Attending a relative’s wedding

I just attended a wedding of my cousin in Malaysia. There has been recently a spate of weddings from relatives from my maternal relatives. It’s like everyone is growing up and going through another passage in life, getting married and settling down. One of my female relative gave birth to a baby girl, whilst another is pregnant with a child.

I like attending the wedding and seeing a lot of my relatives and distant relatives at the occasion. I like to get together with my cousins, to talk to them, and get to know how they are doing in life. I got to know some interesting relatives whom I had not known before in the occasion. There is this guy whom I met who is studying dentistry, and another who is studying medicine at NUS. Amongst my immediate relatives, there are many people in the field of medicine or law. I do like the fact that I have an aunt who is a lawyer, and another aunt who is a law professor. It provides some inspiration for me to believe that I can do well in the field of law as well.

Attending a wedding also makes me ask the question about whether I will ever get married in life. For one, I have never been in a relationship before, which I believe is rather late considering that I am already 23 years of age. I guess I do suffer from some inferiority complex about whether there are any girls who like me. And I don’t like to take any overt action to express my liking for a girl or to initiate a relationship. When I attend a wedding and see many people there at the wedding, it does cause me to worry about the question whether there will be as many people attending my wedding if I should marry. I guess I don’t exactly think I am a very influential person in life who has much social contact or influence.

I suppose I am still trying to find the right girl in my life whom I can spend the rest of my life with. And I guess I will try looking around and attending functions and social events where I can get to know more girls. There is the Varsity Christian Fellowship at campus, and I try to attend as many functions as possible within my social comfort zone. I am thinking of other avenues by which I can get to know more Christian girls around my age. Perhaps I might go on a church hopping spree, or engage in online dating. But I hope to keep my cool about such things and let things happen naturally, if they indeed ought to happen that way. I do take a line of philosophy about how to approach life from the folk song Que Sera Sera. I suppose there are some things that are not within our control, and it is being realistic to acknowledge the presence of such things.

Varsity Christian Fellowship - Mission

At Varsity Christian Fellowship cell group on Wednesday, I led a session exploring the concept of mission based on a handout provided by the Varsity Christian Fellowship. The command by Jesus for Christians to evangelize is quite evidently identifiable from the passage in Matthew 28:16-20 about the Great Commission – “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”. But the purpose of this session that we were going through is to explore the meaning, significance, and characteristics of this mission. Is it simply just to convert people to Christianity? We went through various passages in the bible as provided in the handout and tried to elucidate the notion of mission with respect to God, humanity, Israel, and Jesus, and then try to draw the links to how that would affect our understanding of mission.

So the first part of the study session dealt with the question of what is God’s mission. We quickly went through the book of Genesis describing the creation story, the fall of man, God’s covenant with Abram (Genesis 12:1-3), the extension of the covenant to the Gentiles (Galatians 3:8), the worthiness of God to be honoured (Revelation 4:11), and the creation of the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:1). So what is God’s mission throughout the existence of history? As the Christian dogma goes, things were initially perfect after the creation, but then mankind fell due to the sin of Adam and Eve and was separated from God, and the subsequent chain of event is God’s endeavor to bring fallen mankind back to himself. This is done by penance for sins, which separates God from mankind, and is fulfilled by Jesus death on the cross which satisfies God’s justice by dying to pay for the sins of the elect. This atonement for sins is only bestowed on those who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and savior.

Next, we dealt with the question of humanity’s mission. So we went through Genesis 1:28 about God blessing Adam and Eve and telling them to “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground”, and to work and take care of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15). The question in the handout was, “In light of God being the Creator, discuss what are the implications in the outworking of our faith towards i) Creation ii) Work/Studies iii)Ourselves made in His own image iv) Humanity made in his own image. In Christian lingo, we call this the creation mandate for mankind.

So how does this reckoning of the above pronounced roles and duties of humanity by God affect my understanding of the mission to evangelize and convert non-believers? If I may try to draw a link here, I would guess that not all human beings actually identify with this notion of the creation mandate in their lives. So for instance, they may not see themselves as having any responsibility towards their fellow human beings or towards nature, and pursue their own self-interest at the expense of neglecting or abusing others or the environment. On the other extreme side of the spectrum, there may be those who oppose this hierarchy of mankind towards nature and the animal kingdom, and place animals on equal footings with themselves. What comes to my mind are the likes of radical animal rights activists and environmentalists who vehemently oppose any interference by humans on animals to the point of absurdity. And either of these approaches towards nature are misguided according to the Christian perspective. So a possible purpose in the mission to convert non-believers then is to help them adopt the correct perspective and approach towards mankind and nature as espoused in the creation mandate?

I suppose there may be more purposes to mission than just to convert people to Christianity and restore them to God, but also to influence people to adopt Christian approaches and perspective to practical issues in the world, such as environmentalism.

The next part of the study examined the mission with regards to Israel. We went through the passages featuring the series of covenants that God made with Israel. It says in the handout, “For Israel, being in a covenant with God involved more than just having privileges of being a “great nation” and “receiving blessings. It also entailed responsibility and commitment towards God’s requirements. Holiness was required of Israel (Lev 19:2). We went through the passages regarding the laws (Leviticus 19, Leviticus 25, Isaiah 43:10-12). And then the question was “What was Israel’s role in God’s mission?” The answer that I got at the Central Bible Studies session was that God wanted Israel to be a kingdom of priest and a holy nation so as to reflect God’s nature to the world. Now, how does that relate to God’s mission to restore creation back to himself? It seems like the form of mission for the Israelites is quite different from that of the Great commission. It does not seem to feature evangelism in the similar sense of going out to non-believers and preaching the gospel. It was more like “witnessing”, or setting itself up as an example. As how this is described in Psalms 67:4, “May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth.”

I suppose one aspect of mission includes witnessing, that is, showing an example as a Christian. And being just and fair, as well as compassionate towards one another in society is a good way to be an example. Jesus does give a commandment on how to witness in John 13:34-35. ““A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” And that is certainly what attracts me to Christianity, that believers show unconditional love, care, and concern for one another, that is pure and unfettered by self-interest. Although in practice, I would say that Christians can fall short of this standard. But nevertheless, I think it is an admirable ideal that comes from Christianity, and would certainly make the world a better place if human beings learn to be caring and considerate for others in society. This goes beyond just words of encouragement, but ensuring the well-being and provision of others in society, such as caring for the orphans and the widows in their distress (James 1:27). I suppose non-religious people who are attracted to this ideal but who do not believe or want to believe in God affirm this value in the moral philosophy called humanism which acknowledges the value and interest of human beings, albeit in a manner that might not be consistent with Christian doctrines by overvaluing the agency of human beings.

In the next part of the study, which was about Jesus’ mission, we read through Luke 4:16-19. Jesus was saying in that passage that the he had come to fulfill the Isaiah prophecy to “preach the gospel to the poor…heal the broken heated….preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.” I suppose it is both a fulfillment of prophecy to indicate Jesus as the Messiah, as well as a description of Jesus’ humanitarian mission along with his mission to die on the cross.

I am wondering though how humanitarianism fits in with the mission of restoring mankind back to God. I would think it more as a separate commandment for Christians.

The handout ends off with a reflection quote taken from a book “Revisiting the ‘Whole Gospel’: Toward a Biblical Model of Holistic Mission in the 21^st Centry” by Jean Paul Heldt

“There is no longer a need to qualify mission as “holistic”, nor to distinguish between “mission” and “holistic mission”. Mission is, by definition, “holistic,” and therefore “holistic mission” is de facto, mission.

Proclamation alone, apart from any social concern, may be perceived as a distortion, a truncated version of the true gospel, a parody and travesty of the good news, lacking relevance for the real problems of real people living in the real world. On the other end of the spectrum, exclusive focus on transformation and advocacy may just result in social and humanitarian activism, void of any spiritual dimension.

Both approaches are unbiblical; they deny the wholeness of human nature of human beings created in the image of God. Since we are created “whole”, and since the Fall affects our total humanity in all its dimensions, then redemption, restoration, and mission can, by definition, only be “holistic”.

I can quite readily intuitively agree that mission should comprise of a ‘holistic’ approach, which includes more than just evangelism.

The online community

My Varsity Christian Fellowship Cell group went through the topic on online community for cell group session on Wedneday. We talked about things like what we think about using online social media such as facebook and blogs to engage others, as well as the manner in which we should interact with others online.

I don’t really know how the internet works, but I would say that it has made interaction amongst human communities so much more fruitful. Indeed, one thing I like about the internet is the ability to interact with people around the world and to communicate with others about things that you are interested in. As an English speaking individual, I am able to interact with many people across the world who uses the language, especially people from the United States and Europe. Moreover, I am able to find interest groups who deals with the same problems that I do and find solutions together.

Regarding social media such as facebook and blogs, I like reading articles that friends and acquaintances whom I have added on facebook post online. It helps me broaden my knowledge and insights of things around the world, and also identify the interest that I may share with my friends on facebook. And I have people on my friends list who post cool and interesting stuff, like renditions of their piano performance, or their dance. And I also have ‘like’ pages on facebook as a way of getting people who are interested to know more about me to know the things that I like.

Facebook is also an interesting forum for me to examine the activities and socialization of friends and acquaintances I know. I suppose being able to see what people communicate to one another on facebook allows me to understand the social process better. I thought it would help me to learn how to socialize from observing the social interactions amongst my peers, like what they do, and what they talk about.

I hope people won’t use the pejorative term ‘stalker’ to describe me. I think we can put a negative spin in the way we interpret an action. But I would prefer to call it an attempt to try to understand people. And I try to develop an interest in people. I believe it would help me better in my social skills by trying to understand people. And I do wish that people would be more interested in me as well

I used to be a personal and private person, but I figured that it doesn’t hurt for me to be more open and express myself. Helps my friends to understand me better, and provides another platform by which I can interact with my friends.

I am actually quite new to blogging, or at least blogging regularly. But from my reading of other blogs out there, I figured that it is a way for me to express myself, and to talk about what happens in my life, and to write about the things that interest me It allows my friends, and those who are interested to know more about me to get to know me better. I figured that it is quite difficult sometimes for me to express myself well in real life. It might be difficult to find good topics for that are suitable for social conversation. So blogging helps me to share about my interest so that people might be know me better and find common areas for conversation, and it help me build contacts with people who are interested in the same things that I am who stumble onto my blog while googling for a particular subject.

I am not really sure what I should blog about, so I am still trying to find my blogging style. I suppose I pick some inspiration from the blogs that I read about. Like I could blog about my personal readings, and my thoughts and ideas about things in life and about the world. Personally, I am quite a spiritual person so I do tend to write a lot about religion. So I blog about things like what is gone through for varsity Christian fellowship sessions and church. I figured I can also try writing about my thoughts from reading on biblical passages from my own personal quiet time. I figured that blogging also allows me to reach out to my non-Christian friends. I suppose they would get to understand Christianity better from what I write about it. But I think I can also try developing an interest in politics and current affairs and write my comments on things. I can also write more about what I read and my thoughts and ideas on them. I hope to write stuff that are inspiring and spiritually uplifting. I thing blogging is also a way to communicate ideas and ask question about the world around us, and to learn more about the world, and to allow friends to come upon the bandwagon in my path in life

It is a way I can communicate to friends as well. I am not sure how my peers interact amongst themselves. I wish I could have some private discovery as to what they say to one another. It is quite possible that there are many conversations going on amongst my friends and their friends which I remain unaware of, and I am missing out on some important things that they might be talking about to one another. But a blog allows you to share or communicate what you want, and to allow your friends to know what is going on in your life, and if they are interested in what you have to say, or want to respond, they can on their own prerogative.

I think it doesn’t hurt to be a little more open in the way we conduct our social interaction. Personally, I am quite open about myself, from my having Asperger’s Syndrome, and about the things that affects me in life, like my tension headache. But I would understand if someone has personal life traumas that they wish not to share with others, or they are afraid of being too open because it may make them vulnerable in certain manner. I am interested to know what goes on in the life of my friends, what they do, the adventures they have, what they feel and think. I think it is possible to secure certain level of privacy by password-restricting the access to one’s blog, or making it a private blog and not revealing the address to anyone except your friends.

I suppose it is a way to keep in touch with one’s contacts in life, through blogs.

Varsity Christian Fellowship Sharing Session

We had a session of sharing for Varsity Christian Fellowship today. I will write about my thoughts about some of the things shared during the session. A girl shared about a social conundrum that I can identify with. She talked about her encounter with an acquaintance she knew while on her way to the bus stop. While she thought it was a pleasant encounter to meet a person she had not seen for quite some time, she was worried about whether she would have enough topics for conversation, or whether the conversation would come to an awkward standstill for lack of knowledge of what to speak. Then, when she and the guy boarded the bus, she was concerned about whether she should take the time during the trip to speak to this acquaintance of hers, or whether she should spend the time reviewing stuff in her studies. She thought it would be quite unfriendly of her if she just decide to sit at another place in the bus and not talk to this acquaintance, even if she could explain that she wanted to catch up on her studies.

I found it interesting to hear from another person about a social dilemma that I commonly face. It is the fear of pulling off a bad social impression on another person. And for me, I am quite self-conscious about my poor social skills and ability to perform well in a social situation. If I meet an acquaintance on my way, I would have the dilemma of whether to talk to the person or to wait and let the person go ahead of me. There is one, the fear that I would not have any topics to converse with the person, and neither would that person have any topics to converse with me, which would lead to an awkward silence. And then there is the fear that I would appear antisocial or unfriendly if I just avoid the person. And I have experienced the bad results in either decision, such that I find people treating me coolly perhaps because I left a bad social impression on them. But it is nice to hear that there are other people who face such a dilemma in their social encounters as well. I think from hearing about the fears and concerns that people face in their social experience, we can learn to be more understanding of one another and not be presumptuous of a person’s character based on first impression.

A guy shared about his disappointment with not being selected for a programme that preps him up on track for being in the NUS mooting team for the prestigious Jessup Cup. He is a very good mooter and had won many competitions that he participated in, and he was somewhat miffed at the teacher-in-charge for not selecting him on reasons he felt unjustified. But he said it got him to reflect on how he consider the meaning of success and failure to his life.

I haven’t had much success in life lately. Law school is tough on me. But I always have the belief that success and failure belongs in the hands of God, and God exalts as well as humbles. I do cherish the hope that God has a bright future ahead in store for me.

I shared about what was going on in my discipleship group at church at the moment. Right now, my discipleship group is undergoing some sort of leadership crisis because our discipleship group leader wants to relinquish his responsibilities at church so that he can go find a girlfriend by church hopping. He figured that he is nearing the age for marriage and has been finding it difficult to find a girlfriend at where he works and in the church. Another discipleship group member wasn’t too impressed and commented that my discipleship group leader should show his trust in God to provide a life partner by staying in church and waiting on God to provide his significant other. In his opinion, if God wills for someone to be your life partner, it will happen without your having to strive to make an effort to find that significant other. And to take any active action on one’s part to find a relationship partner shows that one does not trust God enough.

I certainly found this discipleship group member’s views very judgmental. And I don’t think his views are theologically substantiable. Nevertheless, I do like the idea that I can trust God, do nothing and find a girlfriend, instead of worrying about whether I should be doing something before I end up single in life and regret my lack of initiative.