Of Hamlet, Atheists & The Dilemma of Msian Christians

I am a Christian. Though I may not be an exemplary one at times, I do not boast about myself but Christ in me.

In a simple analogy, Jesus may not appear to be the answer to how we decorate our houses but He is the answer to what foundations we build our houses upon. There are many people who live successful and moral lives without believing in God and Jesus Christ. At the end of their lives, they will face an accounting for which they will be judged and weighed by their Creator.

The confusion of this world and the tragic comedy of the human soul is caused by our lack of understanding of who we are, our position in this world, our purpose and final destiny. A world in which every man and woman act for themselves within the constraints of the law and human decency is destined for failure. If we build our house on the rock of Christ, we shall withstand every storm, every blow of circumstance and overcome the sting of death (i.e. we shall all die a physical death but will be spiritually redeemed and saved from eternal death).

In simple words, Jesus is the practical answer to every aspect of our lives. He is present in every suffering person, be the pain physical or emotional or spiritual. I personally know because I marvel at the way He rescued me many times from trouble even when I was not a believer in my youth.

My faith is in Jesus who died for our sins and took our place of bearing the punishment that God had reserved for sinful man. My faith is that man can only be saved and have eternal life through giving our lives to Him.

Why Christians Come Short of Christ

However, many Christians who have been spiritually reborned have allowed their old selves and old ways of thinking to return and drown out the voice of the Holy Spirit (God is a trinity of the Father, the Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit). In other words, there was not a full conversion, a deep cleansing of the heart due to some unresolved issues.

Without a daily renewal of the heart and mind in the love of Christ and communion with Him (hearing His voice and reading the Bible), Christians face the danger of backsliding into their old selves. And many are unaware they have backslided or were not truly converted in the first place.

In this sense, a Christian engaged in social or political works without the power of the gospel and the aid of the Holy Spirit is like an empty drum, making noise and having little impact in the harvesting of souls.

So I think the dilemma facing Msian Christians, post March 2008 shake-up in the political landscape, is not Hamlet’s dilemma of whether to be or not to be a man of action (to stay apolitical or take a more active political stance apart from voting at elections). It is precisely this limited choice that caused Hamlet to end tragically. Without the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God, we won’t be able to contend with the enemy of this world, which is not flesh and blood but principalities.

The Fallacy of Atheists & Hamlet's Question

The logical fallacy of historicism is to assume that historic men of genius believed in the God of the Bible out of cultural convenience (they happened to be shaped by their historical circumstances), ignorance of other philosophies (the Internet and printing press were not invented yet to widen human knowledge) and a limited scientific breadth of mind (all Newtonian ways of seeing the world was outdated following Einstein's discovery of quantum truths).

If Shakespeare or Rembrandt were to be borned in 20th century England or Holland, it is my conviction that they will still be inspired by the intellectual, literary and emotional power of the Bible above all modern literature and philosophical paradigms. Hamlet struggled with an ancient sense of guilt that could neither be relieved from his soul by action or inaction but only by the free will to submit to and believe in the transformative power of Jesus Christ.

The Gardener Rabboni & The Woman At The Tomb

A woman is weeping outside an empty cave tomb. Two strange men stand guard inside the tomb, ask her why is she crying. She says “They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they have put him.” The men remain silent.

Suddenly, a man appears in the sunlight at the entrance to the tomb. Thinking he is the gardener, the woman, with tears in her eyes, asks him if he has carried the body that was previously there. The ‘gardener’ calls out her name, “Mary” and she turns towards him and cries out “Rabboni (teacher in Aramaic)! My Lord Jesus! You are alive!”

Jesus is alive today and he waits at the door of Heaven for us to join him. He has prepared a beautiful garden in Heaven for us that we may live joyfully with Him.

Jesus is the Gardener of our lives for he takes out the weeds and cuts off the twigs that bear no fruit in our lives. He is the Teacher through His Word in the Bible and he is also the Shepherd, who takes us to living waters, out of the desert, out of the valley of death into life eternal.

6 Hours In Heaven and 10 Minutes in A Traffic Jam

While I was driving my son to school on a rainy day, I thought of continuing our discussion about Heaven after what I recently read about a pastor's six hours experience in Heaven.

On October 22 1988, Henry Gruver, a global itinerant pastor called by God to visit and pray for nations, was taken up to Heaven during a prayer session from 10am to 4.15pm. Read the whole testimony here.

Anyway, i started by telling my son about the golden pavement flowers that sang to God and this was what followed during the 10 minutes we were driving through the PJ traffic:

Father: When the flowers sang, their songs were so wonderful and turned into a glowing light that went up to the throne of God.

Child: That is why Heaven is full of lights, right?

Father: Yes, Heaven is full of lights and songs of love for God.

Child: Will I have a brithday cake in Heaven? Can I make a birthday wish there?

Father: Of course, you can wish for anything in Heaven and God will make your wish come true. But you will make only good wishes because there are no bad wishes when we are there.

Child: (Silence as he pondered over this before asking...) Can I wish for God to show me how He makes miracles happen?

Father: Yes, you can ask God to teach you about His miracles. That is real magic because the only true magic is the miracles of God. (Pastor Gruver mentioned this miraculous quality of Heaven in this excerpt:

"All of creation when it gives life and gives honor and praise to throne that made it, it is regenerated in that manner. As the River of Life flows beneath throne, so does all life flow from throne. Everything in heaven is regenerated continually in the presence of his glory. You see perfection of beauty and no degeneration.")

Finally, as he put on his heavy school bag before leaving the car, I ended the conversation by saying I will write all this on my blog and then prayed the fatherly prayer for him.

A Child's Q&A About Heaven

Sometimes, the joys of parenthood resurface suddenly like a burst of sunshine breaking through a cloudy day. Yesterday was one of those blessed days while waiting for my wife in the car with my two children seated at the back.

Out of the blue, my five-year old son asked me a series of philosophical and moral questions which kept my mind pondering on how the world is viewed by a young toddler.

Child: "Papa, why did God made the world?"

Father:
"God created the world so that we can glorify Him."

Child: "Why are Christians so important?"

Father:"Christians may not be important to other people but we are very important to God because we can build a better world and help other people be saved by God."

Child: "But Papa, why did God create a world that has bad people?"

(This question surprised me for a moment and I had to think how to explain to a 5-year old about original sin, free will and creation.)

Father: "God did not create bad people. He allowed people to choose to be good or be evil. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden, God gave them a beautiful garden to live in but they disobeyed Him. God actually created a beautiful world: look, we have good food to eat, good weather and many great places to see: the mountains, the lakes and forests."

Child: "I know. Eve ate the apple and gave it to Adam. Why did she listen to the snake?"

Father: "She listened to the snake because she was deceived (lied to) by the snake, which is the devil. The snake said she will be like God after eating the apple. This made God very angry because God wants us to worship Him and not worship ourselves."

(Silence as he pondered what I said.)

"In the Garden, God also created a world where the lion and the lamb can lie side by side in peace and be friends with each other. If you go to Paradise in Heaven, you will see all the animals living there."

Child: "Papa, will I go to Heaven? Will I get new wings?"

Father: "Yes, you will because you believe in Jesus. In Heaven, we will have new bodies and there will be no sickness, no death. We will be young forever. And there are no tears in Heaven."

Child (excitely declaring): "I want to go there. And I want all of us, Papa, Mama, me and baby to go there."

After a thoughtful pause, the Child said: "But Papa, I am naughty, how can I go to Heaven if I am naughty?"

Father: "Don't worry. You can be good if you ask God to help you to be good. We all have sin in us because of what Adam and Eve did. We can pray to God and ask Him to make us good each day. So don't say that you are naughty. You must always believe you are a child of God and you can do all that He is. Each day, God will change you to be a better person."

From what I can recall, these are the pieces of the conversation which we had over ten to fifteen minutes. I shall treasure these moments with my son, who is seldom so lucid and focused in his enquiries about God and the world.

And it is my prayer to God that our son will always have that heart-felt wonder and inquisitiveness about his creator and the world.

As for this blog, I shall turn inward towards more spiritual and philosophical matters from this year onwards and take a welcome break from political commentaries. We need to talk to our children more to know what kind of world awaits us and to be humbly reminded of our place in the universe.

They are truly the future and the promise of a new world.

3 Kinds of Bloggers & The Heart of God

Just as there are three kinds of leaders, there are three kinds of bloggers/writers:

1. The Rear Mirror Types: Using the analogy of driving, these bloggers focus on the past, history, what was done, the wounds, the glories, the disasters of the past 50 years of Msia.

2. The Present Focused Types: These bloggers will comment and anlayse the present situation and the latest policy statements. Many are witty and tend to be pro-reformasi as shown in my bloglist on the right.

3. The Future Focused/Visionary Types: These bloggers, while having a healthy dose of realism, are more than intellectual. They know that what really moves heaven and earth is a tangible vision of the future, what our deepest hopes are for the nation and for our citizens. For instance, the rainbow nation comprising various races blended into one is a vision that Msians can aspire for.

I think most local civil rights, pseudo-political blogs and Internet media are in the 1 and 2 groups. Malaysiakini has a potent blend of opinionated content but has only 10-20% focused on solutions and future visions for the nation. I hope existing and new bloggers like Dato' Zaid Ibrahim's will put their intellectual energies into building up fresh visions for Malaysia’s future.

The future is now in our hearts as soon as we cherish the vision despite the corruption, the partisanship, the comedy of our present state of politics.

This is not New Age hocus pocus but a spiritual truth: what we constantly cherish in our hearts which are aligned with the heart and promises of God will come true. It may take months or years but I am confident God will fulfill the hopes of man that are visualised and imagined faithfully according to His Word.

Drawing Hands by M.C. Escher

A People-Friendly Second Best Solution

An open letter by blogger Nehemiah to the leaders of Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional:

The present political stalemate in Perak can only be resolved with creative, new solutions which are rakyat friendly. Otherwise, the reluctance by one of you (Najib) to agree to fresh elections will see the issue go back and forth between the courts and counter appeals, etc.

Barring a fresh election, both your parties should work together (or cooperate if you like) to prove to Perakians that the people's welfare is a HIGHER priority than partisanship.

The rakyat should and is the final employer assessing which candidate to employ.

But if two rival candidates refuse to work together, the employer(rakyat) should give them a choice: either you cooperate for my benefit or you both don't get the job. In such a stalemate, Perakians can afford to bear the loss of being ungoverned and wait for the next GE to decide. Perhaps by then, both parties will come to their senses or there will be a third party that can offer better governance.

Of course, the ideal solution is for snap elections to be held but that option is currently a roadblock for BN as it would be quite certain to lose.

And please, in the talks between both of your alliances, do not reject outright any proposals for power-sharing if it is the second best solution to serve the people's interests.

The whole of Malaysia and the world is watching how you both navigate the state out of this mess with a new creative solution that is approved by Perakians. Conduct Internet polls or surveys among the people to get feedback on the second best solution. Get the media/bloggers involved as an objective third party.

As Deng Hsiao Peng once said, it does not matter that the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice. Looking at recent developments (notwithstanding the national shame of the violent removal of the Speaker Sivakumar on 7 May), both of your parties seem to be more concerned about who gets to be called the official MB and occuplying the state secretariat than in catching real mice.

The Invisible Costs of May 7 For The Nation

In the field of economics, there is a saying that what we don't see with the naked eye is more important than what we can see.

For example, some vandal who breaks a glass window will cause the house owner to give money (say RM100) to the glass maker to make a new window, which triggers a chain of positive economic effects throughout the economy. But the opportunity cost is invisible: what the house owner would have done with the RM100, which he saved for his consumption or investment, if his window had not been broken.

Same truth applies to politics and the recent Perak crisis, what we saw was the Perak Assembly Speaker Mr Sivakumar being forcibly removed by several men at the State Assembly on 7th May. And economics student/writer John Lee has rightly pointed out, what is unseen is the tremendous damage to democracy and respect for the rule of law, the separation of powers enshrined in the constitution.

I think the invisible damage is worse: the use of physical violence on a law-abiding citizen should be condemned by government leaders. If not, then it may be interpreted by the young and politically illiterate as an implicit official sanction of violence for the sake of asserting one person's power over another.

Will criminal violence escalate after this shameful incident? I beseech the authorities to be wise and responsible and express remorse over the violent removal of the speaker instead of trying to justify it.