We should gladly accept good things when they come, but don’t let them make you forget where the fountain of happiness is.
Good things, good people, good jobs, good moments come and go. If they don’t go they will change. And during that change they will definitely disappoint you along the way. Continue reading “on being happy”
Some things I learned this past year:
• The importance of empathy cannot be overstated. Uncaring cold-heartedness, bullying and generally being a shithead can be cured in part by putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. Continue reading “on lessons learned”
Recently I watched a Chinese soap opera portraying a spoiled little imperial prince. He treated all the servants like dirt and had no respect for his elders’ authority. I was thinking how different he is from kids in our era, who are expected to be nice and multicultural and polite. But then I thought it must’ve been because these princes were raised for a specific purpose: their education consisted in how to rule the kingdom and stay alive. Their education had nothing to do with getting along with other people. They literally had no reason to be nice.
Which made me think back to my niceness vs kindness debate, which I’ve briefly touched on before. Why are we nice? Is niceness for its own sake worth it? Often we are nice because, let’s face it, you won’t get far in life if everyone hates you. Continue reading “on being nice”
Spiritual ups and downs are a seemingly unavoidable part of the Christian’s life. If you’re anything like me it goes like this: a two-week spiritual high followed by a crash, followed by feelings of remorse, self-disgust and disappointment. Along comes a great experience or inspiring sermon, then a bout of spiritual growth, another high, then a crash. Repeat ad nauseam. Continue reading “on spiritual highs and lows”
Consider: nothing that the Christian does or fails to do can condemn him before God.
What are the biblical grounds in support of this statement? Continue reading “on the abuse of indelible grace”
I’d been having trouble figuring out why exactly Christ’s sacrifice entitled us to oneness with God and eternal life.
I understood the concept and system and logic behind penal substitutionary atonement, double imputational justification, sacrifice, temple/tabernacle mechanics, etc., but it still escaped me why we should be allowed to come to God once sin was dealt with. Why does the removal of sin automatically place us with God? Why do we deserve to rise from the grave just because God raised Christ from the grave? Continue reading “on our right to eternity”
A friend of mine was telling me a while ago about the sacraments: The obvious ones are the communion, the many sacrifices outlined in the latter half of Exodus. There are also less obvious ones, he said, such as the rainbow: It is a weapon of war (wrath) that is strangely pointed toward its wielder, prophetic of God’s atoning self sacrifice.
At that moment I was convinced, but less so now. Still, it was interesting. How about the sun? Continue reading “on the sun”
I am what you’d describe as a shy guy, scared of talking to pretty girls.
Sounds innocuous, even charming. But here’s what’s wrong with that:
Shyness means I don’t want to talk to a pretty girl for fear of looking bad in front of her – I think I speak for nine out of ten guys who suffer from shyness (and in fact the Cantonese/Mandarin words for ‘shy’ are rendered 怕羞 and 害羞 respectively, both of which approximately mean ‘afraid of shame’) – but is this not simply pride and self-importance? Continue reading “on shyness”
Our reaction to many things is often an indication of our personalities. How does one react to criticism? To riches? To adoration? To challenges? To conflict? To Christ’s forgiveness?
How about to the Bible? Over the years I have found these to be the most unsettling parts of Scripture: Continue reading “on unsettling parts of scripture”
The Lord calls us to go the whole way with Him, to walk with Him. Enoch walked with God, and in fact walked so close to Him, went so far with Him that the Bible implies he didn’t have to go through death, God simply took him away (Gen 5:24).
But then there’s a lot of instances however of people called by God to walk with Him, but who only went halfway through. Terah was probably one such person; he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to make his way to Canaan, the destination that Abraham would eventually reach, but he only made it as far as Haran. The Bible seems to imply that God had in fact called Terah to make the journey his son would eventually make, but the father of the patriarch did not walk with God all the way. He settled for Haran and stayed there, unable to attain the inheritance and surrounded by pagans till his death. (Gen 11:31) Continue reading “crossing the river”
Remember, My Lord 