The ‘inbetweenness’ of who we are.

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The ‘inbetweenness’ of who we are.

Got you there with ‘inbetweenness’? Terrible word isn’t it?

But is a useful way of thinking about who we are.

We usually identify ourselves by positive statements that act as labels within categories. Thus I am male, 62, Caucasian, an Australian citizen and resident, and who is a husband, father and grandfather. The categories here are gender, age, race, citizenship and family.

Those words give an outward picture that helps ‘place’ a person. (Of course, the order of those categories and the list of what categories are included / excluded is quite revealing of the person doing the classification.)

However, such categories often fail to capture our reality. A while back I read a comment that has stayed with me and which I find useful in self-understanding and in talking with others.

That’s the ‘inbetweenness’ bit.

As well as being described by what we are, we can be described by what we are in-between.

Consider a person born in one country, who has lived in two others during formative years and who studies in yet another country. A label of political citizenship or residence makes a true statement but fails to capture the cultural identity of that person. However, if we describe that person as in the space between circles of varying sizes representing each culture / country in their past and present, we gain a richer and fuller picture.

I have found that an affirmation of ‘inbetweenness’ in identity is personally useful as I think about myself. For example, I can bring my Australian heritage and 11.5 years in Singapore alongside one another. Likewise with my pastor-teacher; teacher-pastor ministry identities.

What are you in-between?

A further thought.

If a person is only in-between, then  that can be profoundly destabilising for they are defined purely by what they are not. Talk about ‘hollow man’. On the other hand, if someone has a strong inner core grounded in their being in God and under Christ, then their inbetweenness can be a strong strength. This is a global citizen: at home with and in God and therefore enabled to be at home anywhere in his creation.

The things we notice on social media

Just noticing.

When people post personal update or quirky items on face book, or personal photos - our comments abound.

But when social media is used for serious causes, we rarely bother to comment.

Is this a comment on the essence of social media ... a place to chill out and idly pass the time in digital chat?

Or is it a comment on humanity - happy to be entertained and diverted for a moment, but, please God - spare me from having to face the confronting stuff that reminds me of a painful world out there?

Ambition and expectations

Sometimes the obvious truth is right beneath our feet in the world of common sense.

Take ambition, expectations and contentment.

Ambition is our future aspiration. With it we can be stretched and achieve more of our God-given potential with our God-given talents and opportunities. Without ambition we are apt to be people who under-use God's talents and opportunities which remain safely buried and unproductive. But unbalanced ambition (eg Phil 2:3; James 4:14&16) can lead to an eternal discontent in which the 'peace that passes understanding' (Phil 4:7) eludes us and we are discontent whether in riches or poverty.

Expectations are our assessment of what will and can happen. Now this is tricky. There's good evidence that people with higher expectations tend to see higher results. And vice versa. But the trick is this: when our expectations exceed realism we are apt to be crushed with despair at what could have been but is not.

Here's a path of wisdom: contentment and achievement are found through a mix of lofty ambitions and realistic expectations.  Lofty ambitions keep us stretching to our ability and realistic expectations keep us from despair.

Hence Phil 4:11-13. Paul models confidence of being able '... to do all things through him who strengthens me' (godly ambition) but has also learned to be content in whatever circumstances he was placed by God.

There is balance. Paul's life shows a constant pushing of himself for lofty ambitions. Note though that these are ambitions are not for his own advancement or comfort but for God's kingdom honour (eg Phil 1:12-18). But even when afflictions and discouragements come his way he is not crushed nor driven to despair but seeks to carry the marks of Jesus' death in order to also carry his life (eg 2 Cor 4:7-11). And so Paul can be content even if his lofty plans go upside down.

Two stories of people I know (names changed) show the danger of separating lofty ambitions and low expectations.

Jill was very happy with her life so long as there was food for that day and money to pay whatever bill was due that day. Her low expectations mean that contentment came easy.  But Jill was functioning far below her abilities, depending on other family members to bail her out and was making no provision for the future. Her lack of ambition meant that she bumped along the bottom of her God-given abilities and possibilities.

Jane had a trophy husband, drove a Porsche, had a stellar career, was multi talented and was able to take dream holidays every year. Others envied her and wish they had just a share of her life. But Jane was perennially unhappy and always reaching for the next goal in the empty hope of finding happiness. Unrestrained and misplaced ambition coupled with unrealistic expectations of her trophies left her discontent.

What is your mix of ambition and expectations?

The end of the world - 21 December 2012?

The Mayan calendar  says that the world will end today. 

Perhaps it will, although I expect not. 

But, as Jesus said, that’s not the point. 

The point is to watch and pray and always be ready, For, whenever the end comes it will be a surprise. 

Thus I take the Mayan calculation as a reminder to always be ready to welcome Jesus rather than to run from him.

Come, Lord Jesus come!

Self love

It just occurred to me that there is a huge difference between God's self-love and ours.

Our self-love takes. God's gives.

Our self-love means we want glory for ourselves (which we are not entitled to as mere creatures), often at cost to others.

God's self love means he wants glory for himself (which he is entitled to as creator and Lord) - but the path to his glory was to give his Son and to bring us to life through him.

The missing day

I once missed Christmas Day. I was aboard a London to NZ flight via Los Angeles and we jumped the date line around midnight. Goodbye presents! However something different happened this year – a day went missing by government fiat. In order to better align with its key trading partners, Samoa jumped the International Date Line and moved from 29 to 31 December in a digital stroke.

There’s nothing new or alarming in all that. Calendars are a human construct, have changed often enough during history and at any given moment different people operate on different calendars. For example, the recently newsworthy Mayan calendar runs alongside the more general western calendar in some societies. Or again, Singapore chooses to position itself out of its natural time zone for reasons of financial markets.

In the ancient near east, calendars were commonly constructed according to the reign and deeds of a king. For example, consider the Biblical formula ‘in the 8^th year etc of the reign of King so and so’.

This is reflected in the present BC / AD division of the western calendar which divides around the incarnation of Christ. Well, not quite … for present scholarly reckoning places his birth in about 6BC. Its interesting to see present discussion about renaming this into BCE / CE and thus writing Christ ‘out’. Some Christians see this as an issue of spreading secularism to contest. Personally, I don’t think its worth the fight.

Hmm .. constructing a calendar around the deeds of a king? Now that’s worth thinking about. Put simply, it locates us in the last days in between the ascension and the return of the Lord. That gives urgency to the task of witness and encouragement to persist in following and serving Jesus. We are indeed to ‘watch and pray’ and labour and serve, for our master may return from his journey any moment.

How terrible to be ill-prepared and thus to miss the day.

Threads of lives

I first met Angie and her father Dan (not the real names) 40 years ago. Angie was about 10 years old. Her mother had recently died, leaving she and her two siblings as orphans.

Dan had belonged to the church my dad pastored about 15 years earlier and now resumed contact after a long absence. Dan started coming to my dad’s new church and also needed someone to care for the young children during his absence on business trips.

My dad referred Dan to my girlfriend who became the child carer during some uni holidays. That brought me into the scene. A year or so later I needed employment. Dan rang the boss of a firm he has worked for and so I had a job for two years while my life reshaped.

Dan soon married a woman from my dad’s church and then we all drifted in different directions for many years. After Dan became a church elder involved in wider church matters I met him more often. As a young adult, Angie sister was a friend of my wife and I and then, after a gap of decades, we became Facebook friends when she lived in the UK.

Angie’s life had ups and downs, involving tragic moments that tested and tormented she and her family. She died last Friday aged 50. I saw a Facebook message from her sister and rang Dan. Then contacted some other friends who were all part of that church and friendship network about 40 years ago. And so we will soon gather to mourn with those who mourn.

In this the threads of pain and care weave through the Kantian categories of space and time. Or rather, they are woven for it is God who brings people and circumstances in and out of our lives.

Something like this makes me wonder. Angie was a peripheral part of my life yet there are the threads of about 20 people in direct relationship and stretching over about 60 years of my family. And then I think of others whose threads are woven into the tapestry of my life and I in turn woven into that of them and others. There are the known and unknown; the long running and the short-lived; the welcome and unwelcome. The threads of my life are beyond counting and disappear into the mists of time backwards and forwards.

As Donne says: no man is an island. Each of these threads is a person made in God’s image and for whom Christ died. They are an opportunity for me to serve and be served with God’s love and truth.

And so I will keep in touch with Angie’s family through this … and resume contact with other people whose threads have resurfaced through this contact.

A tale of two Christmasses

I went to church twice over Christmas. The services were well attended, the feeling warm, the music uplifting and the messages were fresh presentations of the old old story. And then to a day of indulgence. The pleasure of family, watching the excitement of my grandsons opening presents, enjoying lovingingly prepared meals and an afternoon doze.

My brother also went to church. He is a missionary in Jos Nigeria. It was his first Christmas since his wife died on missionary service earlier this year. He probably started his day with no electricity and having to draw water from a well in his house. As he sat in church there was a bomb blast nearby: they heard it and felt a blast wave.  The service continued, rejoicing in the covenant faithfulness of God, praying for those who sought to harm them and seeking God’s peace on the city.

My brother’s Christmas gives a reminder of mortality and eternity. So much of what most us do from day to day is trivial against these horizons. Oh for grace to enjoy the trivial pursuits and enjoy life under the sun, but always for wisdom to see and live under the eternity that God puts in the heart of humanity.

Christmas or Christmiss?

A mother wrote to a publication and asked what Christmas is all about and how to explain it to her six year old daughter in a way that would help her on the road to Jesus. I was asked to contribute a reply ..



What great questions you ask! How wonderful that you want to explain this to your daughter and help her on the road to Jesus. That’s great parenting!

I’ll start with a confession. I dislike Christmas!

The reasons are partly personal. One of my parents died soon before 25 December and the other one soon after. As well, Christmas is usually a period of heavy work for me – I spoke at 31 Christmas events one year! On top of that, Christmas was a time of separation from my family during the last 12 years. Put all that together and you can see why it’s not my favourite time of year.

However, my real dislike of Christmas goes deeper. The emptiness of the public festival that we call Christmas gives me dismay. I lived in a major south east Asian city where Christianity was a distinctly minority faith. Yet every shopping centre and public facilities such as airports and major roads were themed for some kind of Christmas. I say ‘some kind of Christmas’ for there was more of a general seasonal goodwill rather than any emphasis on Christ. Can you see that same trend happening in Australia? Public events are ‘Christmas-light’ and Jesus hardly gets a mention. Christmas is meant to be ‘Christ-mas’, or a celebration of Jesus. But what we often see is ‘Christmiss’ – anything but Jesus.

Did you know that it’s artificial to celebrate Jesus’ birth on December 25th? We don’t know when he was born, except that it was probably not December of January. Almost certainly Jewish shepherds would not have slept in their fields in a freeing December. Our 25 December celebration draws on some pre-Christian festivals associated with the northern solstice and New Year. Put simply, the celebration of Jesus’ birth on December 25th was an attempt to Christianise these pagan festivals. Given the modern ‘Christmiss’, I think that the pagans have struck back well.

Should we celebrate Christmas? That’s a serious question. I sometimes wonder if we should skip 25 December and hold our celebration at another time. Not all Christian celebrate Christmas on 25 December anyway. Some through history have not celebrated it at all.

However, I’m guessing that most of us will celebrate Christmas on December 25. If so, how can we use the day to tell our children and others about Jesus?

So what do you say to your daughter? I’d start with Christmas presents. Tell your daughter that we give them to remind us of the best present of all. That best present is God’s love to send his son Jesus into the world to be a real person like us.

That’s breathtaking. It blew the minds of the first people who heard it. Imagine the richest person in the world leaving their mansion and living in an ordinary suburb or town. We would wonder why? Now imagine way beyond that. God who made everything became one of us and one with us. As the Bible puts it: ‘the Word became flesh and lived among us’ (Jn 1:14). Jesus, who is God’s son, is that Word. When he came, it was ‘Immanuel’ which means ‘God with us’ (Matt 1:23).

Why did Jesus do this? He did it to show us what God is like in a way we can best understand (Jn 1:14,18). He did it to share our life and show us what it is to be truly human and without sin (Heb 4:15). And he did it to be the Saviour, who is Christ the Lord (Lke 2:11). As one Bible verse puts it: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Tim 1:15). Indeed, the very name ‘Jesus’ means that God is salvation. Or as that most famous verse says: ‘God loved the world so much that he sent his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him should not die but have eternal life (Jn 3:16).

This is a key thing to remember and teach your daughter. Put simply, Jesus became one of us so that he could go the Cross in our place and take our punishment for sin. The Christmas cradle always has the shadow of the Easter Cross.

So here are some suggestions for you and your daughter:
• Read the Bible stories of Jesus’ birth to her in the weeks before Christmas. (You will find these in Matthew Chs 1-2 and Luke Chs 1-2.) Take time to talk about these and to explain some of the significant sayings.

• Together make up some Christmas gift tags or tree decorations with some of the above Bible verses on them. Use these within your family and to others.

• Visit a Christian bookshop and buy some storybooks that are true to the Bible story and great value as kid’s books. Give these as presents.

• Make it a family priority to meet with other Christians to celebrate Jesus’ birth and maybe don’t distribute Christmas presents until later.

• Keep Christmas presents and meal modest to help keep the focus on Jesus.

• Set a good model to your daughter by yourself putting a big focus on Jesus at that time.

• Together say a big prayer of thanks for all the Christmas presents and especially for the best one of all – Jesus the Saviour.

• Echo God’s love-gift to us by taking your daughter to serve needy people with gifts of time, food or other gifts.

Hmm … maybe Christmas can become likeable after all!

Lent and earth hour.

On Saturday 26 of March 2011 many cities will observe earth hour.

This is a one-hour switch off for lights. It started in Sydney Australia and has gone globally viral. As such, it’s been an effective public event. However, does it raise environmental awareness to change behaviour beyond its hour?

A parallel can be drawn with Lent.

This is a 40-day time of various spiritual disciplines before Easter and is globally viral for a very long time. It is an effective public event. However, does it raise spiritual awareness to change behaviour beyond its ‘hour’?

Isaiah 58 is relevant. The context was one of religious fasting that was conducted with great display and fanfare. In God’s name he calls for what we can call a life-fast where people departed from wickedness and showed God’s righteousness in their day to day. Calvin somewhere picks up this theme and urges his readers to make the whole of life a fast to and before the Lord.

On this year’s earth hour we are urged to action ‘beyond the hour’. A life-habit of sacrifice to lessen our personal energy consumption is surely better than the hour. Likewise, a life-habit of abstinence and spiritual discipline is surely better than just the 40 days.

By all means let’s choose to observe things like Lent and earth hour. But let’s ensure that they are more than tokens by turning the ‘hour’ into the habit of a lifetime.

My Chinese mum

My Chinese mum would have turned 80 on March 5th. There were plans laid for a family dinner and the restaurant was booked. However this was not to be.

So I’ll record a few things in her memory.

She lived through tough times, including the Japanese occupation of Singapore. This meant the end of education for a promising Chinese girl. It also meant hunger and danger. For example, she spoke of a time when she and other girls were herded into a building that was being prepared for burning until a last minute order saved the day.

She became a tough one – a survivor in real life (not on a TV show). This stood her in good stead during the years of being a wife and mother, during which she also worked as a domestic helper.

She was tough, but not bitter, as some become with adversity. Her throaty chuckle, open smile and welcoming eyes spoke of a heart that stayed warm. Or was it warm because of her suffering?

From her suffering she became sensitive to the suffering of others. This made her sympathetic and a giver to others. She was also sensitive to the suffering of Jesus. And thus I recall one Good Friday service where she saw a clip from the Jesus Film and sat weeping.

It was not natural for her to become a Christian as she was raised in traditional Chinese beliefs. Although coming to church for several years she resisted conversion because it meant abandonment of her other gods and their rituals. When she did convert it was thorough. In the week she was to be baptized she took the paraphernalia back to the temple and left it there, never to return. Even in some later tough times when the Lord was slow to give what she sought, she kept her trust in him alone.

Her faith was simple and uncluttered. She loved coming to church and sat in a favourite spot. She prayed in dependence on God’s provision and learnt hymns of praise well enough to sing when her eyes faded. She enjoyed the company of the people around her, made shrewd assessments and embraced others with love.

My guess is that earthly birthdays are not celebrated in heaven (why would you?). But she is at a far better table than Imperial Treasure in Great World City. She is at the Lord’s table in the heavenly banquet. That is a better place by far and that is a great comfort.

Is it time to ditch traditional marriage?

The debate over gay marriage is commonly presented as a choice between including permission for homosexual and marriage and something called ‘traditional’ marriage.

However, we may ask what is ‘traditional’? It sounds like an attempt to steal the argument by a definition that implies outdatedness. Besides, which tradition is being referred to and at which time and place? It seems that ‘traditional’ is in the eye of the beholder. And thus in this present debate a straw image of ugly, domineering, patriarchal marriage can be constructed, labelled ‘traditional’ and then subjected to disposal.

Is it time to ditch the word ‘traditional’ and its vague historical reference?

Instead, let’s reconsider the Biblical ideal of marriage as a mutual, equal, permanent and exclusive heterosexual union formed under God. Maybe that’s more updated than ‘traditional’.

Singing in a strange land

A strange land

‘How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’ (Ps 137:4)

I write this just one week after arriving in Australia after 11.5 years living elsewhere.

There are all kinds of things that presumably seem normal and unremarkable to the native population but which stick out in my view. They will doubtless soon enough become unremarkable to me, thus I record them while I still notice them.

Shops and businesses that open and close early.
I am used to offices opening at 9am (but don’t expect too much then) and shops not open until 11am. But the other side of that is the difference between everything closing at 5pm and offices that are open until 6pm+ and shops until 10-11pm.

Restrictions on alcohol sales.
Australian alcohol sales are restricted such that it is available only from controlled venues and not until certain hours. I’m used to seeing alcohol available at any supermarket, servo or mini-market and anytime they are open. Yet beer is sold and consumed in ‘slabs’ of many bottles or cans in Australia as compared with people buying what they want to drink at the time. I wonder is these well-meant restrictions are not helping foster binge drinking and over-consumption?

Free parking and many parking spaces available.
I’m used to paying for parking almost everywhere and expected to queue and squeeze for parking lots. What a welcome contract to have much free street parking or long fee-free parking in malls etc and to drive straight into a parking spot.

Shaky communications.
Mobile calls drop and fade here and likewise with wireless internet signals. Thus landline phones and cables internet assume greater significance. That’s an irritating change from a place where handphones are strong almost anywhere and likewise for wireless national net signals.

Flag-showing patriotism.
National flags are only allowed in Singapore for a restricted period around national day and with controlled exposure and handling. Flag-displays were quite uncommon for private Australians when I left. But now every second car / house seems to be sporting a flag and there is much more flag merchandise for sale in this present season of Australia Day. But guess where the flags and merchandise are made? Yep – mainland China!

Broad Aussie accents and idioms.
The Australian accent seems pronounced in its broad vowels and also in its distinct idioms. Eg, a preacher who described something as being ‘bonza’. I’m self-conscious, when speaking, of how my accent has neutralized in 11.5 years away and how Australian idioms are much-removed form my speech. It will be interesting to see if I revert to a more local accent and idioms over time.

These things indeed seem strange to me and at times I feel a stranger in this land of my birth. I’m not saying better / worse, just ‘strange’ for the present.

And yes, I will learn how to sing the Lord’s song in this strange land.

Miango Ministry

I was in Miango (Plateau State Nigeria) from 4-10 January 2011 doing some Bible talks for the SIM annual Spiritual Life Conference. What follows is a daily blog from those days.

Sun 2 Jan.
Left Singapore at 11pm for London. Slept well and watched Agora which is an interesting movie re the spread of Christianity in Alexandria C5.

Mon 3 Jan.
Largely spent in the luxury of the Qantas lounge in London – frankly indulging myself. Overnight flight to Abuja: asleep before take off and waking just an hour before landing.

Tues 4 Jan
First day on this second visit to Nigeria. A vehicle breakdown meant a long wait in Abuja (during which a guest house hostess thoughtfully provided a bed for some catch up sleep) and then a late trip up in the company of the youth ministry team. Settled into a sparse but adequate ‘villa’ which I had to myself. Slept before 10pm and only woke once before arising at 6am.

Wed 5 Jan
First day on the job.

As people arrived for the conference my brother Peter arranged for three Nigerian friends to take us on a district tour. This included the site where Christianity first arrived among this tribe, a hydro-power station in the middle of nowhere – but non functional since July due to a blocked water intake and a picturesque but polluted waterfall. Also did my first talk (Jer 1). My theme title is ‘Confidence in the Lord, confidence in his word’ and I’m looking to encourage people to persist in word-based ministry.

Before I spoke an American doctor gave testimony to his experience during a home invasion during which he was shot and held for 48 hours until ransom was paid. After treatment, he returned to the field to keep serving as a surgeon. But then the doctor who prayed for him had also been shot in such an invasion. These people know suffering for the Lord in a way that I do not. Yet I will speak on suffering for the Lord in a talk from Jer 20 on Friday.

I think there’s about 200 all-up at this conference. For many, it’s the annual spiritual tonic much as Spurgeon Sabbatical at Gordon-Conwell has been for me. That motivates me to push myself and prioritise so I feed them from the word as well as I can.

Meanwhile at home: Glenda dealt with the movers who came to take our goods for shipping to Sydney and then started the clean up. Her heroism is quiet and supportive.

Thurs 6 Jan
Second talk, making two back to back evening / morning. The pace now steadies to one a day, leaving plenty of time for one on one talks plus some of my own projects. Its dry season here which means dryness and lots of airborne dust. That’s irritating my sinus as well as leaving my tropics-adapted skin needing plenty of moisturizer.

Fri 7 January 2011
People tell me that I’m being useful in the talks. One evidence of that to me is that good one on one conversations are opening up on issues arising. I guess this is so, but I’m also conscious of the privilege of being here and listening to these people.

There are so many rich stories of grace in people’s lives and being worked through them. Eg: at testimony time last night ‘Ray’ spoke of an early life of abandonment and crime being now turned into usefulness for the Lord in prison ministry in Nigeria. And heroism ... eg, any number of these folk staying here despite being victims of home invasions, robbery and shootings. Eg, an 80 year old man still serving on the mission field even after his wife died some years back.

I spoke on suffering today from Jeremiah 20. But these people are the ones who speak from experience, not boastfully but just with a sense of this is what happens and this is how God stood with them through it. I guess that my role is to help give a Biblical framework in which to understand and especially to cope with their sufferings.

I’m glad I came and consider that I gain more than I give.

Sat 8 January 2011

A cold wind blowing dust off the Sahara desert at night means an early evening retreat from outdoor activities for me and delaying my morning emergence.

Fourth talk today, from Jer 52 and tracing the theme of confidence in God’s word. After morning tea I attended a general briefing and discussion on security issues. There are real and rising concerns and I especially feel for the young families and single women.

I also wandered through the graveyard attached to the conference centre. The silent wander between rows of graves from new borns and infants makes me appreciate the cost that some pay to fulfil their calling. Likewise with the graves of adults in their 30s and 40s. Jesus warned about taking up our cross to follow him and I guess this is the other side of it. How many of us waste our lives in temporal trivialities when the eternal cause awaits our best years and energies?

Sun 9 Jan

Final talk linking Jer 31 to the new covenant in Heb 8 etc. The Korean pastor who conducted the communion made a nice link from the sermon to the sacrament. Farewells etc and was touched by a number who came and spoke of my material being Biblical, relevant, within grasp and useful. Slow trip to Abujah by road (2-7pm) due to an enforced doubling back. Several road blocks along the way slowed things even more and a there was a soldier’s gun near my face a few times over. Spent the night in a church guest house with no dinner available. Glad to be still and have an early sleep before the flights up to London and down to Singapore. Thus end my first mission trip for 2011 and thus also ends my last preaching until late July.

Heard that ten people were killed yesterday in violence near the area where I was staying. A grim reminder of the daily realities for those who stay behind.

Christless Christmas and Christless marriage

Christian groups typically invest much effort trying to keep Christ in Christmas or to put him back there.

This is in view of the relentless squeeze from secularism on one side and commercialism on the other.

Why bother?

Why don’t we just walk away from the public festival and leave it to its pagan roots as a solstice festival? (Think Constantine and his reasons for dating the Christmas celebration as he did.)

We can then have a distinctly Christian festival to mark Jesus’ birth, if we so choose, at a time of our choosing.

Let the unbelievers have their ‘Xmas’ and debauch it as they will!

Can this principle be extended to marriage?

In several western countries the fundamental Christian character of marriage is being undermined by easy divorce on the one hand and permission of homosexual marriage on the other hand. Thus Christians may find themselves hand in hand on the marriage register with persons of multiple marriage partners and with same-sex partners.

Once again, Christian groups invest much energy trying to preserve or restore the basically Christian character of marriage. Is it worth it?

What would happen if Christians simply opted out from the legal marriage system? Why not start a register of Christian marriages which is kept by the churches (as in previous times) and then have Christian couples register a civil union with the government for the sake of orderly property etc matters?

Let the unbelievers have ‘marriage’ and debauch it as they will!

Let Christians be Christians and the world be the world!

The pool of sin

Recently I read Cornelius Plantinga’s well-written chapter on the fall into sin (in ‘Engaging God’s World’).

He is vivid in tracing the dynamic destructiveness and infectiousness of sin.

It was an odd sensation as I read. I was sitting by a hotel swimming pool in the early morning by myself. The water was clear and just right for a swim. The gardens were lush green and well kept. The solitude prompted deep and welcome thoughts. Good friends would soon join me and we would go together for a choice breakfast buffet before returning to the pool.

In short, themes of God’s good creation abounded.

It was hard to square all that with the dark chapter on sin.

Or was it?

I felt compelled to bring my key valuables pool-side rather than leave them in the room unattended. I was careful not to display them to anyone but kept them covered at the pool. And then at breakfast, one of my companions was concerned lest a possession of little value was taken and thus kept it in view.

And thus the fall was in evidence.

The musical mite

The other afternoon I passed by a room where a group of older saints were singing hymns.

The pianist was struggling with the tune. The saints were not many and their voices struggled and quavered. Technically, they were far below our church’s regular music ministry.

But I know those people.

They are the people of God. They sang the songs of the saints from the hearts of saints. Theirs was a musical mite, but it was the widow’s might for they gave all they had.

Survivors and heroes

One axis for leadership is the scale of survivor / hero.

The survivor adapts, lives to make another contribution on another day and will tend to achieve change over a longer time frame in an incremental manner.

The hero crashes through or crashes out. This leader can be divisive and a wrecker, or can be the one who lifts a group of people into a new era and new realities in a short time frame.

Both kinds of leader are needed in their time and place.

The survivor is probably the more common style and the one that is needed in most settings at most times. This kind of leader is the salt of the earth.

The hero is more likely to be useful at a time of crisis or a time when significant change is needed quickly.

The extremes of either style can be dangerous.

A typical leader will be on a continuum between the extreme form of each type and may swap between them depending on circumstances. That being said, an individual leader will tend to display a leaning for one style of the other and hence the idea of 'preferred style'..

A wise leader will:
(a) Know their preferred style
(b) Not glorify their preferred style and denigrate the other
(c) Correct the imbalance in their preferred style
(d) Choose wisely what style and balance of styles is needed in this and that moment
(e) Be able to move between styles and be skilful in both
(f) Be true to themselves as they do all this.

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010


As I write this it is two months to Christmas 2010.

Christmas is usually a difficult time for me and I expect this year to be worse than usual.

Here’s why:

1. Christmas is a time of heavier work load in pastoral ministry, yet much of it seems very light and without effect.

2. It’s usually a time of family separation for me rather than family reunion.

3. My mother died on December 13 and my father on December 30. It’s thus a season of lingering grief.

4. This years Christmas carols are the funeral songs for my ministry and time in Singapore which ends soon after.


All that being said, it is the season to remember that the word became flesh and that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners such as I. That gives a quiet and deep significance which fights against the difficulties.

The Waiting of Prayer

Prayer is waiting on God with our heartfelt desires.

But prayer has another waiting. It is to use our waiting moments to pray.

Consider how often we wait in life (go on, track your day). Waiting for a bus or train. Waiting in a queue. Waiting for people.

Waiting moments are often wasted moments. We sink into a semi-comatose state of mental nothingness. Or worse, waiting moments become frustration moments. Our patience is tested, blood pressure arises and we became angry at that or those who make us wait.

Why not cultivate the habit of making waiting moments praying moments?

Carry a prayer list on a notepad, electronic gadget or in your head. When its clear that this is a waiting moment, make it a praying moment.

Consider the outcomes: time well-used rather than wasted; praying ministry conducted; frustration avoided.