New year blog

The holidays were great, had some time to spend with friends and family, lots of good food, also time to read and reflect and most importantly no work. As I told my co-workers any holidays are good holidays. Although I did not spend any time on work, I did think about work, more specifically how I view work. I have never been able to accept work merely as a means of earning a living. I can only appreciate I was given work so I can provide for my family and myself. I can also appreciate that work is a training ground for a dose of reality. I can even appreciate that my work can be my vocational calling that I have as yet to fully embrace. However, I deeply yearn for the time which I can enthusiastically embrace my work every morning and not just grind through the day. Granted I had been having better time at work lately but there seems more I want. I want to run big projects that matters. I want to do things that truly change lives. Yet I found the responsibility daunting and not exactly what I want. Yeah, want to have my cake and eat it too. Had a conversation with a respected friend about what I am teaching in Sunday school. He came back with a response that surprised me. He said, “I seldom heard of people doing that in Sunday school, it is more often things they teach in seminary. Hermeneutics is tricky subject, you must be sure your student need to have a strong foundation in their faith before you teach them this subject.” Hmm.. I though Hermeneutics is fundamental. We read the scripture and it is an ancient and foreign book. We either has to apply Hermeneutics ourselves or has to accept some one else’s Hermeneutics. Either way we need to al least has the fundamental to discern between good interpretation and bad interpretation. I do not believe we all need to be theologians or seminary students but at least we should need to know the difference between a well thought through interpretation versus a fly by night mumble jumble. I have heard this line of talk before. I mean people who say we must have firm faith before we venture into advance studies of the scripture. I never really accept that. I believe some people need less understanding while other need more. It is part of an individual’s journey in faith. In certain circles I believe it is the rudiments of a church thinking from years gone by. Twenty years ago in HK or China, there were few people who has the education background to study the bible so their best bet is to read it with the help of pastors and teachers who have more training and education. Nowadays with a congregation of university educated (not that it means much given the system today) many are better educated than the pastors. So what are you going to do? Better education background also carries with it more responsibility on our part to understand and act more thoughtfully. Now other stuff: Saw a “devo” CD in HMS one day. Devo is the name of a band I suppose most of you have never heard of it. They were a pioneer electronic techno band in the 80s/90s, pretty cool. Were into them for about 3 days. Spirituality Spirituality is in the ordinary. If spirituality is only about those moments that you feel high then it is not worth it. Everyday we face irritation, frustration and fear. If we are not dealing with that and just grind through everyday till Sunday and say alleluia that to me is not faith. Good interview with Eugene Peterson: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/003/26.42.html On church (I have no idea where I read this) Frederick von Hugel said the institution of the church is like the bark on the tree. There's no life in the bark. It's dead wood. But it protects the life of the tree within. And the tree grows and grows and grows and grows. If you take the bark off, it's prone to disease, dehydration, death. Saw a couple of DVD over the holidays: “March of the Penguins” : The Penguins are so cute. Not only that the intrinsic order of nature never cease to amaze me. The most inspiring part is the resilience shown by the Penguins. Also is totally amazing is the filmmakers (French of course) who spent a year at the Anta tic filming. “Alexander”: As with almost al Oliver Stone movie it was meant to shock people. But beyond that Alexander was well portrayed as a complex character. There was of course the ambitions but the there were also the compassion and the vision. The battles were gruesome and actually very well paced within the story. Surprisingly I actually think this is a movie worth seeing. (unlike “Troy” which is a complete waste of time) “Saving face”: This is a Sundance entry by a Chinese director Alice Wu. The film is about the story of a surgeon whose widowed mother showed up at her door pregnant. It started Joan Chen as the mother and a couple of unknown as the daughter and her les lover, surprisingly well acted and attractive narrative. However, the happy ending is a bit of a fantasy. I hightly doubt it is plasusible.