Some folks are surprised to learn that when you go in for a surgery that requires general anesthesia, the Anesthesiologist will put you into a type of medically induced coma, intubate you, and put you on a ventilator until they reverse it all at the end of your operation.

In your pre-operative interview, they explain this to you, but use less scary words. Because “intubation,” “ventilator,” and “medically induced coma” make us think of ICU, death, and dying; instead, they say, “We’ll give you medicine through your IV that will make you go to sleep. We’ll put a breathing tube down your throat that will probably make you wake up with a sore throat.” Etc.

This is good! I’m not trying to make you scared of anesthesia. You’re in good hands.

I do want to point out that, in my eleven years as an operating room nurse, hearing countless preoperative explanations from Anesthesia providers, I have never once heard a patient ask the Anesthesiologist about their credentials. I’ve never heard any scrutinizing questions about where they went to medical school; How many operations they’ve provided anesthesia for; or How successful their outcome statistics are.

Just trust. Pure and simple trust. “Sure, Doc–Do whatever you have to do. I just don’t want to feel anything, kay?” “What’s your name again? Oh, well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll never remember it anyway.”

When I’m counseling people through doubts, I note that often they feel a ton of pressure “to prove Christianity to be true.” That it would be irresponsible to not subject it to rigorous scrutiny. Often they want God to “prove that He exists.” Perhaps they’ve read extremely difficult books and feel at a loss to sort it all out. I empathize. This can be deeply emotional, intensely layered, and very complicated.

When I sense there’s readiness, I’ll gently observe that we’re very trusting of our Anesthesiologists, Surgeons, and Airline pilots with virtually no scrutiny whatsoever; and ask the question: Why do we feel such a burden to prove God? Wouldn’t it be relaxing to trust Him in a similar way?