It’s been such an exhausting period for me as I try to clear all the decks in the office before going away for 2 months ahead of a big event.  My morning exercise routine out on the balcony has been somewhat interrupted, but today being a Sat I have the luxury of going through my entire paces.

As I wound up my exercises, lo and behold, I beheld in the direction of the clump of yellow cane bamboo in the corner of my garden, a huge bird’s nest nestled amongst the leaves at the top!  I wish I could reproduce it here, but my phone MMS is not working.  And again, I wonder in amazement how God can blind the eyes of the humans to that wonderful work in progress.    It could not have been done overnight, this magnificent contraption which leaves me wondering which birds nestle there.  Whilst I have not been at it daily, I have been out on the balcony enough times these past 2 weeks to have surely noticed some building activity around this clump within easy eye’s reach.

This was also in answer to my query to God just a few days ago when it rained quite heavily, and looking out from the balcony I asked Him “Where do the birds go for shelter on days like this”?  They are not flying around, they must be sheltering somewhere, or maybe they don’t need shelter?  And there you have it, that shelter right before my eyes, as but one illustration of how God protects and cares for His creation.

Indeed, if God so does this the birds of the kingdom, “will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith”? Jesus asks.  Will He not indeed.  And with that, we need have no fear nor anxiety about what tomorrow will bring.

Amen!

Recounted the true story of how one atheist challenged a village of believers in his attempt to disprove God. Declared that he would spend a day in the forest challenging God to kill him, and if he did die there, God was real, but if he emerged from the forest, that proved there was no God. As it turned out, he did emerge from the forest when the time was up, triumphant in his claim. Prematurely, because what happened next was that his eye which was reddened by the bite of a gnat whilst he was in the forest, began swelling inordinately, and within 24 hours, he was dead. God is not mocked. He can instruct even a gnat to carry out His orders.

The question, as the speaker challenged us, was not whether we hear, but how we respond when we hear. And sometimes we ourselves cast doubts when we perceive that God is speaking because we do not wish to heed His word, choosing to think it is the devil or our own flesh speaking to us. And many times, we brush Him aside when His spirit is prompting us “this is the way, walk in it”, in our busy-ness and in our independence.

And so as we start this new year, my spiritual resolution is to train myself to hear His voice, that I may hear more clearly the way I should go as 2008 looms large, in obedience to Him who knows best.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me..” (John 14:27)

It strikes me as being a microscopic illustration of what the preacher in this charming little Anglican church in a wooded setting said today about the Nativity story.  It must be a challenge to give this well-told account of Jesus’ birth a new twist.  But he managed to, by contemporising it, borrowing the line from the “Inconvenient Truth” movied.  Talked about how Jesus’ birth was an inconvenient truth to the players of the day.  To the wise men who travelled afar from the East in search of Him, such that by the time they got to Him, He was no more in a manger because there was no room for Him in the inn, but in a house already.  (Happily, today, wise men still seek Him).  They went out of their way in search of the Child to worship.

Jesus’ arrival was certainly an inconvenient truth to Herod, who feared competition from this source.  And was it not too, to the chief priests and scribes of the people that he had gathered around him to establish the facts of Jesus’ birth, who knew that His birth in Bethlehem had been predicted, and yet, unlike the magi from the east, chose not to go in search of Him.

And so it was for me that I went in search of the boy King this morning,  inconvenient though it might have been.   It was important that on this day signposted as a religious holiday for Christians that I did not treat it like any other public holiday.  If it’s to celebrate our Lord Jesus’ coming, I wanted to honour Him by remembering Him first in the day before all else.  And I was happy I found this traditional church with its traditional service form (its later service is the more contemporary one) which allowed me time to reflect on our Lord’s goodness.  One thing hit me hard during the service – when the preacher said that He came to die.  That was His mission in coming – to die for us.  It just boggles the mind.  Not one of us earthlings would think that way, that we live for to die.

It is like my former staff worker who visited me in the office on Christmas Eve – charmingly child-like in her walk with God.  She commented to me – how awesome can it get, that to us Singaporeans who think of eating all the time, that He should say, “Eat, drink of Me, and when you do, rememer Me.  I envied her her obvious  delight in the Holy Communion privilege that she could relate to it so personally.  Bit by bit our hearts become hardened.

And so this morning was good, as I contemplated Him in quietness and in solitude.  In the end, the inconvenient detour was no inconvenience.  And I’m sure the wise men from the East felt likewise more than 2000 years ago.

“And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins”.  (Matthew 1: 21)

Japan is a beautiful place to go to for reflection. The last time I was there was more than 30 years ago, and that was to Tokyo on business. This time it was to Nagoya, and this trip left a deep impression on me, for the way of life of the Japanese people, starting with the taxi driver who took us from Nagoya Station to the hotel. We were told all the drivers would know Hotel Nagoya Kanko, just a short drive from this main interchange. But our driver was befuddled and had to make a few calls before he could connect that what we wanted was Kanko, not Kenko, the way my co-traveller had pronounced it. And for all his lack of English, he could laugh heartily and tell us to pronounce it the way it should be, and not as in kangaroo!

Our experiences with the people throughout our one week sojourn were all pleasant – not one nasty one in sight. All perfectly civil, service-minded, I would say almost with a ervant mindset, and so clean in their ways. Indeed, I found myself picking up after me in our hotel room the way I never do at home – such is the influence of good, clean surroundings.

3 people I met, who still remained strangers after my brief encounter with them, caused me to begin to feel a bit of the profound love that the Lord has for the Japanese people as I looked on their faces. 2 of them were senior (as in elderly) volunteers at Seto city, a small prefecture outside Nagoya in Aichi province which had hosted the World Expo in 2005, and one had just joined them few months back. Each of them had character on their faces, and they were just beautiful, each in their own unique way, proudly wearing their volunteer uniform and cap.

And then there was the elderly lady who served us our kaiseki dinner in our room at Gero. That night she was in her kimono. Next morning she was back to remove our futon and serve us our breakfast in her western-styled uniform replete with apron and all, with her hair in pigtails tied with tiny red ribbons. Absolutely adorable!

I do not understand why my heart goes out to the Japanese people when our ancestors in Sing/Mal suffered so much at their hands during the Japanese occupation from their torturous ways. Perhaps because they have turned pacifist, and have learned how to bring joy and delight to others. I am particularly struck too by how they have maintained their cultured ways through it all. Our host at dinner one night at a dofu restaurant showed us how fast we Chinese gobble down our food in stark contrast to him who took time to savour the courses in between sips of his sake. Next night, another of our hosts amplified on that when he said that the Japanese “eat with their eyes” which means they take time to take in the artfully presented food items laid out before them before they start eating. It causes you to slow down your meal, and in the process, your pace of life. That’s good for the soul.

So between what the Japanese lifestyle can teach us in terms of civic-mindedness (you should see the way they go about recycling), cleanliness, service to others, an ability to laugh at incidents, slowing down to enjoy the pleasures of life, appreciating various art forms (witness their gardens), and the charm of their people itself, hubby and I have decided that Japan is a place we want to return to again and again.

But beyond sheer enjoyment for ourselves, I wonder what it takes to share with them the deep love that Christ has for them as a people, that love I so shallowly and fleetingly felt as I looked on at the 3 volunteers, amongst others. Is it a sign that the labour of all the missionaries and warriors who have been called to pray for Japan all these decades is beginning to bear fruit that today’s newspapers reported about Buddhism trying to make itself trendy through a fashion show on contemporary monk robes because the leaders there felt that they were losing their grip on the population?

God loves Japan, this much I know,  with a deep abiding love.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19)

“I have this against you….” is a ringing indictment from the Lord himself. Our pastor in giving us holy communion earlier had asked us to consider which aspects of our life needed a turning away from, which is true repentance. As I pondered this in my own life, I know one area that needs to be jettisoned is over-sensitivity to other peoples’ criticisms and over-reaction to injuries and jibes sent my way, most painful when it’s from those nearest and closest to us. And the Holy Spirit led me to this verse in which Paul says “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).

“No longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” ….I f Christ truly lived in me, I should be able to overlook an offence, turn the other cheek, overcome evil with good, shame my enemies with kindness, turn away wrath with a gentle answer. How many of us have truly enthroned You in the temple of our lives that like You we can undergo humiliation, sarcasm, jibes, unjust persecution and still say “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do?” Amazing love, that can save sinners such as us.

Was it that the Lord heard my heart’s cry for our lives to be sufficiently tenderised by Him that we can walk in His ways, that after service I ended up talking to 2 ladies, one recently widowed, the other a divorcee, over their family situation? And that Monica should call me later that night at home to talk of leadership issues in church ministry?

What my spirit tells me this morning a I quieten my soul is that He has been preparing me for a time as this, through my workplace struggles, tenderising me in the process through having to lean on Him for comfort and strength, that I may now in my tenderised state, be of meaningful use to Him.

The comforting part of the rebuke to the church at Laodicea is that Jesus ends off with this beautiful promise for a future and a hope: “Those whom I love I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent”. And to him who hears His voice, and opens the door, He promises to come in to him, and to dine with him, and he with Him.

There is hope yet, for the church and for us.

“And (if) My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Opening it, saw that there were some 20 pieces of delicately shaped chocolates sitting prettily in their customised-shaped cavities, except that there was one slim crescent one that was sitting atop the rest. The reactions of the 4 of us were so different. Leon, our nephew, declared that he thought the manufacturers were so generous in giving us a bonus piece. Hubby, on the other hand, immediately noticed the empty cavity and thought that we had been shortchanged of one. Eve on her part correctly observed that the piece had been displaced. The realist, that’s what Leon laughingly called her whilst we all laughed at his unfounded optimsim and “pa”s misplaced pessimism.  Me? Like Eve, I knew that this particular choc was out of place, and just wondered how it got there.

So what does that have to do with our Christianity? Nothing really, I suppose, except that what it says of us is that even when we look at things through the Christian lens, we can still see things so differently. Perhaps Eve came closest to reality as it really is, and does not expose herself to either disappointment from being let down through sheer optimism or self-inflicted unhappiness from the overly suspicious mind. of the pessimist.  But between the two, give me an optimistic mind any time.

“Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah:8:10)

That morning, there was this kingfisher similarly perched on the aerial.  Then, shortly after it had flown off, a pair of yellow-breasted birds (orioles?)  flew before my very eyes as I continued with my exercises.  As though that was not enough, it was capped with the flight of a green parrot that suddenly crossed my line of vision.

What a parade of bird colours in the course of a few minutes.  It spoke to me of the Lord’s pleasure to have paraded His creation before me like that.  And yes, it is still a beautiful world we live in.

This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise
The morning light, the lily white declare their Maker’s praise.

Lest I forget, I should record this incident that “Pa” and I encountered last Sun night heading out for dinner.  This one Sun, SW could not join us for dinner, so both of us decided to go to a newly-discovered Japanese restaurant opp Ikea, with Pa driving, although I’d offered to.  Nearing the complex, as he took the corner towards the car park, we suddenly felt a jolt, and realised that his left wheel had gone up a kerb.   As he reversed, we heard the car behind him honk him, and thinking that these were downright impatient and inconsiderate people, he drove off slowly, with more honking sounds at the back, only to find after a few metres that a car behind had swooped in front of him and blocked our way forward.  This young man stepped out of his open hood sports car and came towards us, wanting to know why we blithely drove on when we had knocked the car of his friend who was immediately behind us.

We were both shocked.  We had not realised in the least bit that there had been any physical encounter.  And checking his car out there in the night light, it did not look like it had sustained more than light scratches that could have been polished off.  But Pa had turned truculent, maintaining that he had no choice but to reverse even as we convinced them that we had not known that we had reversed into them.   To me, there was no denying we were in the wrong.  Whatever it is, no matter how close they were, we had not looked before reversing.   But when we deny accountability and maintain that the other party is at fault too, we set ourselves up for confrontation, and an outcome that is not favourable.

He says he should have just sat in the car and called the police for latter to settle.  I tell him they would have said this was a private matter that we should resolve ourselves.  But maybe he should have, because sometimes wives’ views don’t matter.  In any case, seeing that it was futile to argue, I offered to settle and paid them off with a $100, with him muttering $50., since it was mutually agreed that there was no point going through workshop checks and workshop claims.  I’m not sure if $50 would have brought the matter to a close quickly enough, annd perhaps I should have offered that i the first place, but I could see it was getting nowhere, and just wanted a quick resolution.

As I look back to this incident, I was reminded of the earlier accident I had (recounted in Slow Down, You’re going too Fast) when it was such a pleasant resolution of damage claims because I had immediately accepted that I was in the wrong in reversing into the car behind me.  Because of that, the owner of the other car was prepared to send his car to my workshop for a claims assessment after his own workshop had sent in a repair estimate which seemed high to me.  As it turned out, mine was $250 cheaper, and he gladly left his car with them to repair, trusting that I would honour the bill.  No acrimony, no lingering sour taste.

Made me reflect on the issue of accountability.  Yesterday, one of my staff told me that her temperamental boss had had to take urgent leave because she had accidentally cut her dog’s ear while trimming its hair,  preoccupied as she was with office matters.  This boss lady for once did not have anyone to blame for her own mistake.   For many of us, it is conditioning from childhood when our parents blame or scold those things around us when ill befalls us.  Most typical – a child falls down – and mummy immediately hits the ground with her palms, and says “naughty floor”!  How does one teach a child accountability that way?  Bible says “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it”.   Who was it who said the child is the father of the man?

. 1Cor 13:11
When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

Were they so deadened to warning signals that they treated such with sheer disregard?  Or were they merely blase?  Or super-confident that no disaster would befall them?  In stark contrast, somewhere in the text of the lead article on this page concerning the devastation in Sumatra, the writer quoted a farmer who said that the moment he realised that the earth under his feet was shaking, and ran home in search of his family,  he found that they had “flown to the hills”.

This immediately brought my thoughts to the verses in the Bible that talk of the devastation of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ second coming.  “Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains and let those who are in the midst of the city depart, and let not those who are in the country enter the city…”.  (Luke 21:21) This piece of warning appears in 3 of the Gospels (the others being Matt 24:16 and Mark 13:14), and if that’s not a significant warning, I don’t know what is.

And will we be caught looking in the other direction ourselves, ignoring the signs of the times?  Bible says in the last days, “men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited,  lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”.  That’s quite a litany, and isn’t that quite an apt description of what’s going on in the world these days?

Ploughing into Mark 13, I discovered that in verses 33-37, the words “be on the alert” appeared no less than 4 times, once in each verse, starting with v.33 in which the writer says “Take heed, keep on the alert, for you do not know when the appointed time is”. 

And from there, the Holy Spirit led me to consider Jesus’ parable of the 10 virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.  The 5 prudent ones took extra oil along with them for their lamps, whilst the foolish took their lamps, but no oil.  The bridegroom having been delayed, the virgins had fallen asleep when suddenly at midnight there was a shout for the girls to go out to meet the bridegroom.  In desperation, the 5 foolish ones sought the wise ones out for a share of their oil , for  their lamps were going out, but the latter wisely declined, saying that there would not be enough to go round for all of them.   Having no choice but to go to the dealers to buy their oil, they were  away when the bridegroom arrived and thus got locked out of the wedding feast that the 5 prudent ones gained admission to, because these were ready.  And Jesus ended this parable with these stark words, “Be on the alert, for you do not know the day nor the hour”.  

This parable is a graphic reminder to me not to be distracted by the pulls of the world and to lose sight of what is of eternal consequence – that truly the fields are white with harvest.  For one who is readily inclined to help those who seek help, I have to tell myself that I need to stay focused on doing the Lord’s will, and not be sidetracked by the frivolous, the tempting and even the salubrious causes that come along, if they are not in the Lord’s game plan for my life.   And so I need to train myself to be looking in the right direction, and not foolishly, like those people at Gurney Drive, seek that which is vain, futile, and worse, destructive.

And as I consider how we in turn are, as the psalmist says, “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14), I wonder how it is that people can deny the existence of God. I have always maintained that doctors especially, as they study the inner workings of the human body, and how our bodily functions come together, have no choice but to acknowledge that we are not accidentally put together. We have been marvelously created by one no less than the Maker of heaven and earth. And in that knowledge, we can declare, along with the psalmist “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained, What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him, and the son of many, that Thou dost care for him?”

And who is this who declares there is no God? It is as the psalmist says in Psalm 14:1: The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God”.