Smile :)

The best smiles are bittersweet :)

When we are around people, we generally tend to put on a presentable, friendly, face to the outside world. When you are alone by yourself, though, have you noticed what the natural disposition of your mouth is? Do you naturally wear a smile on your face? How often, how easily do smiles find their way onto your face without any particular reason?

I don't know about you, but for me, these "natural" smiles are rare, and even more so in recent times for me when the burdens of life have made me forget what a real smile - the ones that come directly from the heart - is.

But what is the worth of a smile?

Children smile easily. They can laugh at almost anything. Sometimes all you have to do is look at a little one, and they'd blush, smile, and hide behind their parent. Some people wish for the times of childhood, when laughter and smiles came easily, when things were simpler and life was easier. But theirs is a happiness that comes from a lack of knowledge, a lack of the experience of the harsh realities of life. To most first-world children, the world is still a happy place, full of fun and excitement and joy. And so it is easy, too easy, for them to smile. And so their smiles are in a way… cheap.

As they go through life though, Life reveals itself for what it is. This sin-filled world bares its fangs and starts breaking down  the defences of the soul. And it is no longer so easy to smile. Some souls die, and they forget how to smile any more. Others become poisoned, and their cynical laughter is bitter and twisted, mocking the naïve few who still believe that we live in a good world.

Others live in denial, and pretend that the world is still good, and insist that they must keep smiling. They hold their smiles as a protective mask, in protest to the evil that they see around them. It is a beautiful world; life must be beautiful. But they do so in vain, for the mountain of reality cannot be moved by wishful thinking. Their efforts are foolishly futile, and their smiles are cheaper than even those of children, for these are not real smiles at all. They are merely masks, memories of a distant time long past.

There's another type of mask as well, equally cheap but a bit more honest. These smiles form a defensive barrier, a wall, around oneself, not just to protect themselves but also to keep everyone out. "How are you going?", "Good thanks!". If you put up that wall, no one will know the pain within you, no one will try and step in, and no one will make the pain worse in trying to "help".

And then there are the smiles of those who have gone through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Well, at least one portion of it.

The other night, a marvellous thing happened to me. A smile crept up onto my face, all on its own. I had just finished my time of prayer at the beach, and was walking to my car, slowly. And I found contentment in my heart, having spent intimate time with the Father. My heart was glowing, and I just...smiled.

It was amazing to me, because it has been a very long time since such an honest smile had come to me spontaneously. I had thought I had forgotten how to do that. But what was more amazing was that the pain within my heart was still there! My heart had not finished weeping - the raw grief was still so tangibly present - yet it still managed to have the strength to make a smile glowing with hope.

The best smiles are bittersweet. The soul that has known adversity, pain and suffering, yet can still smile despite fully grasping the reality of the pain, makes the most beautiful and precious smiles. They are worth a lot more, because they come with so much difficulty and are so very rare. Many people either give in to the reality of evil or blatantly deny its presence, pretending that it's not there. Very few fully grasp, understand and embrace the reality of the Fallen Nature of this world, and fewer still can smile in spite of such grim knowledge.

And so, I realised, the smiles of an old and aching heart, are the best. Yes, the world is not a good place. No, my problems have not gone away yet. But I can still smile. Not because the pain is gone, but because my God is good, and He is still there, in spite of the pain. My hope rests on a firm foundation, not on the fact that the world is still a good place to live, but on the fact that I am heading Homeward, to that glorious place where my Father will wrap His arms around me, where my wounds will be healed, and where I will find Shalom. I do not deny that the World is evil, nor do I give in to its evil, but I rise and challenge it with the Cross of Jesus Christ, where my God died to put an end to all that evil, so that I may find Peace. "Where, o Death, is thy sting?!" :)

Yes, the pain is still there. Yes, the grief is still almost overwhelming. But "I have learnt the secret of being content in any and every situation" (Phil 4:12). It's no secret at all really; it's actually really simple, and every Sunday School kid knows the answer: It's Jesus.

And so, my heart smiles :)

At least until the next time it forgets this simple and obvious fact XD XP

Troubled Waters

The following is a reflection I wrote tonight. I have not, and will not, give much context to it. But I realised that what I went through tonight could be helpful for other people's walks with Jesus. And so I decided to share this rather more intimate side of myself (...despite the inherent risks of sharing such things :P)

-------

So.

My time with God tonight.

Was troubled. lol.

Well, my heart has been troubled for all of 2 days. Don't know what about exactly.

And tonight's session of prayer didn't help that much haha.

I went back to the beach, I read the Bible and prayed.

I asked God to show what was wrong in my heart. I begged him to reveal to me why He was so very, very far away. If the Spirit is supposed to be in the Child of God, then why can I rarely ever feel Him within me? What's wrong with me?! Have I done something so wrong that He's rejected me? (I know that answer must be no, but I couldn't figure anything else out). Is it because I am so worthless that even He can't be bothered with me, with all His love and compassion?

For an hour I pondered that emptiness, that hopelessness, the loneliness. It is one thing to be abandoned by man; but quite another to be abandoned by God. I called, and called, and called.

And there was no answer.

I gave up, and then went home.

Had a shower.

Then straight after the shower, I heard my phone receive a message.

And then something "clicked".

He's already there.

It's not that He's ever left; He's always been there.

But do I have the faith to believe that He is there?

Do I believe Him when He says "Never will I leave you; Never will I forsake you?" (Hebrews 13:5)

(And it is quite ironic because I had just read up to Hebrews 9, just before that great exposition on the whole issue of Faith.)

It is a question that I'm not sure how to answer at the moment. Before I was aware of the question, it was definitely no, I didn't have faith that God would stick by me.

But now that I am aware of the question (and quite aware of the "correct" answer), I'm not so sure haha. I can't jump up and say "I believe!" with all my heart; my heart is still so uncertain. But I also cannot refute the sheer logic of it all. Or that quiet, still Voice within.

So what's next?

I don't know ^^"

Just keep praying I suppose :)

Humpty Dumpty

"Teach a youth about the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."
- Proverbs 22:6

"Cat 3: Suicidal Ideation - 32yo male patient BIBP (brought in by police) with desire to kill himself, asking police to shoot him."

It is interesting how generally we doctors don't respond to this triage note with "Oh! Let's go and help him!". Often, it's more of a *rolls eyes*, "Not another one? Why can't he just go ahead and do it instead of just 'trying'."

As I went into the room, I saw a man curled up into the foetal position on the bed in a corner of a dark room. Two doors were open into this room, the room where we usually put "Mental Health" patients, because the unpredictability of such patients can sometimes lead to a need for a quick way out. Out one door, you can see the security guard, looking obviously bored, emanating this aura that he felt that he should be somewhere else making better use of his time rather than sitting there babysitting this "annoying patient".

One of the first things that you look at when you meet a new person is their eyes. "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be fully of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness - how deep is that darkness!" (Matthew 6:22-23; Not in context, I know, but so true.) What did I see in his eyes? Weariness; tiredness; despair; fear. And when I looked more closely: the eyes of a child.

We talked. I tried to get down to what happened and why. He didn't actually remember anything about what happened last night, because he had been too drunk. But with just a little prodding, he started talking. Talking about that deep despair about how none of his family members really cared for him any more. That he had no one in the world. That he might as well die. That he lived in fear of who-knows-what and that he's usually holed up in his room. That he still gets flashbacks of how his father belted him constantly and severely and how he is still afraid of his father, long after the actual possibility of a real threat has passed.

Broken. A soul smashed beyond repair. And some 20-odd years later, this man is still trying to pick up the pieces. Except he has no hands with which to pick them up with.

There are some things that no amount of medication, alcohol or drugs can fix.

And it made me pause in… awe(?) Isn't it amazing how incredible an impact your childhood, that small period of your life, can have on your entire life? A good childhood can raise incredible people, but done correctly you can also completely destroy a person by destroying their childhood. And none of the king's horses or the king's men could do anything to fix it.

Michael Jackson (whether you love him or hate him) had an incredibly insightful song into this issue. I've often wondered whether he's written it about himself, really:

Have you seen my Childhood?

I'm searching for the world that I come from

'Cause I've been looking around

In the lost and found of my heart...

No one understands me

They view it as such strange eccentricities...

'Cause I keep kidding around

Like a child, but pardon me...

People say I'm not okay

'Cause I love such elementary things...

It's been my fate to compensate,

for the Childhood I've never known...

Have you seen my Childhood?

I'm searching for that wonder in my youth

Like pirates and adventurous dreams,

Of conquest and kings on the throne...

Before you judge me, try hard to love me,

Look within your heart then ask,

Have you seen my Childhood?

People say I'm strange that way

'Cause I love such elementary things,

It's been my fate to compensate,

For the Childhood I've never known...

Have you seen my Childhood?

I'm searching for that wonder in my youth

Like fantastical stories to share

The dreams I would dare, watch me fly...

Before you judge me, try hard to love me.

The painful youth I've had

Have you seen my Childhood?

The wounds sustained in childhood last a lifetime.

It would do well for all of us to ponder that fact.

It doesn't take much to destroy a person.

Jobless XD

"We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" - 1 Thessalonians 1:3

"We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me." - Colossians 1:28-29

For the first time in a very, very long time, I have been able to start "cleaning up" my life organisationally. I have been so busy/tired in the past year and a bit that I have become increasingly disorganised and "messy" in my life; and those who know me know that I do NOT like mess.

In this clean up, I stumbled upon my "BCAC Job List". And for the first time in many, many years, I have absolutely nothing on it.

It feels very, very strange to stare at that blank page. Bittersweet. Most of the items that were there most recently were deleted off the list mostly because I couldn't do them, not because I had actually completed much in recent times. The events of earlier this year had shot me down and I had come crashing down in spectacularly flaming fashion. But despite the pain of those memories, I cannot deny how sweet it is to have this period of rest to restore my soul. I finally have time to breathe.

But still, the question remains:  Now that I'm "jobless" at BCAC ... XD … what do I DO with my life now? What does my Father want me to do with my time?

I've known many fellow Servants who, once they step down out of formal ministry, simply "disappear" from the scene, thinking that their time of Service is well and truly "over". They think that now that they're not serving in a formal post, they don't need to serve at all. And soon enough, they fade out of the Church scene altogether. I am wary against following that trend. I don't want my "rest" to become "retirement". I want to be able to return to the Race, and not just become a spiritual cripple.

An old pastor friend once told me, "Once a Servant of God, always a Servant of God". He said it with respect to formal pastoring. But to be honest, this is true even outside of formal ministry. Christians are always Servants of God; it's simply a matter of whether you are a faithful servant or an unfaithful servant. (Luke 12:42-48)

So, what am I to do?

As I pondered on that, I began to find the bits and pieces of my life in which I am serving God in.

The first thing is: I am serving Jesus in my Rest. It is a Sabbath rest, not a "holiday" in Worldly terms. It is a proactive rest that awaits in prayerful anticipation of the time when I will one day spring forth once more back into the fray. I am Resting so that I can serve better; I am spending more time with Jesus so that He can build me up to allow me to serve Him in more wondrous ways than I have ever known before. I am not just plopping down like a couch potato and watching the world pass me by. I am sitting, restful but watchful, trusting in God and trusting in my brothers and sisters in Christ to continue the Battle while I prepare myself to join in once more when I am well.

While I'm not serving God in Formal Ministry, I am still always serving God in my Relationships. As a human being, you never truly break away from relationships with other humans, and so that is always a ministry area that you cannot possibly run away from. People are always going to be affected by the way you treat them, whether in Godliness or ungodliness. There are still people to encourage and teach, people who need to be warned against straying from the Way, people who need support to be able to keep running. God has blessed me with amazing friendships in which I can serve Him well, and I cannot just run away from them. And of course, there is this whole entirely new "girlfriend" thing which is a whole different ballgame in the Relationship sphere in which I have to learn a completely new way of serving another sister in Christ XD ^^"

I am serving God in my Prayer. I have always thought that, if one day I become completely paralysed from head to toe, and I can't utter a single word or sound, I would still have an actively useful role in the Body of Christ: I can still pray. And that can be such an overlooked role in the Church. (So if I ever become a zombie, please remember to come to me with your prayer points!!! If I can hear you, I will be praying for you! XD It's not like I'd have anything else to do :P XD)

I am serving God in my Participation. Do you know what the most frustrating thing about being a leader in the Church is? When you try to rally people to do something, no one responds!!!!! You work your arse off and people just treat it so nonchalantly that you feel that you've wasted your time. Well, now it's time for me to return the favour in full, and respond by responding when my leaders speak up. As new leaders step in to fill the gaps, it is my turn to encourage them by participating in the things they organise, to help where I can, to give them feedback, to simply tell them that I appreciate what they're doing for Jesus.

I am serving my Father in my Submission. This will be the first time in a very long time in which I am no longer in a position of authority in the Church at BCAC. In the past, if I wanted something to be done I could just step in and get things started. But now that I am no longer in authority, I need to get used to being under authority, to be submissive to my leaders and not be a frustration to them by pretending that I still have authority. This is actually, surprisingly for me, one of the hardest lessons for me to learn as yet. It is hard for me to learn to keep my mouth shut XD But it is a great lesson to learn in humility :)

There are many other ways in which I will continue to serve Him even within this time of Rest :) But I will just leave it at that for now :) I suppose you get the point: Even in our "rest", all Christians continue to Serve, and they Serve in very important ways too! The Body of Christ needs every part of its Being to be functional parts, even in Rest. (Eg. Even in your sleep, your body does not lose its function. Your body rests; it is not dead :P). The Christian is never truly "out of a job" :)

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." (Phil 1:21) This summarises my attitude to life, and I hope that you can truly say that from the depths of your heart as well :)

[Oops… a "short post" became so long XD haha.]

What Makes You Weep?

I had a very interesting discussion tonight that made me think of something that I really wanted to share, something that I may have shared about years ago in other circles, but needs to be shared to this newer generation as well :)

Merry invited me to an event coming up with her old church in December. And I found it very hard to accept, because it raised the possibility of missing a Sunday at my beloved church BCAC. (Which is rather curious, really - after all, can't I just miss one week at BCAC? It's just ONE week after all. Not even for your girlfriend?!)

And it got me reflecting on the reason why I feel so much attachment (even over-attachment) to my church.

See, I wasn't always at BCAC. I actually was "born" into another church; in fact, that church was "born" in the same year as I was born, and I pretty much viewed her as my "sister". I was raised in that church, was loved by that extended church family, and loved the place dearly.

But one day (when I was about 12), we simply… left. I didn't really understand the reasons at first. I thought my parents just had some new calling from God or something. (Which is true in a way, I suppose). But not long after, it came to my attention (through my very advanced eaves-dropping skills XD) that we had actually left after a very ugly church split in which some ungodly decisions were made, and that there were people at my old church that were bad-mouthing my dad. We had virtually (though not explicitly) been "kicked out" of my  old church.

I don't know whether you who are reading this can understand the depth of pain, grief and anguish that I felt over that as a 12-year-old-ish boy. This dear family of mine that I had loved and cherished no longer wanted me there any more. Suddenly, I lost all of my closest and dearest friends that I had grown up with in one fell swoop. I could no longer visit this dear Sister of mine. The very foundation of my life had been ripped away from me violently by angry people, who were laying false accusations on my beloved father.

Needless to say, I was very, very angry. I was furious. But I did not know how to process it, how to deal with it. How does a 12-year-old express the exquisite grief felt by being abandoned, thrown out, by his beloved church? Haha, I don't believe that it would even register in the minds of most parents that a child might think in such a way.

For the next few years, my family drifted, lost. My parents tried going to and helping out other churches; they even started their own evangelistic organisation. But we were always moving. My parents couldn't go to another Cantonese church any time soon; the Brisbane circle was just too small, and it was not easy to find a Cantonese church that would welcome us with open arms. But we just never felt at home in Western churches, no matter how "multicultural" anyone may proclaim themselves to be. To be honest, I felt that my parents became disillusioned about the whole idea of a "church home", and had become content with simply drifting around and serving wherever they can, rather than finding a place to take root and call home, simply because they had been hurt too much by close friends in our old church.

And so I grew up during my teen years without a church home, at a time when I was going through the most tumultuous change and difficult decisions of my life. I was  lost, deeply, deeply lost.

And secretly, I was always grieving the loss of my Home.

Eventually, though, God provided. (In fact, He gave me this experience to help me grow too, as I will explain later).

The time came when I finally got my driver's license (yay! ^^"), and could finally drive myself to places. Around that time, close family friends of ours had recently just happened to find a "really good church" called Antioch International Church (what eventually became BCAC). We visited a few times, and even went to their Youth Camp (ahhhhh Minden 2003, how precious were those times! XD).

Then my parents told me that, since I could drive, I should settle down into this new church that had a good youth ministry. I suppose they knew that moving around without a church home was not a good thing for me. And so I started to drive my brother and myself to Antioch.

And soon enough, I had found a new Home :)

As I recounted this story to Merry, I found tears starting to well up in my eyes. (I did the very manly (and stupid) thing and just forced myself to not start crying in the open XD). I never saw myself as a particularly passionate person, and so I was somewhat surprised anew at how much passion I felt about the topic of "the Church".

My heart burned for the Church so much that I could not bear to see it harmed, polluted, or threatened. I love the Church dearly, not nearly as much as Jesus loves her, but greatly nonetheless. It is the Body of Christ; it is the place where His children come together and give Him glory; and it should never be subjected to disgrace and shame. The passion was so great that I had vowed (in my heart) that as long as I lived I would never allow anything to harm my Church Home; that I would never sit idly by to watch it burn to the ground; that I would never let the wolves attack my church without a bloody good fight; that I would never sit in the sidelines and watch my church Home break up and burn, so that more children will be burnt by the disgusting sinfulness of humankind.

THIS is why I work so hard for BCAC. THIS is why I don't care how much I give, or how much I lose, for the sake of the forward progress of the Gospel through BCAC. THIS is why I spend sleepless nights thinking up strategies and ideas to defeat the latest threat. THIS is why I write so many emails to the BCACers. THIS is why I can happily sacrifice money-earning potential during my entire uni life. THIS is why I am willing to sacrifice the ability to get better marks through more study in order to have more time to serve at BCAC. THIS is why I could give my social life over to my Lord. It is because the Body of Christ in BCAC, my beloved Home, is just so precious to me.

Fury, passion, grit and tears. There is nothing that makes my heart burn more than my passion for Christ's Church.

But as I watch "the kids" of BCAC, I can't help but laugh in despair. What are these kids DOING? Lounging about as if they have all the time in the world, thinking that what was given to them has always been and always will be? They are TAKING FOR GRANTED something that is so precious, so fragile, so easily destroyed. They care not for their Church Home because they think that this is not such a precious thing, and that even if they lose it it wouldn't really matter.

But it isn't! It is such a precious thing, especially to those that do not have the privilege of having it. This is such a treasure in such a fallen, nasty world, to have a place of worship, of fellowship, of true Christian brotherhood, a place where people can come to meet Christ, to grow in Him and to call HOME.

Children of God, and especially the newest generations of the Children, please, please, please do not take for granted the beautiful gift of your Church Home. It is too precious to be lost, too valuable to be thrown into the bin, too special to simply say "it's too much effort" to care for it.

Please, look after your Home. Love the Church as Christ loved and died for His Bride, the Church. Care for her tenderly; defend her viciously; treasure her passionately.

And long for the day when the Bride is revealed in the light of God's Glory, at the great Wedding Supper of the Lamb, that glorious day when we can bask Eternally in the presence of our Lord, united with Him, forever and ever.

Amen.

Remember

In my devotions this (well, technically yesterday :P) morning, I was reading Psalm 77, and it struck me profoundly:

I cried out to God for help;

    I cried out to God to hear me.

When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;

    at night I stretched out untiring hands 

    and my soul refused to be comforted.

I remembered you, O God, and I groaned; 

    I mused, and my spirit grew faint. 

You kept my eyes from closing;

    I was too troubled to speak. 

I thought about the former days, 

    the years of long ago;

I remembered my songs in the night.

    My heart mused and my spirit inquired:

“Will the Lord reject forever? 

    Will he never show his favor again?

Has his unfailing love vanished forever?

    Has his promise failed for all time?

Has God forgotten to be merciful? 

    Has he in anger withheld his compassion? ” 

Then I thought, “To this I will appeal:

    the years of the right hand of the Most High.”

I will remember the deeds of the Lord;

    yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

I will meditate on all your works

    and consider all your mighty deeds.

Your ways, O God, are holy.

    What god is so great as our God? 

You are the God who performs miracles; 

    you display your power among the peoples.

With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, 

    the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. 

The waters saw you, O God,

    the waters saw you and writhed; 

    the very depths were convulsed.

The clouds poured down water, 

    the skies resounded with thunder; 

    your arrows flashed back and forth.

Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, 

    your lightning lit up the world;

    the earth trembled and quaked. 

Your path led through the sea, 

    your way through the mighty waters,

    though your footprints were not seen.

You led your people like a flock 

    by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

It resonated with me, because I've been stumbling through a similar situation. Sometimes it becomes so dark, so bleak, so cold and hopeless that you wonder whether the light will ever shine, whether you'll ever make it through. At such times, you doubt everything that you had known before: you doubt God's goodness (is he really a good God?), and in some instances you even doubt whether He is real at all! (despite the fact that you had no problems at all with that fact a year ago!)

For a time, I struggled through the same questions that Asaph (the writer of this poem) had. Has the Lord rejected me? Is He going to stay away forever? Has He had enough of me and decided that He will not bless me with His presence again? Sometimes we even ask very weird contradictory questions, like: Has His unfailing love vanished forever? (Even though the very definition of "unfailing" love means that it would never cease!) Has His promise failed for all time? (even though we know through His Word that God never fails to keep His word). Has God forgotten to be merciful? (How does one "forget" to be merciful anyway! Haha). Has He in anger withheld His compassion? (Is that really what we know of God's Character?)

How does Asaph answer such doubts? What can he turn to in a time of such uncertainty?

He remembers the past. He remembers all the good and great things that God has done for him, and not just him personally but for his entire nation. And not just the things that God did within his lifetime, but the things that happened waaaaay before he was born. "I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds."

Sometimes when we are stuck in the mud of a difficult situation, we find it hard to look anywhere else but the crap in which we're stuck in; we become unable to see anything beyond the here and now. We panic, and start thinking irrationally, saying that things will never come good, that God was never good, that we are all doomed.

But sometimes it pays to look up and about, to look back down the road and remember all the other pitholes and troubles that He has brought us through, and to remember that He will always continue to love His children. His love really is unfailing; He does not "fail" His promises like humans do; He is merciful and He is compassionate. He is the same yesterday, today and forever; He has always loved His children, and He always will. It may be difficult to see when you're stuck in the mud, but once you're out of it you will be able to see that there was good in all the trouble.

So when you're stuck, look up, look back, and remember that the God who loved you in the past in your joy, loves you today in your pain, and will love you forevermore in Eternity.

Amen :)

Structural Integrity

When I boarded the plane from Sydney to Los Angeles, the captain of the plane instructed us to make sure that we were seated at exactly the spot we were allocated, until after the plane had lifted off. Now, I have heard that instruction often on flights, but had never been given an explanation for it. However, this captain was particularly nice and patient, and explained at length that this was necessary because the seating was arranged by weight, and people had been seated so that the weight would be well balanced on both sides, facilitating a smooth take-off. (Don't know what they would've had to do if they had a group of obese people though! XD)

After the announcement, I thought: "Cool! I've learnt something new that I can share with my friends!"

After a while though, I realised: How do I know that the captain is right? How do I know that what he said is actual factual truth? How did I know that this information was actually worthy of being passed on to other people? I did not personally know the specifics of the laws of physics as they pertain to the realm of aerodynamics! All that I had to go on was that these words came from someone I thought had some amount of authority to speak on the subject, and that these words sounded somewhat reasonable.

And my mind was drawn to how this applies to the "Science vs Religion" debate. (That has been bothering my mind of late - not the subject itself, but the process of the debate). It is quite fascinating, really.

See, in reality, the experience that I had reflects generally the way we learn, doesn't it? We hear something from someone (a teacher of some sort); we decide whether that person is worthy of our attention or not (whether they have authority); then we consider their words, and try to understand it in terms of the world that we already know. If it fits, we accept those words remarkably easily. If what they say does not "fit" into that world (ie it "doesn't make sense"), then we either outright reject it, or we investigate it further, and maybe make changes to our way of seeing the world so that that new knowledge fits better. (Very few of us actually do the hard work in going through the experimentative discovery process - that is a task usually left to the scientists and explorers - the rest of us go through the much easier process of teacher-student learning).

All of us interpret information in terms of our already established world view. If it works with our world view, we accept it easily; and if it doesn't work, we often reject it, sometimes automatically and without much thought, sometimes even ridiculing anyone who would consider such a possibility. The thought is so out-of-line with your thought structure that you think that it cannot possibly be true. (eg. How the Atheists keep on ridiculing Christians for believing in the "ridiculous"). Only a very persuasive argument from someone with very great authority would have any hope of touching that very thought structure through which you interpret the information.

But think about this: What if your structure is wrong? What if the way you have built your world-view is fundamentally flawed? That would change everything, wouldn't it? If you realise that you have been using the wrong framework to accept or reject given information, then you will realise that you may have incorrectly accepted or rejected a lot of information given previously! That can shake even the very foundations of what it means to be you.

Understanding this way of thinking and learning casts a very interesting light upon the Science vs Religion debate. See, we often approach this sort of topic from the wrong angle (and this goes for both sides of the argument). It is too easy to keep it all on the surface, at the level of, "I say this is true because this person said so; you don't agree with it, so you are stupid and beyond saving." Of course the person would never agree with it! Their world-view/thought-structure could not possibly accept that and still survive! Their only choices are to reject it or to let the old, familiar, comfortable structure crumble. And faced with that choice, most people simply choose to reject what is before them.

Even worse is that people are often simply too LAZY (or too "busy") to investigate these issues for themselves. The information is quite easily accessible these days, thanks to the wonders of technology. Scientific research is easily accessible; the Bible is free and open in much of the world. But people often just throw up their hands and say that it is too hard to do the work to figure out whether their world-structure is actually has any structural integrity. It is amazing how so many of us would disregard the all-important questions of Universal concern, and would be happy to simply rely on the "who says what" method. So many of us would be happy to believe that there are multiple concurrent universes because Stephen Hawking says so; or that if you "believe it enough" it will happen (ie "The Secret") because "it was on Oprah"; or that evolution must be the only possible rational way because it simply must be since "all the scientists" agree (forgetting to carefully consider the source of that information).

So what can we learn from all this? Well, I suppose simply be more guarded against dismissing an argument from anywhere too off-handedly. How much of it is truly wrong, and how much of it is simply because you're not employing the correct framework to understand it? We should also get off our arses and start THINKING I suppose :) It's all there; we just need to stop being lazy :)

READ YOUR BIBLES!!!! :)

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15/5/12
For a much better article on the impact of world-views, have a look at this one: http://www.whitehorseinn.org/blog/2012/05/11/same-sex-marriage-makes-a-lot-of-sense/

Utter Foolishness

"If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."

The above verse from 1 Corinthians 15:19 comes from a passage where Paul is explaining to the Corinthians how essential it is for Christians to believe in the Resurrection (firstly of Jesus, then our own in the future) (because some of them had doubts about that!). Correctly interpreted in its context, Paul's point was that if Christians did what they did but did not believe in the Resurrection, then we are utter fools because living in a Christ-like manner in this world costs too much and gains nothing if there was no such thing as Eternal life.

However, last night something hit me about this verse : I had a profound thought that looked at this verse from a different angle that I had not thought of before.

So last night I was watching the movie Battleship. I won't spoil it for you, but among other things, it was talking about this guy that had incredible potential but wasted it completely by just being a drunken brawling mess of a man. In short, an utter fool.

As I was coming out of the movie, two things struck me: this verse, and the realisation that I knew people like this guy. Not in a worldly sense but in a spiritual sense.

Lately I've been seeing a fair few of my Christian brothers and sisters throw their lives away in worldly pursuits. Gaming is a prominent one; some are so addicted to it that they would prefer it over sleep! Similar to that is the addiction to the pursuit of friendship and fun; they think that simply hanging out with Christian friends is the equivalent of real Christian fellowship, never realising that they keep on excluding Christ out of these gatherings. Or else they might pursue their studies as if that was all that mattered in life. Older ones are pursuing careers, their first house, worldly riches and worldly comforts. None of them are pursuing Christ.

But the problem is that they know that they're supposed to be living for more! We hear day-in day-out about our living hope in Christ, how we are looking forward to His Kingdom coming. Yet so many of us live as if God's Kingdom is of no importance; we are living life as if "only for this life we have hope in Christ".  And that is an incredibly pitiful site; "we are to be pitied more than all men".

This thought fills me with great sadness about the state of things for a lot of my brothers and sisters. But I suppose it means there's just more work to do! :)