How you get from a fatherless inner-city home and a mother with a third-grade education, rank as the worst student in your fifth grade class, and today you're a world-famous brain surgeon and your brother is an engineer? Again and again, Ben Carson points to two things: His mother's faith in God and the pivotal moment when she limited their television viewing and ordered him to start reading.

" I grew up in both Detroit and Boston. It wasn't a particularly pleasant situation. There was never money for anything. There were rats and roaches; sirens and gangs -- particularly in Boston, when we lived right in the middle of the tenements. Seeing people lying on the ground or dying was not uncommon. Two of my cousins were killed. I didn't anticipate that I would live beyond the age of 25."

 In 1960, the same year Carson turned 8, his parents separated and he lived with his mother in the inner city of Detroit.  Even though is nickname in school was “dummy”, his mother worked with him. Carson recalls. “She had only a third-grade education, but she had a faith in God that more than compensated for what she’d been denied.”

 Concerned for her two boys, Sonya Carson asked the Lord for the wisdom to keep them off the streets and from a life of gangs and drugs. She limited the boys’ television and insisted that they read two library books a week and write book reports on each one.   The boys had no idea their mom couldn’t read the reports they turned in, but the reading program introduced them to a world of ideas, places and successful people far from inner-city Detroit. The same year his father left, Carson heard his pastor tell the story of medical missionaries in Africa who were miraculously rescued.  

 He said, “As an 8-year-old, I remember listening to the preacher tell a story about some missionaries that were being chased. They got to a cliff and found a cleft under the cliff that they were able to hide in. Their pursuers came and were right over them and couldn't find them. The preacher went on to make the analogy of how God is able to protect us from anything, even from seemingly overwhelming odds, because He cares so much about us. That grabbed me. That was when I decided I wanted to follow the Lord.”  Carson was moved by what he heard; he gave his heart to Jesus and turned his thoughts to becoming a doctor. Because of his mother’s prodding, “Dummy” Carson failed to live up to his nickname; rather, he earned a scholarship to Yale.

It was while operating a crane in a steel company, the summer before entering Michigan medical school, that Carson became convinced of his keen sense of hand and eye coordination. This, and the ability to understand physical relationships and to think in three dimensions, would ultimately lead to his decision to become a surgeon, a specialist who must be able to foresee the consequences of each stroke of his hand.

During his clinical year at Michigan medical school, traditionally the third year of four, he drew upon these abilities to solve three dimensional problems, and to develop a new technique enabling neurosurgeons to pinpoint the hole in the base of the skull. This technique saved precious time in conducting surgery on the brain.  As surprised as his professors and fellow students by his ability in the neurosurgery arena, Carson decided that he had at last found the niche in which he could excel. After graduation from Michigan in 1977, he remained at the school for his residency training in neurosurgery.

In 1984, at the age of 32, Dr. Ben Carson became Director Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. Dr. Carson’s profession awards him the opportunity to work with the families of children who have horrible brain tumors or other neurological conditions. He performs over 500 critical operations on children in dire need each year, which is over triple the average neurosurgeon’s caseload.

It was in 1987 that Carson was thrust into the worldwide spotlight. After months of preparation, Dr. Carson led his team in a grueling operation on the Binder Siamese twins who were both connected at the back of the head. The operation was successful.

He was asked,  “How do you keep your composure and sense that God is in control when faced with the enormous difficulties you encounter as a neurosurgeon?

Carson answered: "It's easy for me because every single day I am dealing with complex things. I realize that disaster is just around the corner almost all the time. I think that's probably one of the reasons that neurosurgeons die early. The average age of death for a neurosurgeon is 59. You are dealing with stress day-in and day-out, all the time. For me, it's not nearly as stressful because God gets all the credit for all the good things, but He also is in control when bad things happen. The only thing He requires of me is that I do my best. That's all I have to do, and recognizing that takes an awful lot of stress off of me."

How does he stay focused?  He said, “It’s a matter of constantly being in the correct state of mind. The first thing I do is pray. Then I read from the Bible, the book of Proverbs, which has an enormous amount of wisdom. Just give me wisdom to know what to do and what not to do,”

Dr. Carson's typically 14-hour days combine early morning and all-day surgeries with visiting hospitalized patients; evaluating new ones; and seeing children coming in for check-ups. His hectic medical schedule generally includes ten or more surgeries a week, as well as administrative duties as director of the division of pediatric neurosurgery, teaching and training young doctors, and pursuing research interests.

How does he integrate his faith with his work? He answers: "I start out every day with my own personal devotional time of praying, reading the Bible and contemplating. I just try to keep God on my mind in everything I do. I tell myself, "You are a Christian, and you represent Christ." This means everything that comes out of my mouth and every action I do must be affirming and positive to people. I try to keep it that way no matter what is going on and no matter what anyone is doing."

How do colleagues react to his faith?  "Many in the medical world relegate faith to an entirely different realm. But, by the same token, I find that a lot of my colleagues like to talk to me when they have a spiritual issue.  Sometimes I get so tired of people trying to apologize for having a relationship with Christ. I'm not ashamed of who I am and what I believe; I talk about it a lot. I think it's an important thing for our nation, because so many elements are attempting to erase the God connection. They want us to be completely neutral in everything. But to be completely neutral in everything means you don't stand for anything. And if you don't stand for anything, what do you mean? You mean nothing! I think the founding fathers would be horrified if they could see what is going on right now.

"When they talked about separation of Church and State, they didn't mean that State should suppress Church, and they didn't mean that people should suppress their religion. We have forgotten that they meant religion shouldn't control government."

In 2002, Carson himself was confronted with critical life-threatening prostate cancer and underwent surgery.  When the doctor in patient’s clothing awoke in the recovery room, his urologist greeted him with good news. They’d operated just in time. The cancer had been one millimeter from breaking through the prostate membrane. Seeing just how fragile and unpredictable life is, Carson realized that the Lord is in control.  Carson says, “I’m convinced more than ever that the Lord is too wise to make mistakes.  I’m grateful to be alive, but even if I had died as the result of cancer, I don’t believe it would have been a tragedy. What the Lord wants is what matters most. Romans 8:28 promises us that a wise God causes everything to work out for the best [for His people].”

Despite the setback of cancer, this physician can’t imagine doing anything else; medicine is his calling. As such Carson believes those in health professions who profess faith in Christ are more influential than they might think. “Christian doctors are in a unique position to impact others,” he says. “As a result, I encourage them to be up-front about their faith and let their colleagues and patients know that they pray.” Carson has been known to assign prayer homework to patients and their parents.  “Too many intellectual people are afraid to be known as Christians. We should all make it known that we believe in God, not by preaching or waving tracts, but by speaking out and attributing successful treatment to the Divine Healer.”

As a result of his bout with cancer, he’s cut back on the time he spends at work. Instead of getting home at 9 or 10 each night, he pulls in the driveway closer to 7 p.m. Acknowledging that neurosurgeons have a shorter life expectancy than most people, Carson knows the stress of his job can take a toll on his recovering body.  “One of the things this cancer has done for me is help me realize that I can’t go through life working myself to death,” Carson says. “It may sound strange, but I’m glad I got cancer. It’s helped me reflect about life. It’s prompted me to realize I need to spend more time with my wife and boys.”  His wife and sons play string instruments together in a quartet. 

Carson’s ability to trust in the Great Physician grows through weekly church attendance and Friday night meetings in his family room. He and his wife, Candy, huddle in that corner of the house to read Scripture and pray with their sons, Murray, 19, Ben Jr., 18, and Rhoeyce, 16. Carson’s faith also emerges from a longstanding tradition he started as a teenager. He begins and ends each day by reading and reflecting on a verse from Proverbs.  “My middle name is Solomon,” Carson smiles. “I don’t know what my mother was thinking when she named me that. But come to think of it, Solomon and I have something in common. We both gained publicity from something having to do with separating babies.”

In late 1997, Carson traveled to South Africa to face another conjoined twin case. Eleven-month-old Zambian twins Luka and Joseph Banda were joined at the head but were facing in opposite directions.  "There had been 13 previous attempts to separate twins like that, none of which had been successful," Carson said. Carson recalled a traumatic moment during this operation while speaking at the 2000 commencement at the University of Delaware. The twins had lost a considerable amount of blood.  "I really felt the weight of the world on my shoulders as I walked back into that operating room," Carson said. "I didn't have my $350,000 Zeiss operating microscope that I have at Hopkins or my $400,000 3-D wand or my lasers or my ultrasounds or any of that fancy equipment. I just had my loupes and a scalpel and faith in God, and I went in there and said, 'Lord, it's up to you.' "

Carson was successful in separating the boys, and the twins did not suffer from any neurological deficits. Carson has won acclaim for his work with conjoined twins. However, the modest man doesn't credit himself entirely but points a finger to faith in God as his guide.

In closing, what has his work as a brain surgeon taught him about God and faith?  He says, "Every time I look into the human brain, I am astounded by its intricate complexities and think about how incredibly smart our Creator is. Whether I am gazing into a baby's head, or up at the stars at night, I sense God's presence and the mind-boggling complexity of the universe - so precise one can set one's watch by it. I see a brilliant and logical God. With every patient and every surgery, I am struck by the miracle of life and the miracles possible within it. I have seen children die, in spite of what we do, and live, despite the odds against them.

"Whatever the outcome, I see God as One who wants the best from us, and asks us always to trust Him. In the end, I am just a brain surgeon and can not know everything. I do believe we need to realize God is in control.  When I must leave a surgery and talk with parents, whatever I have to tell them, I remember wise King Solomon who wrote so many years ago 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.' (Proverbs 3:5) I find myself refreshed and fortified in knowing that I am not alone."

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