Above all else

I'm sure we all have long-time acquaintances whom we've known for years and years, but don't really know , because we only speak to them once every 5 years, usually about the weather!  On the other hand, we probably also have friends who, within weeks or months become true friends because we're able to "click" and share our thoughts on things that really matter.  It's the same with God. This truth was demonstrated ever more clearly to me during this last mission trip.  On the trip with me were my brother-in-Christ A and his family, and my church leader SK and his wife.  Brother A has been a Christian for about a year.  My leader SK has been a Christian for about 10 years I think.  By my own counting, I have been a Christian the longest - about 18 years i.e. the day I realized Christianity meant more than turning up in church occasionally! It was a humbling experience to see how my brother A stepped up - first of all, to open his eyes to see the...

How old were your kids when you brought them on their first great adventure?  I remember stories from my Dad about his life as a kid - he's something like the 13th child in the family or thereabouts (who's counting eh?) and the stories were about rowing sampans out to fish, shooting flying lizards with catapults and "borrowing" a neighbour's sugarcane.  I recall the sampan story in particular, where my Dad used to take himself out to sea all by himself, at the age of 6!  Today, it seems to me that many of us don't even consider bringing our children out anywhere till we think they're good and ready! Perhaps being inspired by my Dad, I brought my kids on our first mission trip in 2005 when they were 1 and 3 years old respectively.  Admittedly, this was a city-based mission to Tokyo, because yes, I was afraid a "rougher" trip would be too much for the kids.  But I still remember it being cold in that Japanese dormitory, and having to bathe pr...

A friend of mine shared a video clip by Dr Billy Graham, and I was just bowled over.  The message was clearly and sincerely communicated, but I'd heard these truths before.  What really got me was the footage of Dr Graham in his younger days, clearly full of energy, and expending that energy to share the Good News, and Dr Graham now, clearly much older (he's 95) and still giving everything he's got so that just one more person will know God's love.  I'm sure he's made mistakes before (who lives to 95 without making mistakes?!) but this is a man who has decided I will pour out every drop of me for God, until there is no more.  It really made my eyes tear up.  And it brought to mind a whole bunch of running analogies that the apostle Paul used. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to ge...

(1) Pre-op ankle marker; (2) just after waking up from the op; (3) fresh cast; (4) cast after one week; (5) transiting to ankle brace; (6) back to running! The Sovereign Lord is my strength He makes my feet like the feet of the deer He enables me to tread on the heights Habakkuk 3:19

Ever since my ankle got strong enough to run again, I try to squeeze in a run after I drop my kids off at school.  A couple of days ago, I felt a bit under the weather, but thought I would run off the weird feeling.  I mentioned it to my kids as I dropped them off, and my daughter told me not to be silly and go home to rest.  I thought this was sensible, so I took her advice and headed home.  By the time I got home, my head was really spinning and I just crashed into bed.  The bedroom was rocking like a sampan, and every little movement of my head felt like a pirouette!  I messaged my church friends to pray for me, and thankfully, the spinning slowed down after a couple of hours.  By the afternoon, I was still feeling ginger and somewhat light headed, but the worst had passed.  Thank you friends for praying, and thank you God for making me well! Whether it was vertigo, an ear infection or just plain exhaustion I don't know, but for a ...

Today's sermon was on the five loaves and two fishes, and I was reminded of this song by Corrinne May.  One of my favourite songs!

It's the politically correct thing these days to embrace plurality and tolerance.  Let's be clear.  In general, this is a good thing.  But the trouble is that we mix up tolerance with fuzzy thinking. Let's suppose you have a friend who likes to drink wine.  You have a view that drinking too much alcohol is bad for your health.  On the contrary, your friend thinks that drinking wine actually has certain medicinal benefits.  We embrace plurality and tolerance in that we don't condemn the teetotaler or the wine lover.  This seems to make sense. But, whatever we happen to think about a particular matter, there still remains a particular truth.  On balance, is drinking wine good or bad for you?  We may not know the answer, and may not have the means to find out conclusively, but ultimately, there is a truth out there as to whether drinking wine is, on the whole, good or bad for you. Let's adjust the scenario a bit to test this.  Sup...

Over the last few months, I've been at a fair few dinners where the topic runs into pretty interesting, sometimes controversial topics.  This can include tithing (a term which refers to the voluntary discipline of regularly giving to the church, usually 10% or more of one's income) and the propensity of some churches to overemphasise the causal link between tithing and material prosperity, the church's stand on lesbian/gay/bisexual/transsexual (LGBT) issues, and recently, even the existence of ghosts and demons! At each one of these dinners, I've found my non-Christian friends and colleagues to be generally forthright in their views.  In contrast, I find that Christians tend to be extremely reserved about their faith, and sometimes even in casual agreement with the non-Christian viewpoint.  In fact, it can be difficult to tell if they are Christian.  This is especially when the conversation starts to take on a not-so-gentle mocking of Christian beliefs....

I came home from work the other day and my wife asked me if I'd had a good day.  The day had just been another of those run-around-all-day types, with the usual problems and little frictions that are part of any workday.  So my instinctive reaction to the question was simply to heave a little sigh of relief to be home, explain that it was just another day, and that nothing particularly good happened.  My good wife's immediate response to that was to gently remind me that we have such blessed lives, practically any day in which nothing bad happens can pretty much be counted as an amazing day!  She's right of course.  We live in a country that's safe for our friends and family.  We have jobs, a home, a happy family.  We have a wonderful church family, and even have the means and opportunity to bless others. I remember that when I was growing up, I lived in a four-room flat with my parents, my brother, my grandmother, two aunties, one uncle and hi...

I was feeling down about my ankle a few weeks ago, since it hadn't been getting better for quite a while.  I felt especially grumpy about it when we went to HK for a short trip, and my ankle got sore just from a little walking around Ocean Park etc.  On top of my well-worn ankle, when I go away on holiday, my quiet time and prayer life tends to fray as well, because the usual routine gets messed up.  So overall, my mood wasn't the best. Nevertheless, when we stumble, one of the most important things is to dust yourself off and get going again as soon as possible, before the inertia sets in any deeper.  So I did try to get back to my quiet time - but I kept getting derailed by the hundreds of backlogged work mails!  And my ankle was still bothering me.  So suffice to say, my mood wasn't the best. Then one Sunday at church, during worship, I got a strong impression that God was telling me that my ankle was symptomatic of my life.  He told me t...

I was waiting for the lift at my place the other day, and I saw a spider stalking a flying ant.  It was quite fascinating watching the deadly drama play out.  The spider crept up to the flying ant in short little bursts, until it got close enough to strike.  Then with a blinding leap it attempted to capture the ant.  However, the flying ant showed astonishing dexterity by taking off and evading the spider, landing a few inches away.  But the spider was undeterred and crept up on the ant again.  Again and again, the flying ant would evade the spider's lunge, landing a few inches away.  I missed the lift, as you can imagine. Isn't this peculiar?  Why doesn't the flying ant simply fly away?  Why stay within striking distance of the spider?  The law of averages demands that sooner or later, the spider is going to get him.  Seems to me that the flying ant is either terminally stupid or terminally lazy, in not flying away ...

In a conversation with some good friends recently, we happened to talk about what we were doing about our lives at work and at home.  One argument was that it is not the destination or even the result, but the journey that matters.  However, it was also pointed out that the objective of any journey is to travel from point A to point B.  Therefore we need to be clear about the result we are aiming for, in order to get there.  Destination, or result, is therefore essential. Those who know me well know that I am not the most avid conversationalist.  If possible, I like to keep my own thoughts and let them stir in my mind for a while, before deciding what I really think about a particular issue.  So here, after a couple of days, are my thoughts (finally) on the matter. Everyone of us is on a journey.  And it's true that the objective of any journey is to go someplace where we're not.  That's important.  Having said that, it doesn't mea...