Thinking Aloud

Pastor Shih Ming said something pretty significant this morning during Good Friday service.

"…if we can trust Him with our eternity, why can’t we trust Him for our daily needs…" or something to that effect. I can’t remember the exact wording.

It was really a timely word from the Lord, I think. All this while, I have been running on my own steam. Thinking about what I will do after I graduate, how much I will earn after I graduate. Will I be making a living out of the skills that I have or not. Who I will marry in the end…loads and loads of things to worry about. And the net result…more worries.

I haven’t been trusting.

But what stuck me even more was that it is possible that I don’t trust Him because I don’t really know what it really means to trust Him for my eternity.

I guess it is the issue of eternity. Do I really care about eternity? Do I really believe that heaven makes a difference on earth today, as I live out my life daily?

Tough questions to ponder over the weekend.  

Here’s an interesting link. How do you feel about Christmas?

Anyway, this is how I feel.

  and

He who died on the tree has comforts me,

He who rules above has not forgotten me,

He who counsels me in quiet moments refreshens me.

He who walked on the dusty road guides me,

He who walkes the Milky Way charts a path for me,

He leads me to quiet pastures shows the way.  

He who breathes life in all man, gives me my daily bread,

He who ate and drank with all man shares with me his table,

He who is the breath of life is my daily portion.

He is, he was and will always be.

Not I, but You Lord.  

Haha, I finally got down to reading Dan Brown’s controversial piece. Apparently its the second in book where Robert Langdon is featured as the protagonist (The first is Angels and Demons).

I can see where the controversy comes from. But the most crucial of the claims in the novel-the parts which cannot be reduced to a mere fictional device-is the fact was Jesus was merely a man.

In a sense this claim is nothing new. Philosophers and contrarian theologians have been claiming that Jesus wan not divine ever since. It’s also the central premise in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Material’s trilogy. God is not divine, just a glorified angel.

Another contentious point is the nature of faith. Brown’s definition of faith is what we are all familiar with-a neccessary lie that makes the world a better place to live in.

Anyway, just for the record, like Pullman’s opus, I liked the book as an example of good storytelling. I sort of anticipated the ending (there’s a plot twist which I won’t spoil for anyone). But the ending satisfying nonetheless. Suffices to say, I don’t think Brown was attacking the church cos in the story, the ultimate bad guy wasn’t even the church (or in particular the Catholic Church).

‘Nuff said, if you are on the look for a murder mystery with a garnishing of an ironic plot twist, here’s a good one for you.

Haven’t been posting anything substantial here lately. Actually a lot has been happening. Just that I don’t feel like putting it down. Exams are round the corner and I just finished some heavy stuff on homology. Don’t feel like studying later tonight.

This morning saw me meditating on love. How sacrifice is a defining quality of love. What drove me to that strain of thought was the cross-Christ would choose to take our sin upon himself, even when we didn’t ask for it.

This struck me as mind blowing. Being brought up in a Chinese culture, the idea of unmerited love is hard to swallow. Human love, is given subject to terms and conditions. And this is so pervasive in my culture. We could only have a glimpse of what true love ought to be.

But with Christ and the cross, we see true sacrificial love in blood and flesh, in its tears and anguish. That this love is lavished upon us even when we didn’t deserve it tells me that there is another way. It is possible to love even the unlovable. And it is the only way to love, to be truly human.

Just the thoughts that could feed the hungry soul.