Is There A Doctor In The House?

Have you ever been in a crowd when someone called out, “Is there a doctor in the house?”  I don’t know of any occasion where this plea has been made that no one showed up.  You always hear people say things like, “Thank goodness there was a doctor there, otherwise the guy never would have made it.” 

Each of us has a skill or talent we have been given by God that allows us to earn a living or somehow improve our lives or the lives of others.  In the book of Exodus, chapter 35:10, Moses said,

“Let every artisan among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded……”

The chapter continues with a description of all that is to be made and what skill will be required to do the work as God wished.  Moses might have argued with God saying where will I get so much talent and so many things as you require of me, but he trusted God and he knew that as with the natural resources of the earth, which never run out, neither will talent if man is allowed to freely associate with a community of his choice. 

It never happens that a whole town has nothing but doctors and no firefighters.  A town with only musicians and no carpenters.  To some extent it is a matter of economics where people decided to settle and where they establish a business or a trade because the consumer determines demand and sets prices.  Generally speaking however, talent is distributed by God to serve the needs of society at large.

The following are the skills that were required in the book of Exodus to fulfill the command of God to build the Ark of the Covenant and all the other things that would be needed for the tent of meeting:  a tent maker, lumber cutters, spinners, weavers, seamstresses, incense makers, stone cutters, sculptors, bronze workers, rope makers, tanners, costume designers, gold smiths, embroidery workers, jewelers, teachers, engravers, cloth dyers, silversmiths, artists, a perfumer, chain makers, and tailors.

Besides all these people, those who donated their treasures and jewelry for the task had their own skills which had allowed them to accumulate such wealth—gold, silver, jewelry, violet, purple, or scarlet yarn as was needed for this project. 

Kids don’t always know what they want to be when they grow up.   Some have talents we recognize immediately---the ability to draw or sing, for instance.  Sometimes talent must be developed for jobs that are not always so obvious when we are young, such as accounting, engineering, teaching, and medicine. 

Man cannot live alone; he needs the company and the skills of others to survive over time.  He also needs the right distribution of those skills that must not be interfered with for society to thrive.  Who would disrupt talent, you ask? 

Hilary Clinton proposed to shut down the coal industry and “retrain” all the miners to do other things.  Against their will, I might add.  It is ok when a person decides to change jobs on their own, but when social engineers think they can do a better job of determining how men and women earn their living than man can decide for himself, the world is in trouble. 

In the book “Russia’s Iron Age,” the author tells how thousands and thousands of people were “relocated” to places they didn’t want to live, to work on large industrial projects they had no desire to do, and no talent or skill to perform. 

Often things were ruined because the people managing the construction were not good planners.  Sometimes they waited for weeks for the necessary materials because production somewhere else was not on time.  Sometimes the project fell behind schedule simply because the workers were pushed beyond their human limits, were worked seven days a week without a day of rest, and were given tasks they didn’t understand or know how to complete with proficiency. 

In a socialist society, the planners always know better than God what men should do with their time.  I met a woman a few years ago who had immigrated to the United States from Cuba so her daughter could go to college in Virginia.  Her daughter had applied to study engineering in Cuba and was told they didn’t need any engineers, which is not likely to be the case, but dictators are never wrong.  In a socialist society workers are not seen as vital to society beyond the fact they represent man hours of labor.  This is why the EU is content to import half the Muslim world into their countries without regard for their skills or desire to work, because when you are a socialist it is up to you to decide the distribution of workers to whatever industry or trade you have a need for.  This is working out poorly for the EU which is now finding out that people are not as easy to manipulate as they assumed.  Without exerting the kind of cruelty we’ve seen occur in China and in Russia after their revolutions, it is almost impossible to get men to do well what they don’t want to do or simply are not fit to do.  Besides, what a shame it is to see a musician go to waste because a factory needs him on an assembly line.  What a shame it is to see mathematicians and engineers go to waste because a forest needs to be cut or goods need to be loaded on a truck or a ship. 

The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave

This freedom to chart one’s own course in life is what has made our country so great and why our citizens are the most productive and happy in all the world.  God understands our needs and provides for each of us and for society exactly what is needed at any point in history.  He will always endow the right number of poets, composers, and artists to go with the right number of carpenters and welders, and lawyers and priests and wives and mothers.  There will always be brave men to defend us and lawmen to protect us, fighters of fire to save us, doctors to heal and restore us, and leaders to govern us and maintain peace in our communities.  Nothing can alter this result but the men who assume for themselves power over others and take away the liberty of individuals to follow the course for which God has prepared them.  

Land Grant universities were formed in this country in 1862 for the purpose of providing educational opportunity for the study of agriculture, engineering, and mining, without which it was determined, a country cannot survive.  Most are referred to as A & M colleges.  Men and women with a desire to study those things can be assured that attending one of those schools will give them the knowledge they need to pursue their goals. 

Today we have another kind of planned education supported by a group called STEM Education Coalition, who have made it their goal to “train” our future workforce.  I don’t know enough about STEM to argue well the pros and cons but I do know presenting opportunity for kids to learn and develop is not the same as establishing a system whereby they will be trained to do what central planners have decided they must be trained for and programmed to work in fields they might not otherwise like, or have an aptitude for, simply because industry has the need for so many units of man hours.  Something about this just doesn’t feel right for our children and for society as a whole. 

We should never forget that on July 20, 1969, the USA put a man on the moon using the knowledge and talent of men whose own choice had led them to study the things they would need to know for this feat to be accomplished.  It may seem at first a good idea for someone to check the pipeline and make sure we will have enough engineers in the future, but frankly, I think God already has that covered.  All we need is faith.  Be not afraid. 

         Is there a doctor in this crowd?  Just maybe there is.