Who Says "The Sky's The Limit"?

The Wind Rises

Have you watched the latest film by Hayao Miyazake - "The Wind Rises"? The man is an expert story teller and has elevated the genre of Japanese Anime to an art form. I am naturally a fan. His latest offering presents us in his usual style, bright-eyed protagonists who overcome obstacles to achieve their ideals and dreams. From his very first film to this his swan song, he depicts landscapes of blue skies and green fields, of magical worlds, fantastic machines and incredible creatures. I believe the ageless appeal of his films captures the very essence of being childlike - the ability to see beauty, wonder, love and kindness in a world that doesn't always present its best face to us. 

It was somewhat a bittersweet end to this last movie of his. The story was written against a backdrop of  real wars and rumours of war. Did I see hints of child characters in previous shows now drawn in adult bodies? Was he trying to say that all children have to grow up in the end? I hope not ...

("The Wind Rises" via IMDb)

Idealism vs. Perfectionism

I love blue skies and lazy white clouds. Looking at them give me hope and cheer me up. The weekend that I watched "The Wind Rises" I looked up to just such a perfect blue-and-white overhead. I thought about my work as I walked outdoors. My hope was that my efforts would enable every individual to have the healthy body, soul and mind to enjoy these blue skies as I do. 

At work, many think that I am a perfectionist. Of late I think that idealist is a better description. You may laugh that this is just splitting hairs - what's the difference? Well, perfectionists are people who pursue perfection for the sake of perfection. Idealists pursue perfection for the sake of a better world for the people who inhabit it. 

The Danger of Disappointment

The problem with idealists is that we are easily disappointed by people. We have high ideals for ourselves and people in general.  Disappointment sets in because we find it hard to believe that others do not have the same idealistic approach to this world.

I must confess that of late I have been disappointed by my workplace. No details, of course - this being social media after all. It was akin to feelings I had as a teenager when I realised that my parents were human after all - they didn't always do what they said was the right thing; and (Gasp!) they made mistakes! 

As I wrote to someone in an email, these feelings of disappointment were not something that I could consciously control. People at work tried to tell me I was wrong, that I should not feel like that. I learnt that I could not choose to turn my emotions on and off as I wanted to. My mind gathered the sights, sounds, words and thoughts at the workplace to produce an emotional response that was just as surprising to me as it was discomfiting to those at work. 

In truth I went to the Bible wanting to find words to justify myself in this work situation. I was right, the world was wrong. I turned to Daniel, Joseph and even Moses. These were men who were brought by God into a highly political situation. Absolute power rested with a few individuals. They started off as foreigners with little social standing in the society. There seemed little chance they could make any change from a human point of view. Yet, through them God demonstrated His absolute Power over human history. Nothing was out of God's control.

In the self-righteous mood I was in,  I zoomed straight to Daniel 6:10b "he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before." In this particular episode, Daniel was facing great opposition at work. He chose to demonstrate his dependence on God in a very  public manner and in return God acted in a very public manner to defend his honour (that famous Sunday School story of Daniel in the Lions' Den).

The view of the sky and trees from my desk

My Fight or God's Fight?

The first thing God pointed out to me was that my private praying was more important than the public praying.  “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6: 5-6)

OK, so my talk with God was not quite going in the direction I had wanted it to. As I brought my work grouses to God in my private prayers, it showed that I was making this work issue be about me - my team, my work, my ability, my honour, my success. I was fighting because I felt threatened. As God pointed out - the more I fought for myself, the less I was working for God; and to depend upon my own abilities or strength was as good as setting myself up for failure. In the Bible, Daniel, Joseph and Moses clearly knew what I had to learn - the best chance of success lay with aligning with what God wanted. Who could ever stop God from getting what he wanted?

From Daniel:

"26 The king asked Daniel, “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?” 27 Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries." (Daniel 2: 26 - 27)

From Daniel's 3 compatriots:

"16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18)

From Moses:

"11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” (Exodus 4:11-12)

Waiting on God

The World teaches us that a stellar career is one that is constantly on the up-and-up like a shooting star. It would not be wrong to say that part of the feelings I had at work was the fear that I would be left on the shelf. God reminded me that those who do His work aren't always recognised or rewarded in the ways of this World. We could be in the limelight or be waiting in the shadows. 

From Daniel:

[King Belshazzar said]:"14 I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you and that you have insight, intelligence and outstanding wisdom. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.” 

Summer in Hanover

17 Then Daniel answered the king, “You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means." Daniel 5:14,16b, 17)

From Joseph:

[Joseph said]:"14 But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison." 23 The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him. (Genesis 40: 14,23). When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream ... In the morning his mind was troubled. Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I am reminded of my shortcomings. Pharaoh was once angry with his servants, and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of the guard. Now a young Hebrew was there with us ... We told him our dreams ... And things turned out exactly as he interpreted them to us. 14 So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. (Genesis 41:1,8-10,12-14)

Occom Pond, Hanover - real blues and greens.

Intentional Waiting

I was also learning that waiting on God did not need to be passive. For one, taking a step back allowed me to review my work for the past 4 years. I was able to appreciate what had already been accomplished. With a clearer understanding of the foundation that had been built, I got together my team leaders to review our plans and re-prioritise our work. In doing so, we saw that instead of expecting more resources, we could scale back, simplify, stretch out or even stop some of  the planned work. This also gave my team some breathing space. I did not realise that I had wound them up so tightly and put them at risk of burnout.

Blue Skies and Green Fields ...

In the end, I still think it's great to be an idealist. The World needs more people like us who believe with a gusto that the sky should be bluer and the fields be greener. Yet, man can have big dreams but never as big as God's; and man can do great works but never as great as God's. Those in the past who have learnt this watched as the Red Sea parted for them to escape their enemies, remained safe in the presence of hungry lions whose mouths were shut tight, watched themselves elevated to the highest positions in foreign lands to change the very tenor of these societies for God; and much, much more - I think even idealists would have little to be disappointed about when God acts.

Totoro - Studio Ghibli

All Bible references are NIV an via Biblegateway.com

God Hears Our Cries

Birthday Breakfast

                 Happy Breakfast Birthday!               

It was one of my sons' birthday and Marie had planned a zoo trip because it was also a school holiday. Not knowing about the school holiday until too late, I didn't manage to take leave from work. I was feeling somewhat guilty about it and managed to shift things around my calendar so that we could have a birthday breakfast celebration together.

The breakfast was going fine until the end when we looked up and noticed that the sky had turned dark. Even before I finished saying, "Don't know if it will ...", it started to thunder and rain. For this particular son of mine, birthdays were the paramount social event of the year. His expectation for this to be the perfect day had soared to a crescendo when it was brought crashing down into a bottomless pit; and he began to cry.

Crying Children

The rain that derailed the Zoo plans

Now I hope you will not judge Marie and I harshly. As parents of four boys, we have very little patience for children who fuss or cry. What is worse than having one child cry is having two children cry at the same time (not to mention three) - and they don't always cry about the same things. While dealing with the crying ones, the others who are not crying still need to be tended to. We very quickly move into the "zip it" or face the consequences mode. I think for me at least, my patience with their crying got less as they grew up. So in this instance, statements like "You're a teenager now ...", "You need to learn that there will be disappointments in life ..." and so forth came out from our mouths very quickly. Unfortunately the clouds were also not helping that day - they just got darker and darker, like the mood at the table.

How God Would Respond to Crying?

After the incident I reflected upon my response to my son's crying. Did it mirror how I thought God would respond to me whenever I came to Him with life's disappointments and regrets? Would He tell me to "zip it" or that "Life is tough and what doesn't kill you will make you stronger?". 

In response, God brought me back to the story of Hannah in the Bible (in 1 Samuel Chapter 1 - 2). Here was a woman who, at the start of the story, was unremarkable. She was one of two wives of a man. She was stuck in an unenviable situation of having no children while her counterpart had a brood. Therefore she had to endure constant taunts at home. Even though her husband loved her tenderly, it could not fill the deep emptiness her barrenness had left in her heart. 

Every year, the family when to Jerusalem for the annual rituals. In one of those years when her torment had been particularly difficult, as the Bible recorded, " In her deep anguish, Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly." The priest in the temple thought she was drunk as he watched her pray (why are we always so judgemental of people who express their grief in public?). As Hannah explained to him: “Not so, my lord, I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” (1 Samuel 1: 15 - 16)

Sometimes Blue Skies are just round the corner

To cut to the chase, God heard Hannah's desperate cry to Him. Shortly after, she conceived and bore a son who would have a significant role in Israel's history; and thereafter she bore more children. No wonder in 1 Samuel 2: 1-2, Hannah sang a song of praise to God:

“The Lord has filled my heart with joy;

    how happy I am because of what he has done!

I laugh at my enemies;

    how joyful I am because God has helped me!

“No one is holy like the Lord;

    there is none like him,

    no protector like our God."

Never too small for God

For all intents and purposes, Hannah was not considered to have been of any significance in her society during the culture of her time; and her prayers to have a child to shed her shame was not exactly world changing. It would have been fair to wonder why God should even listen to her much less answer her prayer? But He did. I think the point is this - whether it is the deep desires of a woman for a child or the wish of a birthday teen to have a zoo outing, God hears us. Sometimes we are wrongly led to believe that either we are of no significance or our prayers are overly parochial and self-centred for God to hear us. 

I do not want to make God out to be just a Santa Claus up there in the sky who is there to make our every wish come true. I believe neither are we spoilt kids who throw tantrums when we don't get exactly what we want. Growing up my parents would say whenever I was in the toy shop "You can see but you cannot ask to buy." Not every desire is wrong and we often bury these deep because we've been taught from young it's wrong to want. What we really long for is that someone, no less the God of the universe, to hear us and acknowledge our deepest cries, our keenest needs as valid and worthy. Knowing that we have been heard is what we really want. We can also trust that after hearing He will take the best course of action on our behalf. As the Christian author Josh McDowell said "He who knows you best, loves you most".

Happily ...

As a happy ending, while the skies didn't clear quick enough for my son to have his birthday zoo trip, they spent a terrific few hours at a shopping mall and capped off the day with a ride in a cable car when the sun and blue skies returned several hours later. He didn't get exactly what he wanted but he agreed that in the end it was a terrific day after all.

As I learnt, God always hears us when we cry and has compassion on us. I pray that He will also give me that compassion the next time my children cry in front of me.

Happy Ending to a wonderful Birthday Outing!

All Bible Verses NIV unless otherwise stated and viewed from BibleGateway.com

"Who Are You Looking For?"

Power of Love Church Facebook Page

This was a sermon that I preached when a good friend invited me to do so at the 

Power of Love Church in Hua Hin, Thailand. Do visit if you're ever in that area!

               

               

Bible Reading:

Thank you for your invitation to visit your church and to offer me this opportunity to preach.

Our reading today from the Bible is from John Chapter 20. I am reading from the New International Version (NIV).

Verse 1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 

Verse 11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb...

Verse 14 to 16 … she turned around and saw Jesus standing there,but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Introduction

The scene is familiar to us – Jesus had died on the cross and three days later he had arisen from the dead. But for the first century Christians who still did not understand what had happened, the empty tomb had caused fear, anxiety and confusion. Not only was their beloved leader and teacher dead, his body had apparently been stolen.

Jesus frequently asks us sharp questions that reveal the truth in our hearts:

“Mary”, He asked, “why are you crying? ^“Who is it you are looking for?”. 
“Why are you crying?” meaning why are you sad, worried or anxious?. 
“Who is it you are looking for?” meaning “Who do you look for when you are sad, worried or anxious?”

This is the same question Jesus asks us in our own times of sadness, worry and anxiety:

Why are you sad, worried or anxious? Is it Jesus whom you turn to or someone or something else for help?

We can learn from the Temptation of Christ

When we are in a stressful situation, Satan tempts us to turn away from God to other substitutes. We can learn lessons from how he tempted Jesus in the desert.

In the first temptation, Satan asked Jesus to turn stone into bread because Jesus was hungry. This temptation is for us to turn to physical comfort in times of need.

Food is a common example. There is nothing wrong with food and I look forward to having much good Thai food while I am here! But there are people who eat not because they are hungry but to soothe their worries. Food has become their idol, their ‘god’ in times of stress and anxiety.

In the second temptation, Satan offers to Jesus power over many cities of the world. This is not hard to understand In times of trouble, we look to people with human power or authority to protect us. This can happen at the work place, at home or even in the church.

In the third temptation, Satan tempts Jesus to believe that by his actions, He could control God. In Singapore where I come from, many believe that if we study hard, if we obey all the rules, especially government rules, we will be blessed by God because we are good. Even Christian students and their parent believe that if they study hard, God must bless them with good marks, then good jobs and a good, trouble free life.

I remember when I was 16 years old and taking an important exam in school, I prayed “God, I have worked hard so you must give me all ‘A’s in my exam subjects”. God answered me with another question – “Why do you need ‘A’s when you have Me?”. He would not let me control Him.

He also didn't always give me good marks. In fact from then on, there would always be one or two subjects in my exams that did not get good marks. God wanted me to learn that it is not the good marks but Him that I needed in life.

The Power of Love

Let us return to Jesus’ questions to Mary:

“Why are your crying?”

“Who are you looking for?”

Based on what reasons is Jesus able to promise us that He is the answer to all the problems in our lives?

Based on the fact that He loved us, He suffered for us and died for our sins.

Based on the fact that His death has removed all barriers between us and God.

He speaks gently but the fact is He has returned victorious over death and sin; and God has placed everything under Him (see 1 Corinthians 15: 21 - 28).

Church, when I asked God what message He has for you -

He asked me to remind you of the name of your church: The Power of Love Church

Because - There is Power in Love!

It is not people with guns or money or earthly authority that have power.

It is God’s love that has the true Power to change this world.

As it is written in Romans 8: 37- 39:

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God^(CF) that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

But Jesus not only showed us the amazing, infinite power of the love of God

He also showed us an example of how to live a powerful life of love through humility and service to others. At the last supper with His disciples, Jesus washed their feet. This was a task that we would expect a servant to do. Jesus willingly washed his disciples feet and said “ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (John13:15)

As it is also written in 1 John 3: 16 – 18

¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? ¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 

Church, God says “You have chosen well the name of your church”. There is power in His Love to change this world. And so I encourage you, go and live your life for Christ in this world. 

His Love through your lives will be the powerful force that will change this world.

Amen

Photo with family & church leaders after sermon

After the storm ... What's Next?

Winter Comes Upon Us

The winter of 2013 - 14 will be remembered for being particularly bad - frigid temperatures and unexpected snow storms that brought many cities to their knees. It was apparently caused by something called the Arctic Vortex. This was the first time I have ever heard of such a thing.

I had an opportunity to experience this for myself when I landed in New York right smack in the middle of a sudden snow storm that shut down the airport. My connecting flight to Boston was canceled. As I traveled into New York City to spend the night in a hotel, the entire city was gridlocked. A trip from the airport to the hotel that should have taken just half an hour, took two and a half hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic. When I finally got out of the airport van, the cold air that smacked me in my face was shocking to my tropical sensibilities. Frankly, my admiration for people who live in winter climates grew by leaps and bounds. It took mental and physical resilience to live here. Those of us living in balmy climates who wished for picture perfect snow white scenes on Christmas Cards do not know half of what we're asking for. By the way, snow gets blackish and dirty quite quickly. It's not pretty at all.

Marie and I will remember this period of our lives as being particularly challenging for other reasons as well. Other than the craziness of running a family of 4 kids (the last few months without domestic help again), guiding another son through the major PSLE exam (see: School Results (PSLE no. 2) - what I'm learning about school grades), busy work schedules, finishing my course assignments, early morning online discussions and lectures, we also engaged a designer to renovate a new home last June. We capped it off with a monumental move into our new abode in January 2014, two weeks before I traveled to the U.S. for the very last module of my course (which was when I landed into this unexpected snowstorm).

Challenging Times

Dartmouth College, a great place of learning

We had known in advance of these events, had planned for them and had survived with a whole gamut of emotions from elation to frustration. It is hard to do justice to our experiences in the past year with a few succinct words. Marie said it was more more like desperation than frustration - she had to endure more of it when I was away in the States; leaving her alone with the kids and the new house. It felt like juggling a thousand balls in the air all the time, none of which could drop. It felt like a constant stream of questions, decisions and incidents to handle. We couldn't let our guard down for even a moment. We hadn't intended for it all to converge into a crescendo at this one point in time. So perhaps it was no surprise that on 30th January 2014, 4:30 pm, U.S. Eastern Standard Time (EST), when the last lecture of my 18 months course was delivered, I felt both a sense of relief and let down that I had a completed a most challenging period of my life; and yet without any fanfare. Shouldn't there have been fireworks, champagne popping and inspiring Disney music? We only had our rather reticent professor thank us for the last one and a half years (of course later on I had the pomp and pageantry of a college commencement; but that was later on).

After the Storm 

Family happy in the new home ... finally

Now almost two months later I thought I was supposed to have more time after these major events. The time that I had set aside for my course work was like a hole that you dug in the sand. The tide came in and you didn't know where the hole went. My instincts told me, wait, slow down, take stock before deciding on the next steps but life seemed to hunt me down with more 'important' things that needed attention urgently.

Finally, I had a rare Saturday morning when I didn't have to rush a kid to a school activity and could sit down to breakfast and the papers. I'm sure it was God who arranged the time and the two articles in the papers that give me a one, two punch when I read them (I attach the links to the electronic versions here).



The first: "The Folly of Thinking We Know" (The New York Times)
The second: "Why being too busy makes us feel so good" (The Washington Post)

The first article talks about the fallacy of thinking it is possible to know everything that we want to know. The second article describes the absurd badge of honour that many of us display these days of busyness to the point of being overworked and exhausted because it drives our sense of self-worth. We think we are important and of value to society just because we have no time for anything but work.

Mr. Know-it-all

The reason why these two articles read together really hit home was because my business at the workplace is much about finding information and making information known; and of course a large part of my daily life is spent at work. I started work at this current work place fours years ago on 18th March 2010. Maybe if my boss knew how little I knew about the work then, he would not have offered me the job. But from day one I gave myself this personal motto: "I will only not know something once." The first 90 days was filled with asking, questioning and diligently studying any piece of information I could lay my hands on about the organisation.

With time, when people in the organisation noticed that if they posed me a question I would find them the answer, a line began to form. It struck me that this need in the organisation was something that I could build the core purpose of my team upon. I trained my team to "Either provide the right answer; or link the seeker to the person with the right answer". I made sure my team never gave the answer "I don't know" or "My department is not in charge of this" - "No Wrong Door" Policy as they say. One of the staff on my team said recently "Wow, are we supposed to be the Google of this organisation or what?"

Life in a snow storm

While it felt good to be the source of information for many in the organisation, it was true that I couldn't know everything, especially information that specialists spent years training for. It was also an enormously heavy burden to bear. I learnt that more important than providing information was teaching others how to find information for themselves - not fishing for them but teaching them how to fish.

Slow Down ...

The temptation for me now has been to run out to fill my newly 'free' hours with more of the same work. These two articles are like speed bumps telling me to slow it down, to consider filling my life with the important stuff, not merely more activities. They remind me of the writings of a wise man, purportedly the wisest in the world. A man named King Solomon whose musings were captured in the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. In his own words "I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens" (Eccl. 1: 13) and he found that "this, too, is a chasing after the wind" (Eccl. 1:17).

A Wiser Guy

Even in a snow storm,
there is beauty

If we only gave this book a superficial, cursory read, we would think the author was a guy who was clinically depressed and in need of therapy. Everything was "meaningless" or "folly". This time as I applied the reading to my situation, I realised that the words of the book was a warning to those of us who pursue only what can be seen with our visible eyes - work, riches, success, pleasure. He does not deny that there are good things here on earth - "Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart ..." (Eccl. 9:7a); "Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love ..." (Eccl. 9:9a); "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might ..." (Eccl 9:10a). However, he warns us that the pursuit of these to the exclusion of an awareness and a respect for the God of the universe is folly. "Remember your Creator", he exhorts all of us. Otherwise, even with the full extent of his unrivaled wisdom, he could not make any sense of this world - bad things do happen to good people, good things do happen to bad people; and if there was no precious eternal afterlife with God, then what was the point of this short and painful, present one?

Start and Stop with God ... the best bet in any Storm

The passage of the past 18 months for me could be likened to a Tsunami. The gale force magnitude of the events drove Marie and myself to action with little time to ponder the consequences. Yet, now that the events were over, I realised that there was a greater danger - like a person paddling just to keep afloat in a storm, I did not know to stop paddling even though the storm had passed. Marie feels that God is telling her this is a winter period of our lives. Winter is the time to hibernate, to slow down ...

Someone asked me recently how I planned my career. The honest answer is that I have never planned my career. At every point of my work I have only tried my best to do what I understood to be God's calling for me. The rest has been God's doing. God seems to be calling me now to stop, to listen to what He has to say and to be sensitive to His promptings to choices ahead of me. Unless I want to end up with a life of "folly" and "meaninglessness", I think I better obey.