wordknights

In the weeks running up to Easter as always, the shops all over and especially the shelves at the dollar stores display an overwhelming assortment of candy treats taking the form of eggs and bunnies. Lightly dismissing all this as an ancient folk tradition, I simply rationalised that eggs symbolised new birth and thus, the Christian salvation message of “new life ” and promise of resurrection. In my youth and busy adult life, I had more interesting things to occupy my mind than research on the subject so I left it at that. It’s only now, with the easy access to instant information at my fingertips and having more time at leisure, I came out of the dollar store and found myself puzzling “Why the bunny? Do rabbits lay eggs? I think not. Then why ?

Of course I immediately googled it. Found a plethora of stories and articles as expected. I gathered a wide consensus favored retellings of this story origin about the Easter rabbit symbol you can read more about at https://History.com

“According to some sources, the Easter bunny first arrived in America in the 1700s with German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania and transported their tradition of an egg-laying hare called “Osterhase” or “Oschter Haws.” Their children made nests in which this creature could lay its colored eggs.”

Interesting how much the human race have this craving to create visual symbols and artifacts !

SAVED BY THE CROSS
Blow after blow
Heavy hammers slammed
Driving in rusty nails
Nailing flesh to wood
Not wood to wood
His mother, brothers and disciples stood
Sobbing…wondering “Why?”
Why blameless he was condemned to die!

The triumph of Palm Sunday so soon gone
On his head a crown of twisted thorn
The soldiers pierced him with their spears,
They flogged him and mocked
The crowd flung stones and rocks
He endured a torturous painful death
For us mortals that we may learn
Of God’s love and promise of life eternal

For us who believe in the risen Christ
Who believe in the power of the Cross
Christ’s shed blood is God’s amazing love
On the Cross Christ paid the ransom for us all fallen
As he breathed his last with these words
Addresed to his Father, our Almighty God
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Verses penned by Nellie Har

The two words “listen” and “hear” in common English usage have been accepted unquestionably as a pair of synonyms. I’ve sometimes used them interchangeably. It was not until in recent times that I noticed the subtle difference. Examining the words closely appearing in separate contexts, I made some interesting observations which led me to conclude yes, ” hear” and “listen” are synonyms; on the surface the words appear to be the same. But, on a deeper level, there can be different inferences. Therefore, in my opinion, the two are NOT totally synonymous. This I invite you to discover for yourself through attempting the following exercise:

Step One: Spend the next 7 minutes imagining different scenarios when you find yourself using either one or both these words : “listen” and “hear”.

Step Two: Reflect and ponder over these situations in your mind and consider which word you feel carried a deeper meaning for you. On your scale of 1 to 10 what is your rating for “listen” and for “hear”?

My own evaluation after the first attempt at this exercise awarded higher rating to “HEAR” with LISTEN slightly lower. I felt that “hear” usually involves more than mere listening. For instance, we love “listening” to our favorite music channels. Contrast this with at church we “hear” a sermon or preacher share spiritual insights. Also I recall when we ask the question: “Do you hear me?” we actually mean: “Do you understand ? Do you get it?” Thus I observed “hear” is listening to draw meaning or understanding.

Another pertinent observation I have is this. “Listen” is a voluntary or self-directed action. I can choose to listen to my favorite music and choose when to listen.

But with”Hear” it’s all different. Our ears are naturally tuned to pick up soundwaves within hearing distance – so unless I’m hearing impaired, I can’t avoid hearing and I can’t choose when nor what I’m about to hear.

These were my reasons which I’m aware are entirely subjective. If you are more inclined the other way, there are very good reasons to favor “listen” too. Because listening is more deliberate involving focus and concentration, it’s reasonable to expect the attentive listener is able to retain content better than the hearer. Don’t we all know of one who hears but soon forgets what was said!

Well, there are no right or wrong or better answer with this exercise which makes it more interesting. The main object is show why listen and hear are not exactly the same. And it puts your intellect and reasoning power to work in a fun way.

You may also like to know this:

“Hear/heard” appears 1700 times in the Bible and “listen” 412 times.

I have selected the following two verses to explore:

Matthew 7:26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a man who builds his house on sand.”

Genesis 3::17 Because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit from the tree I commanded not to touch….cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.”

Welcome receiving viewers’ and blogger’ insights and comments online here on this blog.

The results of this experiment may surprise us. In a revealing experiment by psychologist Elizabeth Dunn, at the University of British Columbia, participants received a sum of money and half of the participants were instructed to spend the money on themselves while the other half was told to spend the money on others. The study published in the academic journal Science shows participants who had spent money on others felt significantly happier than those who had spent money on themselves.

Furthermore, Lara Aknin and colleagues at the University of British Columbia shows that even children as young as two, experienced more happiness giving treats to others than receiving treats themselves!

I bet many of you are surprised. I guess we’re naturally fond of making our children happy by giving them treats and never tried the other way round. I recommend you test this research out. Start teaching your children to give treats to others and watch if this is true.

You can view Elizabeth Dunn’s video on this topic and others on Utube. On this topic view http://www.thelavinagency.com/speaker-drelizabeth-dunn.html

The researchers established that giving makes us happier than receiving is true across the world, regardless of whether countries are rich or poor. This made me think “No wonder many cultures have gift traditions like the Chinese give at lunar new year the “hong bao” ( red packets containing money for gifts) while throughout the world we have the practice of Christmas giving and New Year gifts, Birthday gifts, Wedding gifts, Valentine gifts and gifts for every celebratory occasion you can think of. The retail business has profited from this of course but they’ve succeeded only because as research now proves, human beings instinctively derive happiness from the act of giving.

But wait, didn’t the Bible teach this same truth. The Bible says: “T’is more blessed to give than to receive.” It is interesting to note that in addition to these science experiments proving that it is more blessed to give than to receive, an extensive body of research by social scientists and psychologists are now providing a huge body of evidence that support many fundamental truths expounded in the Bible. All you have to do is read any of the journals featuring studies and findings of our social psychologists to confirm this.

Notice that in our top universities we have a bunch of passionate intellectuals researching and studying unceasingly and they all somehow agree that Compassion, Unconditional Love and Forgiveness have ensured the survival of the human race.

They even admit that human suffering isn’t entirely negative though unpleasant. I quote below from an article published by Emma Seppala from the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford Medical School, also a blogger for “Psychology Today”.  She writes:

“Decades of clinical research has focused and shed light on the psychology of human suffering. That suffering, as unpleasant as it is, often also has a bright side to which research has paid less attention: compassion. Human suffering is often accompanied by beautiful acts of compassion by others wishing to help relieve it…….. What propels someone to serve food at a homeless shelter, pull over on the highway in the rain to help someone with a broken down vehicle, or feed a stray cat?”

Many of these researchers have discovered that both animals and human beings have what researcher Dacher Keltner at the University of California, Berkeley, termed a “compassionate instinct.” Researcher Jean Decety, at the University of Chicago, showed that even rats are driven to empathize with another suffering rat and to go out of their way to help it out of its quandary. Studies with chimpanzees and human infants also back up these claims. Similarly Michael Tomasello and other scientists at the Max Planck Institute, in Germany, have found that infants and chimpanzees spontaneously engage in helpful behavior and will even overcome obstacles to do so.

Research by David Rand at Harvard University shows that adults’ and children’s first impulse is to help others. Research by Dale Miller at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business suggests that this is also the case of adults, however, worrying that others will think they are acting out of self-interest can stop them from this impulse to help.

Appears to me that from psychological science, we have now a body of evidence revealing that the biblical imprint of God, as in his Goodness, Compassion, Love, Forgiveness is deeply embedded in the living beings he created. I wonder what atheists who believe in reason and science, and dismiss religion as ignorance, will say to this.

This is my food for thought sharing with you as we approach Holy Weekend,
Good Friday and Easter 2015.

Early this week an article in New York Times dated March 23 wrote about the New Atheists and it elicited an outpouring of over 1,330 readers’ comments in the space of less than three days. The comments were diverse, representing both opposing camps. But to me, one gratifying evidence emerging from this discussion is that it proves the interest in God is still very much alive today. As I read with interest, not all the 1330 comments but over half of those at least, a pattern slowly emerged which showed where the knots got tangled and why atheists reject God’s existence. Moreover I realize unless one can untie those knots, it will be nigh impossible to budge in one’sbelief that God does NOT exist.

The First Knot :  Confusing God with Religion.

I deeply sympathise with persons who turned from believing in God after they have either encountered or even actually suffered hurt inflicted by certain religion’s  doctrines or corrupt malpractices. This is so sad, I mean, so sad to lose one’s  relationship with God because of damaging experience with religion. The Bible clearly shows that Judaism is the religion of the Jews and yet it is not totally in line with the intent and spirit of God as manifest in the words of Jesus. Therefore let us not reject God because of our disillusionment with religion.

Second Knot : Demanding Physical Evidence as proof of existence of God

Putting too much weight and your entire trust on physical evidence and scientific proof for everything ( including demanding this to prove the existence of God) is the other grave pitfall of the human race.  But please don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the great discoveries and progress that science has made to improve every area of our lives and no doubt will continue to advance. I’m saying not to place your entire trust on scientific, or even physical evidence based on your five senses, and believe that is  ultimate and infallible. As one of the comments to the New York Times article said:  “….  but as a scientist I often see experts and incredibly intelligent people become utterly convinced about things that turn out to be completely wrong. “

I’m certain you and I  know of at least a number of examples where scientific and medical evidence that have been hailed as “scientific facts” but in years later, were completely overturned by further research and scientific tests ? So if science and physical evidence is not infallible even in dealing with subjects within its own area of expertise, why would I insist on it to prove the existence of God which is something far beyond our physical realm or human comprehension?

If your personality is that of a doubting Thomas and you can’t make yourself believe in anything unless there’s “proof” of some kind, then let me suggest, look for evidence of God’s existence among the flesh-and-blood living creatures, big and small, all around you if you care to give them attention and ponder upon their lives. Watch the seasonal migration of the birds and their return without fail yearly… observe the squirrels storing up food for winter…

Are these tiny living creatures simply scattered pieces of the evolutionary Big Bang picture or is there more than what meets our eyes ? As you watch these beautiful videos and images provided in these two links, please contemplate on the mystery of creation and life.

http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/what-do-animals-squirrel-away-for-winter/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012582/Birds-feather-flocking-Awesome-migration-pictures-captured-1-000ft-up.html

And of course, read and ponder over the lives and writings of some of history’s brilliant and prominent men and women who had unwavering trust in God : Corrie ten Boom, Martin Luther King, Jr, Mother Theresa, Lin Yutang, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Francis Schaeffer, Joni Eareckson Tada and others notable for their unwavering faith in the God of Creation.

Again I recall yet another comment posted by a reader in response to the writer Michael Ruse in that New York Times article. The reader commented thus:

Ruse writes: “In parts of the world where people are allowed and encouraged to take these things seriously and to think them through, people increasingly find that they can do without the God factor.”

Yet he provides no support strikes me as an argument from ignorance. In fact, there are many people who are very well educated, have thoughtfully considered the arguments on both sides of the God argument, and have been persuaded that it is reasonable to believe God exists.

Link to the NYtimes article: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/23/why-god-is-a-moral-issue/?_r=0#commentsContainer

It’s also worth noting that historically there have been many well-known scientists and mathematicians among Christians such as Isaac Newton, Sir Francis Bacon, Michael Faraday, Pascal, Descartes and others.

Most interesting note even scientist Albert Einstein whom the atheists of the world love to claim as belonging to their camp while ignoring the fact that Einstein had angrily rejected their claim. Look here what Einstein himself wrote:

“In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what really makes me angry is that they quote me for the support of such views… I’m not an atheist and I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangements of the books, but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.”

Hence, Einstein was NOT an atheist as shown above – he had complained he was angry that the atheists had been including him in their camp.  Note in an interview by the Saturday Evening Post in 1929, Einstein was asked what he thought of Christianity. Here are some Q and A from the interview with answers by Einstein:

Q. “To what extent are you influenced by Christianity?”
A. “As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.”
Q.”Have you read Emil Ludwig’s book on Jesus?”
A.”Emil Ludwig’s Jesus is shallow. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrasemongers, however artful.”
Q.”You accept the historical existence of Jesus?”
A.”Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”

So, although Einstein was not a Christian, he did have great respect for Jesus, and recognized that Jesus was an amazing figure in history.

 Reference source : http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/sciencefaith.html

Then see this information on Wikipedia.org about Nobel Prize-winners  :

” According to 100 Years of Nobel Prizes a review of Nobel prizes award between 1901 and 2000 reveals that (65.4%) of Nobel Prizes Laureates, have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference. Overall, Christians have won a total of 78.3% of all the Nobel Prizes in Peace, 72.5% in Chemistry, 65.3% in Physics, 62% in Medicine, 54% in Economics and 49.5% of all Literature awards.

The Third Knot :  Our Ego and Pride

Remember in the NY Times article Ruse wrote : “increasingly people are finding that they can do without the God factor.”  Don’t we detect the “pride factor” here in this statement? Yes, indeed Pride says you can do without God. Pride is definitely the biggest hurdle and enemy of the human race on the road to our making Peace with God. Why? Because the winning card to finding God is Humility and Pride is the direct adversary of humility. In order to hope to arrive at some form of conviction of God we must first be willing to humble ourselves. Even the brilliant Einstein in the above quote actually said these words : “I, with my limited human mind”.  Imagine the great scientist Einstein saying this! I find this very touching coming from Einstein. I’m sure you do too ?

So God is not to be found with our puny human minds as even Einstein admits. Anyone who has strong conviction that God exists will tell you that God can only be found by those who humble themselves and sincerely seek him. And certainly there are many Bible verses in addition to this one that categorically confirms this indispensable spiritual truth :

“… for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. –  Hebrews 11:6

The Fourth Knot : The stubborn knot I call this.

This knot sets out to trap many kind-hearted souls who unfortunately have no Biblical knowledge or understanding of God, so they rationalise and question : Well, I can’t believe God exists because if God is supposed to be both all loving and all powerful, why does he/or she allow evil and human suffering to plague our world? 

I bet you’ve heard this question uttered often in frustration and innocence. The best advice I can give to anyone who questions God’s existence this way -( simply on account of the existence of evil or suffering in the world)  is this:

Don’t stubbornly resist but please attempt to learn to study the Bible with the help of a qualified Bible teacher because the satsifactory answer to your big question can be found there. For the moment, you can take a look  a previous blogpost I  shared which dealt with issues relating to your big question. To open the blog, simply click on:

Earth Quakes and Mountains Move the Spirit Within

Posted on September 5, 2011

Doubt or confusion over values and standards is likely to escalate in a world connected by social media in addition to traditional media, delivering in realtime continuous reports of terrorist attacks, senseless killings, vice, human trafficking, child prostitution and a host of other hideous criminal acts committed all over this world. Above all, when I receive news of the number of human lives lost in fatal disease, epidemics, travel disasters as in another plane crash, another ship lost at sea, my heart dips and sadness seeps into me. Deluged by all this tragic news, at times I do find it takes an effort honestly to join in church congregational proclamation that “God is good!”

Frankly I feel a painful awareness that there are no easy answers nor can I calm the turmoil in my own mind and emotions when I’m so challenged. I’ve come to realize that having a theologically trained and sound mind and theological reasons aren’t quite adequate in many situations. Even after wrestling with the truths of scripture and thank God, emerged affirming rather than abandoning my faith, I still don’t have answers to many paradoxes and perplexes that beset our human existence.

Whenever faced with such a dilemma, this soul-searching question somehow will surface in my mind: Are some Christians too spiritual to do any earthly good? For the past months, it has been my earnest prayer “God please forbid this to happen to your people.” However I regret I do observe there is more than a grain of truth in the criticism that some Christians appear to grow too spiritual to be of any earthly good. So what can a well-intentioned Christian do to avoid this pitfall ?

Ebola victims lying on the road waiting for medics.

Allow me to share some bits of advice which worked for me during the past year 2014 when I faced some challenges in my faith convictions. First the “Don’t”s – then the “Do”s :

Keep reminding yourself DON’T be overly troubled with confusion and doubts in your own mind or shared by others with you. I’m not saying not to be concerned but being concerned and being troubled are two entirely different things. Being troubled over something is not going to help solve anything.

Doubt and confusion swirls much like a whirlpool galaxy !

DON’T get too involved in controversy and lengthy debates that only contribute to increase doubts and undermine your faith. Because the more we struggle the more we will doubt and the deeper our confusion.

Genuine concern should be acted out in positive works.  If we’re truly concerned,  we must DO something positive about it. No way we can solve most of the problems of this world but certainly there are many ways we can make a difference when we begin to do something to help lighten another’s burden, brighten the path going forward, offer some comfort for the pain and hurts in this world. Last year our church in Canada actively contributed towards support of Sudanese victims during the Ebola crisis.

DO admit there exists doubt and confusion. And acknowledge the fact that we don’t have all the answers. I know this is not easy for when we face doubt, it nags and gnaws in our minds until we resort to our human response which is to suppress – we tell ourselves to stop thinking about it.

We seek to escape when we should engage.

And we do the same with our emotions : we repress our emotions, bury them or seek to escape by engaging in activities or visiting places which we think is fun. But does that really remove the nagging doubts from our minds? Not at all. All we did was to push it to some far corner of our minds or down  into our subconscious recesses from where it will certainly resurface again.

What strikes me most is there are numerous Christians who actually employ their religious faith as their  escape route. These are the ones who keep telling us :“ Leave your doubts and troubles behind – and just praise God. Hallelujah! All your problems will go away, Amen !”

Amen?

Amen? I say no way! I believe that unless and until we arrive at the point of admitting that we don’t have the answers,  those nagging feelings of doubt and confusion would continue to plague our minds. In extreme cases, these doubts and fears could throw you down into the pit of despair and you’ll land in depression or worse still, lose your sanity.

Why do we find it so difficult to admit we harbor doubts and are confused sometimes over some things? Why is it so difficult to admit we don’t have all the answers to fix our own lives?

I suggest it is because it goes against our human ego, our human pride. We all need a huge extra dose of humility to admit that we don’t have the answers to solve the problems we face on earth.  We like to feel we are in control and can find the answers if we try hard enough. But really, we don’t and we can’t.

It is most appropriate during this time of the year when churches all over the world are observing the season of Lent in preparation for Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter that we be reminded of our limitations and pray for humility to acknowledge that. Personally I endorse there are two basic truths as a Christian I have to live out:

1) DO my best to demonstrate love, strive to love even my detractors, although that’s humanly quite impossible, yet believe with God’s help, one day I can love and forgive those who have hurt and wronged me. I cannot do this in my own strength, so God help me.  I know he will because my God is loving and forgiving to the point of sacrificing his life on the Cross.

2) Admit that everyone ( Christians included ) don’t have all the answers. The chief difference is that being a Christian, I commit myself to my faith that God is good despite what I see through the lens of my own micro-view of the universe and creation because no matter what happens, I believe Romans 8:28 will work out in eternity:  

As for the presence of evil in this world and all our troubles, well, the fact is God never promised our earthly journey was going to be carefree and trouble free. Rather the Bible establishes the contrary. Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed, I invite you to like this on Facebook and enter your comments in the space provided below.

Another World Cup season ended Sunday this week. As delirious joy and bubbling beer guzzled down millions of elated German soccer team fans no doubt and their beer mugs runneth over we heard that in Argentina outrage and disappointment spilled into street riots and soccer fans there violently clashed with local police.

Meanwhile Facebook jubilantly reported that the Germany vs Argentina match clinched 281 million interactions making it the most talked-about sports event in the site’s history. And Twitter also announced 618,725 tweets got sent every minute at the end of the match and that’s again a new record for an event.

At the same time as World Cup fans watched intently the action on the soccer field, over in another part of our globe, death toll and fatalities continue from the latest round of fighting in the Gaza. This new round of fighting simply sparked off when members of Hamas in the West Bank murdered three Israeli students there on June 10 which ignited retaliation with some Israeli extremists killing a Palestinian youth and then Hamas and other Gaza groups reacted by launching dozens of rockets into Israel which then responded with more air strikes. But the tragedy is, very sadly the bulk of fatalities, as it invariably happens in all modern warfare, is always the civilian population, the ordinary folks, the children, the disabled persons with less means of escape, the women and the family breadwinners who still need to get on with their jobs.

Today around the globe, violence and fighting is not limited to the Gaza but is a daily affair – just look at your local news. Not a single week ever passes now without reports of shooting, murder, kidnapping, bombing and military clashes.
The very day after the World Cup ended, on Monday evening, a security source alerted the BBC that Libya’s Tripoli International Airport was hit by new rocket attack. 12 planes damaged according to the BBC report. Tripoli international airport is Libya’s main link with the outside world.

Yesterday after the tragic news of the Malaysian Airlines plane disaster broke through I was stunned for a while. Then in the late evening, the idea came to me that I should gather some of the past 5 days world news headlines and piece them together and post them to share with my blog viewers. So here it is.
World News which caught my attention these five days and I wonder if it grabs you too.

• Sunday, 2014 July 13 : World Cup results – Germany’s victory over Argentina

Monday 2014 July 14 :

• Rocket attacks on Tripoli International Airport in Libya

• Women rejoice after Church of England approved consecration of women bishops for the first time in history.

• Another day of defiant weapons test from North Korea. A day after launching two ballistic missiles a base near the border with South Korea, Pyongyang on Monday fired a barrage of artillery shells into waters near its eastern sea border with the South. South Korean officials confirmed nearly 100 missile, rocket and artillery tests by North Korea this year, an output seen as significantly higher than past years.

• Tuesday 2014 July 15 : Children in South Sudan famine suffering mass malnutrition and starvation as international relief aid agencies fall short of fundraising targets.

• Wednesday 2014 July 16: Tunisians shocked after deadliest attack on its armed forces as gunmen with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles raided checkpoints near the Algerian border which resulted in killing 14 soldiers and wounding at least 20 others. Islamist militants including fighters linked to al-Qaeda, are believed to be hiding out in the border region. Tunisia’s security forces are under pressure to secure not only their western border with Algeria but also the eastern border with Libya.

Thursday 2014 July 17 :
• Against the backdrop of rising stock market with the Dow touching new highs in past months, the stock prices of Time Warner, Walt Disney and Viacom were in the limelight featured in today’s business news with all three stocks clocking new all-time highs in early Wednesday trading after Rupert Murdock’s 21st Century Fox confirmed it recently made a $80 billion bid for Time Warner.

• Bolivia about to be the first nation to legalize child labour from age 10. While most countries are striving to reduce child labour, the Congress in Bolivia has approved the proposal to legalize child labour from age 10 and all they require now is their President’s signature.

I wonder why the children are facing starvation in South Sudan while 80 billion US dollars are coughed out for a company takeover which profits only their shareholders? I don’t understand this! Do you?

• Malaysian Airlines MH 17 shot down in Ukraine – 295 people on board as it crashed. A tragic coincidence? Oh, no ! This is the second tragedy in a few months hitting the Malaysian Airlines after that earlier mysterious disappearance of MH 370 which cluelessly vanished over the South China Sea on March 8 this year with 239 people on board.This time, Malaysian Airlines plane MH17 carrying 295 people on board crashed after being shot down by rebels in Ukraine, near the Russian border. There were 280 passengers and 15 crew members. The plane was en route from Amsterdam to Malaysia’s capital city Kuala Lumpur. Ukranian military and pro-Russian rebels have accused each other of shooting down the plane, both sides deny responsibility.

Just imagine that –“both sides deny responsibility”after 295 innocent lives were blown to bits with a shot from their firearm ! Have the ones responsible for the shooting lost their conscience ?

Following that, I was appalled to learn that an upcoming movie“star” and citizen of a first world country mind you, glibly responded to the MH 17 crash on his Twitter page : “Anyone wanna buy my Malaysian Airlines frequent flier”

And guess what? After eliciting a barrage of angry criticism from the online community, he turned around to accuse his critics of being uptight and even remarked that if they didn’t like his remark they needn’t go to his page!

( I don’t need to mention his name – it’s all over the internet. All I wish to add is if this was his idea to attract publicity in an attempt to boost his career, it’s a very bad idea )

And if anyone can’t believe an educated person in a first world country behaving this way, here’s a real one for you! But I’m not too surprised. I’ve observed with dismay and apprehension that increasingly people are growing so egocentric they have lost human sensitivity. I suspect this has in no small way derived from an education and upbringing based on a socio- cultural ethos so greatly elevating individualism and personal freedom and inadequate on community/global responsibility.

Sounds like we live in crazy times but really it has been always a crazy world if you ask me. And in my opinion the best evidence of this is the never-ending Gaza conflict which has been going on all of my entire lifetime – I mean literally, no exaggeration. I recall five decades ago – it was during my elementary schooldays, when the two words “Gaza strip” first fired the curiosity of my young mind. I kept hearing my father talk about the fighting going on there and listening to the radio news repeatedly broadcasting news updates endlessly it seemed.

My father’s occupation as a wireless operator in the newsroom of an international new agency explained the fact that our family never missed any significant world news although we didn’t own a television then – but we had a radio and it was turned on practically all day as far as I remember.

I asked my Dad why these people were fighting and initially he told me it’s complicated and I was too young to understand. Later one day, I asked “What’s this Gaza strip?” And Dad said “It’s a strip of land on the west bank of the Jordan river between Israel and Palestine and both sides are fighting for their rights to own that land.”

Oh, now I see – it’s ownership of land they’re fighting about. It must be a huge piece of territory, I thought to myself. I proceeded to look it up in my atlas which was among my compulsory school text-books. Imagine my surprise and disappointment to discover my atlas showed the Gaza as a tiny strip of land!

Imagine that was half a century ago and fifty years have passed but they’re still fighting over the Gaza strip and I’m fifty years older but still fail to understand why they humanly cannot or rather refuse to resolve this conflict. Naturally I realized as I grew up that the historical and cultural ramifications of that conflict went far beyond that tiny strip of land. It involved dispute over the entire West Bank and even the Holy City Jerusalem which were held sacred to both sides, so that added to the problem among a multitude of other unclear border delineations with both sides staking their claims and counter-claims and fighting and squabbling ever since.

Meanwhile the world watched hoping for the peace settlement but the faint initial glimmer of hope that emerged with the end the Six Days War in June 1967 was soon snuffed out as the ceasefire agreements were shortlived and none of them played out. And so the skirmishes continued till this day – unresolved and the rest of the world by now may already have given up hoping.

Dad said fifty years ago that he thought I was too young to understand. Surely fifty years after, now I shouldn’t be considered too young to understand? However I confess after all my reading and research ( there are volumes of documented information in libraries and online, on Wikipedia and elsewhere for anyone interested to read up) but I believe like me, you’ll surrender in the end and honestly have to admit you still can’t understand – and guess I never will understand this perpetual conflict.

Sure it’s a border conflict and some see it as a religious and cultural conflict. But surely all countries will have border issues and religious and cultural diversity problems which they will have to agree to resolve some way or other and strive to do so as best as they can without shedding blood and losing human lives on either side.Personally I find it hard to call this one a religious conflict since neither side is really fighting to defend their religion but rather I see they’re fighting mainly because (1) Hatred of each other (2) None will give in.

This seems to me not unlike children hitting at each other, ignoring the truth that in every tussle there will end up a winner and a loser ( as in the World Cup) unless of course, both sides agree to stop and let’s shake hands. However with Israel and Palestine, we know all previous attempts at initiating peace talks had failed and after more than five decades, today it seems to many that the hope of peace in the region looks more dubious than ever. It’s a worrisome trend since the thought of one vanquishing the other is not exactly a civilized nor humane solution.

It is also a sober reminder to us who have the privilege and blessing to be able to live and raise our families in relatively peaceful environment that we should never take peace for granted. We must treasure it and actively contribute in whatever way we can to ensure that peace be preserved for our children and the generations going forward.

And if some of you have been noticing I’ve not written on this page for a long while, it’s because I’ve decided a better way to serve this crazy world is not to try to find meaning from what’s happening but instead, to try and create meaning and purpose in my life by living and giving the diminishing time I have remaining in this world to be a helpful and useful person on a daily basis and performing small and simple tasks : Offer a hand, a patient ear, a shoulder, a hug, a cookie, a hot bowl of soup, a warm blanket … a new pair of shoes … or indeed, a little poem, a short story, skit that I’ve written, hopefully to inspire or set someone pondering.

Meanwhile I feel it’s almost a fulltime job which gets tougher day by day simply to uphold my faith, make it unshaken in the midst of many daunting challenges and temptations in this spiritually disconnected world. It is my hope that eventually the world will come to the realization as I’ve come to conclude that it is futile to dream of permanent peace while denying the Prince of Peace his reign.

2013/2014  Winter Inspirations

Winter

People tend to love or hate Winter                                          

One dreams of a winter wonderland

Another conjures a cold barren wasteland

Says the Winter-lover : What a beautiful sight !

Trodden grass snowed sparkling white

Snow-capped slopes shining bright

If you don’t fancy venturing outdoors

Snuggle at home under warm quilts on your bed                                                                 whether you wish to sleep or stay wide awake

between the covers of an interesting book

Winter is the season to stay undercover

Winter is loved for snowflakes

marshmallows, candied apples and fruitcakes

Iced wines, turkeys and minced pies

Mistletoes, kisses and  sparkling eyes

In churches Winter is the season of mirth

Celebrating, rejoicing the Christchild’s  birth

But let not in the midst of merriment  forget

In the world there’s poverty and death

One day surprised was I to espy a church car-park full

Despite it being not a Sunday and some weeks before Christmas

Only to sadly discover in progress a funeral service

In our town’s local newspaper I also read

an old homeless man suffered frostbite and was found dead

No funeral service for the old beggar was held

Not many knew the guy so the paper said

But guess what surprise issued from that news report?

A kind and generous man phoned to donate a coffin

May God Bless this compassionate giver

And grant the departed soul rest in peace forever

This indeed is the Good News and the True Spirit of Christmas!

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Canada and USA are currently experiencing a severe winter reported to be the coldest and worst in thirty years.  A couple of weeks back we hit lows in the region of minus 34  degrees fahrenheit. Thank God it was down to that level only in the early morning hours when most people are privileged and blessed with slumber and as I said staying warm “under-cover”.  This is a reminder to count our blessings and not forget the many homeless and families who have limited means and are struggling to put bread on the table daily  – not to mention having heat and hot-water which we the majority frequently take for granted.

I’ll end this blog with a few short lines that just now popped into my head as I stared out of my window and felt it pretty much sums up my present mood this day and reflects why I’m looking forward very much to fly in a week’s time to warm sunny Singapore to see again friends and family especially this time to hold and hug my new grand-daughter Emily who is just turning “one-month old !” 

Let It Snow?

Snow, snowing

Beautiful soft snow

But hard work shoveling

I see some squirrels scurrying

Fur fluffed white in shiny snow flurry

They put me to shame when I refuse to budge
Just because I’ve to trudge through sludge
or when I just sit and sulk
Lamenting : “Snow, snow !
Everywhere snow
Nowhere to go !”

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The first blush of autumn caught my eye as I spotted a small splash of red in the foliage of the maple tree opposite my window.

First Blush of Autumn in a splash of red on the maple tree

The sight impressed upon me that a whole year had breezed past since I updated this blog. Hard to believe how quickly time has overtaken my days of meandering and that twelve months had flown by. Yet to me it seemed like twelve weeks. “Well if you feel that it’s good”, someone said to me. Why? She said, “Because it just shows the past months had been easy at least for you.”

Mmm…..  I asked myself “Easy?” I wouldn’t say it was easy but certainly there were many happy reasons to rejoice and I can’t stop thanking God. Though not rich in material or financial terms, I’ve been abundantly blessed with what only can come from God and not from this world and that’s why I give Him Thanks and Praise! Naming some of the blessings I’ve received : Family enlarged by God’s Grace, Health, Lasting Friendships, Love and support from church families,  Peaceful Home and brought close to Nature in this beautiful, and free country of Canada, where the national anthem even includes words of a prayer : Quote :   “God keep our land glorious and free!”

I confess while busily discharging my earthly duties, I’ve not done as much as I should to serve God except in small ways like helping to clean our church kitchen  and doing what I can to serve in various church programs including produced a Christmas Play in church and serving in many small ways. Honestly  I’ve not done much for God compared to what God has done for me but one thing I can humbly submit, I would not be counted among what the Book of Proverbs condemned  “sluggards” in PROVERBS 6:6.  “Sluggard” what a strong sounding word of rebuke – alas, hardly heard of these days though! It means “slow and lazy”.

Taking stock of the past year,  far from being a  sluggard, I  daresay I count myself  closer to being the Ant here in the same verse who received praise in the next two verses of Proverbs 6 for acting “wisely  providing her meat in summer and gathering her food in the harvest.” So you know as I said, though I’m not materially rich, I’m not starving but in fact blessed with abundance of fresh food and produce here in Canada.

So what had absorbed my time these past months? I recall  in late summer 2012 , it was house-moving time for me and so when autumn came, I was still frantically unpacking boxes and trying to settle in the new location. In the midst of that, I was asked to contribute a few of my poems for an anthology publication which was then published and released in November. Next with Christmas in view, our Church offered me an opportunity to script and produce a Christmas Play and December 2012 became both challenging and memorable as I had the drama to handle at the same time my son Glenn came from Singapore to spend the month of December and hoped to enjoy a White Christmas with us. However the snow was slow coming last December especially in the Toronto and Waterloo region and by the week before Christmas our ski programs in the area all had to be postponed. Since Glenn had come to Canada for snow, his brother – that’s my son Nelson living in Toronto decided to drive us up north where it had been snowing for some time and we headed for Mont Tremblant Ski Resort where Glenn would definitely be able to ski up there. On our return from Mont Tremblant we stayed one night in Ottawa and Glenn enjoyed his tour of Parliament House as well.  We also stopped at Kingston for a good lunch so everyone especially Glenn felt glad that we made the trip up north. Christmas church service was great and the drama was well received too. In addition Glenn was able to join us for our Church’s Annual Christmas Dinner held at one of the Golf Clubs in our area. After the Christmas week, Glenn and I packed our luggage as we were returning to Singapore as I planned to be there for 2013 Lunar New Year, especially to visit my Dad and family in Singapore. Before I flew to Singapore my heart was uplifted by the joyful news  that my son Nelson and his fiance Ereeny confirmed they finalized their wedding date on 2013 May 18 to be held in Toronto which meant I would have to be back in  Toronto after two, at most three months stay in Singapore.

How was my return visit to Singapore?  I would best describe as hectic on top of humid.  My time divided between springcleaning, clearing out old stuff, visits to my father who miraculously almost was able to identify me despite his advanced age       ( 95 ) plus having been declared a dementia patient – and then again I was busy “catching-up” with friends, family, relatives, juggling early breakfasts/ late lunch / late dinner appointments in keeping with the long work-and-business hours in Singapore.

Our 2013 family highlight undoubtedly  was our son’s wedding. Nelson and Ereeny’s Wedding brought a family reunion in Toronto with my two sons Glenn and Daniel and  wife Cindy and my grandson Elliott flying in from Singapore and Elliott bravely shone in his role of Wedding Ring-bearer despite jet-lag ( see 3 wedding pics on page). Wedding guests from afar included, from California, my sister-in-law Vania and her husband Kok and my old friends coming from Perth, Australia, Ivan and Dinah, the parents of my god-daughters Delise, Delcyn and Desiree. The girls or rather young ladies I should say now,   couldn’t come because of their jobs.

After the wedding, we accompanied Dinah and Ivan on a Canada tour visiting  Niagara Falls, plus the Toronto and Waterloo regions and to a day trip out to London, Ontario, then headed up north to Ottawa and Montreal. After Ivan and Dinah left us,  I was thinking it’s high time I updated this blog but before I could, an email popped from friends Teow Koon and Siew Wah from our church in Singapore informing me that they would soon be visiting Toronto and hoped to see as much as they could from thereon in two weeks. They wished to meet with me, get some travel tips and also catch up of course. So again I pulled on my travel shoes and assumed the role of hospitable Canadian host as best as I knew how.

By the time my friends returned to Singapore,  it was  already August and that’s the peak season for Canada’s Summer festivals, theatre and music concerts – and you know, these have always held tremendous hold on me.  So once again, I failed to devote my concentration to write – however I did read a lot this summer and completed a few books reading along the way as I hopped from one event to the next, reading on buses from stations to destinations, reading in theatre foyers between showstimes, in cafes, on park benches and reading at home before bedtime till I dozed off while my bedroom lights were left on.  I may insert a book recommendation or two from my summer reading in my next blog but for now, I feel I should first share what I learned while revisiting the Book of Proverbs as one of my Summer Reading projects. I had to pursue this because during one of my morning devotions I felt a strong spiritual nudging to go read and seriously meditate through the Book of Proverbs. The Book of PROVERBS  was among some of the Bible texts I studied as a new Christian and the problem was I studied it like I would study any literature text. Just as I would study Poetry or Shakespeare for an exam, mechanically I would commit to memory many of the popular verses but not pondered much on their meaning. I was a new Christian and I was young and inexperienced in life. In later years I was led to study more theologically challenging passages in the Bible and consequently, had never meditated on the Book of PROVERBS seriously.

This time I was pleasantly surprised I enjoyed the re-reading and noted many interesting observations which I overlooked before. Too many to consider them closely one by one in this current blog, so I’m just showing  four of them.  I picked  these as you will not find them frequently quoted nor mentioned in sermons to my knowledge.

PROVERBS 4:4-5

Let your HEART hold fast my words; keep my commandments and live. Get wisdom: get understanding.

My remarks: Note this scriptural instruction doesn’t say hold fast my words in your mind nor in your head but rather in your HEART. Remember I shared how I used to  study of PROVERBS the same as I did my Shakespeare? I would deposit the words in my head. No wonder my learning was devoid of  insight. The seat of Wisdom and Insight/Understanding is in our HEART not our Head according to the Bible. This is where many academicians and scholars so full of knowledge in their heads can still lack wisdom and insight.

PROVERBS 4:30

A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh but envy makes the bones rot.

My remarks: I think if not for my move to Canada I will have difficulty knowing what a tranquil heart experience is. Thank God in Canada surrounded by rivers, natural lakes, hills, forests, clear blue skies, I can now relate to this.  In the different context of Asia’s crowded and highly competitive cities like Singapore where life is dependent on racing ahead of one’s neighbour, it is rare that one can preserve a tranquil heart for long even when one could have been so blessed with a tranquil heart from God at one time.  Meanwhile intense competition on the other hand is fierce breeding ground of envy which the proverb here warns “makes the bones rot”. Paying heed to the truth of this proverb may save us from heart attack, a major killer claiming the lives of many city dwellers.

PROVERBS 17:27

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge and he who has a COOL spirit is a man of understanding.

My remark : Fascinating! We think the description “COOL” which is popular among people today is contemporary, is new? Oh no, I just discovered the KING  JAMES BIBLE (KJV) published the use of this word long before us. It says here in the proverb that a man of understanding is “Cool”   How interesting!

And finally, not a new precept but an essential Christian reminder which I regret is seldom preached from the pulpit in our contemporary church:

PROVERBS 23: 4

Do not TOIL to acquire wealth.

My Remark:  It is important to note that the Bible in general and this Proverb in particular, are NOT against possessing wealth. We can read in the Bible that God in fact is the one who bestows blessings of wealth and status upon those He approves for their demonstration of faith and obedience. ( Abraham, Jacob, King Solomon for example). In this proverb the emphasis is on the word “TOIL”  which means “OVERWORK”. The proverb warns us not to overwork ourselves to earn riches – in other words, not to be obsessed with getting rich.

I’ve come to the end of this sharing.

Thanks for reading and certainly love to have your feedback.

Like many others I’m sure, I’ve been increasingly drawn to focus on the skies this Fall. You’ll never guess what’s coming next. Just the past week, on Thursday October 25, all of a sudden it felt like summer’s returned with the noonday temperature hitting mid-twenties celsius after a cold September of single digit temperatures left many wondering why Fall felt more like winter. However Thursday turned out to be a hot one-day affair. The next day the temperature plunged all the way back to single digit.

However in Toronto there was another excitement in the sky on October 25 at sunset, at 6.18 pm to be exact emerged the shining phenomenon “Torontohenge”, sending the city’s shutterbugs scrambling to get a good shot at it. For Torontohenge offers an exceptionally brilliant breathtaking clear view of the sun at the end of the city’s long streets. However to get a good picture of Torontohenge is not an easy accomplishment. Imagine it’s like aiming to shoot at the blinding flash of a luminous fireball. Many photos of last week’s Torontohenge are now online and I’m sharing here below one of them which I like best achieved by blogger/photographer Shawn Micallef.

And how does Torontohenge come about ? It occurs when the sun rises or sets perfectly along with the city’s east-west street grid.This happens at the summer and winter solstices and so as with solstices the date varies from year to year. In Toronto most frequently Torontohenge has been sighted in mid-April, in October between 23rd and 25th day of the month and in mid February. The name Torontohenge is derived from Britain’s famous Stonehenge where the sun aligns with the stones on the solstices creating stunning visual effects of light and shadow.

Now after all that excitement simmered down over the weekend, I was least expecting to be hit on Monday evening by horrific reports of hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy, described by National Post as “one of the biggest storms to hit the U.S.” targetting the big population centers New York, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, has forced the closure of New York Stock Exchange this week and disrupted the U.S. presidential election campaigns on top of wreaking widespread destruction of property, livestock, death of animals and claiming human lives. Superstorm Sandy is said to have morphed from hurricane into a winter cyclone in a National Post article accompanied with vivid photos  – a fine piece of photo-journalism.

Although I’m now some distance north of Sandy’s primary targets, nevertheless I’m certainly experiencing the tail-brush of it in the velocity of the wind and hard-hitting rainfall all over South and East Ontario throughout these past days. A few tragic events have befallen at the same time closer to home – one which struck me poignantly here in Toronto,  news of a tragic “accident” I call it for want of a better word –  a lady shopper’s life simply ended on October 29 when she was hit by a falling shop sign ripped off by the gusty wind. I feel deeply sorry for her loved ones and family but there was no mention of them in the newspaper. I guess it’s too painful and inappropriate for the press to press them for an interview at this moment. So all this stirred me to reflect how suddenly and swiftly a sweeping change can break into our quiet lives. Then, all of a sudden, the phrase “in the twinkle of an eye” hopped out from the Word of God into my mind’s eye. Our lives are indeed transcient – the Bible brings to mind a metaphor of human life  “as a vapor” – yes, that’s the ultimate Word of Truth and Wisdom.

And after looking at the pictures and reports of death and devastation from the storm, of million-dollar houses, cars and boats smashed by the wind, the question arose within me : Is there anything in this world we can cling to ?

Yes only one thing. The answer came in the words of Jesus: “Heaven and earth shall pass away : but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven …..Take heed, watch and pray: for you know not when the time is.”

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Reader Comments

Moreen Ng writes:  Thanks Nellie for the update. Yes technology has advanced by leaps & bounds but natural disasters cannot be avoided. Only we have to trust God because He alone knows what His plans are for us. I agree with u that we need to rest on His word. Let’s pray for the world that has quite forgotten who God is & pray for all those who are suffering now. May God’s hand be upon the leaders of the world that humanity & wisdom will prevail.