I'm honored to introduce you these young people who not only deconstruct, critique, theorize, and propose social change - they are part of the change.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
it's okay to vilify Jesus
Many things I don't understand. Well, I can understand why people do certain things, but I don't understand why we don't see that we contradict ourselves.
And I will place my cards on the table: I'm saying all this because I stand on the side of the One people insult.
We say that religions co-exist,
But then we give nasty names to Jesus.
We say that there is freedom of religion,
But we ridicule those who carry the name of Christ.
We protect the freedom of speech,
Yet we spend time trolling on YouTube
Leaving no videos about Jesus un-insulted.
We say all is right if nobody's hurt
But those who follow Jesus, we hurt
We say we (try to) live by the Golden Rule,
When we hate the Rabbi who taught it - and lived it
Even if keeping it meant losing His life
And I will place my cards on the table: I'm saying all this because I stand on the side of the One people insult.
We say that religions co-exist,
But then we give nasty names to Jesus.
We say that there is freedom of religion,
But we ridicule those who carry the name of Christ.
We protect the freedom of speech,
Yet we spend time trolling on YouTube
Leaving no videos about Jesus un-insulted.
We say all is right if nobody's hurt
But those who follow Jesus, we hurt
We say we (try to) live by the Golden Rule,
When we hate the Rabbi who taught it - and lived it
Even if keeping it meant losing His life
It's okay to vilify Jesus. Great, even.
Because it shows, apparently, that we are:
Rational, Scientific, Intelligent, Open-minded, Objective, Independent
A Critical Thinker Who is Of Sound Reason
Enlightened.
Enlightened.
And Jesus wants me to love these people sincerely?! And I'm supposed to overcome evil with good by asking God to bless them...no tit for tat? Surely giving them three-sixteenths a teaspoon of their own medicine is no revenge, no?
Yet I know that during the times when I disregard the Love of my life, I do just the same. I deny Him and choose my own way to live, my own decisions, my own ideas, which are by nature at war with His goodness and love. During those times, I, too, actually believe that it's okay to vilify Jesus.
And each time I would think that I am:
Rational, Scientific, Intelligent, Open-minded, Objective, Independent
A Critical Thinker Who is Of Sound Reason
Enlightened.
Enlightened.
Time and again I come to Jesus ashamed. Surely it's beyond pardon...I contradict the very love I profess for Him. Yet He says that He remembers my betrayals no more, and that I should not avoid Him deceiving myself that I have it all.
It is Jesus' sincere and insistent love that first so powerfully won and still wins me over, so how can I contain this love that was meant to overflow? After all, who am I, really, to not do the same for people - regardless of what they have done?
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
courage to believe
Faith is inherently un-provable. It takes courage to believe in something you can't prove...but none at all to believe in nothing.
Francis W. Porretto
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
things i used to hear growing up
A mixture of lores, sayings, teachings and beliefs (probably of good intent)
1. If you point at the moon,
a) your ears will be cut off, or
b) your tongue will be cut off, or
c) your finger will be cut off.
2. If you have nightmares, sleep on the underside of your pillow.
*a Malay taxi driver's advice in 2011
3. If the soles of your shoes face upwards when you take them off at someone's doorstep, spirits will follow you home.
4. Don't bring Muslim and Hindu friends home because
a) they will bring kutu ('headlice') into our house
b) they are not Christian
5. If you trim your nails at night, you will see spirits.
*The irony: a Malaysian relative was amazed at my courage to go ahead nonetheless. He/she also said because I didn't believe in this lore, I wouldn't see the spirits.
6. My primary school used to be a cemetery, so was my secondary school.
*But it turns out that everyone's primary schools and secondary schools were also cemeteries. All those years of feeling special...
7. If you choked on a fishbone, keep stabbing a pair of chopsticks against the bottom of an empty rice bowl.
8. If you sleep in front of a mirror, your soul will be captured into the mirror.
9. Peel an apple in front of the mirror at midnight and you will see
a) your crush, or
b) your future boyfriend, or
c) your future husband, or
d) a ghost, or
c) a witch
10. Don't play with Indians because
a) they are smelly, or
b) they have kutu, or
c) you will become BLACK
In the name of cute folklore, I developed two of my own and have been propagating them to anyone who would hear them.
11. Your breakfast tomorrow is what your fart smells like today.
If your fart smells like hotdog, it means you're having hotdogs for breakfast tomorrow.
12. If you find a piece of hair in your food, congratulations - you're in luck!
Better still if it's a bug!!!
Speaking of which, I just found one in my soup.
1. If you point at the moon,
a) your ears will be cut off, or
b) your tongue will be cut off, or
c) your finger will be cut off.
2. If you have nightmares, sleep on the underside of your pillow.
*a Malay taxi driver's advice in 2011
3. If the soles of your shoes face upwards when you take them off at someone's doorstep, spirits will follow you home.
4. Don't bring Muslim and Hindu friends home because
a) they will bring kutu ('headlice') into our house
b) they are not Christian
5. If you trim your nails at night, you will see spirits.
*The irony: a Malaysian relative was amazed at my courage to go ahead nonetheless. He/she also said because I didn't believe in this lore, I wouldn't see the spirits.
6. My primary school used to be a cemetery, so was my secondary school.
*But it turns out that everyone's primary schools and secondary schools were also cemeteries. All those years of feeling special...
7. If you choked on a fishbone, keep stabbing a pair of chopsticks against the bottom of an empty rice bowl.
8. If you sleep in front of a mirror, your soul will be captured into the mirror.
9. Peel an apple in front of the mirror at midnight and you will see
a) your crush, or
b) your future boyfriend, or
c) your future husband, or
d) a ghost, or
c) a witch
10. Don't play with Indians because
a) they are smelly, or
b) they have kutu, or
c) you will become BLACK
In the name of cute folklore, I developed two of my own and have been propagating them to anyone who would hear them.
11. Your breakfast tomorrow is what your fart smells like today.
If your fart smells like hotdog, it means you're having hotdogs for breakfast tomorrow.
12. If you find a piece of hair in your food, congratulations - you're in luck!
Better still if it's a bug!!!
Speaking of which, I just found one in my soup.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
the struggle for justice
"The poorest people in our world suffer from a lot of familiar problems. They suffer from hunger, homelessness, illiteracy and sickness. And in response, all over the world, people of goodwill bring to bear familiar forms of assistance: we bring food and shelter and education and medicine.
But at the root of much of this suffering is actually a different problem - a less familiar problem - namely, violence. Many times the widow's children are hungry because bullies have stolen her land and she can no longer grow her own food. The street child is homeless because sexual abuse in the home has forced her onto the streets. The young boy is illiterate because he is held as a slave in a brick factory and can't go to school. The teenage girl has AIDS because she has been forcibly infected with the disease while held captive in a brothel.
In such cases we can't meet the root cause of suffering with the familiar remedies of food, shelter, schools or medicine. It simply doesn't meet the need. In fact, we can give all manner of goods and services to the poor, but if we do not restrain the hands of the bullies from taking it away, we will be disappointed in the long-term outcome of our efforts. As the rock-star activist Bono has learned from his work with the poor in Africa, caring for the poor is "not a matter of charity; it's a matter of justice."
This then is one of the things that makes IJM's calling to the church so different. We are calling Christians to address the distinctive problem of violence that lies beneath so much of the suffering of the poor - the suffering that tenaciously keeps so many of the poor in poverty.
To be clear, among the global poor, hunger, homelessness, education and medical care are massive needs worthy of our urgent attention. But the traditional remedies for these problems simply don't address the underlying problems of aggressive violence.
Violence is different. Violence is intentional. Violence is scary. And violence causes deep scars. Accordingly, to deal with violence, Christians must be different."
But at the root of much of this suffering is actually a different problem - a less familiar problem - namely, violence. Many times the widow's children are hungry because bullies have stolen her land and she can no longer grow her own food. The street child is homeless because sexual abuse in the home has forced her onto the streets. The young boy is illiterate because he is held as a slave in a brick factory and can't go to school. The teenage girl has AIDS because she has been forcibly infected with the disease while held captive in a brothel.
In such cases we can't meet the root cause of suffering with the familiar remedies of food, shelter, schools or medicine. It simply doesn't meet the need. In fact, we can give all manner of goods and services to the poor, but if we do not restrain the hands of the bullies from taking it away, we will be disappointed in the long-term outcome of our efforts. As the rock-star activist Bono has learned from his work with the poor in Africa, caring for the poor is "not a matter of charity; it's a matter of justice."
This then is one of the things that makes IJM's calling to the church so different. We are calling Christians to address the distinctive problem of violence that lies beneath so much of the suffering of the poor - the suffering that tenaciously keeps so many of the poor in poverty.
To be clear, among the global poor, hunger, homelessness, education and medical care are massive needs worthy of our urgent attention. But the traditional remedies for these problems simply don't address the underlying problems of aggressive violence.
Violence is different. Violence is intentional. Violence is scary. And violence causes deep scars. Accordingly, to deal with violence, Christians must be different."
---
"This then is the ultimate paradox of our despair over injustice. It masquerades in the robes of hard thinking, realistic analysis and modesty, and dismisses hope as illusory, naive and even arrogant. But truth be told, it is despair that has the facts wrong. In the long run, it is always the tyrants and the bullies who end up on the ash heap of history. Sometimes the moral arc of the universe is long indeed. Sometimes unbearably long. But on both small and epic scales, it does bend toward justice. And miraculously, God has given into human hands the power to bend it more quickly to its ultimate destination. This is what the facts of history tell us. Indeed, God intends that our hope in the work of justice be built not simply on bare theological assertions about the character of God but also on the hard factual evidence about the track record of God.
Hope is not simply wishful thinking; it is a fruit of the Spirit born of the spiritual discipline of remembering."
Gary A. Haugen
Monday, November 5, 2012
grief and Hope
You brace yourself and come face to face with reality, and you grief. Then your eyes open to the Hope that has always been there. And so now you continue to grieve, but you become the hands and feet of Hope. Reality continues to be so dark it's demonic, but the light and love from the Hope in you brings so much violence on this dark abyss that the walls crack. Defenses break, stiff necks broken, pride dashed to the ground, shattering like insect eggs that seep beneath the floor through some invisible sift.
Till we recognize the grief we have brought onto the world and ourselves. And we rejoice, because in our grief, Hope is real and Hope is nearing. Hope is also here...in us - and we can finally not just do good, but be good, through and through.
Till we recognize the grief we have brought onto the world and ourselves. And we rejoice, because in our grief, Hope is real and Hope is nearing. Hope is also here...in us - and we can finally not just do good, but be good, through and through.
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.
You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
Therefore your pursuers will be swift!
A thousand will flee
at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
you will all flee away,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill.”
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.
You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
Therefore your pursuers will be swift!
A thousand will flee
at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
you will all flee away,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill.”
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teacherswill be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Sunday, October 7, 2012
"my power is made perfect in weakness"
CARNAGE in 9 days: 63 comprehension passages, 28 essays, 4 examiner reports, and 2 red pens.
Apparently this is the busiest time of each year as teachers rush to finish grading the students' finals.
I'm so thankful that I was early in meeting all my deadlines, save the first. As a greenhorn, I asked Jesus many times to help me stand up under the pressure as well as grade fairly. Sometimes I had to review the papers I graded more than 5 times. This took up to 2 hours each time. Usually I hate revisiting work I've done more than twice because I find it so boring and pointless. But Jesus helped me see that it wasn't about me, but the students who warrant a fair assessment and whose grades are at stake. It's so good that even this drab, sedentary process of grading teaches me to be other-centered.
Though there are no demons harassing me, Jesus' revelation to Paul still applies.
I love that Jesus cherishes our receptivity to his help when we admit that human strength alone ultimately fails. Though the human spirit desires perfection and all that is good, in reality it is weak, limited in knowledge and experience, limited by time and physicality, and is way more prone to bitterness and selfishness than appreciation and love. We are torn between somewhat knowing all that is good and trying our best, yet still failing to get what we want and keep it. It is such a terribly heavy and fearful burden to carry - what if that is all to our lives? That is a cruel, cruel sentence to carry.
I am so thankful that Jesus stands in the gap, having undergone even greater pressures, so much so that apparently he sweated blood because he knew he was going to be caught, tried unjustly, and then executed -- with the method Romans thought was most torturous and thus most deserving for the worst criminals.
He has broken my chains and removed this heavy weight of only being able to rely on myself for goodness. Instead, he has fitted me with a yoke that is easy and light, a yoke of obedience that yields the peace and joy that the world thirsts for, cannot offer, yet rejects because it is apparently absurd, unscientific, or primitive.
So I will rejoice in the fact that Jesus vindicates - and he empowers me, even in grading finals. I can rest and play in full trust that he gives me a clear mind and discipline when I get back to creating more carnage.
Thanks to Cedele at Rail Mall for the awesome, healthy food and uncomfortable seats so I could spend 4 alert hours each time to meet my deadlines. It gets a little embarrassing when the same crew sees me thrice a week, but I don't care + they earn money = yay!
Apparently this is the busiest time of each year as teachers rush to finish grading the students' finals.
I'm so thankful that I was early in meeting all my deadlines, save the first. As a greenhorn, I asked Jesus many times to help me stand up under the pressure as well as grade fairly. Sometimes I had to review the papers I graded more than 5 times. This took up to 2 hours each time. Usually I hate revisiting work I've done more than twice because I find it so boring and pointless. But Jesus helped me see that it wasn't about me, but the students who warrant a fair assessment and whose grades are at stake. It's so good that even this drab, sedentary process of grading teaches me to be other-centered.
Though there are no demons harassing me, Jesus' revelation to Paul still applies.
But [Jesus] said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses...in hardships...in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul's letter to the Corinth church (1st c. AD)
I love that Jesus cherishes our receptivity to his help when we admit that human strength alone ultimately fails. Though the human spirit desires perfection and all that is good, in reality it is weak, limited in knowledge and experience, limited by time and physicality, and is way more prone to bitterness and selfishness than appreciation and love. We are torn between somewhat knowing all that is good and trying our best, yet still failing to get what we want and keep it. It is such a terribly heavy and fearful burden to carry - what if that is all to our lives? That is a cruel, cruel sentence to carry.
I am so thankful that Jesus stands in the gap, having undergone even greater pressures, so much so that apparently he sweated blood because he knew he was going to be caught, tried unjustly, and then executed -- with the method Romans thought was most torturous and thus most deserving for the worst criminals.
He has broken my chains and removed this heavy weight of only being able to rely on myself for goodness. Instead, he has fitted me with a yoke that is easy and light, a yoke of obedience that yields the peace and joy that the world thirsts for, cannot offer, yet rejects because it is apparently absurd, unscientific, or primitive.
So I will rejoice in the fact that Jesus vindicates - and he empowers me, even in grading finals. I can rest and play in full trust that he gives me a clear mind and discipline when I get back to creating more carnage.
Thanks to Cedele at Rail Mall for the awesome, healthy food and uncomfortable seats so I could spend 4 alert hours each time to meet my deadlines. It gets a little embarrassing when the same crew sees me thrice a week, but I don't care + they earn money = yay!
“Are you tired? Worn out? ...Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
- JesusOnly 35 more essays to go, yay!
Sunday, September 16, 2012
woe on us
Instead of hating exploitation, we "hate waiting for buses". We "hate the hot weather" more than we hate oppression.
Woe on our pitiful selves. We have become more concerned about arranging every little thing in our lives into neat rows and columns, than to act and live in compassion, demanding love, mercy and justice from ourselves and society.
Change is overdue.
May our generation become less yuppie, indie, or faddish. May we face reality. And grief. And rejoice. And find hope, and value Love more than self-preservation and comfort, so we can live lives larger than our carefully curated bubbles.
Woe on our pitiful selves. We have become more concerned about arranging every little thing in our lives into neat rows and columns, than to act and live in compassion, demanding love, mercy and justice from ourselves and society.
Change is overdue.
May our generation become less yuppie, indie, or faddish. May we face reality. And grief. And rejoice. And find hope, and value Love more than self-preservation and comfort, so we can live lives larger than our carefully curated bubbles.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Guitar hunting
For the past two months, I've been trying lots of guitars so that I could get my first acoustic guitar. I even got the chance to try it while on vacation, at Oasis Music, the most comprehensive acoustic guitar store in the southwest of England.
By lots I mean a total of 42 guitars, at least those that I can remember.
Now I understand why people can praise many guitars, and how people can remember certain specifications of guitars, like the model name, wood, or body shape.
And to my surprise, I have chosen... (!!!)
I'm glad that I could make an ethical purchase for a pretty big-ticket item like this!
By lots I mean a total of 42 guitars, at least those that I can remember.
2 Maestro Indian rosewood guitars, one of which complemented my voice well
Maestro koa
Maestro flamed maple
Maestro ovangkol
Maestro mahogany
A certain Maton guitar, which sounded distinctly woody and punchy
Martin D16-RGT
Martin D28
Martin HD28
Martin D45
Martin 000-16RGT
Martin 000-28
Martin OMPAC3
Martin SWOMGT
Another Martin guitar
A certain Breedlove guitar that sounded so unique and lovely
Taylor 314CE
Taylor 614CE
Taylor 814CE
Taylor Big Baby
4 other Taylors
A Rainsong carbon-graphite guitar
Furch G24-SR
Furch G25-SR
Furch G25 Madagascar which I would have bought if I didn't keep to my budget
Lakewood D14CP
Lakewood M32
Lakewood M32CP
A certain Lakewood guitar
A certain Yamaha guitar
A certain Cort guitar
Nathaniel custom koa guitar
Nathaniel custom flamed maple guitar that sounded and looked too good for its price
Gibson Hummingbird
Gibson J-45 Standard
A certain Goodall jumbo, the only boutique guitar I've heard live and played so far
Brook Taw, a very sweet and lush-sounding guitar made in Devon, UK.
Guild F30R
Now I understand why people can praise many guitars, and how people can remember certain specifications of guitars, like the model name, wood, or body shape.
And to my surprise, I have chosen... (!!!)
Which stands for Sustainable Woods Orchestra Model Glossed Top (SWOMGT) and looks like:
I'm glad that I could make an ethical purchase for a pretty big-ticket item like this!
Monday, June 11, 2012
oh little kitty
"The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time." (Psalm 145) Oh my little sneezing and gagging kitty, you are a bag of bones and my hand still smells of your baby smell even though I've washed it four times. God has let us meet and he is going to open his hand and fill your tummy and life with good things every day when we meet. I am going to feed you and take care of you!
prophecy for women
In thirty years Christians will have baptized their picture of Christ. He won't be a nice, banal, meek, and bearded man with softly permed hair. Instead, he will fill our imaginations more solidly, more invasively, more unexpectedly. Christ will become That Man who changes people, someone who jumps off of bumper stickers and mediocre praise songs and into lives, a presence much more like Gandalf the Grey than Mr. Rogers.
...
When this change comes and we see Christ differently, others will notice.
...
Christian women will no longer be known as the quiet, meek, and somewhat pathetic group who doesn't experience twenty-first-century freedom. Instead, we will be of something of an admired anomaly, sought after as the most informed believers in the value of femininity. We will define womanhood beyond gentle and quiet submission, curves, baby production, and high heels. We will understand and cogently explain how women are both body and soul and valuable for more than sex appeal. We will be known as "those women" who are not afraid of old age and its mark on our bodies. Our self-possession will make us a challenging group for marketers to target. We will be less concerned with proving our equality with men and more intent on building our souls for the Kingdom of God.
...
In thirty years our souls will be bigger.
Jonalyn Fincher
In David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, unChristian (2007)
Friday, June 8, 2012
judgmentalism
Our research with Christians confirms that often we miss the point of reflecting Jesus to outsiders because we are too busy catering to the expectations of other believers. One church leader explained how a few vocal members of his church prevented him from partnering with another local congregation because the potential partner was "too seeker sensitive." Another believer explained how her efforts to engage people affected by HIV/AIDS have been routinely vilified by some Christians because of the perception that she is being manipulated by homosexual activists. A young Christian leader who developed an inner-city ministry told me how one of his board members questioned whether there were "too many black kids" attending. One influential Christian leader was roundly criticized for engaging in a respectful dialogue with advocates of a different faith.
unChristian (2007)
David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons
I have forgotten many but here are pieces of advice Christians have offered to me that has stuck around in my head.
"Don't go to Little India. There are many foreign workers there."
"Why go to poor countries? You've nowhere better to spend your money?"
"Be careful of the poor people. They have headlice."
"Stop thinking about Muslims. You'll get into trouble."
In my heart, I was rolling my eyes at these comments, and I felt they were not insulting me, but the Jesus whom they profess to follow...the same Jesus who hung out with traitors, thieves, prostitutes, the demonized, the sick and dying - those who were considered the 'sinners' and filthy people of his society.
Reading this, I was like, "Yes, totally! If only these people would read what David Kinnaman is saying." Especially when one of them continues to be the self-appointed Gestapo of his/her church and rather vocal commentator on Facebook about sensational local news. Interacting with him/her can sometimes be frustrating.
But I know that I have my own share of prejudice and judgmentalism, often in order to shield myself from being vulnerable to people who may (again) exploit my willingness to show my flaws. Or just a plain unwillingness to show people that I don't have it all together - who does anyway? For fear that what I believe to be true may be unduly and unsoundly refuted. This isn't like Jesus, isn't it? I'm not trusting that he vindicates and heals me. It's not supposed to be me acting on my own efforts and suspicion of others.
But I know that I have my own share of prejudice and judgmentalism, often in order to shield myself from being vulnerable to people who may (again) exploit my willingness to show my flaws. Or just a plain unwillingness to show people that I don't have it all together - who does anyway? For fear that what I believe to be true may be unduly and unsoundly refuted. This isn't like Jesus, isn't it? I'm not trusting that he vindicates and heals me. It's not supposed to be me acting on my own efforts and suspicion of others.
You may be saying, "What terrible people you have been talking about!" But you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you do these very same things...Don't you realize how kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Or don't you care? Can't you see how kind he has been in giving you time to turn from your sin?
Romans 2: 1,4
And now it's time for me to make an overdue apology to someone.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
International Justice Mission: celebrating justice
...punishment of perpetrators, however lawful, is never meant to be our final action in their lives. We show godly love toward a perpetrator by restraining him or her from harming others, but also by praying for their reconciliation with their Maker. Perpetrators of even the most violent, dark crimes still bear the image of God and are so loved by him that God sent his Son to die for them as well.
Gary Haugen
I've never seen a video on social justice that shows the legal conviction of people who exact harm and injustice on people's lives - and celebrates that! Perhaps my idea of social justice has been romantic.
Sure, I grieve for people who suffer unjustly and I'm angry at people who exact such harm on others (and themselves). I dream of the oppressed being free, but I have not really thought about the need to also free the oppressors...from the destruction they are bringing.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
not much longer to go
Parents rarely let go of children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them - a mother's approval, a father's nod - are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.
A few friends who read my posts said they did not understand what I meant when I first wrote about us willfully severing ourselves from our parents' lives two years ago.
And now Mitch Albom reminds me of the same thing again. My parents are in their late 50s and early 60s. There's not much longer of life now to go, unless they would return to Jesus...and rest.
Monday, May 14, 2012
mothers' day
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
The Great YHWH (in Isaiah 49: 15)
Even if mothers lose their memory in trauma or dementia, and even when mothers cease to love us unfailingly and unconditionally, the Lord of the heavens and earth will not forget us.
I know that this will be important when I join many adults as orphans after their parents leave in disease and old age.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
what ordinary people can do
The first question we may ask is, Why do massacres and other atrocities...occur? On one level this is the easiest question to answer.
I don't mean to be glib in stating this so simply, but I believe the reason these offenses occur is because people choose to indulge their selfish and brutal urges to dominate the defenseless. They have chosen to live in rebellion against the God of love and goodness who made them, and now they are left with nothing but their own sinful nature, or whatever you want to call it - the unrestrained will to power, the unmediated libido, the nausea of existence, misogynistic male aggression. Scripture graphically describes such people:
If people have no respect for God, no love for their Maker, I would ask the question another way: Why not pillage, rape, persecute and murder? If it feels good, and they can get away with it, why not? If God is dead or does not exist, as these people believe, why aren't all things permitted? Why should they restrain themselves? Because it's just wrong? Because it's not the way civilized people behave? Because what goes around comes around? Because they'll end up feeling terrible inside?
Within tidy circles of properly socialized and reasonable people, such appeals can seem like they actually have the power to restrain people from doing what they otherwise feel like doing. But in the real world outside the philosophy seminar room, oppressors frankly don't care that you think it's just wrong. Who are you, they ask, to foist your random moral intuition on them? Who are you to tell them or the lords of the Third Reich what civilized people should and should not do? If what goes around tends to come around, then there's no moral problem, only a practical problem of making sure it doesn't come around to you. They think, Fine, if being brutal makes you feel terrible inside, then don't do it. But it makes me feel powerful, alive, exhilarated and masterful, so quit whining - unless you want to try to stop me.
This description of a dark Nietzschean world of self-will - a vacuum devoid of moral authority or spiritual resources for good - used to seem excessively melodramatic to me. But then I got out more. The world is truly full of brutal oppression because humans have rejected their Maker, the source of all goodness, mercy, compassion, truth, justice and love.
Personally, I do not have a difficult time understanding that without God I am as lost as the oppressor. When I don't depend on the Holy Spirit moment by moment every day, I see the ugliness in me come out: selfishness, pride, insensitivity, anger, gossip, ingratitude, self-righteousness, self-deception, jealousy and covetousness, to name a few.
For most of us these latent forces of great sin are kept in check by various social and cultural restraints, but we should be under no illusions about what exists at the human core. Perfectly ordinary human beings are actually capable of being mass murderers. In Rwanda...When all restraints are released, farmers, clerks, school principals, mothers, doctors, mayors and carpenters pick up machetes and hack to death defenseless women and children. And this happened in a nation where 80 percent of the citizens identified themselves as Christian...the person without God (or perhaps worse, the person without God but claiming "God", "Jesus", "Muhammad", whatever) is a very scary creature.
I don't mean to be glib in stating this so simply, but I believe the reason these offenses occur is because people choose to indulge their selfish and brutal urges to dominate the defenseless. They have chosen to live in rebellion against the God of love and goodness who made them, and now they are left with nothing but their own sinful nature, or whatever you want to call it - the unrestrained will to power, the unmediated libido, the nausea of existence, misogynistic male aggression. Scripture graphically describes such people:
Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit...
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know.
There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Romans 3:13-18)
If people have no respect for God, no love for their Maker, I would ask the question another way: Why not pillage, rape, persecute and murder? If it feels good, and they can get away with it, why not? If God is dead or does not exist, as these people believe, why aren't all things permitted? Why should they restrain themselves? Because it's just wrong? Because it's not the way civilized people behave? Because what goes around comes around? Because they'll end up feeling terrible inside?
Within tidy circles of properly socialized and reasonable people, such appeals can seem like they actually have the power to restrain people from doing what they otherwise feel like doing. But in the real world outside the philosophy seminar room, oppressors frankly don't care that you think it's just wrong. Who are you, they ask, to foist your random moral intuition on them? Who are you to tell them or the lords of the Third Reich what civilized people should and should not do? If what goes around tends to come around, then there's no moral problem, only a practical problem of making sure it doesn't come around to you. They think, Fine, if being brutal makes you feel terrible inside, then don't do it. But it makes me feel powerful, alive, exhilarated and masterful, so quit whining - unless you want to try to stop me.
This description of a dark Nietzschean world of self-will - a vacuum devoid of moral authority or spiritual resources for good - used to seem excessively melodramatic to me. But then I got out more. The world is truly full of brutal oppression because humans have rejected their Maker, the source of all goodness, mercy, compassion, truth, justice and love.
Personally, I do not have a difficult time understanding that without God I am as lost as the oppressor. When I don't depend on the Holy Spirit moment by moment every day, I see the ugliness in me come out: selfishness, pride, insensitivity, anger, gossip, ingratitude, self-righteousness, self-deception, jealousy and covetousness, to name a few.
For most of us these latent forces of great sin are kept in check by various social and cultural restraints, but we should be under no illusions about what exists at the human core. Perfectly ordinary human beings are actually capable of being mass murderers. In Rwanda...When all restraints are released, farmers, clerks, school principals, mothers, doctors, mayors and carpenters pick up machetes and hack to death defenseless women and children. And this happened in a nation where 80 percent of the citizens identified themselves as Christian...the person without God (or perhaps worse, the person without God but claiming "God", "Jesus", "Muhammad", whatever) is a very scary creature.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
confines of fear
Have you smelled the fear of cats trapped in dingy, dirty traps by pest control companies? They cry for fear of their lives and it makes your hair stand and your heart frustrated and anxious.
The Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council of Singapore has reverted to aggressive cat 'removal' to appease complaints from literally a few aggressively animal-hating (i.e. shouting and insulting animal carers)residents. I do not use 'culling' because it typically refers to selective removal of cats with biologically 'inferior' traits so that the other cats flourish.
Cleaners appointed by the town council to do this dirty job have locked kittens in electrical rooms to starve them to death. A shipyard worker and his daughter rescued one kitty out after they realized the mommy cat kept crying anxiously outside at an electrical room for her baby inside.
Another one was seen being strangled by a worker. Others have just been culled by pest control companies in traps so dirty that didn't matter since the cats wouldn't be in them anymore. One community cat who had an ID/microchip was put down by AVA...so what's the point of the ID if you don't bother checking?
A neighbor contacted the President of the Cat Welfare Society a few days back, and the cleaners in our area has been changing every day ever since. While the cleaner used to say that he was appointed by the town council to do so, now he only said "I don't know! I don't know!"
The trouble with such indiscriminate killing is, the cats that are complained about are not caught. The cats who are disruptive and pee to mark territory are the street-smart ones that avoid people. Instead, the people-friendly ones get caught as they are the easiest targets. In this aspect, cat killers are not different from cat abusers. Still, the complaints keep coming in because the territorial, dominant cat of the colony is still not caught - or even neutered!
Wasn't Singapore encouraged to convert stray cats into community cats just a few months ago? In Bukit Panjang, this has BECOME not true even though it has been for the past 5 years. Here, the only cats that can exist are domestic ones - all community cats MUST be put down.
Moral of the story: how long more can you go on appeasing the few, unrepresentative animal-hating people? And what has happened to us who live in the cities? Have we grown so used to concrete prisons and sterility that any nature that is not domesticated is inconvenient and abhorrent?
"I've been worrying that we all live our lives in the confines of fear" - Ben Howard
----
June 11 update:
Great news! Holland Bukit Panjang Town Council decides to stop 'removing' cats from my estate and is now working with Cat Welfare Society and cat carers. It's also amazing to see how fast the person in-charge changed in his disposition towards cats, so fast it seemed unconvincingly...superficial. Anyway, you can read the awesome news here.
The Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council of Singapore has reverted to aggressive cat 'removal' to appease complaints from literally a few aggressively animal-hating (i.e. shouting and insulting animal carers)residents. I do not use 'culling' because it typically refers to selective removal of cats with biologically 'inferior' traits so that the other cats flourish.
Cleaners appointed by the town council to do this dirty job have locked kittens in electrical rooms to starve them to death. A shipyard worker and his daughter rescued one kitty out after they realized the mommy cat kept crying anxiously outside at an electrical room for her baby inside.
Another one was seen being strangled by a worker. Others have just been culled by pest control companies in traps so dirty that didn't matter since the cats wouldn't be in them anymore. One community cat who had an ID/microchip was put down by AVA...so what's the point of the ID if you don't bother checking?
A neighbor contacted the President of the Cat Welfare Society a few days back, and the cleaners in our area has been changing every day ever since. While the cleaner used to say that he was appointed by the town council to do so, now he only said "I don't know! I don't know!"
The trouble with such indiscriminate killing is, the cats that are complained about are not caught. The cats who are disruptive and pee to mark territory are the street-smart ones that avoid people. Instead, the people-friendly ones get caught as they are the easiest targets. In this aspect, cat killers are not different from cat abusers. Still, the complaints keep coming in because the territorial, dominant cat of the colony is still not caught - or even neutered!
Wasn't Singapore encouraged to convert stray cats into community cats just a few months ago? In Bukit Panjang, this has BECOME not true even though it has been for the past 5 years. Here, the only cats that can exist are domestic ones - all community cats MUST be put down.
Moral of the story: how long more can you go on appeasing the few, unrepresentative animal-hating people? And what has happened to us who live in the cities? Have we grown so used to concrete prisons and sterility that any nature that is not domesticated is inconvenient and abhorrent?
"I've been worrying that we all live our lives in the confines of fear" - Ben Howard
----
June 11 update:
Great news! Holland Bukit Panjang Town Council decides to stop 'removing' cats from my estate and is now working with Cat Welfare Society and cat carers. It's also amazing to see how fast the person in-charge changed in his disposition towards cats, so fast it seemed unconvincingly...superficial. Anyway, you can read the awesome news here.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
real courage
King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.
Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego, 6th c. BC
Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things - trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia.
Puddleglum to the White Witch, Narnia: The Silver Chair
I would call such zeal a farce if it were misdirected and insisted on something like "I believe shoes are living organisms". I would also not quote from a random piece of fiction except that C.S. Lewis intended Narnia to be an allegory of Christ, people and the Kingdom of God. But I am convinced that God exists and has reached down to us. I want to be able to bank everything on him - him or nothing...to have a faith in him that is courageous and big enough to trust in his infinitely bigger being. And to live my short time here according to what I know he wants me to do.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
rest
You strive, old man
And you strive again
Your heart too proud to rest
You labor on, singing those songs
To cover your weakness
Do you fail to recall
Who you really are
And who caused you to be?
Return, old man
Return and rest
To a burden light and yoke easy
Abide in your Savior
Abide in his love
The labor of God is to trust - in his Son
All you possess -
Do you forget
As if by your own strength?
You earned it all
He gave you all
Everything you have
Your righteousness, your life to breath
Your daily bread and wine
Is blood, is flesh
Is love, is death
Your faith in endless life
Open up your doors
Oh my heart is slow
Open up your doors
Let the King come in
Abide in me, Savior
Abide in me, love
And daily I'll take my cross
Follow after you, Lord
Abide in me, Savior
Abide in me, love
The labor of God is to trust
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
late-night essay
Using numbers and time to motivate my lethargic self as I churn out a 1500-word essay in one (late) night. I cited twelve references and only read five specifically for this assignment. I also like the opening quotes I remembered/found.
Thanks ASLAN!!! I also downloaded one of the most influential academic and non-academic writings I've read so far in my noob life. The abstract looks too dense, the article is fabulously understandable.
That's three more encouragements for my lethargic, ready-for-bed self.
192/1500 1.28am
313 2.08am
547 2.46am
644 2.59am
719 3.08am
798 3.27am
947 3.52am
1001 3.58am
1082 4.10am
1138 4.22am
1282 4.38am
1306 4.50am (to be continued)
BUT bed is only for clean people, so I have to shower and clean up first. Nooooooo
zzz
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