Scripture Focus (NKJV)
“For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me.”
— Psalm 139:13–16
Devotional
There was a season in medical school when I began to quietly question whether I was built for this.
It wasn’t just the failed class.
It wasn’t just the pharmacology that took me longer to grasp.
It wasn’t just the comparison.
It was the realization that my weaknesses were louder here.
Medical school has a way of exposing what you’ve been able to hide. The intensity strips you. If your study habits are weak, they show. If your identity is fragile, it cracks. If your confidence is borrowed from performance, it collapses.
And I began to see that my brain did not work like everyone else’s.
Some classmates seemed to read once and retain everything. Some thrived in loud group study sessions. Some moved quickly through material that took me repetition after repetition to understand. I needed visual reinforcement. I needed to circle back. I needed to sit alone sometimes and process deeply. And even that varied depending on the subject.
At first, I saw this as a flaw.
Comparison whispered:
“You’re slower.”
“You’re behind.”
“You’re not wired for this.”
But Psalm 139 does not say you were accidentally assembled.
It says you were formed.
Carefully. Intentionally. Specifically.
The God who designed your mind did not make a mistake when He shaped how you process, learn, and grow.
“You were already called for this before you even knew you desired it.”
Before you doubted your place.
Before you struggled academically.
Before the timeline stretched longer than you expected.
Before the setbacks made you question everything.
Jeremiah says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”
God did not discover your weaknesses after you enrolled.
He factored them in.
And Ephesians reminds us that we are His workmanship — created for good works prepared beforehand.
That means the assignment came after the design.
Read that again.
The assignment came after the design.
You were not randomly placed into this journey hoping you would adapt. You were shaped for what you would walk through.
When I finally stopped trying to copy other people’s systems and began asking, “How did God design me to learn?” something shifted. Not instantly. Not perfectly. But peacefully.
Instead of bowing to my weaknesses in shame, I began offering them to God for refinement.
Medical school will expose you. That is true.
But exposure is not rejection.
Exposure is refinement.
You either bow to your weaknesses in fear, or you allow God to refine them into wisdom.
Your need for repetition may be forming patience.
Your slower processing may be building depth.
Your different study rhythms may cultivate discernment.
Your extended timeline may be anchoring humility.
Delay does not mean you were misdesigned.
Setbacks do not mean you were misplaced.
“God does not design destinies He did not design people to carry.”
If your journey feels longer, harder, or less polished than someone else’s, that does not mean you were built incorrectly.
It may mean you were built differently.
And different is not deficient.
Application
Ask yourself gently:
Have I interpreted my difference as deficiency?
Have I mistaken delay for disqualification?
Am I trying to reshape myself to fit someone else’s path?
What if your wiring is not the problem?
What if it is preparation?
Prayer
Lord, You formed me. Not accidentally. Not carelessly.
You knew how my mind would work.
You knew my strengths and limitations.
You knew my timeline before I ever felt behind.
Forgive me for believing I was built wrong.
Teach me to trust the design You placed in me.
Refine my weaknesses instead of letting me bow to them.
Help me embrace the journey You authored for my life.
You fashioned my days before I lived them.
Let me walk in them with confidence.
Amen.
Final Reflection
You were not admitted by accident.
You were not delayed by mistake.
You were not built incorrectly.
You were designed before you doubted.
And the God who formed you is faithful to complete what He started.