Daniel Krall is a fourth-year dental student at Loma Linda University who has called Loma Linda home for most of his life. After graduating from college in 2022, he began attending Advent Hope—a decision that deeply transformed his spiritual life.

<p>Daniel Krall is a fourth-year dental student at Loma Linda University who has called Loma Linda home for most of his life. After graduating from college in 2022, he began attending Advent Hope—a decision that deeply transformed his spiritual life.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Daniel Krall

Crossroads: Which Way, Lord?

Father God, I want to thank you so much for the Sabbath day.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here at Advent Hope, my home church, and to share a little testimony about an experience I went through recently.

I pray that there's somebody in the audience today who needs to hear this message, that it will benefit them in some way.

And I just ask that anything that I say, that it will bring glory to you and you alone.

I ask all these things in your name, amen.

So the title of my presentation this morning is Crossroads, Which Way, Lord?

I usually like to delve into more deep theological topics.

This is a bit different than what I usually do, but it's something that I went through recently and I felt compelled to speak on it this morning, so I hope that you guys will enjoy.

But this is a personal testimony type format infused with some personal insights that I've learned along the way.

And so I hope that somebody today needs to hear this message and it will help you as you make your own life decisions.

I'm a fourth year dental student and 1 major aspect of fourth year is figuring out what comes next.

Some students find a job, other students choose to specialize, while other students opt to get an additional year of training in general dentistry.

As of about a month ago, I thought I had all of my postgraduate plans figured out.

I was in the interview process for a one-year hospital-based program called a general practice residency, which is going to provide me with additional training in general dentistry.

From there I would determine, you know, maybe I want to specialize next or just go into private practice.

I had applied to several programs across California and was excited to further my education.

This was the trajectory I had been headed towards ever since I started dental school.

Right from the get-go I knew I wanted to do a GPR.

Well as I was about to discover God had other plans for my life.

And suddenly, I found myself at a crossroads with no clear direction for the future.

Thankfully, God didn't leave me at this crossroads alone.

He led me to a most relevant sermon by Dr.

I'm sure many of you in this room have been impacted by his sermons as well, but it was a sermon that impacted me so much that I had to share it with you today.

Eric Walsh's sermon was how to know God's will for your life.

And in it, he shared some advice that he received from Pastor Morris Fenden about how to make major life decisions.

I'm gonna share these tips with you now and then illustrate how each tip came into play during my own decision-making process.

What you see now on the screen in front of you is a list of tips that Dr.

Eric Walsh shared from Morris Fenden's book.

Walsh stresses you must follow in this exact order.

Number 1, have no will of your own on the matter.

Number 4, consider providential circumstances.

Number 5, consult with godly people and have them pray for you.

Number 6, ask God in prayer to reveal his will.

Tell God your decision before you tell anyone else, and then proceed with your decision.

All right, so let's get right into these.

So like I said, I was in the interview process for a one-year hospital-based residency program for general dentists.

I started interviews clear back in October and still had several programs to interview with in December.

So by late November, you know, I was deep into this interview process.

And the way that these programs work is that some of them will actually send out acceptances early on, like in early to late November, whereas some of the other programs participate in the match program similar to how medical school works, and they don't send out their results until late January.

For example, I interviewed at the non-match programs first, because they send out their acceptances first, and actually got an early acceptance into 1 program, as well as a rejection from another 1.

But I had my eyes set on 2 programs that were in the match program.

1 was in San Francisco, 1 was in San Diego.

So I decided to turn down the acceptance and move on into the match program, which was kind of risky because before, I had this guaranteed acceptance into a program.

But going into the match, as you know, sometimes there's never a guarantee that you'll even match somewhere.

So I guess you could say I kind of assumed this go big or go home mentality.

Well, fast forward a few weeks and it's late November.

At this point, I'm kind of between interviews.

The non-match programs had sent out their acceptances, and I decided to take a risk and wait around for the programs to invite me to interview in December.

This was an uneasy season of life for me because I had no guarantee of what would happen next.

The thought of possibly not being able to further my education next year weighed heavily upon me.

Well, I decided to keep this whole process in prayer and to keep walking forward in faith, because that was all I could do at this 0.1 day, I'm up in the clinic at the School of Dentistry, providing care to a patient, And 1 of my mentors walks up to my cubicle, leans over, and casually asks me a question that would completely alter the trajectory of my life.

He asks me, hey, do you want to specialize?

There's a spot that's open up at this program down in Texas.

Let me know if you're interested." And with that, he spun around and casually strolled off down the clinic hallway, cool as ever, while my life trajectory quietly explodes behind him.

Now, when he posed this question to me, I immediately sensed this butterfly sensation in my stomach, and my heart was already beating out of my chest.

Like I said, I was already deep in the interview process for this one-year hospital-based residency program in California, but suddenly I had the opportunity to consider a specialty program down in Texas.

I was blown away because usually opportunities like these don't present themselves in this way.

I wondered to myself, was God trying to tell me something?

Would I continue down the path I was already taking, continue with the interviews, try to get into that one-year residency program, or should I leave all of that behind and try to get into this specialty residency?

It was as if my world had just been flipped upside down.

For the next few days, my mind was racing so much that I could almost not bear it any longer.

There were so many things I had to factor in.

Going back to school wouldn't be helping me pay off my loans.

This would also be a new location for us, far away from home, far away from my church family here at Alvin Hope.

Would I really want to move across the country for the next 3 years?

I was at a crossroads, and really the only good question I could ask at this point was, which way, Lord?

This brings me back to our first tip for making major life decisions, having no will of your own on the matter.

Now let's be honest with ourselves, right?

When we're at a crossroads in life, and there are 2 or 3 or 4 different options or trajectories that we can choose from.

Is it not true that there is usually 1 option that stands out from the rest?

Perhaps there is 1 opportunity that will bring more money, more prestige, or more fame.

And so the temptation may be to go in prayer, saying, God, I've got these possible options in front of me.

And you know, your will be done, but God, please let option A become a reality for my life.

Can't you see, Lord, how this option would benefit me.

But church family, is this really surrendering our will to the Lord?

Are we just praying that God's will becomes our will?

I think the danger of praying for what we want or begging God to cooperate with our will is that we place ourselves in a position that could potentially be outside the will of God.

And when we pray for our will to be done, this gives Satan the opportunity to ensure that everything aligns perfectly with our desires.

I remember in college, and this is kind of embarrassing to say, but I remember in college laying in my bed at night begging God to help me get married to that random girl in class that I had a crush on.

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Crossroads: Which Way, Lord?

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