The Heart of Christmas

I didn't feel like putting up the Christmas tree this year. It can be such a hassle, lugging it out of the store, hanging up  all the stuff and having to dismantle it all down again.  I think probably only the cat appreciates the tree, for it gets such a kick out of it, clawing at and knocking off the baubles everyday. Besides I saw no point in such labor, for the children have long since grown out of Christmas trees. Worse, they have even grown out of God. I am just thankful at the very least, they still pander to their mother's whim to accompany her to church on only 2 occasions a year; Christmas and Easter. So I didn't want to bother about the tree, even when my eldest offered to do it up. I am thinking, what an irony - the self-proclaimed  atheist in the family is the one who puts up the tree and the one who is playing Christmas carols on her phone.  God is funny alright.

I didn't even feel like going Christmas shopping for myself. The children of course have already 'received' their gifts -  they had done their own shopping on their own time with my money, obviously. As for me, personally  I don't really fancy walking for hours looking at rows upon rows of clothes, shoes, bags and all the paraphernalia of a typical woman's wardrobe. I get tired very quickly of trying to decide if this, that or the other is a better buy.  Someone said,  anything in your closet you haven't worn in 3 years should be thrown out.  I am still wearing stuff from 5 years back, so I guess I am not exactly an active consumerist. Thank goodness the economy doesn't depend on people like me.

An old fren I was lunching with had nothing good to say about that, or anything else for that matter. Which going by the results of some poll I read sums up just about how everybody else feels too. The commonest description of the current times,  at least in the Chinese language, was 'bitter.'  Life, apparently, isn't rosy at all; in fact it could get depressing especially for people who are used to tinsel-laden trees, santa claus, reindeers, carols and all that 'Christmassy' jazz. A neighboring country has banned the use of such 'religious symbols'. Heck, even sending Christmas greetings can get you into jail for 5 years of your life.

If you think that's bad, it can get downright nasty. In some countries, a Christian runs the risk of being killed for daring to believe in Jesus Christ as the only Way, the Truth and the Life. Pew Research statistics apparently indicate that Christians faced harassment of one form or another  in no fewer than 151 countries worldwide (there are only 196 countries in the world by the way). Of course Christians aren't the exception in being a persecuted minority. Happily, at the other end of the pendulum, we have another neighboring non-Christian country who deployed nearly 9000 cops to protect churches over the Christmas period. And right in our own backyard, we have a Sultan who big-heartedly calls for his subjects to celebrate other communities' festivals.

 But having said all that, it's sobering to think that I may one day be staring down the barrel of a gun if I insist on proclaiming Jesus as God. Am I prepared? I would like to say yes, not because it's the 'spiritually-correct' thing to say. But because it's the right thing to do, since Jesus has set an example for me and all who call themselves by His name in letting people who misunderstood, disbelieved, hated and rejected Him to kill Him. Not out of suicidal tendencies or weakness or inability to fight back for His rights or His life, but out of love.

A love that can't be snuffed out, ever. Not by persecution, not even by death itself. A love that's totally incomprehensible to human minds. A love that when freely embraced by even one heart can, not only change that 1 person, but shake an entire world over 2000 years and still counting down the line of time. Christmas was when that Love touched mankind in a visible, experience-able relationship beyond the trappings of mere religion. So that all who choose to engage in it can stand unshakeable in the knowledge of a firm faith, hope and love even in the midst of the most terrible and horrible of circumstances, whatever that may be, come today or tomorrow. That's peace beyond human understanding, joy unspeakable whose source is love divine.

Take away the tree, the songs, even the church itself, but I can and will still celebrate. Because all those are not what Christmas is about, they are definitely not what I need as a Christian. For it's not Christmas but Christ, the only reason for Christmas, the One who lives in my heart, whom I celebrate. And that nothing, absolutely nothing, can steal, kill or destroy.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord... Romans 8:38-39 

Published MMO 24/12/15

It's True, All of It

What's there not to like about Star Wars VII? When I booked the tickets, I was muttering that it better be worth the hefty price for our family of 4. Well, it was indeed a delightful 2 1/2 hours romp, right from the word go.  I am not exactly a die-hard fan, but I do remember  the dashing Jedi Luke and the famous line..."May the force be with you." What with all the hype about the latest, of course I had to catch The Force Awakens.

In my mind, Han Solo was still the swash-buckling hero and Princess Leia was still wearing the white flowy gown with 2 tightly wound-up hair-blobs at the sides of her head. Well, that's really space-aeons ago... how they have aged, with white hair, eye-bags, wrinkles and expanded bodies. That's reality check, whether it's happening in a Hollywood movie or in the humdrum routine of time passing us all by. Even now, we are counting down to the end of 2015 already. Where did all my years go? I don't feel any older. But as the saying goes, so much water has passed under the bridge of life, even for the Star Wars team.

Now it's a whole new generation taking over. So there are new heroes and new heroines. All very 'politically correct' if I may add.  You can't go wrong with a strong female lead - even her name "Rey" is so  neutral-sounding - and a black bad-guy-turned-good hero. It helps also that the former is pretty and the latter funny. Throw in a cutesy ball of a robot with its musical squeeks, tons of thick, fast action with awesome looking flying machines and explosive space battles....like I said, what's there not to like!

Even the landscapes were great; the sweep of vistas from yellow sand dunes to green forests and white snow was a feast for the eyes.  I can relate immediately to Rey's poignant comment as she flies over a vast expanse of forest "I didn't think there was so much green in the whole galaxy." How sad we often take things for granted in our world, forgetting that there is actually still a lot of beauty around us. We have become so blase because we see so much (too much) ugliness around us, which really is very much our own doing, if we stop to think what we, as the human race, have done to this earth and to each other.

Just the other day, I noticed dew drops glistening on the grass during my early morning walk. I stopped to examine them... Some were single drops, some 'sat' in rows upon each blade of grass, all perfectly balanced. All so tiny yet perfectly formed solid circles of water. The next morning I wanted to take a snap-shot but there were none though the grass was wet. Maybe because the temperature was different,  maybe I was 3 minutes too late, or too early.  I guess that's life;  so many of us just never pause long enough often enough to notice the miraculous in the ordinary.  It made me wonder anew at the work of a Creator who designed life so beautifully for us to enjoy.  Unfortunately nowadays we don't even think there is a Creator, since we have got something called science. And tragically, we don't even know what we are missing when our 'antennas' are tuned only to 1 (ie our own) 'channel.'

I like how Han Solo puts it, "There are a lot of rumors, stories... I thought it was a bunch of mumbo-jumbo: a magical power in the battle between good and evil, the dark side". He was talking about the Force. And there is the heroine, gawky-eyed, because she too had heard stories of  long ago, of a 'life-power' that surrounds and penetrates living beings and binds the galaxy together.  She had heard exploits of  savior-knights who used the power for good to fight against those who would use it for evil and destruction. But she had never seen them. They must be ...just  myths spun by imaginative story-tellers.

The unseen is always hard to believe, especially for independent, totally capable people like our kick-ass heroine who can hold her own in a man's world of fighter planes and a villain who tries to literally pick her mind apart. Even when she is standing face-to-face with  her legendary real-life hero who states explicity, "The crazy thing is - it's true..all of it..It's all true." Even when she 'hears' a voice leading her to discover Luke's light saber and against all logic, she experiences a trip into the unknown. In spite of being told by an eye-witness, in spite of a personal encounter, she still rejects the call of 'the Force', choosing to run away instead.

That's exactly how many are apt to treat God in this day and age...just the 'spinning' of over-loaded imaginations. After all, who in their 'right' mind would believe a virgin could give birth or a crucified dead and buried Jesus could resurrect and physically ascend into the clouds? 'Logically', how can Jesus' death wipe out the sin of all mankind? No book, no matter how holy, no eye-witness no matter how independent, will convince the human skeptic of the obvious impossibilities of such outrageous claims. Spiritual  things - the stuff termed religion - is dismissed as a crutch for the weak, an opiate for the masses. After all, there really is no need for a mysterious God to create man or woman; it's so much easier and less messy to believe our ancestors 'just happen' to evolve out of ...whatever.  Life is so much less complicated  if we don't have to consider whether there is heaven or hell. It's all up to us, it doesn't matter anyway.

But it does matter. As Rey finds out ultimately when she sees the one she loves hurt and seemingly dead, when she realizes there are bigger things than herself, her desires, her rights or her independence at stake, when 'the force' awakens something inside her, that's when she 'knows' it really is true. The unproven unseen has become reality. Nothing can be the same for her again. Finally she walks away from her old life as a scavenger, free to cross over into a future where she is destined to be more, much more. I suspect there's going to be a new Jedi knight born in the next Star Wars.

Actually it's an ancient story being replayed time and again through the history of human civilization. Light over darkness, good over evil. Heaven and hell. God and the devil. They aren't some magical mumbo-jumbo superstition or intellectual puzzles to be solved. Does it make any difference what we believe about them? Of course it does, truth always matters, whether known or unknown, acknowledged or rejected. Choices always matter, because they lead to consequences, one way or another.  In the words of the classic poem by Robert Frost...

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Even as Jesus Himself said to a doubting Thomas, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen  and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

Worth The Risk

The reviews weren't that good, in fact one called it the most boring Bond movie in 30 years. Still I had to catch Spectre, the latest 007 flick, for the sake of catching it. It is Bond, James Bond, even if I found it rather 'forget-able' . Maybe I am getting too old for the antics of everyone's fave spy. Maybe I just don't like Daniel Craig's steely looks. Well, at least they cut down on the philandering episodes; I will never understand nor appreciate why Bond has to bed almost every female that crosses his path. Ok, I know, it's just 'expected' of macho-man. Still the ending of this Bond redeems him somewhat, as the never-say-die spy actually chooses the girl instead of his career; effectively terminating his days as arguably moviedom's most famous secret agent/playboy. The final shot of him walking away from his boss at one end and turning towards his lady-love at the other end with the theme song playing the stirring lyrics.... "is this where I give it all up... for you I have to risk it all... " is obviously so contrived and oh, so soppy.

It struck a chord in me though, as I wondered what most precious thing would I give up in this world? Who would I 'risk it all' for? Some weeks back, an American preacher came to my church with a testimony so moving I attended not just one, but 3 of his 4 sessions with us. Long-haired Pastor Bill Wilson is no ordinary pastor. He runs the world's largest Sunday school in New York, ministering to some 100,000 children in his services. But that's not the clincher. The clincher is he does it in the inner city ghetto of Brooklyn in the roughest of rough neighborhoods ; in fact he and his team live in the ghetto themselves. The church is a warehouse. At 67 years old, he still drives a bus, not a Mercedes - to pick up the children. He goes around the ghetto neighborhood, visiting homes of gangsters, drug addict dads and prostitute moms. He's been mugged, beaten, even shot at. His face still bears the disfiguring scars of a bullet just missing his head.  Best of all - he's white and everyone around him is black.... Talk about giving it all up and risking it all...

This is no fictitious dare-devil James Bond. This is so real it's unreal. But it's easy for me to relate to it , because every Saturday, I experience  a small part of such a world in the streets of KL Chinatown. It's a totally different world from my own. People seem to think I am so sacrificial, so noble, giving up my Saturday afternoons to serve folks whom society has written off.  But really the 3 hours I give away every Saturday is not worthy to be termed a sacrifice. The worst risk I have ever encountered is a purely psychological fear that I might get infected by some virus or other as I sit and talk  to HIV positive people, TB patients  or those with yukky-looking skin sores oozing  pus. I did get threatened by a man with obvious mental problems a couple of times, but he has become my friend ever since I started serving him tea personally.

After it's all over, I drive my car to go home to my nice double-storey house, take a nice cleansing shower and go to sleep in a nice bed. And I can tick off another Saturday on my 'do good' list. But for all the 'good' that I do,  I have never been homeless, never had to sleep on the streets. My pockets may not have much, but they have never been totally empty. I have always had (at least)  3 square meals a day in my stomach. I have a job I love.  So in fact I have not given up anything much at all nor have I risked my life by any measure of reckoning. I was supposed to go to India on missions, but the trip was cancelled because of bad floods there. I couldn't help thinking ...is my life so precious that I can't risk the inconvenience or the dangers of being caught up in a flood?  Man, no need to even talk about far away India, I don't even volunteer for relief work in our own back-yards in Kelantan, Johor or any one of the several states in M'sia already hit by floods.

Of course I can console myself that I shouldn't compare nor should I feel guilty. After all there are many ways to 'do good'. So I can't do much, but the very least I can do is talk about Jesus; that's the best good I can do, given the big mouth that I have. The worst that can happen is I risk being rejected or being thought of as a fanatic, a nut-case or an extremist  every time I proclaim Jesus as the only Way, the Truth and the Life. Although apparently, in some places in the world, talking about Jesus can land me in court or in  jail or even worse get my head chopped off. But then what would my life be worth if I kept quiet about the best thing that's ever happened to me, that can happen to anyone and everyone? If I dare call myself a Christian, I should dare to give it all up, to risk it all, for the very simple reason Christ considered me worthy, not just to risk His life for, but to lay it down completely.

We make much of human love. James Bond can give up a career that's the core of his life for the sake of a woman's love; he was prepared to take the risk because he considered this love worth the sacrifice of all else he held dear.  That so resonates with the romantic in us. Yet how many know that God Himself is the greatest Lover of all, because His love knows no bounds; it doesn't even depend on the beloved's response. Even if I didn't love God, even if I reject Him, He would still love me, He would still want to save me from a sure trip to hell. In fact, the wonder of it is He already did when Jesus sacrificed Himself to be hung on a cross, all for my sake. Now that's love. How can I resist such a love? How can I not respond to such a love? And knowing all that, how can I not do likewise?  I can't save the world, but I can tell 1 man, 1 woman, 1 child that God considers him/her worth loving and dying for. I can pray, trusting that that will make a difference to that 1 life, somehow, someday.

Like the apostles of old who all told the same story and died in the face of persecution , like so many un-named others down the pages of history who did the same, like so many who still continue to believe and do the same, I too must be prepared to give it all up... for Him I have to risk it all.  Otherwise my life and my faith is worth nothing.

"...I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace" - Acts 20:24