A Long Obedience to The Way
Christian Medical & Dental Associations®
January 8, 2026
One of the clearest and most impactful things God ever said to me was on a retreat when I was 18, just before going to college. I was feeling the pressure to get my life path figured out. In my mind, I envisioned a maze full of doors. God told me, “I will show you each door as you need to know it. If I showed you where you would be in 10 years, you would mess it up trying to get there.”
I went to college as a religion major. I switched to pre-med to do missions. Throughout medical school and family medicine residency, my wife and I had a “five-year plan” that after residency we would pay off loans and buy a house before going to the field. God opened the doors through MedSend for us to go early instead. God asked us to lay aside our plans. (By the way that happened 10 years from when God spoke to me.)
So, we went to Papua New Guinea, as a doctor and nurse. Seven years later God asked me to step into administration. I hated the idea of becoming a full-time administrator (giving up medicine 95 percent of the time), but I grew to love the position. The hospital grew in incredible ways. After 16 years in PNG, we surprisingly felt God direct us back to the USA, just as we felt at the top of our ministry.
I found a job with a FQHC. After a few years, they offered me a leadership position; but I felt a sudden check in my spirit. I felt strongly God asked me to turn that down and instead do part time medicine to have more time for ministry. The change opened my time to several ministries (a university coffee house, mentoring pastors, doing leadership development, mentoring men coming out of prison and addiction, leading church small groups). Recently, some of those felt like they had plateaued out. I wondered what was going on, but then I was asked to become the Interim Director for the Center for Advancing Healthcare Missions for CMDA due to Doug Lindberg’s illness (and later death). Those are big shoes to fill, but I am excited for how God has led all along the way.
There you have it—the last 30 years of my professional life summed up in four paragraphs! My wife could do much the same in seasons as a nurse, mom at home, teacher, life coach, and mentor. I bet most faithful servants you know could give a similar story of surprising turns, new positions and moments where God steps in and change your direction.
My point? Finding “your call” is rarely a moment of clarity that shows you all you will do in life. It is realizing that our primary call as believers is always to stay connected to God and go where He leads. All along the way there will be many crucifixions of our identity, and even what we thought was our call. These may be painful but those deaths of our previous path happen so God can raise us up to a new life.
It strikes me that when Jesus said, “I AM the way,” he was not referring to a map. They didn’t have great maps back then. If you wanted to find the way through the barren wilderness, you needed a guide who had already made the trek. The guide was the map. Jesus is the way. It’s a relationship with Him that takes you on God’s adventure. There will be mountains and valleys, seasons of growth, seasons that feel dry, and lots of changes, but in all of it we walk with Him.
My first day in the office as a missionary hospital administrator, my mentor had left everything in his office. I noticed on top of his whiteboard was written the quote: “a long obedience in the same direction.” At the time it felt a bit heavy. I didn’t want to do admin, I was hoping Jesus was not going to continue this direction for long! But our obedience is not to a pre-determined plan. It is to the Guide who walks with us. Whatever decision or season you are going through right now—the questions of where you could be useful, the questions of where to go, what job to take, what to do for a course of study, or what to do on the mission field…there is still only one direction that matters. Is this taking me in the direction of Christ? He walks before you. He is the way. Trust Him! It is a long obedience that takes us into everlasting, joyful, abundant life. When you follow Him as your direction, others will want to join too!
Scott Dooley MD
Interim Director CAHM, CMDA
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