Imagine this. You went to the book store today and bought a copy of "Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew". In all eagerness to learn about his life and the stepping stones he laid to path out his successes, you picked up the book as soon as you got home and started reading about his birth, growing up days, family background, schooling, beliefs, values, words of wisdom, pitfalls, challenges, and then onto the overcoming of the difficulties, rising above adversity and hardships, etc. You experience a whole spectrum of emotions from moments of admiration to respect to an apparent understanding for this person you've seen so much of on the screens, heard of and even studied about in the history books. The knowledge you have of this person called Lee Kuan Yew has increased exponentially with all the facts, figures and accounts recorded in the book. You may even memorise all the details. Wow!! This person you have had no direct encounter with is suddenly living in your mind and admiration. But do we really know the minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew? Perhaps, from the book, we would only know about him. We would only truly know him if we work with him, interact with him or live with him.
An answer to the questions in my previous entry...
In the same way, when we base our faith in Jesus and our understanding of Him on, solely, the bible, then we can only get to know about Jesus. We can read up about Him, study His life, analyse His values and teachings, formulate His family ancestry and traditions and know every detail about him as far as it has been past down the generations. Are these knowledge and information sufficient to fuel our faith in Him? Would He really matter to us and would we feel of this Jesus as someone who is highly significant in our lives?
We all have been through school, made friends that have been demoted to mere acquaintances, and along the way, sticking by several close friends. At some point in our lives, we will see familiar faces in the obituary section of the papers. We will see names that ring a bell and we will see names that make us reminisce. Needless to say, unless we have walked through life and have braved through life's ups and downs with a particular person, and whose life intertwines with ours year after year, we will not feel very much with the person's departure. Within a family, at a funeral wake, we don't see every single relative of the deceased mourning and weeping. Those who do so are the ones closer to the deceased. Their paths crossed, their lives intertwined. They shared a special relationship, one with interaction, communication and love.
Why doesn't God mean much to us even though we know right well He should mean more than the world to us? Why can we know of His love for us and yet go on making daily decisions as if He never existed? Why is it such a challenge to just remember Him throughout the day? Many times, we choose a whole load of other activities over spending 15 min a day in silence with Him, and there is never a lack of events to justify our lack of time. In the first place, there needs to be a relationship with God; interaction, communication and through a consistent persistence in prayer, listening to God in that silence and hearing His instructions for us. As God reveals Himself to us in His time, in His ways, we will come to know this God for real, not for what is written in the bible or any other books, not for what others tell us about Him but for who He really is to us, individually, personally. And it is only when we've come to know Him, walk with Him, in friendship, can we fully take an interest in this new found friend. It is when our lives and His intertwine in a two-way relationship can we fully come to the realisation of the significance of His passion and death and acknowledge the importance of Him in our lives. Then, only, will His sufferings have any impact on us and will His love stir in our hearts.
When a child asks another, "Can I be your friend?" and the latter accepts the request, they do not automatically know what to say to each other or enter into a close friendship. They have to get pass the initial awkwardness, uncertainty, shyness and apprehension, open up, communicate, find out more about each other and then little by little, establish their understanding and acceptance of each other. Our friendship with God is as such. In the beginning, it is odd, uncertain and we will struggle to find a comfortable way of interacting with Him but we must pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us, move us into stillness, fill us with God's presence and to reveal God to us. And we can form friendships with Saints we can relate to and through them, we be inspired by their holiness, thus creating a bridge between us and God. Not forgetting, Mary is always here for us, to intercede for us. Implore her help to be our connection to her Son.
18 July 2010
11.56pm
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