So I had mentioned in a thread about looking into combined MD/MDiv programs. Speaking in christianese I got “the call”…actually I got it 19 years ago but I put it on hold. 
So I’ll be taking a “few” divinity courses along with my prereqs for medical school. It’s a three year nontraditional program…NATURALLY… and I should be graduating with my MDiv and then start med school. With the ultimate plan of earning a ThD and finding a way to combine my love for theology, medicine, and research.
It’s gonnas be a wild ride. Not sure I will make it to any OPM conference nor have much of a life outside of work, school, studying, & sleeping. Wish me luck, pray for me, burn a candle, light up a stogie, chant, dance a jig…whatever it is but send me some good vibes. 
BTW the response I’m getting 99% of the time someone hears I’m going to seminary is YOU!! I guess I was more of a jerk than I thought… I guess I’m in for some fun times as I get torn down and rebuilt. 
Wishing you the best with it, Crooz. 
Cool! Please do try to stick around and tell us more about it. It sounds so interesting.
Mary
uber cool!
WOW! I just reread my post and want to make a major clarification. This MDiv is not combined with a med school. When I say that I will walk out of one into the other that is my goal and not some program the school has.
Mary’s post had me thinking…“what could be so cool about seminary” but then I reread my post and realized I might have given the impression I was in some MDiv–>MD postbacc bridging program or something.
My apologies.
I actually just thought the MDiv part was cool. Somehow I think it would be VERY clear if you’d also gotten into med school, Crooz!
Mary
I can’t think of a better thing to do in preparation for a career in health care. Best of luck Croooz!
Good luck, Crooz. I hope things go well for you.
Crooz, I wish you all the best with your endeavors! I will hope to serve others in this capacity as well… thanks for the inspiration. You ever thought of working as a missionary?
- croooz Said:
Mary's post had me thinking..."what could be so cool about seminary" but then I reread my post and realized I might have given the impression I was in some MDiv-->MD postbacc bridging program or something.
My apologies.
Hey Bro - my long lost Cuban alter ego...sounds way cool to me. I am intrigued by theology as well...never would have considered doing the seminary thing (doubt they'd even let me park their cars, but that is another story). But, this ain't about me or anyone else - it is about you. If the shoe fits, dude, WEAR IT & be PROUD! I'm proud of you! (NO tears please).
Tell your wife howdy for me...sorry, I can't recall her name - I SUCK at names - but she was way cool! And, she deserves a medal for putting up with you.
Dr Kelley and Crooz,
You know… it seems to me they might fit together better than many would admit… After all, is there not some common ground as to the outcomes of medicine and spirituality and faith? I think absolutely YES, both have the profound and frankly sacred goal of alleviating suffering in general and “healing” in particular… medicine healing the physical things we can see… faith (probably MORE importantly in the grand scheme of things) giving spiritual (and everything else) healing!
After all, at the end of the day, when we have done all that medicine and science can do for those in our care… what do many of us do? PRAY! I often am concerned with the present emphasis on “evidence based medicine”, while this concept is both long overdue and inevitable, it seems to me that it might be easy to over-look, de-emphasize or “push to the background” the “art” of medicine, which is where I attribute (or “plug in”) the contribution of faith and spirituality to patient care calculus!
As a hospice nurse… I was in a position to see and FEEL the many times when MY “stuff” was really pretty meager compared to Annie’s or Father Frank’s “stuff” (our Episcopal and Catholic chaplains respectively)…
Pretty humbling on many levels actually
Richard
Thanks Dave.
Truth be told…this seminary is for the birds. I think I made a mistake. I should take the easy way out and get a MS in science. All this thinking and writing and thinking and writing and praying is not what I was expecting. I figured it’d be a “Praise Jesus and pass the koolade” experience. I never thought I would have to study and critically think! Who ever met a critical thinking clergymen? 
Only half kidding in all that.
LOL! Which half?
Best of luck & success…and heap on the BS. That always paid off for me…until I hit residency.
- croooz Said:
Now THIS is funny as Hell!!
Ok…so I graduated with the M.Div. last May and what happens? Well I was pounced on by this ginormous tiger called medicine! This thing is like a serious haunting that I thought I had exorcised three years ago. I was fine working as a Program Manager with a research group that had zero involvement with clinical medicine. However it was time to leave that group and the trifecta of graduating, new job, and pastoral internship has solidified what I’ve been trying desperately to get away from…MEDICINE!
Trust me…I have decades of FUD. 
See the thing is ordination requires an internship and one of the many requirements is to make hospital visits. So there I am with four years of theology scared to death and what I use to break the ice is to talk about why they’re in the hospital. From there I spent more time talking about their condition/disease/illness than I did about theology. The more people I spoke to the less theology that came out. I felt like a heel especially when the other interns talked about their great theological discussions. So it was clear that a hospital chaplain is not in my cards but instead a physician who happens to have a seminary degree is.
The irony is that we had to get rated and all the patients loved how I as an pastoral intern was so interested in their condition. 
So after that and months of prayer it is clear that while I enjoy theology and discussing it, my true call, the one that haunts me late at night, the one that permeates all my thoughts, the one that regardless how much I try to convince myself isn’t what I want, is none other than medicine.
If that wasn’t bad enough I take a promotion and am now operations chief of a research group that is all about clinical medicine. We work in Regenerative Medicine and are doing all kinds of cool research with wounds, wounded Warriors, heterotopic ossification, and imaging…just really cool stuff! It didn’t take long for the medicine poltergeist to begin waking me from sleep. I am excited to go to work and excited to come home to talk to my wife about all the cool stuff I read in the documents that I’m shuffling around. In meetings I’m more interested in the research of it all than how to make it happen which is my job. Again they love my passion for the medical/research side and attribute my success at the paperwork/managing side because of it. If they only knew I’m simply being efficient with my time so that I can go into the clinics and labs and talk with the MD’s about the cool cases and the like.
Like I said I have to deal with major FUD when it comes to the prereqs and have the distinct honor (sarcasm) of starting them from scratch but such is life. So here I am starting this ridiculously long journey yet again but for the last time. Heck I’ve said that same thing like three times here on OPM alone! My wife is 100% supportive and foresees me also being a pastor down the road. I just want to quit my job and get this thing rocking and rolling.
So to all those who wasted study time reading this, Thanks! To those who remember me…I’s back!..and I promise no more other degrees on the way to med school. 
Crooz -
Well I say, better late than…even later!!! And I should know 
Seriously, best wishes!!!
Kate
Welcome back! Haha - I took a year+ away from the path too… damn ghost kept picking at my brain, “Really. You’re just going to sit there eating Valentine Candy and pretending you don’t care… Really.”
So, here I am (back) (again) and have 5 months 'til MCAT.
Soon, you will be saying those same words.
Welcome back!
Welcome back!
Thanks yall. I will have to wait to start until the summer. I’m taking my classes at the local university instead of the CC. Once that starts IT’S ON! I’m excited because as much as I love theology I love medicine more. I know that there will be plenty that I do not like about medicine, the politics, Obamascare, EMTALA…but at least I will be working in what I love to do and only hating those things that prevent me from doing it. I don’t know…going into this thing with eyes as wide open as possible is the only way.
Not sure how much I’ll post. I guess the closer I get the more questions I’ll have but for now I’ll go back to lurking…unless big poppa Dave Kelly shows up. It’s gotta be a sign we share the same birthday… 