Singapore Skyline Video

One of my fellow Regent-College friends have captured the typical busy Singapore lifestyle with a beautiful video. I understand that it took her many months and lots of energy to put them all together. Kudos to you Rachel for a job well done! You have that special talent.

Singapore Lights Timelapse from Weehan Yeo on Vimeo.

As I reflect on the pictures, I cannot help but sense the irony of life in Singapore. "Everything seems to change (lights etc) and yet, nothing has really changed (stationary buildings etc)." Is this another enigmatic expression of a busy life? I remember someone saying to me about being too busy: So busy going places, that at the end, one realizes he/she has not really gone anywhere.

ks

Melting....

Today is another of those hot record in Vancouver BC. My normal activities have come to a standstill. See the news here. There is a news video here that tells it all.

A Heat Record!

Sweltering heat! A new record has been set for Vancouver BC, at 34 degrees Celsius (93F). I could not even do my normal work. It is said that today will be the hottest (VancouverSun). Even with help of the friendly trees surrounding my house, the heat is still very uncomfortable. Heat practically emanates from the ground surface, as if they are solar heat generators. I have experienced high 34-35 degree heat before back in the Far East. Yet, I find 34 degrees rather hard to handle, given the thinner Northern atmosphere.

However, take comfort, my dear friends in Vancouver. Soldiers in Iraq have to carry heavy gear on their bodies on top of higher than 38 degree C (100F) (USAToday). Some of the top 10 cool tips I have for taking the heat cheerfully are listed below. You can let me know if you have more recommendations.

1. WATER: Drink lots of It.
2. FREQUENCY: Take care to drink water more frequently
3. LOTION: Put some UV lotion to avoid sun-burn
4. SHOWER: Take a nice cold shower. If you have access to a swimming pool, use it.
5. LIBRARY: Go to the Library.
6. OFFICE: Stay in the air-conditioned office
7. ICE-CREAM: Have a nice cone. I prefer the Popsicle.
8. SLOW DOWN: This helps moderate heat from inside our bodies
9. PRAY: Ask the LORD for a cool relief at periodic times of the day.
10. MALL: Go to a shopping mall. Enjoy the cool atmosphere.

Above all, try to stay cool emotionally and not do stupid things because of the heat, like blaring our loud music to disturb the peace, impatience at the traffic and rude behaviour when outside. Stay cool by simply going slow. Trust that it not only helps our neighbours, it will also help us.

Now let me take my kids for a cool walk to the library, then the mall. Cannot do much work in the heat.

ks

• More tips on tackling the heat wave (Charmeck)
• "Beating the Heat in NYC" About.com
• Sleeping tips (myNorthwest)

Ten Best Backup Strategies for Mac OS X

This is one of the best writeups on backup/restore software for the Mac OSX. Reminder to my readers who work with computers. Remember that backup is not only a necessary one, it can save you lots of heartaches. Do it as often as possible, especially if you put in lots of hours into your papers, projects or whatever information. What's the point of working your heads off, only to find all the information gone when the hard disk crashes or the computer gets stolen?

Backup. Backup. Backup.

conrade

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- Credits and Link to "Simple Thoughts"

"Scandal of the Public Evangelical?"

This article (posted 2nd July 2009) by Mark Galli of Christianity Today, makes an interesting observation about ongoing public perceptions of the American evangelical image. The way he presents them shows public Christian figures have turned professed evangelicalism into a 'scandal.' My question, can these three examples be fairly representative of a true 'scandal?' For every piece of 'bad publicity,' what about the 'good?' More often than not, bad news sells. We must take that into consideration. I shall first summarize briefly Galli's article. Then I shall give some of my reasons why Galli's arguments are flawed for at least 4 reasons.

Three Examples = 'scandal?'

Scandal #1 - Carrie Prejean

As Miss California who champions conservative evangelical beliefs, she argues against gay marriage, only to be dethroned later.

Scandal #2 - Gosselins of "Jon and Kate plus 8" fame

As devout Christians hoping to be a positive witness on the TV screen, they are now in the process of a bitter divorce.

Scandal #3 - Mark Sanford

A prominent politician who professes conservative Christian faith, he admitted adultery.

Galli goes on to say that these "Christians could have been models of our faith." He then goes on to point out that while it is a noble thing for Christians to strive their best to practice their faith publicly, they should not forget that Christianity is about grace. He made a sharp observation that many well-meaning Christians try to avoid 'cheap grace' through acts of good works. He then says that the "flaws of Jon and Kate" reflects the movement's flaws.

His main point is that sometimes, Christians themselves try too hard to be Christians. They do so to the point that they forget that Christianity is not about accumulating good works upon good. It is about grace unlimited. Yet, for Galli, the problem with evangelicals is that they feel 'grace' is not enough.

My Comments

Galli argues it rather well, but I find them not convincing enough for four reasons.

1. Why single these examples out?
   I remember a time when I was working as a network and systems administrator. At that time, no news is truly good news. People read their emails without any hiccup. Their printers work fine and IT operations seem like a breeze. Of course, a lot of efforts have been put in to ensure that systems remain in tip-top conditions. All it takes, is an unexpected outage, and the phones will start to ring. The 'villain' becomes the systems guy. In other words, when nothing happens, nobody notice. When something happens, everybody sits up and take notice. For Galli to bring out 3 prominent figures above, why not highlight 3 other non-prominent people who ARE making a positive change in the world? An opportunity missed to present a balanced picture?
   
   
2. A Representative Pool?
   Can people like Prejean, the Gosselins and Sanford form a true picture of the evangelical community? I believe that even non-Christians are clever enough not to generalize. While these three popular personalities 'could' have been role models, the truth is, none of them, even if they did not fall, can ever claim to be role models. Anyone who claims to be one ought to shudder and try to avoid the limelight. Rick Warren is one such person who attempts the live low-profile life, despite his fame and popularity. He hardly grant interviews and prefers to concentrate on ministry rather than TV. A true role model must be quiet and keeps a low profile.
   
   
3. Scandal of Idolatrous Human Perception
   The real 'scandal' is actually idolatrous perception. Firstly, one can unfairly project expectations on public figures. The human person is never perfect. If the press and media decides at the onset to tarnish a public figure, they can always find a way. One way is to continually pressurize a public person like a stress-test, to see when and how they fall. This reminds me of "Schadenfreude" which is a German word to describe people's fascination into "bad things that happen to other people." (see my article here)
   
   Secondly, what about 'role models' that turn into idols themselves? Isn't that more dangerous? For instance, it will be sad that Mother Teresa become so idolized that people worships her rather than the God she worships. If role models turn into idols, such models become more dangerous than an amalgamation of Prejean-Gosselin-Sanford combined!
   
   
4. Galli's Audience
   I believe that Galli may be writing to a specific target audience, who need to make some sense of the current state of American evangelicalism. As people who strive to live an honest and exemplary Christian life, their efforts to be a positive witness to non-believers may have been hindered by questions surrounding: "What about the other Christians?" In other words, Galli's article is for a specific group of people, not Christians in general.
   
   Role models may be important, but they do not fully represent Christians overall. Who knows, in our efforts to make 'role models' out of anyone, not only will we unconsciously make them out to be idols-for-Christ, we may even cause them to stumble in the process, through prolonged exposure to high expectations.
   

Galli's conclusion that Christianity is one of grace is something I agree with. Yet, his article ought also to actively behave like a message of grace, to be shown to the three unfortunate persons he highlighted in the first place. Don't forget, that Christ died for all. That includes Miss Prejean, the Gosselins as well as Mr Sanford.

ks

Spicing Up My Blog

This blog has been in operation since July 2005. I am looking spicing it up. Today, I added in a local weather widget that you can obtain from iBegin weather. Unfortunately it is only applicable for US and Canada locations only. Hopefully, the owners will work on going global soon. You can see the local weather in Vancouver, BC Canada on the right side of this blog. Check back for more spices in the next couple of weeks. Enjoy.

If you have suggestions on how to spice up blogs, let me know. I'll appreciate it.

ks

Book Review: "The Deeper Journey"

This review is concurrently published at sabbathwalk.org

ks
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Title: The Deeper Journey
Author: Robert Mulholland, Jr
Published: IVP, 2006 (168pp)
Reviewed: 9 July 2009 (Conrade Yap)

Robert Mulholland writes some of the best books about reading for transformation and spiritual formation. Personally, I feel that theological education needs to incorporate spiritual formation exercises for everyone, students, faculty as well as administrative staff. Mulholland’s latest book is another additional help for those of us seeking to grow spiritually via the transformation of one’s identity.

GIST OF THE BOOK
There is more to the Christian life, apart from being active in a faith community or practicing a set of spiritual disciplines. Biblically, the goal is to be like Jesus. The way toward it is via union with God in love, expressed through thought, word and deed. The vehicle to channel it is to firstly expose our false selves that gravitate toward godless idols, to guide one’s soul toward a deeper journey, that increasingly unveils our true inclination toward God himself.

WHAT ARE THE FALSE IDOLS
Mulholland points out two things to be aware of: false self and false religious self. Victims of ‘false self’ manifest themselves with characteristics like ‘fearful, protective, possessive, manipulative, destructive, self-promoting, indulgent, distinction-making’ which in turn shapes our ‘perspectives, attitudes and behaviour’ (44). These things are so deeply ingrained that it can be difficult to detect in the first place. The second thing, false religious self is more difficult. ‘False religious self’ thinks that as long as one is religious, one’s relationship with God automatically flow from it. Not only does this second kind of self exhibit similar characteristics of the first self, it puts God inside our worldly box of self-interests.
- Fear: By fearing emptiness inside our poor boxes that we try to put God inside it.
- Protection: we try to defend our pet ideas about God, thus we gravitate toward people of our own kind, and resist alternative views.
- Possessiveness: Like Ananias and Sapphira, we want to belong to a community, but do not want to part with our stuff;
- Manipulation: We use our religious status to position ourselves for our own advantage;
- Destructive: we clone ourselves according to other religious false selves.
- Self-Promotion: Largely a facade to get the world to notice us;
- Indulgence: We indulge ourselves through religious practices that affirm our idols.
- Distinctions: Making too much hype about our own uniqueness and special qualities

Key to spiritual formation is the recognition that such things hold one back from true union with God.

TO HIDE IN CHRIST
One can choose to follow Christ through false selves, or to let Christ take care of us as we hide ourselves in Christ. Mulholland provides a helpful illustration. If we clasp our hands together, it is a picture of hiding in Christ. If we insist on hanging on to our false selves, it is like taking our right hand away and stretching it away to the right side. The key is to resist that and to come back to a clasped hands stance: Hiding in Christ. Our false selves will gravitate toward the world. Our true selves will spring toward Christ. Thus, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. This new conversion represents a growing desire to be with Christ above all the world has to offer. Nourishing this desire is the work of spiritual formation.

PRINCIPLES OF THE DEEPER LIFE
Mulholland carefully avoids the word ‘practice’ so as not to confuse with spiritual disciplines.
1) Personal Intimacy with God
This is learning to be attentive to our inner life with God. via Detachment and Centering. In detachment, we learn to free ourselves from ourselves. We pray: “Lord, free me from care of myself.” Upon detachment, we can find ourselves in a vacuum. The next step is critical, that we focus on God, rather than opening ourselves up to other false gods.

- From Detachment → Centering
- In moving toward God, we are free to love others unconditionally.
- We fight against manipulative behavior and seek to serve others for the best of all.
- We resist our abusiveness, by seeking to show compassion and kindness around us.
- We still our restless souls so as to find rest in God.

“We are torn loose from earthly attachments and ambitions – contemptus mundi. And we are quickened to a divine but painful concern for the world – amor mundi. He plucks the world out of our hearts, where we and He together carry it on infinitely tender love.” (Thomas Kelly)

2) Public intimacy via the Lord’s Prayer and the Daily Office
In the Lord’s Prayer, we incarnate ‘Our Father in Heaven’ by corporate awareness that God belongs to a corporate body, not just for us. ‘Father’ shows the relationship that holds the Christian life. ‘Heaven’ represents where our journey is heading to, that it is not the eternal riches that matter, but the presence of God in heaven that fulfills. When we pray, ‘hallowed be your name,’ we affirm that we are not mere spectators but active participants to let God’s name be known to all.

The Daily Office is a regular routine or ritual a Christian can do to center on God each day. Some suggestions are:

• Make time to center: like singing a song: “Great is thy faithfulness”
• Desire God as primary reality of our life: “You’re beautiful God. Make me more like you, O Lord.”
• Probe ourselves. “Free us from ourselves.”
• Abandon ourselves to God. “May God alone be our only contentment.”
• Spend time reading the Word.
• Spend time in silent prayer.

PERSONAL COMMENTS
There are good points from this book, with regards to staying away from our false selves by being first aware of them. I agree with most of his teachings. It all sounds reasonable up to a certain point. I have some questions:

• Where is the sacrifice component? Can we retain our possessions and yet seek to center on Christ?
• What about spiritual directors? Spirituality is not a Do-It-Yourself activity. Mulholland writes the book in a pretty much DIY mode, even though in his part about the Lord's prayer, he did mention the corporate component.

Overall, it is a good book on spiritual formation. As we do so, we are on our way along the deeper journey toward God.

sabbathwalk