The best return

I was bowled over by John Templeton's obituary article in this week's Economist. Here's an excerpt:

"But most of all Sir John went long on God. As a lifelong Presbyterian with a devout and curious mind, he reckoned that the market price of the creator of the universe was probably 1% of its actual value. The crowd might have lost interest in this under-rated stock, so dully and unerringly recommended by theologians and priests down the centuries, but Sir John bought it up on the firm expectation of stellar future earnings. Indeed the divine, he once said, if approached in a humble spirit of inquiry, might turn out to be 3,000 times more than people imagined it was."

Gooseberry Jam

I was over the moon when I asked to sit in during a jamming session by HOCC fans, and they agreed. I delight in new experiences and I had never gone to such a session before. I was very happy and excited. The band played around 14 songs during a three-hour session. I just sat on the floor and listened to their music and their bantering. It makes me happy to see and experience people doing what they love to do. Following the session, I followed them as they had a late dinner. After that, I took a cab home. I took some shots during the session but thought it inappropriate to post them here, because it was after all a private jamming session. So I thought I'd pen some thoughts about it because they gave me three hours of their time.

East Timor: One child in God's family

This quote on the front of a bulletin for Love East Timor drew my attention:

"Within a family, there are invariably times when one child will need more attention than another. To respond to the needs of that child is not to say that the others are loved any less. Rather, at that particular moment, the needs of one are more pressing, more critical. Every parent knows this to be true: every child realises it at some intuitive level."
- Kofi Annan

Let the little children come to me

Just had dinner with some friends. One of them brought along her 4.5-month old baby daughter, and she was adorable and beautiful. Very few life experiences beat cradling a sleeping baby in one's arms. Indeed, children are a blessing from God. I feel very happy when I see a baby, because the baby always reminds me of how wonderfully and fearfully made we all are by God. I am always in awe of God's handiwork in us. That every one of us is unique in God's sight and every one of us is valued enough by Him for Him to die for us.

When did it all begin?

I recently met the church members I had gone on a mission trip to Central Asia with two years ago. Our trip leader, who has since gone on to OMF to be a full-time missionary in Lopburi, about twenty minutes' drive from Bangkok, returned for a visit and so we arranged for dinner.

During dinner, we were talking about how we came to know the Lord. Surprisingly, of the seven of us, three had one way or another attended Sunday School before. When it came to my turn, I told the rest that I got the goosebumps when I heard my senior pastor say some time back that in the beginning, Church of Our Saviour had held its services at this small facility at Prince Charles Crescent close to 20 years back before the church moved to the current Margaret Drive premises.

First a little something about how I landed up at Church of Our Saviour: One of my former colleagues (who is in full-time ministry now) brought me to Christ in 2001 and I started attending the church that he and his wife were serving at. I was there for a year but somehow or other, I kept missing the membership courses during that year. I also prayed to God about whether this was the church He wants me to settle in, and I felt that His answer was "no".

Then in December 2001, my cousin came back from the US and she invited me to a service at Church of Our Saviour. At that time, I had prayed to God for three things: direct me to the church He wants me to settle in, what the biblical perspective of money is, and what His calling for me is.

When I went with my cousin for my first ever service at Church of Our Saviour, I received two things at the door - one was a pamphlet of upcoming mission trips for 2002 and the other was a schedule of baptism and membership courses for 2002.

I stepped into the main auditorium, and immediately I thanked God and said to Him, "Lord, I'm finally home." I knew in my spirit then (in fact, every part of me) that it was the church God wanted me to be in. And the subject of the sermon? The role of money in a Christian's life.

I remembered that I was so happy that day because I knew that God had answered all my prayers. The following day, I went to work and told my colleague that I was switching churches. He was absolutely flabbergasted and kept asking me why. This was the same reaction I received from the pastor at his church, who was mentoring me, whom I also told immediately. I told them that God wanted me to attend Church of Our Saviour and to serve there. From then on, I have been attending Church of Our Saviour. I was baptised and confirmed in May 2002.

Coming back to the goosebumps: My family and relatives were living at Prince Charles Crescent during those times when Church of Our Saviour held services there. I had often heard my two aunties saying that when they were young, they would always sneak out to go and listen to sermons despite my grandmother's objections. The dots didn't connect until I realised recently that they had gone to listen to my senior pastor, who was then young and absolutely on fire for the Lord, and still is very much so today. So for me, in a sense, it was coming full circle. That I would land up at the church which had been located so close to my home when I was still a kid.

One of my aunties and her husband also regularly brought us to Sunday School at Grace Assembly of God. My uncle would let us get into the driver's seat and pretend to drive the car around the carpark. In a sense, they were also our parents because they always brought us out and every weekend, they drove us up to their house in Teban Gardens. They supervised our homework and my auntie sang songs (Christian and folk songs) to us. God took my uncle home many years back (and blessed my auntie with a daughter). I'm so looking forward to seeing him in Heaven when God deems it time to bring me home.

As one of the mission trip members said during the dinner, thank God that we were in Sunday School when we were young, because the Sunday School teachers prayed for us back then and we are today the beneficiaries of their care, their devotion and their many prayers for our salvation.

Truly prayers avail much and I probably won't know how many and who prayed for my salvation but I am sure glad and extremely grateful and humbled that they did.

Truly, my feelings are like that of the words in Ray Boltz's song "Thank You":

Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am a life that was changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am so glad you gave.

Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am a life that was changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am so glad you gave.

Tizzy Bac concert

I just want to thank God that He gave me an immense curiosity and hunger for new experiences in all facets of my life. I also thank God that He gave me a love for words and music, which have enriched my life beyond what I could ever have hoped for and for which I am extremely humbled and grateful for.

Just attended the Tizzy Bac concert at the Esplanade Recital Studio. I went to the concert with my cousin (who got hooked after I lent her a Tizzy Bac album) and one of my friends (who was game enough to agree to go for the concert despite not having heard Tizzy Bac music before).

After the concert, this friend of mine was so impressed with the band music that she asked me to lend her my Tizzy Bac albums. Mind you, she doesn't really follow Mandarin indie-pop or alternative music. She was also the kind soul who helped take pictures for us, using my cousin's handphone.

I have the bands' two albums and so I bought two EPs so that my cousin and I could get their autographs on the CDs.

Another reason the band now has my lifelong support: When it was my turn for the autograph signing, the bassist kept trying to adjust the sleeve note on my EP so that it would slide inside the groove because it was loose. He kept doing it until the sleeve note slid into the groove before he signed on the CD itself. I felt that it said something about him and the band.

During the concert, the lead singer and keyboardist Huiting mentioned that she really really liked fried carrot cake, and that she wouldn't mind eating it every day for the rest of her life, and that the band was thinking of how they could franchise it in Taiwan. :-)

We had ice cream at Swensen's following the end of the autograph signing. When I reached home, I went to the Tizzy Bac website and left this message:

Hi, absolutely loved your live performance here at Esplanade Singapore!

- Fantastic understanding among the band members. An absolute joy to watch and listen.

- Keep the fire forever in your heart and make the music that you believe in and are passionate about. You will always have fans supporting you all the way, me included!

- I think I have all your albums so far, and am waiting in great expectation of your third album, and your next performance in Singapore.

- Persevere in making the kind of music you want to make, and be always true to yourself.

- All the best and always remember that you have fans here in Singapore supporting you!

- TIZZY BAC ROCKS!!!!

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

During one of the busiest months of my work, I took to reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine, George Washington's farewell address and the US Constitution. Predictably, I bought the three books in Washington D.C. when I visited a friend last year. Just found them in my room and, on a whim, decided to read them.

I started with Paine's Common Sense. It was written in 1776, challenging the authority of the British government and monarchy, and also the first document/book to openly seek US independence from Great Britain.

I haven't finished reading the book, but its contents made me realise that truly, the US was a nation founded by men of Christian faith. Paine drew parallels between the British monarchy and the kings of the Bible. Two brilliant excerpts below:

In the early ages of the world, according to the scripture chronology there were no kings; the consequence of which was, there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throws mankind into confusion. Holland, without a king hath enjoyed more peace for this last century than any of the monarchical governments in Europe. Antiquity favours the same remark; for the quiet and rural lives of the first Patriarchs have a snappy something in them, which vanishes when we come to the history of Jewish royalty.

Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the Heathens, from whom the children of Israel copied the custom. It was the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry. The Heathens paid divine honours to their deceased kings, and the Christian World hath improved on the plan by doing the same to their living ones. How impious is the title of sacred Majesty applied to a worm, who in the midst of his splendor is crumbling into dust!

As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot be justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be defended on the authority of scripture; for the will of the Almighty as declared by Gideon, and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by Kings.

All anti-monarchical parts of scripture have been very smoothly glossed over in monarchical governments, but they undoubtedly merit the attention of countries which have their governments yet to form. "Render unto Cesar the things which are Cesar's" is the scripture doctrine of courts, yet it is no support of monarchical government, for the Jews at that time were without a king, and in a state of vassalage to the Romans.

Near three thousand years passed away, from the Mosaic account of the creation, till the Jews under a national delusion requested a king. Till then their form of government (except in extraordinary cases where the Almighty interposed) was a kind of Republic, administered by a judge and the elders of the tribes. Kings they had none, and it was held sinful to acknowledge any being under that title but the Lord of Hosts. And when a man seriously reflects on the idolatrous homage which is paid to the persons of kings, he need not wonder that the Almighty, ever jealous of his honour, should disapprove a form of government which so impiously invades the prerogative of Heaven.

Compassion or pity

Yesterday, I bought some food at Golden Shoe Complex. As I was queuing up, I noticed a cleaner. He was a hunchback, and couldn't stand straight. What he had to do was lean on the trolley that he was wheeling around in order to collect dirty plates, bowls and utensils. He was clearing the plates in a pretty rough manner, throwing them hastily into the bin.

I looked at him and suddenly I felt like buying him a box of bird's nest, giving it to him and telling him "thanks" for his cleaning services. I also wanted to pray for him to be healed. Following that thought, I asked myself whether what I had felt was compassion or pity.

This "compassion or pity" thing troubled me greatly enough for me to ask my boss and my colleagues today what the difference was. My boss looked up the root form of both words - pity implies a feeling, condescension and nothing more, whereas compassion encompasses empathy and sympathy with being moved to action. So after that, I was more reassured that what I had felt was compassion rather than pity.

I wonder: If five or more people went up to him every day to say "thank you", would he then be more cheerful in doing his job and feel more appreciated and more valued?

The important things

I was replying to e-mails from my group of close friends when these thoughts came to my mind, and I e-mailed them the excerpt below.

It took me many years to realise that:

- Other people may not like what you like.

- Other people are not interested in what you're interested in.

- Being different is good.

- Just because someone doesn't agree with you doesn't mean that you are right and he is wrong

- Some people will like you regardless of what you do, while others will never like you regardless of what you do.

- Be accepting of other people's different viewpoints, faults etc because they are also accepting of yours.

- The key to happiness is contentment.

- Accept people at their level so that they, too, can accept you at your level.

- A simple, boring life is a beautiful life.

- Joy comes from within the heart, and is not found in things, situations or other people.

- People will let you down sometimes, and it's all right and we should take it well because we will also let people down sometimes.

- Self-confidence comes from knowing your value in your own eyes, not through the eyes of another person. (In my case, my value is derived from how God views me - loving me enough to die in my place - so yes, I feel very loved and valued).

- Being able to love oneself and forgive oneself is important for emotional health.

- View every negative comment in a constructive manner and every positive remark with a measured tone.

- It's good to do something silly, impulsive or break out of one's comfort zone once in a while because this helps me cope with life.

Afterthought: I just pray that whenever a situation arises during which I have to defend Christ and my faith, I am able to do so with courage, clarity, wisdom and love.