Dr. Benjamin S. Carson Sr., M.D. spoke at the 2024 National Day of Prayer at the Lake Charles Event Center at noon Thursday. Carson told of how he rose from humble beginnings, having been raised by a single mother who only had a third grade education. He told of the first time he saw a rat after moving to a new apartment with his mother as a boy. The rat was so large that he thought it was a small dog.

Carson struggled in school in his early years, although as a boy he said he loved “all things medical” and knew by age 8 he wanted to be
a physician.

Carson went on to become Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the John Hopkins Children’s Center. He most recently served as the 17th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He is founder and chairman of the American Cornerstone Institute.

Carson overcame many obstacles, he said, including learning that he must apply himself at school, dealing with anger issues and even self pride when he saw how successful he had become.

But God, he said, reminded him of who was really in charge and kept his ego in check.

Carson told of instances in his medical career where he saw the hand of God move and he said he was humbled by those times.

Once, the parents of a boy with an inoperable brain tumor came to him, saying that God told them to come to the hospital where he was because they would find a Christian neurosurgeon there. Carson had tests and scans done on the boy and operated on him but found the situation to be near hopeless. The couple kept saying that God told them their son would be saved.

Carson operated a second time and found that the boy’s tumor was not on the brain stem after all, it was on tissue outside the brain stem, but the tumor was pushing on the stem. He removed the tumor and the boy lived.

Carson said he reached a point where he said to God, “I see that you are the neurosurgeon, and I am just the hands.”