I am a followers.

Warning: some preliminary brain vomit.

At the same time, my butt is going into random spasms wanting to vomit too. HAHAHA. Sorry I couldn't resist making a weird joke, but it's true.

I've been learning about this concept called the entrepreneurial self. This ideology is everywhere, I realized. I mean ideology to be a concept, a way of thinking (not in a bad way since everyone is by nature subjective). We grow up breathing and living on it, at least in Singapore. In layman terms, the entrepreneurial self is someone who relies on himself and is highly capable of voicing his personal views and lifestyle in public spaces. If he needs help, he can rely on the resources he has built up for times like this: friendships, relationships, organizations he joins and contributes to. Others see him to be a burden, a freeloader if he doesn't solve his problems himself.

Originating from the postwar human potential movement from counseling and psychotherapy that emphasized on 'talking your feelings', the entrepreneurial self is valued for his ability to analyze himself and talk about his personal life amazingly in public situations. From this concept we get the notion of "sharing" and "discussion", and our endless sentences that start with "I think", "I feel", and "for me".

I'm not saying that these are bad in themselves. Every generation has their own dominant ideologies, and for our generation, it seems to be increasingly this: in schools, in workplaces, in the government, in clubs and societies, in religious institutions.

I think I am a very entrepreneurial self. Of course it can be difficult sometimes, and I end up feeling like I'm being despised by some people in authority. But I know that I am a good storyteller by God's grace, I can share my personal feelings and stuff like that as you can see from this blog.

If I'm not careful, I will forget that living Jesus is a communal thing. The focus on the individual that came especially from the past two centuries through preachers such as Charles Finney, and D.L. Moody, and the Methodists has pretty much pervaded most of Christianity. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I find myself sometimes thinking culturally in similar individualistic ways as many Christians do.

And I forget that Jesus' key commandment for all believers is "Love one another". I can't love-one-another myself, and if Jesus is right that loving others is the biggest commandment, then community life is integral to living like him. It's not just about having friends who are believers, but obeying and serving the Lord together every day.

Following Jesus is a personal heart-thing and a communal matter. To my generation, I'd like to stress the latter. There has never been a place for individualism in God's family of believers, and I hope we would be careful to live humbly and joyfully in a community of believers too.