29th October 2009

Today I got new glasses. They're Geoffrey Beene frames and I only remember Geoffrey Beene's men's fragrance. They're dorkey-designy, I've decided. And it sort of fits me. I took a long time to look for new glasses because I really liked the last, last pair I got at Paris Miki in Singapore. There's something about glasses that make me feel new. Like a new pair of leggings. I wonder why that is?

There aren't too many things in Canada that makes me go Ooh and Aah. I remember so many more things in Europe and Japan that made me wide-eyed. I've been watching this J-drama called "Around 40" since Yuka told me about it. It was really absorbing although it's because of Amami Yuki that made it mostly watchable. I've also started on Fumo Chitai (The Wasteland)- a difficult movie to watch about how the Russian army detained Japanese soldiers in a Siberian prison. This made for TV movie is to commemorate Fuji (?) TV's 50th year anniversary. I like how they tell engaging stories that make you care for the characters.

I think I should blog more often. I've begun to love cooking interesting dishes once more. Thought I lost it a while back there...and cooking to the tunes of Wang Faye, mmm...

Oh well. Jaa, mata.

September Fresh Fish 2009

August Fresh Fish 2009

The five most powerful questions in the world

Today is August 1, 2009. It's Switzerland's national day. It's also the first day I woke up with a renewed hunger in my heart for God's wisdom. It's fair to say that I'm always questioning, and discovery is THE best part of any given day. The five most powerful questions in the world are:

Who, What, Why, When and How.

Simple isn't it?

Every person on this planet is trying to figure out their position and meaning as it relates to others and to the material world, aren't they? Self-help books on How to -fill in your own blanks- abound. It would be perfect if only for the fact that humans will follow the rules of any given self-help book until it becomes inconvenient. And inconvenient, it promises to be if not now, eventually. What are we inundated with?

How to be a great leader.
How to be successful.
How to be good in bed.

Wouldn't we all want to know how we can live a satisfying life, with a good reputation, to have good health and always enough on our plates? Wouldn't anyone want to be shown the best way to live? We all want that, but often on our own terms. I am such an example. The best way to live is not to follow another but to journey with one who will love and live through these experiences with me. I've journeyed with a few people who were there with me for parts of the journey, but only with Jesus have I experienced love and living in an intimate space called "My Life". You might be thinking, oh...Jesus freak, but I'd have to say, I'm really far from that. I'm too rational to be one. I am however, asking him a lot of questions from some of the promises I found in the Bible. I'd ask other religious leaders too, but for now, I'll ask Jesus:

What do you mean by giving me abundant life? How does that look like? (John 10)
You offer long life, riches and honour, guidance and satisfaction in you. (Prov 3) How can I commit to wanting that all the time, and always choosing your way?

It occurred to me a key verse in Proverbs 3: 5-6

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take."

Life, it seems, is a twisty, windy, multiple choiced variety of variations. From my viewpoint, there are three paths: what looks right to me, what looks wrong to me and the third possibility, which is the hidden path I cannot see and possibly never even considered! Every day, and several times in the day, I find myself asking Jesus, "What now? Or How do we do this? Or When will it happen? Or Who will be the one? Why can't that happen?"

Do you ask? Whom do you ask? I like asking Jesus because He's engaged with me in the nitty gritties of my life. He knows me. He knows me well and He used to lead me to places I didn't want to go. That was in my younger days where I decided to take him to places I'd rather be. After years of him letting me lead, I found out I was going in circles and not being really happy where I was. He allowed me that, you know. He did tell me that really wasn't what he would've wanted for me. He leads me today to the places I am curious why He wants me there. And in following His lead, I've discovered the path of submission and the joy of being directed to love others.

Why?

Because He loves me. How can a dead guy love me? How can I even sense He loves me? I guess in the same way I put to test how anyone who says they love me, actually love me. Here's one:

"A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare." Prov 15:1

How many of us have tested that? Why would this be in the Bible? Let me be honest. I never had to learn the second half of this verse. I am living proof that I can make tempers flare with harsh words! But the first half about giving a gentle answer? Wow. I do that and I get a discussion instead of a screaming match. Is it possible that God wants the best for us, to live in harmony despite being very different from each other? What a notion!

To be continued...

July Fresh Fish 2009

June Fresh Fish 2009

May Fresh Fish 2009

Vine and branches May 15, 2009

Today, I looked at a very familiar passage in John 15 about Jesus being the true vine and I am a branch connected to Him. He says that I have already been pruned and purified by the message He has given me. Then He gives this exhortation:

"Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in Me." - John 15:4

I asked myself if I have willfully severed myself from Jesus? What might that look like? Then I suddenly see how I can check if I had- by looking at fruitfulness in my life. What does fruit look like? Is it someone who has received Jesus in his life? Is it someone who is learning about Jesus? Is it a Bible Study full of attendees? Events I helped to create that has brought people into the Kingdom? Just what does fruit look like? I dropped my eyes to the verse 9:

"I have loved you even as the Father has loved Me. Remain in My love. When you obey My commandments, you remain in My love, just as I obey My Father's commandments and remain in His love."

How do I remain in Jesus' love? Scripture seems to be telling me when I obey His commandments, I remain in His love, just like how Jesus did to remain in His Father's love. What are Jesus' commandments? He made it amply clear to me this morning in verse
12 "This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you." How has Jesus loved me? Sacrificially. It is other-centred. He laid down His life for his friend. He laid down His life for me.

Then Wow. Love, love, love. When I love as Jesus loves the Father, obeying is joyful, because love received, will also reciprocated. The love relationship that Jesus has with the Father is fluidly yet concretely based on love. God showed me that loving each other is exactly like Jesus and His Father's relationship.

The fruits I will produce is the effect of my loving others. I cannot will these fruits to appear, but I can choose to love others. And by choosing to love others, I will bear much fruit. Am I choosing to love others? I think perhaps this is what it looked like the past week.

In loving others, I said yes to going out to Richmond for dinner with Karl and a friend he wanted to introduce me to. I was not feeling 100% and it was a long way to drive to Richmond, but I loved this friend of Karl's before I met her, and what God would have me do is worthwhile and joyful. I reaped the benefits of seeing her journey with Jesus in a new way.

In loving Josh (not his real name), I spent time listening to his faith journey. He had a very interesting past and had embraced many different faiths. To be able to spend time, and to hear another person's life story is a remarkable privilege to me. I was able to share in the briefest of minutes my own faith journey and how Jesus made a difference in my life.

My love tank is filled when I sit still and embrace the fullness of the cross and what Jesus did for me. For in His love with His Father, He hung on the cross for me. I am dearly loved, fully redeemed, and joyfully reinstated in His family. What a joy it is to love others the way Jesus loves me!

April 2009

Susan Boyle

Once in a purple moon (when it's long past being blue), you run across a story that is worth its salt, that touches the human soul because of its capacity to be true and humble, yet grandiose and larger than life. I was sent a link from my dear friend Lu to watch a phenomenon that is currently overtaking Youtube. Five days and it's hit 9 million viewers. There's something that is touching, strumming, and humming in the hearts of many of us.

Our world deems beauty a "talent" when all it is, is "personal, subjective like". If by external measurement we call one such person "beautiful", surely, that is a compliment for the Creator. Susan Boyle had talent long before she was discovered by Britain's got talent. Many commented on Youtube one should never judge the book by its cover and rightly so. Simon Cowell did an eyeroll when she said she was 47. Perhaps it's rare to see a 47 year old hit all the right notes. I might have done the same if I've sat through hundreds, if not thousands of wannabe singers who do better in the shower than on stage. Still, it warms my heart to see the underdog become top dog, someone older than most other contestants take her place on the stage, walk off after her rendition (out-Paigeing Elaine Paige, out-Fantineing Melora Hardin), completely unaware of protocol, and then curtsy at the end with "thanks" and sending an old-fashioned flying kiss to her instant fan club thundering a second ovation. (Maybe it was the first standing ovation that never sat down.)

It's one of those timeless moments where I can hear God whisper "My ways are far different from the world's, My ways are higher than yours." He takes the simple, the humble, the weak and the marked down castoffs and lifts them to where He is. All the talent in Susan's voice can not make up for the effort and the courage she showed to actually stand before her critics. In an age where television sells epidermal beauty, it's a breath of fresh air to see something this surprising, this polarizing, this positive.

March 2009

February 2009 Fresh Fish

January 2009 New Chum

Fresh Fish December 2008

Fresh Fish November 2008

Fresh Fish October 2008

Fresh Fish September 2008

Fresh Fish August 2008

Singapore Photo Journal 2008

Fresh Fish July 2008