God smiled on me in the form of Cecil Murphey. I met him online through a Christian writers' group; and whether he knows it or likes it, this past year he has become one of my best writing mentors. As we began corresponding by email, Mr. Murphey offered me an original edition paperback autographed copy of Gifted Hands, his 1990 ghostwritten autobiography of Benjamin Carson, M.D. (An updated version with a new cover is now available.) This famous super specialist neurosurgeon has perfected some operating techniques that have saved and enhanced many lives. His story proved an intriguing read to me.

I come from a medical family: My dad and brother are doctors. My cousin was a doctor. His wife is a nurse. My husband is a pharmacist. This heritage and exposure alone drew me to the book. However, I'm not up on all the latest technology and complicated medical jargon. That kind of knowledge is not required for readers of Gifted Hands.

For about ten years, I've become somewhat of a success junkie; that is, I love to read and study about the lives of successful people and what makes them tick. Ben Carson does not disappoint me. He chose, with the encouragement of his mother and others along the way, to overcome his broken home and impoverished background. He turned his poor grades into a quest for knowledge and his selfish thinking during adolescence into a mission to serve God and his fellow man.

Ben's band teacher, Mr. Doakes, demanded perfection from his students in playing music. Doakes also told Ben, "Carson, you have to put academics first. Always put first things first." One of three ROTC colonels in Detroit by the time he was a senior in high school, Ben turned down a scholarship to West Point. The reason? He knew he wanted to be a doctor, that he was called to be a doctor.

Because Ben had applied himself wholeheartedly to his studies, he received a 90 percent scholarship to Yale University. During medical school at the University of Michigan, he invented a new surgical technique on his neurosurgery rotation. Neurosurgery, he says, "became a compulsion." The same drive and faith in God that led him to this point continued to guide Dr. Carson, through years of training and experience, to what he describes as a "groundbreaking surgical procedure," one that brought ABC television's 20/20 seeking him for a story and interview.

When I reached the concluding chapters of Gifted Hands, which delved into the complex surgeries, which would bring hope to patients once declared hopeless, the details given by worried parents and Carson himself touched me to tears. I imagined my children in the same dilemma as these struggling babies, grade-schoolers, or adolescents. The miracle and mystery of how God could use this man to deliver these people from their worst nightmares amazed me. 

The best aspect of this narrative exposing the struggles and successes of Ben Carson's life? His constant insistence on giving credit to others for his personal success and for his accomplishments in the medical field. So many have benefited, yet he never fails in each chapter to mention someone, including God, to whom he owes a debt of gratitude.