Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men.
Proverbs 22:29
Love
by Emily Dickinson
IX.
Have you got a brook in your little heart,
Where bashful flowers blow,
And blushing birds go down to drink,
And shadows tremble so?
And nobody knows, so still it flows,
That any brook is there;
And yet your little draught of life
Is daily drunken there.
Then look out for the little brook in March,
When the rivers overflow,
And the snows come hurrying from the hills,
And the bridges often go.
And later, in August it may be,
When the meadows parching lie,
Beware, lest this little brook of life
Some burning noon go dry!
Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day?
by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Love is anterior to life
by Emily Dickinson
Love is anterior to life,
Posterior to death,
Initial of creation, and
The exponent of breath.
Emily Dickinson, c. 1864
I could not drink it, Sweet,
Till You had tasted first,
Though cooler than the Water was
The Thoughtfulness of Thirst.
Ben Jonson (1573–1637) from "Song to Celia"
Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I'll not look for wine.
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Despite stories about overnight millionaires going off the rails, money does not have the dramatic effect we might think.
"People are frightened it's going to change them as a person but in fact it's their lifestyle that alters. If they were a kind, warm-hearted person before, they will be after."
"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners..."
He is able, He is able
I know He is able
I know my God is able
To carry me through
He heals the broken-hearted
And sets the captives free
He makes the lame to walk again
And the blind to see
He came from a place of glory
To set the captives free
He gave His life in love for me
And caused my eyes to see...
Isaiah 55:6-9 (New International Version)
Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
... I knew Bono is special and he's been doing many wonderful things in recent years, and was a Time magazine Person of the Year. But now I'm beginning to see where his passion stems from... [continue]
"By faith Abraham, even though he was past age - and Sarah herself was barren - was enabled to become a father because he considered Him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore." (Hebrews 11:11-12)
"I die before my time and my body shall be given back to the earth and devoured by worms. What an abysmal gulf between my deep miseries and the eternal Kingdom of Christ. I marvel that whereas the ambitious dreams of myself and of Alexander and of Caesar should have vanished into thin air, a Judean peasant-Jesus-should be able to stretch his hands across the centuries, and control the destinies of men and nations."
I am disappointed with myself. I am disappointed not so much with particular things I have done as with aspects of who I have become. I have a nagging sense that all is not as it should be.
"It's a process."
"Does he stay there on his knees, moaning? No, he gets up and tries again, and again, till the end of the match. And when the match's over, he goes for training if needed."
We need to DEVELOP pple before we can mobilize them... so important if we want to rally ppl to a cause... hmm... tink this is something I need to grow in more and more...
When Barnabas met Saul, he saw beyond Saul's violent past - as a persecutor of Christians and one who was party to Stephen's murder... and how Barnabas discipled Saul till Saul became known as Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles... cool! :)
Hee, reminded of what Alan preached last time, that God actually thinks better of us than we think of ourselves...
Think God was reminding me that I need to help encourage and expand Zhiwei's horizons... this bro really has a very sweet and teachable spirit, so hee, really hope can help expand his horizons...
Reminded of how Alan discipled Zewei, to the point where Zewei wrote an essay for some very prestigious nationwide essay competition - and ZW was one of the top 50 entrants... imagine! Because Zewei's not one of the naturally arts student types or what... he's much more of the engineering types... yet he even went on to work at a high-level government workplace...
The iPhone started out the way a lot of cool things do: as something completely different. A few years ago, Steve Jobs noticed how many development dollars were being spent--particularly in the greater Seattle metropolitan area--on what are called tablet PCs: flat portable computers that work with a touch screen instead of a mouse and keyboard. Jobs, being Jobs, was curious. He had some Apple engineers noodle around with a touch screen. When they showed him what they came up with, he got excited.
So excited he forgot all about tablet computers. He had bigger game to hunt. [continue...]
The game is a little different this time. With the iPod, Jobs essentially created a whole new product category. The cell-phone turf is already held by entrenched armies of phonemakers and service providers. They may not be as hip or innovative as Apple, but they will shred one another for nickels, and there are a lot of nickels on the ground. One point of market share in the handset business is worth $1.4 billion. Motorola, having sold more than 50 million Razrs with not enough to show for it, will probably be reverse engineering the iPhone before it hits the stores. "We already have cell phones and smart phones, so the marketplace is already very competitive," says industry analyst Jeff Kagan. "We have not seen Apple compete in the insanely intense, competitive wireless marketplace."
But it wasn't just the money. Cell phones interested Jobs because even though they do all kinds of stuff--calling, text messaging, Web browsing, contact management, music playback, photos and video--they do it very badly, by forcing you to press lots of tiny buttons and navigate diverse heterogeneous interfaces and squint at a tiny screen. "Everybody hates their phone," Jobs says, "and that's not a good thing. And there's an opportunity there." To Jobs' perfectionist eyes, phones are broken. Jobs likes things that are broken. It means he can make something that isn't and sell it to you at a premium price.
Why is Apple able to do things most other companies can't? Partly by charging for it: the iPhone will cost $499 for a 4-GB model, $599 for 8-GB. And partly because unlike most companies, Apple does its own hardware, its own software and its own industrial design. When it all takes place under one roof, you get a kind of collaborative synergy that makes unusual things happen. (Vertical integration in practice here.)
Apple also places an unusual emphasis on interface design. It sweats the cosmetic details that don't seem very important until you really sweat them. "I actually have a photographer's loupe that I use to make sure every pixel is right," says Scott Forstall, Apple's vice president of Platform Experience. "We will argue over literally a single pixel." As a result, when you swipe your finger across the screen to unlock the iPhone, you're not just accessing a system of nested menus, you're entering a tiny universe in which data exist as bouncy, gemlike objects. You can actually pinch an image with two fingers and make it smaller. Because there's no mouse or keyboard, just that touch screen, there's a powerful illusion that you're physically handling data.
In The Silver Chair, C.S. Lewis comments on the enchanting hold that modernist thought has exercised over the Christian faith. Modernity promised that our technological and scientific expertise had the power to elevate and even 'save' human life. The modern movement sold itself as being free from emotional bias and influence. Facts were going to be the way of the future and with a scientific method that eliminated much of our subjective reasoning we were on our way to a bigger and better world. Our time, a postmodern time, is pointing out that, though there have been some remarkable technological advances the human condition is not largely improved. The argument could be made that we are further from the Enlightenment goals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, than when these 18th century values were raised up.
Lewis takes on the limits of rationality and addresses the problem in this the fourth book of Narnia. In a reasonable way, Lewis challenges a worldly orientation that would remove all signs of God in favor of reason.
Once Jill and Scrubb (Eustace's nickname) have been reunited and set on their task, they meet up with one of Lewis's most creative characters. They meet Puddleglum, the Marshwiggle. As his name would suggest, he is a bit more like Eyore than Tigger, a dour soul who sees the dark cloud before any silver lining. And as his species suggests, he has more amphibious qualities than human characteristics about him. Though as tall as a human, he's a cold-blooded type of creature. Puddleglum becomes the children's guide and companion as they seek to save the lost Prince Rilian. The Prince has been under the spell of the Emerald Witch who commands the realm of Underworld. There is no sun or stars or grass in this dark underground kingdom. The children and Puddleglum find the Prince, but also the Witch and fall under her enchantment as well.
In their struggle to keep from being totally bewitched, the companions try to describe where they are from, Overworld. It gives them hope to think of their homeland and it has some power to counteract the Witch's spell which is accompanied by a soft thrumming music with a warm fire and heavy sweet smelling incense.
The first thing the companions try to describe is the sun. The Witch asks that they tell her what they mean. The Prince responds that it is like the lamp that hangs from the ceiling, only much bigger and brighter. She asks the Prince what it is that the sun hangs from and the Prince has difficulty describing it. She concludes that they are like children having a go at make-believe. They have seen a lamp and now they are making up the idea of a bigger and better lamp and calling it the sun. In reality, she says, this is only a dream. (When you read Freud's The Future of an Illusion you get the same arguments!)
Next they mention the name of Aslan. This makes the Witch anxious but she continues her steady strumming and speaking. They tell her he is a lion. She asks them what a lion is. When they say, 'Have you ever seen a cat?' she once again suggests that they have made up the idea of a lion by imagining a bigger and better cat. Again, just wishful thinking.
After all this haggling the companions are nearly completely under her spell. They begin to agree that there is no Overworld - only the Witch's Underworld. Then Puddleglum does a brave thing. He rallies his nerve and awakens enough to go over and stamp out the fire with his webbed feet. In doing so three things happen:
1. The smell of burnt Marshwiggle begins to awaken everyone.
2. The Witch breaks off with her strumming and humming and screams.
3. The pain clears Puddleglum's mind most of all.
Then Puddleglum speaks.
"One word, Ma'am," he said, coming back from the fire; limping, because of the pain. "One word. All you've been saying is quite right, I shouldn't wonder. I'm a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face on it. So I won't deny any of what you said. But there's one more thing to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things - trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one…That's why I'm going to stand by the play world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia."
Enlightenment thinking and reasoning pressured the church into believing that the old categories weren't strong enough to hold out against all that humankind was learning. The new science was discovering things that the biblical witness couldn’t account for, and we needed to begin making our arguments to science. It is Leander Keck's line that I use for my own purposes here, that the church needed to make God palatable to the world. We began to play by the rules of the culture. The interesting thing is that if we play by the cultural rules of reason, then our results will be measured by those standards. God does not measure the way we do. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways," says the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8)
When we decided we needed to be rationalistic in our proofs for God, we abandoned our main story. We began to give evidence to demand verdicts. We spoke of the faith as though it were something to be learned in law school or the science lab. We lost our way because we forgot our homeland. This is what our companions remember. And when Puddleglum suggests that their made up world beats the Witch's so called, real world, hands down, a cheer goes up. He's nailed it.
Christians have tried to make the Gospel of Jesus Christ palatable to the rules of human endeavor. Instead what we have needed to do is to live out the faith in profound ways. This is what Tod Bolsinger's book is about in some ways. The integrity of the faith is hard to come by. We recommend the faith to others because it is true. It is truly the best way to understand our existence and the existence of the universe. Modernity tries to get us to prove this in some scientific methodology of facts presented to be voted up or down. Our task is to try to live in to our story as best we can and present it as the one hopeful alternative. Post modernity is open to competing narratives of the way things are. Under modern rules we tried to trump science by appealing to scientific methods with faith facts. It was a doomed undertaking. The church under modern thought kept trying to make God palatable to modern tastes and thought processes. Post modernity at least has given everyone some breathing room. How has this happened? Well, the easiest way of seeing this is to say that the modern experiment hasn't delivered what was promised. Nor can it. This allows for all other stories to be heard on equal footing, including Christianity.
One thing that we must be careful of is not submitting to modern rules again. We cannot make the argument for the faith from a superior position, as though our facts are indisputable compared to others. We must adopt the posture of Jesus in addressing humanity. We come humbly are open and serving and dying. No high-handed manipulation. No oppressive authoritarianism. Simple service will do. It is the way of Jesus.
I'm reminded of "Pascal's wager" at this point. [My paraphrase] If I bet on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and am proved wrong, I lose nothing. But if I wager against it, and it is true, I am most to be pitied.
This is Puddleglum. He determines that even if his world is made-up it is better than any reality he has been shown by the Witch. The truth is he has a vision of reality that will punch holes in this illusion being offered.
May we all live as like Narnians as we can.
But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you... Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth... See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."
I'm not saying that when the guy and girl meet up, they should talk about nothing but heaven and angels and God knows what else... haha... I think even God Himself would bend down and tell them, "Aiyah, don't be so 'spiritual' lah!!! I brought you two together..." ;D
But it's important to remember, especially for us Christians, to remember that at the end of it all, it's really about building up a strong and enduring friendship that will last for all of life. And in heaven, there's no such thing as marriage. Sounds bad at first, but think about it, in heaven, we shall know each other FULLY, even better than the closest husband and wife can do so on earth. There are things that'll blow our minds up there in heaven - it's just too wonderful to describe.
And after all, I read the testimonies of old, old couples... the thing they all have in common are that they are each other's best FRIENDS. :) Of course, it's not just about friendships, but also about taking care of one another, helping one another grow... come to think of that, isn't that what friendship is all about? :)
