Looking back at 2015

I’ve started to write this on December 30th, sitting on a train in Lincolnshire at 7:30am, on my way to work. It’s still completely dark outside, and half the country is still on holiday. I feel slightly jarred, like the alarm clock went off, but no one else has had to get up.

Feeling disjointed is somewhat appropriate – it aids my reflections on the last 12 months.

CMF Logo CMF Developing Health Course

For years now, I’ve had a real passion about Africa, and, also for years, I’ve been in training as a doctor. They are passions that have grown together, and my excitement about them overlaps.

I’ve also been a fringe member of CMF – the Christian Medical Fellowship – since my first year in medical school, and recently I discovered that they run an annual course entitled “Developing Health“. It seemed too good to pass on, so this summer I managed to corral the required annual and study leave, and am attending.

Picture of me, holding a sign saying "I am Judas" Being Judas

This Easter I’ve been acting in the St Tim’s Passion Play. For those of you not familiar with the concept, it’s a reenactment of the biblical account of Jesus living, dying and resurrecting.

I was cast as Judas. This, of course, was treated with a great deal of humour from, well, everyone who knows me. There were cries of “type-casting!”, and I rather enjoyed pointing out that last time I was in a passion play, my role was “Second Demon”, so this was a promotion, of sorts.

Religion vs Jesus (video)

I don’t pretend to have all the answers to Christianity, but I often find church a distraction, Christians a frustration, and – more importantly – antithetical to many of Jesus’ statements. This video makes that point fairly admirably.

Also, from a purely aesthetic perspective, there is some beautiful flow and rhyme in this, with great visuals, and a subtle but supportive typographical underlay. If that’s your sort of thing…