Thursday, May 22, 2008
How daft we must be..
Our Father the Weaver
Ravi Zacharias
Some years ago, I was visiting a place known for making the best wedding saris in the world. They were the producers of saris rich in gold and silver threads, resplendent with an array of colors. With such intricacy of product, I expected to see some elaborate system of machines that would boggle the mind in production. But this image could not have been farther from the real scene.
Each sari was made individually by a father and son team. The father sat above the son on a platform, surrounded by several spools of thread that he would gather into his fingers. The son had only one task. At a nod from his father, he would move the shuttle from one side to the other and back again. This would then be repeated for hundreds of hours, until a magnificent pattern began to emerge. The son certainly had the easier task. He was only to move at the father's nod. But making use of these efforts, the father was working to an intricate end. All along, he had the design in his mind and was bringing the right threads together.
The more I reflect on my own life and study the lives of others, I am fascinated to see the design God has for each one of us individually, if we would only respond. All through our days, little reminders show the threads that God has woven into our lives. Allow me to share a story from my own experience. As one searching for meaning in the throes of a turbulent adolescence, I found myself on a hospital bed from an attempted suicide. It was there that I was read the 14th chapter of John's Gospel. My attention was fully captured by the part where Jesus says to his disciples: "Because I live, you shall live also" (John 14:19). I turned my life over to Christ that day, committing my pains, struggles, and pursuits to his able hands.
Almost 30 years to the day after this decision, my wife and I were visiting India and decided to visit my grandmother's grave. With the help of a gardener we walked through the accumulated weeds and rubble until we found the stone marking her grave. With his bucket of water and a small brush, the gardener cleared off the years of caked-on dirt. To our utter surprise, under her name, a verse gradually appeared. My wife clasped my hand and said, "Look at the verse!" It read: "Because I live, you shall live also." A purposeful design emerges when the Father weaves a pattern from what to us may often seem disparate threads. Even today, if you will stop and attend to it, you will see that God is seeking to weave a beautiful tapestry in your life
Mantou at 10:21 PM
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
If you thought faith was for the faint-hearted..
Abandoned Fortresses
Margaret Manning
Have you ever experienced the dissonance that comes from the contradiction of your personal experience and your beliefs? What do you do, for example, when you've believed that God always heals, and yet you watch helplessly as your mother dies of cancer? How do you affirm God's love to a woman who was abused as a young girl? What do you feel when you've been told that God has a wonderful plan for your life, and yet you can't square that wonderful plan with a series of professional and personal failures? If you're like me, the fortress of beliefs you thought were impenetrable come crashing down as life experience smashes that fortress like a battering ram. In the aftermath, the alternative shelters of cynical doubt or blind faith beckon you to take your refuge with them.
For most of us, we run perilously between both extremes, without the sense of security that the fortress once provided. The Bible is replete with stories about individuals who faced the difficult conflict between what they held to be the truth and what they experienced in their lives. Think of the patriarch Joseph. He was told by God through a sequence of dreams that he would be great one day--so great, in fact that his own brothers would come and bow down in reverence for him. He had been given a glimpse of his destiny, and perhaps he believed his path to that destiny would be paved with gold. Instead, his gilded trip to glory yielded an attempted murder by his own brothers, his enslavement in a foreign land, and much of his life spent in and out of prison falsely accused of various crimes he did not commit. How could this be the path to glory God promised to provide for Joseph? Joseph's beliefs in a God who loved him and had compassion on him were now being challenged by God's demonstration of his compassionate care. Sitting in his jail cell, I'm sure Joseph wrestled with his ideas about God's loving care.
Despite the contradiction between his life experience and what he thought he knew about God, Joseph ultimately affirmed that God is good and trustworthy. How did he arrive at this? I would suggest that as Joseph (like his father, Jacob) wrestled with God, God gave him a new perspective and a deeper understanding of his love for him. But that new perspective is not lightly gained. Noted author and pastor Craig Barnes poignantly describes the emergence of new perspectives as the very process of conversion: "The deep fear behind every loss is that we have been abandoned by the God who should have saved us. The transforming moment in Christian conversion comes when we realize that even God has left us.
We then discover it was not God, but our image of God that abandoned us.... Only then is change possible." Indeed, Joseph eventually reveals his new perspective to his brothers who betrayed him; "As for you, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive" (Genesis 50:20). This is no biblical cliché. Joseph did witness God's intervention and love. But not at all in the way he expected. And neither has God promised to make our lives go as we plan. But instead, God promises to give us the necessary new perspective to see his goodness and grace in the midst of our abandoned expectations.
Mantou at 5:06 PM
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Time for laughs
EVER WONDER...
Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?
Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?
Why don't you ever see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery'! ?
Wh y is 'abbreviate d' such a long word?
Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'?
Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?
Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?
Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?
Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?
Why do cows fly on GoofyAuctions.com but the cheese is green?
When dog food is new and improved tasting, who tests it?
Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?
Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?
You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don! 't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?
Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?
Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?
In case you needed further proof that the human race is doomed through stupidity, here are some actual label instructions on consumer goods: (I didn't write the stuff in the parenthesis)
On a Sears hairdryer:
Do not use while sleeping. (that's the only time I have to work on my hair).
On a bag of Fritos!
..You could be a winner! No purchase necessary. Details inside. (the shoplifter special)?
On a bar of Dial soap! :
'Directions: Use like regular soap.' (and that would be how?...)
On some Swanson frozen dinners:
'Serving suggestion: Defrost.' (but, it's 'just' a suggestion).
On Tesco's Tiramisu dessert (printed on bottom):
'Do not turn upside down.' (well...duh, a bit late, huh)!
On Marks & Spencer Bread Pudding:
'Product will be hot after heating.' (...and you thought?...)
On packaging for a Rowenta iron:
'Do not iron clothes on body.' (but wouldn't this save me more time?)
On Boot's Children Cough Medicine:
'Do not drive a car or operate machinery after taking this medication.' (We could do a lot to reduce the rate of construction accidents if we could just get those 5-year-olds with head-colds off those forklifts.)
On Nytol Sleep Aid:
'Warning: May cause drowsiness.' (and.. .I'm taking this because?...)!
On most brands of Christmas lights:
'For indoor or outdoor use only.' (as opposed to...what?)
On a Japanese food processor:
'Not to be used for the other use.' (now, somebody out there, help me on this. I'm a bit curious.)
On Sunsbury's peanuts:
'Warning: contains nuts.' (talk about a news fl ash)
On an American Airlines packet of nuts:
'Instructions: Open packet, eat nuts.' (Step 3: maybe, uh...fly Delta?)
On a child's superman costume:
'Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly.' (I don't blame the company. I blame the parents for this one.)
On a Swedish chainsaw:
'Do not attempt to stop chain with your hands or genitals.' (..was there a lot of this happening somewhere?)
On T-Rat (Military food):!
Its not for Human Consumption, Animals and Military Us e only... (Umnn yeah... isn't military also human)Mantou at 9:29 PM
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
God is good indeed
Hehe.. I have practically a few hours left to complete my assignment and here I am blogging.. *tsk tsk* Naughty notty. But I absolutely have got to blog about this. There are just some days that when you leave it to another day to blog, it just feels different. In fact, there are no more feelings left. I'm not an advocate of acting on your feelings, but this is more about capturing a moment in its purest or rawest.
Yea, God's just able to prepare us for trials ahead with His still small voice. Somehow this idea popped out of nowhere today, and boy did it sustain me or did it sustain me. 'For every piece of bad news I hear, I must strive to hear two pieces of good news'. I thought it was a radical idea, and pondered what it meant. But soon my day turned out to prove that maxim true. I awoke to find a verse sent by a friend in my phone to encourage me about an issue I had been struggling with lately. I claimed the good news by faith. Then I got to work and found someone scolding me anonymously. Haha. Bad news. I was thrown off balance for a while. But I went over to school and wondered how I could face the students feeling the way I did. I bumped into a colleague and soon decided to go to the POP Cafe for a drink. We had a good talk there, not about being scolded but I felt better. Soon I bumped into students with an opportunity to build rapport with. I was ready! Then after lunch hour my colleague called me telling me there was a distress call by a student. I had to go over immediately to assess the situation. It was an issue of relational problems. It was quite a tricky one, and I found myself reminded of some other students also facing similar issues, to which I had no clear insights to offer. It kinda reinforced my hopelessness in dealing with that issue. Began to see the tough side of being a counselor. But as I began to work on my assignment I felt empowered and saw the importance of distinguishing between giving advice and advocating change. Good news. Then another of my friend called me with a distress call and it was a real challenge to stay objective and non-judgmental. In any case, it was bad news to hear my dear friend not coping well. I felt so helpless being unable to share anything that bore weight enough to influence change in the situation. But I soon talked to my other friend and began to untie hidden knots in my own heart. Then during prayer meeting a song was sung that really spoke to my situation and I was able to praise God again. At the end of prayer meeting, Canon broke the news about the death of a sister of my fellow Psalmist. It shook me quite a bit. We prayed with a heavy heart, but still thanked God for bringing her home. Then on my way home I saw a beautiful cat by the pavement. I gave a few clicks with my tongue and approached cautiously. It received me surprisingly well and as I stroked its fur it turned its head and licked my hand! It was so heartwarming. God knows cats have comforted me since primary school. Soon after that I got a pleasant piece of news about a friend's birthday present. It's the little things in life that leave big footprints in our hearts. My point is not to substitute the good news for the bad. My point is to give equal attention to both. Sometimes we are only affected by bad news, and that soon promotes negativity as a way of life. We can be affected by bad news, but when good news comes along, it just might be God's way of telling us, He's still in control. If you think about it carefully, death had lost its sting when Christ died for our sins. And bad news always denotes death or imminent death of some kind; of our dreams, goals, little wants, big wants, relationships, something dear to us. If death has lost its sting and Christ has the final victory, I personally believe it's only right to have more good news going around than we give credit for.
Mantou at 10:43 PM