First day of school today. 8am to 6pm with a 12pm - 2pm lunch break. I'm taking 5 modules this semester. 4 pharmacy modules. I had all 4 lectures today. Physiology 1, Anatomy, Physical Pharmacy and Physicochemical Principles of Drug Action.
3 out of the 4 modules seemed ok. Physicochemical Principles of Drug Action was scary though. We had an introduction to organic chem. Let me give you an example of what I'm supposed to be able to draw. Have you heard of N-(2-chloroethyl)-N'-cyclohexyl-N-nitrosourea? Or how about propyl-N-methy-N-(2-methylpropyl)carbamate? 3-(2'-methoxyphenoxy)propan-1,2-diol? Oh and I'm also supposed to derive the name from the structure as well. Yep. So fun.
Oh something interesting happened.
During Anatomy, the lecturer talked about the cell membrane in a monotonous voice. He showed the slides on the cell membrane, the lipid bilayer and the protein channels and all.
As you know, the cell membrane is made up of lipids with a hydrophilic(water-liking) phosphate head and a hydrophobic(water-hating) lipid tail. They arrange themselves in a bilayer with the hydrophobic tails pointing inside the membrane and the hydrophilic heads pointing outside towards the aqueous environment.
Well, I was looking at the slide with the lipid bilayer membrane when suddenly, I thought of the verse which said that you will be the head and not the tail, above only and not be beneath(Deut 28:13). Don't know whether it's God speaking to me or just my imagination but that really hit me at that moment.
The hydrophilic heads point outwards to the aqueous environment while the tails point inwards into the centre of the membrane, sheltered from the aqueous environment. If the church of God were heads, we will be able to interact with the aqueous environment (the world), if not we'll just be cooped up in our own world within the membrane, just like the tails.
Jesus prayed in John 17:15-16 that God would not take His disciples out from the world but that they would remain in the world but not belong to the world.
It's like what pastor has been saying all this while. We need to engage the world, not retreat from it. To be in the world, but not of the world. To swim in dirty waters without swallowing. We need to be the head and not the tail. Above only, and not be beneath.
