wanting, wanting, wanting

Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

1 John 2: 15-17

The power that greed promises...is the destruction of self and others.

family time

The painful truth is that any good time my family has spending with one another has to be prayed for and intentionally created.

Because the default is an apathy that baffles me, complete with its own set of willful defenses, or perhaps a little better, criticisms and pulling out nasty history.

And I realized that it is not uncommon among families.

What's wrong?

to the Ekklesia of Singapore

Singapore: 

"Post-independence growth to become one of the world's most efficient trading and financial centers. Among the wealthiest countries per capita and with one of the highest standards of living." 

"The strong, paternalistic government of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his successors (including his son and current prime minister) provides direction and stability for a spectacular and sustained economic growth. In return for such stability and influence, most have accepted the strong influence of government policies and the limitation of certain freedoms." 

"The increase of the Church's size and impact brings challenges. Pray for the following concerns: 

d) Fear of control and intimidation in a closely governed and multi-religious society. Legislation against overt proselytism exists, but the only force preventing effective outreach is the Church's own unfounded fears. Pray that Christians would know how to maintain inter-religious harmony without compromising on evangelism."

Operation World (2010), edited by Jason Mandryk
(emphasis his)

Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right...not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

Paul to the Romans who followed Jesus in a time of 

intense persecution; Romans 13: 1, 3, 5

Have we Christians in/from Singapore been doing what is right in the eyes of God...in our complaints and satirical mocking of people imperfect and sinful like us but put in authority by God?


We not only exaggerate our fear in talking with others about the Savior of our entire persons, we also complain about our leaders but fear raising these disagreements up for fear of being targeted...or maybe because we don't actually know enough to substantiate our views?

I am guilty of being judgmental and bitter, and not doing anything or thinking of alternatives after I complain. This does not reflect any of the redemptive nature of Christ. He did not gloat or speak to Peter in seething words after his prophecy about Peter denying him thrice came true (Matthew 26: 31-35, 69-75). Instead he reaffirmed him and gave him the important mission to be a good leader to the Church (John 21: 15-19)

Come on, the Ekklesia of Singapore. We can do better, but first let's repent of our arrogance and ask Jesus to renew our minds and show us a new way of thinking about the government - in a truthful and loving way, in Christ's redeeming way.

God and academia

As Christians, we of course want our worldview to be fundamentally derived from God's Word, not the climate of opinion that happens to prevail in the world in which we live. Still, since "all truth is God's truth," as Augustine taught us, we should assume that whatever is true about the views of our culture, including the views of science, will be consistent with God's Word (assuming we are interpreting it correctly). 

Locating this element of truth in the culture and aligning it with our theology based on the Word can be advantageous to communicating credibly the truth of the Word to our culture. It can also help us more effectively think through and apply our theology for our culture and for ourselves. This is why our theology should be developed in dialogue with every other branch of learning. Whatever truth is to be found in physics, biology, anthropology, and so on is God's truth and can only help us credibly proclaim the truth of God's Word to the world.

God of the Possible (2008)
Greg Boyd

conclusion: i like dark music

Dark and stunning music by Among Savages (Peter Barbee). I've been wanting to get his album which just came out two days ago, but not with iTunes Singapore very unfortunately!

Ben Howard is a great example for me that good writing can go beyond self-victimizing honesty to a deeper reconciliation within that lets one (genuinely) bless those who hurt him. Also reminds me of the gap between my songwriting and his due to my noob-ness at it haha.

Epic Roo Panes, especially on a 12-string guitar.

life and society - the collection

In November 2011, I invited 12 friends to write for my inaugural guest series "life and society". They are from and/or currently live in many different places in the world, but what's the cooler thing is that it's a collection of diverse interests and opinions, all concerned with the deliberately vague topic about our lives and society.

If you missed out, here's a content list of the articles. Alternatively you can also click on the "life and society" tag.

Legacy by Neil Mark Enriquez (Iligan, Quezon) 

The Singaporean Obsession with Studying Overseas (For a Year) by Daryl Wong (Singapore) 

Hard to Survive by Mercy Laine (Tucson, Chengdu) 

Our Connection to Things by Elaine Gan (Melbourne) 

Street Life in Hanoi by Rachel Grace Bok (Singapore) 

Graduate School by Alejandro Proaño (Tucson, Quito) 

Confessions of a Christmas Skeptic by Jonathan Sng (Singapore) 

On Perfection by Suanne Chan (Singapore) 

BAh, Psychology by Marcus Seng (Singapore) 

Dear Me: A letter to my 13-year-old self. by Joyce Koor (Singapore)

12 Questions for 2012 by Meiyi Chan (Singapore) 

An Old Fashioned Way to Keep in Touch with People by Ruth Ibarra (San Luis Potosí)

life and society | an old fashioned way to keep in touch with people

Ruth Ibarra is a twenty something year-old Mexican girl who absolutely loves to laugh and listen to music, to spend time with her friends and to chat with them over a nice cup of coffee. After working on her thesis for a couple of years, she’s finally graduated (this January 14th will be a month since the exciting day) and now holds a degree in History. She’s currently excited about possibly applying to a linguistics or history MA this 2012.

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An Old Fashioned Way to Keep in Touch with People.

Ruth Ibarra

A while ago, I was walking downtown with one of my best friends and as we passed by the postal office he expressed his surprise when realizing people still mail each other, I giggled a little but a part of me thought of how many people might have forgotten about this service. I mailed my first letter when I was 20 years old and it was quite the experience. First, I had to find the postal office which I hadn’t even noticed when walking by it. I felt a little silly not knowing exactly what to do, I mean I was 20 and had not much of an idea. Once I bought the stamps and placed them on the envelope I hoped the letter wouldn’t get lost. It reached its destination.

There’s something about mailing the old fashioned way that I can’t help but to like. Yes, nowadays is fairly easy and fast to reach someone even if that person lives in a different city, country or continent, it’s pretty much just a click away, whether you email, tweet or FB. But there’s something about the excitement of sending a letter, and waiting for one to arrive. Honestly, both things make my day.

When I was a child, I liked to look over my mom’s letters, letters she had received when she was younger from people who lived in and out of our country. I loved looking at the envelopes, the handwriting, the stamps, and I wondered when people had written them, where, had they gotten a reply? My mom used to keep them in a pale pink bag and every now and then she would bring it out when cleaning (now that I think about it, I haven’t seen those letters in a long while), and she’d tell me stories regarding the people who had sent them and how she had gotten to meet them. She stop mailing them and lost contact with some of those persons over the years.

Ever since I came back to Mexico from Arizona, where I met Daphne in 2009, I’ve been mailing to the friends I made there (Daph included) every now and then. I hope we continue to mail cards and letters to each other, because it’s a great way to keep in touch. As I said, arriving home and finding out the postman left me a little something that travelled miles and miles, totally makes my day. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be showing someone the many letters and cards my lovely friends have sent me over the years. I encourage you to try it if you haven’t, and hey if you have a significant other, it’d be really sweet.

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This inaugural series "life and society" comes to end with Ruth's post. A big thank you for all who read it and supported this series. My guests and I definitely hope that you found what you read encouraging, sobering, inspiring, or all three (and more? haha). If you would like to see all the articles written by my 12 guests for this series, you can do so here or click on the "life and society" tag.

life and society | 12 questions for 2012

Message from the writer: 

Hi Daphne's dear readers, many many apologies for the delay in submitting this post, I was waylaid by a bout of feeling unwell and couldn't get to completing the final edit on time. Thanks for your understanding and I hope you enjoy this piece. Cheers! -Meiyi

12 Questions for 2012

Meiyi Chan

There's always a flood of interweb articles on retrospectives and resolutions around the new year, so to jump on that bandwagon and give myself an early start on living thoughtfully, here's my list of 12 questions for 2012:

1. Do we remember God in our midst, or are spiritual matters only for religious men?
2. Do we remember to study history, or are her lessons only for historians?
3. Do we remember the joy of working with our hands, or is art only for those who do it for a living?
4. Do we remember how to savour a meal, or is gratitude only for those with time to spare?
5. Do we remember to let our children learn about the world with all five senses, or is education limited to the mind?
6. Do we remember the poor, the infirm, the elderly and the destitute, or are they only the responsibility of institutions and governments?
7. Do we remember the sojourners and aliens among us, or have we, as a community, forgotten about hospitality to strangers?
8. Do we remember the lonely, or are we too caught up in our own loneliness to touch another person's life?
9. Do we remember to speak kindly, or is that only for the weak?
10. Do we remember to be generous, or is that only for those with money?
11. Do we remember beauty, justice, righteousness, compassion, prudence, respect and love for our fellow man, or are they too "traditional" for us anymore?
12. And if indeed they are not for us, then who are these values for?

What questions are you asking yourself today?

About the writer

By the grace of God, Meiyi is a gospel-saved sinner, recent graduate and currently, public servant. These days she spends most of her time in an office, but can't shake her love for wide open grasslands and lots of sky. Her hope for 2012? That we will all connect our individual work to larger questions of life more often than we do now :)

(Daphne speaking - you can check out Meiyi's blog at http://february29.tumblr.com/. Her disclaimer: "it's mostly reblogs and lost of Disney" hahaha. But if you're looking for her own writings, there are some like "work" and on loneliness.) 

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"life and society" will feature various people from different walks of life and various parts of the world. New posts are up every Monday and Thursday at 6pm (GMT +8 / Singapore time) through the first week of 2012. On Monday (Jan 9), I'll be featuring the endearing Ruth Ibarra from San Luis Potosí, Mexico, a History major from Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí who recently graduated.

new year's greetings

Me as the devil wishing you:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

my blog over the years

I was reorganizing my posts a few days ago and I came across some amazing stuff, some hilarious stuff as well as some stuff that made me cringe and think, "How could I have written that? Why did I write like that???"


I cringe at some of the relatively egghead theological-ish essays that I used to write - but amazingly, reading much of it has quite convinced me that 1) God used an angry and arrogant person like me to speak - some of these words prick my heart even now though they were written before I started living the life of a Jesus-follower in May 2009; and 2) God has added more grace to my strong conviction of truth - and that came with realizing that people who are not Christians are also people, not effigies.


Also, I think I was hilarious when I blabbered, especially in the early years. Though this blog has evolved to primarily feature the darker topics of brokenness, evil, and sin, and how Jesus fulfills them in Love.


Anyways, here's a rag bundle of quotes that I sieved out, with an emphasis on my earlier writings.

I am going to tone my body

"Hurrah! Hurrah!" November 28, 2006

All that balancing on two alien-looking blocks familiar to women(called heels) is finally over.

"Finally", December 6, 2006

Sing as if you are putting a slab of char siew pork through the hook.

"Singing", January 20, 2007

Must it be that humans must be ugly-looking before they have truly beautiful hearts?

"Goldfish Eyes", June 16, 2007 

When we are at our last breaths, can we boldly, assuredly ask Lord Jesus to wait for us at heaven's gates?

"Someone Save Me", December 26, 2007

So I, too, am placed at where I best live out God's Will. 

"To: Me", April 17, 2008

What do we do with the ugly histories we discovered about others? And even, the present ugly things that they are doing? There are two ways to go from here, one of which is to pray for them in love and mourning, the other is to gossip and share more information in groups of people, making this distinction of the Other. 

"my paunchy ragbag", July 1, 2008

"Dear Arizona Green Tea...Tell them the truth. That you are from BROOKLYN."

"this probably tells you how bored I am", January 9, 2009

Then I went home and dripped blood in the living room and on my other slipper because I needed the first-aid box from Dean III.

"My Red Badge of Courage", February 18, 2009

I didn't really fear God, though I thought I did.

"Two things", May 21, 2009

"And halfway through the party, I really felt the irony: if God is in charge, why am I worrying unnecessarily? 

"Why I Love Southern Gospel", December 13, 2009

If the way people 'do' church today is the best/most biblical way of expressing Christ's commands ("Love one another", and "Make disciples of all nations"), doesn't that mean that the early believers, and underground believers in North Korea and Cambodia are practicing a deficit faith? 

"dogged defenses?", April 25, 2010

How does a person congratulate himself for his years of existence?

"happy birthday?", November 2, 2011