The slowing-down syndrome

Symptoms: rhinorrhoea (runny nose), lethargy, sternutation (the action of sneezing), headaches, polydipsia (with a particular predisposition for tea)

Signs: periorbital shading, grey hairs, dry skin, contact dermatitis

Diagnosis: Leave sickness

Treatment: there is no cure, but the effects can be palliated with more tea and a slice of freshly baked cake and the syndrome will pass with time, just in time to return to work.

I have now completed the last 12 day run of my medical rotation and I have only two days left of Diabetes and Endocrinology before I move to Trauma and Orthopaedics. The last week was tiring with long days and few of the team around. Having finally stopped I am now experiencing the well known phenomenon explained above, and feeling well justified in feeling sorry for myself!

So I set myself to baking! Yesterday I made what I think should be called a praline cake. Chocolate and Hazelnut goodness. Enlisting the help of a willing volunteer, my brother, we set about attempting this more challenging recipe. There is little flour in the recipe itself and most of the rise is created by whisked egg whites and careful folding of the ingredients together. It's not something you can bash out quickly but the effort is worth it, the result being a light, textured cake with luxuriously rich flavours permeating through.

Continuing the theme from my last post, I've been thinking more about how life is a mixture of very good and not-so good. I am all too easily tempted to be dragged into an introspective cycle at looking at the things that I wish I could change about my life. The 'if only...' this or that. And time to time I am kicked out of this by something wonderful; an evening in with my housemates, time at home, dinner cooked by a good friend, the list goes on and on. Sometimes it is the attitude of my friends that puts things into perspective. When I see others who are going through such difficult situations with a smile, I realise that my self pity over a little cold and a week of long days at work is totally ridiculous.

So why are we stuck in the in-between of what is so good and so difficult?

We were made as the pinnacle of God's creation, make in his very likeness. This is where our identity and purpose comes from and it gives us worth that we can't begin to fully comprehend, because we are precious to God. But because of the pattern of Adam at the fall, we as humankind have chosen to go our own way. God's image in our lives is blurred and ruined and through this we have brought into the world pain, injustice, evil, suffering...and there is no way we can get ourselves out of this pattern.

But in God's great mercy a second pattern was given to us by God. His only Son Jesus, who although fully human did not follow Adam's way. Instead, equally fully God, he lived a perfect life in obedience to his father. He made a new way for God to again see us as we should be, reflecting his perfection and beauty.

As long as we live on this earth we will be in this ongoing tension between who we are (in Adam) and who we should be (reflecting God). We are made new, in Jesus, and God sees in us his likeness (from Jesus). We don't experience the fulness of this now, but we await Jesus' return when we will see Jesus properly and then be made to be like him. It's this hope that keeps us going!