It is not a new malady. “Same Day Syndrome” has affected individuals almost from the beginning of time. It is just that the current generation seems more prone to this condition than any other. What is Same Day Syndrome? The Foundation for the Prevention of Same Day Syndrome defines this malady as “a neurotic desire for immediate gratification.” The Foundation says sufferers are “neurotic” because of the overwhelming need, almost uncontrollable need for immediate satisfaction of every desire.
One can see the disease at work. A child may want to be a good athlete. But when success does not come at once, interest wanes and the child moves on to other pursuits. Those suffering from Same Day Syndrome must succeed at once. Similar phenomenons can be witnessed in music, drama, even academic studies.
Researchers wonder if Same Day Syndrome is caused by environmental conditions or if it is genetically based. Frequently, children suffering from this emotional disease are accompanied by adults who evidence similar symptoms. The sufferer may demonstrate high interest and energy for a short time. Communications may be loud and harsh. The patient may place high demands on himself. Those around him may also evidence high demands on the patient.
If expectations are met in a short amount of time, the patient may continue to demonstrate high interest and energy. However, if success does not come quickly, Same Day Syndrome causes one to abandon the task and try something new.
Adults also suffer from Same Day Syndrome. One may try a new job, but if the satisfaction anticipated is not immediate the sufferer will quit to seek satisfaction elsewhere.
Marriages often demonstrate how rampant this old disease has become. With high interest and high energy, a sufferer initiates a marriage relationship. But the inevitable adjustments, the hard work of two people becoming one, the sacrifices one must make for the other and for the couple — all of these hinder the fulfillment that is being sought by the sufferer. The pattern is predictable.
Careful observers have noticed the syndrome demonstrated in churches. New workers begin a church year with high interest and high energy. But come February, interest has waned and workers suffering from Same Day Syndrome are gone. The success they anticipated did not materialize. The gratification desired did not occur. Ingenious explanations are sometimes offered by Same Day Syndrome sufferers but the result is the same. They are off to new pursuits.
This plight has even been found among pastors. Occasionally high interest, high energy and high expectations mark the beginning days of a new pastorate. But if expectations, either stated or unstated, are not met, the disease can cause the man of God to resign and try again somewhere else. Usually, the disease causes the behavior to be repeated over and over again.
No known cure exists for Same Day Syndrome despite research dating back to the earliest times. It is an old disease, after all. The most promising findings come from those who have studied what appears to be a pattern used by God in dealing with His followers across the years. It appears that God seldom accomplished a task immediately.
One researcher noted that even God did not complete creation in a single day. This paper, recently published in a scholarly journal, noted that God took six days to accomplish creation. It also said that God built one stage of creation on another. The writer called it “process” and said that proved God had no part in Same Day Syndrome. She concluded that God’s followers should recognize process or stages in accomplishing goals just as God Himself did. That point was made by another research project which examined accomplishments of pivotal leaders in Christian history. Moses, it was found, had a life mission of freeing the captive Israelites. But that mission was delayed 40 years while he worked as a nomadic shepherd. The goal of leading the people to the Promised Land was delayed another 40 years by circumstances beyond Moses’ control.
The research project noted that Moses accomplished his life mission, in part, because he did not give up when he failed to achieve his goals immediately.
As a boy, David was anointed king of Israel but he had to wait years before that destiny was fulfilled, noted the research. The intervening years were filled with danger, even failure, but David did not give up and he became Israel’s greatest king.
The Apostle Paul spent three years in a desert place following his conversion to belief in Jesus as God’s Son and Savior. It is believed he spent another decade in Tarsus before being called to participate in a missions project sponsored by the church at Antioch. It was only in that experience that this one-time leader of the Pharisees became a leader of the emerging Christian church. Again, the researchers found that Paul did not give up when immediate expectations were not fulfilled and he became the greatest Christian missionary of all time.
Researchers say they are hopeful that in the patterns of God’s work with leaders of the faith, they will find clues that might someday help find a cure for the ancient malady of Same Day Syndrome.
We certainly hope so.
“Let the one with ears to hear, hear.”
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