Sunday, February 25, 2007

The solution out of a depression

Recently it seems like many people whom I talked to are going through a time of testing where faith is very much needed. I’m having mine too with real situations at work that seems to crush down; I come to question the sovereignty of God, the things that he promised me that he will bring it to pass. And many times I come to wonder about the greatness of the God I worship. It has become very intense recently especially when undesirable news come literally rushing one by one.

When I was praying I was reminded of so many instances in the bible. Like the prayer of King Jehoshaphat, in 2 Chronicles 20, in the form of 3 rhetorical questions, declaring in faith, the character of God in the face of a losing war. I was reminded of Job when his theology comes into question and when he realized that the good man doesn’t necessary get good things. When everything doesn’t seem fair to him, his solution is to worship God. I was then reminded of the prophet Habakkuk, that when Israel is in sin and that there is violence everywhere, he too questioned God about his holiness, divine justice and even the power of God. (Habakkuk 1:2-4) Even in his angst, he later got down in humility and engaged in God declaration worship.

Isn’t it true that when belief in God becomes difficult the tendency is to turn away from him? We try to solve things because the problem seems so huge and urgent that God really needs to take second place. It seems that God is telling us to take a look at everything from his perspective so that we will understand that God not only exist and that He will not only act but will also give us a new set of eyes to see everything and we will find out that God is complete control.

If somehow we can get the perspective of God, our problems become just finite problems.

The solution is really to worship God, to declare his praises, to declare his character to ourselves. And I remember the words of Chesterton, that “God is like the sun. You cannot look at it, but without it you cannot look at anything else.”

“Are you not,” “did you not,” “will you not,” these are the timely words of King Jehoshaphat that God used to remind me of himself, that he is the God of the present, the past and the future. Lord, don’t let me lose my sense of wonder and awe of you. Let me witness in the most practical of ways, how immeasurably big and all encompassing you are.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Good picture keeps attention

“Why do we keep looking at this picture as if we were expecting something to happen?” That is the question that we are forced to ask ourselves when we are looking at good pictures. Probably we might not really be expecting something, but while viewing we might just be reliving our memories with exclamations like, “Hey I thought I was wearing red that day.” and “No, I remember you carrying flowers.” and "Hey we used to do this!". The point is that good pictures, keeps attention and we expect good pictures to bring to mind something dear to us, something we feel for.

This year’s CNY is really an experience that I really want to give thanks for. To be honest, it’s really boring, and normative right from the reunion dinner. The only big difference is that this year’s reunion dinner is really that of a reunion as compared to last year’s big thing where both of my bros were arrested a day before the dinner. I believe that this CNY is a big reminder for me that family is of utmost importance and infinitely valued. A year ago, for my family this all would not be possible.

For my household, every CNY at least one family shot will be taken. And so I guess if we were to archive the pictures for every year, this year’s and the previous would be the one the raises the most questions. The questions of absence would certainly be a huge reminder for me as to how important my family is to me. During this year’s relative visitations, there were so many exclamations with the likes of “Where were you guys last year?!” and “How come this year got people compared to last year?” Encountering those, we just look to one another and smiled as we did not want to lie or tell the truth as my parents consider the truth embarrassing.

It’s just awesome to think of how such a small, normal thing in life can be such a big privilege to have.

I thank God for such experiences. Pictures of such
weighted memory most effectively stand as testaments as to how God has been faithful to undeserving people, tiding them through tough times.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Jargonized culture

After a long absence, I visited the youth service at Grace 1 today. I felt so weird in the youth service and I figured that it must due to the length of time being submerged in the culture of the youth centre kids.

As I observed the Christian/spiritual jargons that are flying around all over the place from the worship to the prayers, it causes me to wonder if the people really understood what they are saying. I seriously hope the leaders do because I know that alot of the youth don’t and most of them are just blindly following. I mean just look at the 'blank' look on their faces!

If I were one of the youth, I would be so lost and everything would seem more like a ritual. And I’ll most probably say this "I behave like this because the environment/everyone said so."

I believe that jargons when fully understood can be very powerful. However, jargons used when not understood, is just simply a waste of time. One ear in and the other ear, out.

I can only pray right? Yes I believe I can only do that now.