time and age

Watching my hamster these days has been making me ponder over how time passes ever and ever on, and how ageing is an inescapable fact for everyone. Raisin, once a hyperactive brown furball, is now 3 years old and sports thinning light brown fur. Although still quite active, he doesn't quite run the wheel anymore and runs around my room with a sort of limp in his back legs. His balance is failing to the point where if he stands on his hind legs and looks up, he'll fall over - backwards. It's really quite heartbreaking to watch him fall so often.

This new lunar year is the Year of the Dog according to the Chinese zodiac calendar. Since it runs a full cycle of the 12 zodiac animals every dozen years, this means the last time 'my' year of the dog was celebrated was 12 years ago, when i was 12!! Wow, that year would have been me just starting out on p.6 level, with the psle looming before me. Never would I have guessed what I would be doing 12 years on. What a faithful God I serve! Through trials and tough times in the years, I believe God has taught, disciplined and moulded me much, even though I might have resented it so much at times, and yes, perhaps even resented God. But yet You are faithful, thank You for that...

So we're all ageing. Passing into the threshold of 'full adulthood' perhaps? Being at the age where you're in the thick of the ratrace, what then is our response? Do I want to fill my days with God's work, or chasing things that, well, does matter... but perhaps not in eternity's timeframe?

Read this thought somewhere and got me thinking: If the person beside me on the plane were to ask me "What do you do?", will my answer be "I am an occupational therapist" or "I am a student", or "I am a Christian, and I work as an occupational therapist"? What defines me the most?