Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
Hi! Many have asked why I've not posted new "Noodles." The problem is that for the past couple months, the Great FireWall of China has been blocking blogspot, so I've not been able to access "Our Daily Noodles," or the other two blogs, unless I use a nonsecure Proxy.
But it was fun while it lasted. I uploaded almost 200 over a six month period. So now...I'll work on other things, such as my Lin Yutang project.
Blessings,
Bill
www.amoymagic.com
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
How Eric Liddell UnLearned Profanity
Bill Brown .. Xiamen University
"Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned." James 5:12 我的弟兄们，最要紧的是不可起誓。不可指着天起誓，也不可指着地起誓，无论何誓都不可起。你们说话，是就说是，不是就说不是，免得你们落在审判之下。 雅各书5:12
Eric Liddell was the gold-medal Olympic athlete who refused to run on Sunday, and later became a missionary to China, dying in a Japanese concentration camp (his older brother Robert served as a doctor in Longyan City--Leng-Na--of West Fujian).
From watching the movie "Chariots of Fire," you'd never guess that quiet Eric used profanity in his youth--though not for long!
Eric was born in Tianjing, and Robert in Shanghai, but when Eric was 5 the family returned to Scotland, where for the first time in their lives the boys were free to explore on their own without a Chinese Amah to protect them. They quickly picked up some local profanity, which they tried out on their horrified mother.
McCasland, author of "Eric Liddell: Pure Gold," wrote,
'Once he understood that swearing was unacceptable, five-year-old Eric offered a simple solution. 'Just tell me what all the bad words are, and I won't use any of them.' Mary resigned herself to dealing with the problem as it arose, one word at a time.'
Can you imagine if Eric's mother had indeed given him a list of 40 or 50 swear words that he was neither to use, nor even to know? Just imagine Eric trying to not think of them, much less not use them!
As I blunder through life I sometimes think that a nice list of rules would make things simpler, but then again, I don't think I'd care to go through life weighed down by thousands of laws and rituals, like the Pharisees, or Confucius' 3,305 Laws. Jesus certainly rebelled against the rules and rituals, not only taking the whip to the moneychangers but giving a verbal lashing to those religious leaders who enslave people with burdens that they don't help carry.
Not Rules but Example Jesus came not to lay down more rules but to lay down his life as an example. He urged us to walk with him and learn from him, day by day, just as Eric learned from his mother. Jesus said,
"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:29,30 我心里柔和谦卑，你们当负我的轭，学我的样式，这样，你们心里就必得享安息。因为我的轭是容易的，我的担子是轻省的。 马太福音11:29,30
The yoke is easy and the burden is light because He carries the bulk of the burden, allowing us to learn naturally and easily from our Heavenly Father just as Eric Liddell learned from his mother--one word at a time, one day at a time.
Enjoy your day--and learn from it.
See "Favorite Book, Moving, and Song"
www.amoymagic.com
"Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned." James 5:12 我的弟兄们，最要紧的是不可起誓。不可指着天起誓，也不可指着地起誓，无论何誓都不可起。你们说话，是就说是，不是就说不是，免得你们落在审判之下。 雅各书5:12
Eric Liddell was the gold-medal Olympic athlete who refused to run on Sunday, and later became a missionary to China, dying in a Japanese concentration camp (his older brother Robert served as a doctor in Longyan City--Leng-Na--of West Fujian).
From watching the movie "Chariots of Fire," you'd never guess that quiet Eric used profanity in his youth--though not for long!
Eric was born in Tianjing, and Robert in Shanghai, but when Eric was 5 the family returned to Scotland, where for the first time in their lives the boys were free to explore on their own without a Chinese Amah to protect them. They quickly picked up some local profanity, which they tried out on their horrified mother.
McCasland, author of "Eric Liddell: Pure Gold," wrote,
'Once he understood that swearing was unacceptable, five-year-old Eric offered a simple solution. 'Just tell me what all the bad words are, and I won't use any of them.' Mary resigned herself to dealing with the problem as it arose, one word at a time.'
Can you imagine if Eric's mother had indeed given him a list of 40 or 50 swear words that he was neither to use, nor even to know? Just imagine Eric trying to not think of them, much less not use them!
As I blunder through life I sometimes think that a nice list of rules would make things simpler, but then again, I don't think I'd care to go through life weighed down by thousands of laws and rituals, like the Pharisees, or Confucius' 3,305 Laws. Jesus certainly rebelled against the rules and rituals, not only taking the whip to the moneychangers but giving a verbal lashing to those religious leaders who enslave people with burdens that they don't help carry.
Not Rules but Example Jesus came not to lay down more rules but to lay down his life as an example. He urged us to walk with him and learn from him, day by day, just as Eric learned from his mother. Jesus said,
"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:29,30 我心里柔和谦卑，你们当负我的轭，学我的样式，这样，你们心里就必得享安息。因为我的轭是容易的，我的担子是轻省的。 马太福音11:29,30
The yoke is easy and the burden is light because He carries the bulk of the burden, allowing us to learn naturally and easily from our Heavenly Father just as Eric Liddell learned from his mother--one word at a time, one day at a time.
Enjoy your day--and learn from it.
See "Favorite Book, Moving, and Song"
www.amoymagic.com
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The Fragile Folk
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider's web." Job 8:14 他所仰赖的必折断，他所倚靠的是蜘蛛网。约伯记8:14
Last week a gate guard stopped an overloaded garbage truck that was spewing trash onto the street. The driver got out, looked at the mess, and then simply drove off. I've seen this before, so this time I decided to do something about it. I followed him to his destination and photographed the truck, the license plate, and for good measure the driver as well.
"What are you doing?" he demanded.
"I'm writing to the Mayor's Hotline," I said. "You're supposed to pick the trash up, not redistribute it!" When he said he did not know there was a problem, I said, "Nonsense! I saw you get out and look at it, and then drive off!"
He shrugged and said, "I was going to have my wife and daughter sweep it up later."
I drove back home but just as I was parking the car, I remembered Scott White's comments a few years earlier about a bad waiter. "These people lead such fragile lives," he said. "Just one wrong look or cross word from a customer can cost them their job, and maybe ruin their lives. We need to be careful with them, because we've no idea what they're going through."
As I thought about these "fragile folk," my anger changed to remorse. The problem is not just the workers but the system--poorly designed trucks, too few workers, and too much litter thrown daily onto the lawns and streets by citizens who take our beautiful island home for granted. I asked a student at Xiamen University why he threw trash on the ground just a few meters from a trash can, and he said, "We pay sweepers to pick it up!"
I certainly don't take our own area's sweeper for granted. Like many others, he works cheerfully from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, to keep our area spotlessly clean and neat. And even though he works for low pay, he has dreams, and is saving his money, and has often proudly shared about his child in college.
I got back in my car and drove back to the Sanitation Center and apologized to the driver I had photographed. I told him that I'd still write to the mayor's hotline, but not use the photograph, or mention specific places or people, but just the general problem. And then I thanked him for working so hard to help keep our beautiful island clean, and said that I hoped we Xiamenese could work harder to make his job easier by not littering.
The man was surprised, and mumbled shyly, "I just do my job."But it is not just his job, but his life--and in my anger and pride I could have jeopardized it.
These people are fragile indeed--but so are the rest of us. None of us, from the Mayor on down, are so indispensable that someone higher up the ladder could not cause us grief.
Next time I see a problem, I won't ignore it, but I'll be careful to attack the problem and not the person, because lives are fragile--theirs as well as mine.
Related Blog: Judging Without Eyes and Ears
.www.amoymagic.com
"What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider's web." Job 8:14 他所仰赖的必折断，他所倚靠的是蜘蛛网。约伯记8:14
"What are you doing?" he demanded.
"I'm writing to the Mayor's Hotline," I said. "You're supposed to pick the trash up, not redistribute it!" When he said he did not know there was a problem, I said, "Nonsense! I saw you get out and look at it, and then drive off!"
He shrugged and said, "I was going to have my wife and daughter sweep it up later."
I drove back home but just as I was parking the car, I remembered Scott White's comments a few years earlier about a bad waiter. "These people lead such fragile lives," he said. "Just one wrong look or cross word from a customer can cost them their job, and maybe ruin their lives. We need to be careful with them, because we've no idea what they're going through."
As I thought about these "fragile folk," my anger changed to remorse. The problem is not just the workers but the system--poorly designed trucks, too few workers, and too much litter thrown daily onto the lawns and streets by citizens who take our beautiful island home for granted. I asked a student at Xiamen University why he threw trash on the ground just a few meters from a trash can, and he said, "We pay sweepers to pick it up!"
I certainly don't take our own area's sweeper for granted. Like many others, he works cheerfully from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, to keep our area spotlessly clean and neat. And even though he works for low pay, he has dreams, and is saving his money, and has often proudly shared about his child in college.
I got back in my car and drove back to the Sanitation Center and apologized to the driver I had photographed. I told him that I'd still write to the mayor's hotline, but not use the photograph, or mention specific places or people, but just the general problem. And then I thanked him for working so hard to help keep our beautiful island clean, and said that I hoped we Xiamenese could work harder to make his job easier by not littering.
The man was surprised, and mumbled shyly, "I just do my job."But it is not just his job, but his life--and in my anger and pride I could have jeopardized it.
These people are fragile indeed--but so are the rest of us. None of us, from the Mayor on down, are so indispensable that someone higher up the ladder could not cause us grief.
Next time I see a problem, I won't ignore it, but I'll be careful to attack the problem and not the person, because lives are fragile--theirs as well as mine.
Related Blog: Judging Without Eyes and Ears
.www.amoymagic.com
Monday, May 11, 2009
Leaning Glass & 5-Pointed Snowflakes
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." Isaiah 64:8
耶和华阿，现在你仍是我们的父。我们是泥，你是窑匠。我们都是你手的工作。 以赛亚书 64:8
Susan Marie and I each have a set of our own breakfast glasses, but because I can never remember whose is whose, she bought me half a dozen unique, clear glasses that leaned like the Tower of Pisa (or Fuzhou's Black Pagoda). I loved them! But they broke over the years, and when I was down to my last one I asked Sue to buy another set of leaning glasses.
Susan Marie laughed and said, "You can't buy anymore like those. They weren't designed that way--they were just rejects!"
No wonder she'd so generously bought me six of them. They weren't Designer Glasses but Defe
ctive Glasses--rejects of cheap clear glasses, sold for pennies apiece by a street vendor. It was a bit of a letdown--but only for a few moments.
Then I thought about how much fun I'd had over the years with them, watching the milk or juice fill unevenly (I know: simple minds, simple pleasures). And I realized that whether they leaned by design or defect did not matter. In fact, my last leaning glass was even more precious to me now because I knew I'd never see another one.
I treated my last leaning glass as if it were exquisite lead crystal from Bavaria, but in the end it was broken, and I was forced to drink my breakfast juice from unimaginative humdrum vertical glasses like other mortals. But our Father has a sense of humor, and enjoys nothing more than surprising his children.
Just weeks after I broke my last leaning glass, Sue returned home with a surprise--another half dozen leaning glasses exactly like the ones she'd given me years earlier! I said, "Verily I say unto you, if you give a cup of cold water in my name, you shall not lose your reward--especially if it is in a leaning glass!"
It's all perspective. I thought my breakfast glasses were uniquely designed and it turned out they were just defective, but the end result was the same. It was not the glasses themselves but how I looked at them that gave me enjoyment.
Designer or Defective Lives? My life often leans a lot more than my breakfast glass. I can choose to complain about it, or I can appreciate the unique beauty and opportunities that my uniquely leaning life offer me. My life is not perfect but it is certainly unique--as one-of-a-kind as a six-pointed snowflake.
5-Pointed Snowflakes. Scientists say that with trillions and gazillions of snowflakes, no two are alike. Hard to believe. But if we did find a five-pointed snowflake, would we cast it off as defective? Of course not! We'd treasure it even more than a 5-leaf clover. We'd photograph it, enlarge it, and hang it on the wall as a reminder of its very unique but fragile and transient beauty, and the snowflake itself we'd enshrine in cryogenic storage with more care than they lavish on Lenin, Mao and other extinquished revolutionaries.
Each of our lives is as uniquely beautiful as a snowflake, and while it may be as "defective" as a 5-pointed snowflake, it is our very "defects" that give rise to our unique strengths as we learn and grow and overcome the constraints that we all face.
But like a snowflake, our lives are also fragile and transient. Enjoy it.
www.amoymagic.com
"Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." Isaiah 64:8
耶和华阿，现在你仍是我们的父。我们是泥，你是窑匠。我们都是你手的工作。 以赛亚书 64:8
Susan Marie and I each have a set of our own breakfast glasses, but because I can never remember whose is whose, she bought me half a dozen unique, clear glasses that leaned like the Tower of Pisa (or Fuzhou's Black Pagoda). I loved them! But they broke over the years, and when I was down to my last one I asked Sue to buy another set of leaning glasses.
Susan Marie laughed and said, "You can't buy anymore like those. They weren't designed that way--they were just rejects!"
No wonder she'd so generously bought me six of them. They weren't Designer Glasses but Defe
ctive Glasses--rejects of cheap clear glasses, sold for pennies apiece by a street vendor. It was a bit of a letdown--but only for a few moments.Then I thought about how much fun I'd had over the years with them, watching the milk or juice fill unevenly (I know: simple minds, simple pleasures). And I realized that whether they leaned by design or defect did not matter. In fact, my last leaning glass was even more precious to me now because I knew I'd never see another one.
I treated my last leaning glass as if it were exquisite lead crystal from Bavaria, but in the end it was broken, and I was forced to drink my breakfast juice from unimaginative humdrum vertical glasses like other mortals. But our Father has a sense of humor, and enjoys nothing more than surprising his children.
Just weeks after I broke my last leaning glass, Sue returned home with a surprise--another half dozen leaning glasses exactly like the ones she'd given me years earlier! I said, "Verily I say unto you, if you give a cup of cold water in my name, you shall not lose your reward--especially if it is in a leaning glass!"
It's all perspective. I thought my breakfast glasses were uniquely designed and it turned out they were just defective, but the end result was the same. It was not the glasses themselves but how I looked at them that gave me enjoyment.
Designer or Defective Lives? My life often leans a lot more than my breakfast glass. I can choose to complain about it, or I can appreciate the unique beauty and opportunities that my uniquely leaning life offer me. My life is not perfect but it is certainly unique--as one-of-a-kind as a six-pointed snowflake.
5-Pointed Snowflakes. Scientists say that with trillions and gazillions of snowflakes, no two are alike. Hard to believe. But if we did find a five-pointed snowflake, would we cast it off as defective? Of course not! We'd treasure it even more than a 5-leaf clover. We'd photograph it, enlarge it, and hang it on the wall as a reminder of its very unique but fragile and transient beauty, and the snowflake itself we'd enshrine in cryogenic storage with more care than they lavish on Lenin, Mao and other extinquished revolutionaries.
Each of our lives is as uniquely beautiful as a snowflake, and while it may be as "defective" as a 5-pointed snowflake, it is our very "defects" that give rise to our unique strengths as we learn and grow and overcome the constraints that we all face.
But like a snowflake, our lives are also fragile and transient. Enjoy it.
www.amoymagic.com
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Perfectly Imperfect
Bill Brown 。。。 Xiamen University
"Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded..." Philippians 3:15 KJV 所以我们中间凡是完全人，总要存这样的心。腓利比书3:15
"If others succeed with 10 efforts, use 100; if they succeed with 100 efforts, use 1000. Thus even dull become smart, and the weak, strong." Confucius, "The Mean" 人一能之，已百之；人十能之，已千之。果能此道矣，虽愚必明，虽柔必强。
Paul's "as many as are perfect" phrase worried me during my youth because I knew that I was far from perfect (完全)! Fortunately, it is clear from the rest of Paul's writings that he that even he himself was not perfect, and in the following verse he said, "Only let us live up to what we have already attained. "然而我们到了什么地步，就当照着什么地步行。腓利比书3:16
Or consider the preceding two verses: "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13,14
Paul did not just "forget" what was behind, but was continually "forgetting" what was behind. This was because every day he made mistakes, so every day he "died daily," put his past behind him, learned from it, and pressed on--like James, who wrote so eloquently of such weaknesses as our tongue...
James said that "no man can control the tongue" [3:8 惟独舌头没有人能制伏，雅各书3:8], and that a person who was faultless in speech was perfect. But of course we cannot be perfect even in our speech, which is why I can start every day with a heaping bowl of Daily Noodles and Good Intentions, and end up not just eating my Noodles but eating my words as well (which aren't always so sweet).
Daily I am faced by the consequences of my many imperfections--my thoughts, my words, my deeds (or lack of them), but this does not discourage me because 1) I at least know that I'm imperfect, and 2) the fact that I am now imperfect means I am a "work in progress." I won't be like this forever because I am growing, learning, and becoming. And that gives me hope and purpose, and so I don't wallow in my regrets or compare myself with others but press on trying to "live up to what I have already attained"--as little as it is!
Like Paul, I will forget what is behind and press forward--and if I seem to have a harder time than others in reaching the goal, I will remind myself of Confucius' wise words: "If others succeed with one effort, use one hundred efforts; if they succeed with one hundred efforts, use one thousand efforts. This way, even the dull will become intelligent, and the weak become strong." 人一能之，已百之；人十能之，已千之。果能此道矣，虽愚必明，虽柔必强。
We of course rely upon His strength, not our own--but it is a partnership. We, not God, are the ones forgetting what is behind and pressing forward. Just make sure we're pressing forward in His direction.
it also requires OUR effort and persistence. As Paul said, WE are the ones who forget that is behind and press forward.
Related Blog: "Why Lao-Tzu was Wrong about the 1000 Miles"
www.amoymagic.com
"Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded..." Philippians 3:15 KJV 所以我们中间凡是完全人，总要存这样的心。腓利比书3:15
"If others succeed with 10 efforts, use 100; if they succeed with 100 efforts, use 1000. Thus even dull become smart, and the weak, strong." Confucius, "The Mean" 人一能之，已百之；人十能之，已千之。果能此道矣，虽愚必明，虽柔必强。
Paul's "as many as are perfect" phrase worried me during my youth because I knew that I was far from perfect (完全)! Fortunately, it is clear from the rest of Paul's writings that he that even he himself was not perfect, and in the following verse he said, "Only let us live up to what we have already attained. "然而我们到了什么地步，就当照着什么地步行。腓利比书3:16
Or consider the preceding two verses: "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13,14
Paul did not just "forget" what was behind, but was continually "forgetting" what was behind. This was because every day he made mistakes, so every day he "died daily," put his past behind him, learned from it, and pressed on--like James, who wrote so eloquently of such weaknesses as our tongue...
James said that "no man can control the tongue" [3:8 惟独舌头没有人能制伏，雅各书3:8], and that a person who was faultless in speech was perfect. But of course we cannot be perfect even in our speech, which is why I can start every day with a heaping bowl of Daily Noodles and Good Intentions, and end up not just eating my Noodles but eating my words as well (which aren't always so sweet).
Daily I am faced by the consequences of my many imperfections--my thoughts, my words, my deeds (or lack of them), but this does not discourage me because 1) I at least know that I'm imperfect, and 2) the fact that I am now imperfect means I am a "work in progress." I won't be like this forever because I am growing, learning, and becoming. And that gives me hope and purpose, and so I don't wallow in my regrets or compare myself with others but press on trying to "live up to what I have already attained"--as little as it is!
Like Paul, I will forget what is behind and press forward--and if I seem to have a harder time than others in reaching the goal, I will remind myself of Confucius' wise words: "If others succeed with one effort, use one hundred efforts; if they succeed with one hundred efforts, use one thousand efforts. This way, even the dull will become intelligent, and the weak become strong." 人一能之，已百之；人十能之，已千之。果能此道矣，虽愚必明，虽柔必强。
We of course rely upon His strength, not our own--but it is a partnership. We, not God, are the ones forgetting what is behind and pressing forward. Just make sure we're pressing forward in His direction.
it also requires OUR effort and persistence. As Paul said, WE are the ones who forget that is behind and press forward.
Related Blog: "Why Lao-Tzu was Wrong about the 1000 Miles"
www.amoymagic.com
The Mother of Mother's Day
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
Happy Mother's Day from Amoy!
I wrote this article for Common Talk in 2006.
When Anna May Jarvis's mother died on the second Sunday of May 1906, Anna May wished she had heeded the warning to, “Lavish your flowers on the living, not the dead.” Driven by remorse, the gentle, easy going Anna May became obsessed with the desire to see her mother and motherhood honored throughout the world.
After a year’s planning, the first Mother's Day was celebrated on the second anniversary of her mother’s death, May 10, 1908, at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where Anna’s mother had taught Sunday School. A year later, Philadelphia became the first city to proclaim an official Mother’s Day. Three years later, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed Public Resolution 25, establishing the second Sunday of each May as Mother's Day. And then, to everyone’s surprise, Anna May retired and spent the remaining 34 years of her life, and her fortune of over 100,000 dollars, fighting against Mother’s Day!
The problem was that from day one, Mother’s Day had become a great commercial extravaganza to boost the incomes of card and candy makers, and a salve to soothe the consciences of those who each May made mother a “queen for the day” but neglected her the other 364 days.
Anna May complained, “Mother’s Day has nothing to do with candy. Candy is junk. A maudlin, insincere printed card or a ready-made telegram means nothing except that you’re too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone else in the world. You ought to go home and see your mother on Mother’s Day. You ought to take her out and paint the town red...You ought to give her something useful, something permanent...Is she sleeping warm at night? Could she use an eiderdown? Maybe the stairs in her home need fixing...”
For 30 years, Anna May fought for the integrity of Mother’s Day. She finally died in a sanitarium — old, tired, deaf, blind, penniless, and having never married nor been a mother herself!
Sixty years later, mothers may be more neglected than ever. Statistics show one half of Americans, which of course includes one half of our mothers, live in poverty. Where are the children? More than ever, mothers deserve more than cards and candy one day a year and anonymity the other 364.
My appreciation of motherhood only began as I watched my wife, Susan Marie, in both sickness and health, unselfishly spend herself on her two sons (and her husband as well!). I also slowly came to better appreciate my own mother, and though she’s 12,000 miles away, I am now careful to not only send her the obligatory Mother’s Day card and flowers but also to regularly write and phone her.
Fortunately, most Common Talk readers are not 12,000 miles away from home! So as Mother's Day catches on in China, let us seek to make Mother’s Day not a card-and-candy substitute for well-deserved love but the crown and pinnacle of a full year’s expression of love and appreciation for the one who gave us life: our mother.
www.amoymagic.com
Happy Mother's Day from Amoy!
I wrote this article for Common Talk in 2006.
When Anna May Jarvis's mother died on the second Sunday of May 1906, Anna May wished she had heeded the warning to, “Lavish your flowers on the living, not the dead.” Driven by remorse, the gentle, easy going Anna May became obsessed with the desire to see her mother and motherhood honored throughout the world.
After a year’s planning, the first Mother's Day was celebrated on the second anniversary of her mother’s death, May 10, 1908, at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where Anna’s mother had taught Sunday School. A year later, Philadelphia became the first city to proclaim an official Mother’s Day. Three years later, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed Public Resolution 25, establishing the second Sunday of each May as Mother's Day. And then, to everyone’s surprise, Anna May retired and spent the remaining 34 years of her life, and her fortune of over 100,000 dollars, fighting against Mother’s Day!
The problem was that from day one, Mother’s Day had become a great commercial extravaganza to boost the incomes of card and candy makers, and a salve to soothe the consciences of those who each May made mother a “queen for the day” but neglected her the other 364 days.
Anna May complained, “Mother’s Day has nothing to do with candy. Candy is junk. A maudlin, insincere printed card or a ready-made telegram means nothing except that you’re too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone else in the world. You ought to go home and see your mother on Mother’s Day. You ought to take her out and paint the town red...You ought to give her something useful, something permanent...Is she sleeping warm at night? Could she use an eiderdown? Maybe the stairs in her home need fixing...”
For 30 years, Anna May fought for the integrity of Mother’s Day. She finally died in a sanitarium — old, tired, deaf, blind, penniless, and having never married nor been a mother herself!
Sixty years later, mothers may be more neglected than ever. Statistics show one half of Americans, which of course includes one half of our mothers, live in poverty. Where are the children? More than ever, mothers deserve more than cards and candy one day a year and anonymity the other 364.
My appreciation of motherhood only began as I watched my wife, Susan Marie, in both sickness and health, unselfishly spend herself on her two sons (and her husband as well!). I also slowly came to better appreciate my own mother, and though she’s 12,000 miles away, I am now careful to not only send her the obligatory Mother’s Day card and flowers but also to regularly write and phone her.
Fortunately, most Common Talk readers are not 12,000 miles away from home! So as Mother's Day catches on in China, let us seek to make Mother’s Day not a card-and-candy substitute for well-deserved love but the crown and pinnacle of a full year’s expression of love and appreciation for the one who gave us life: our mother.
www.amoymagic.com
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Spears & Shields: Faith & Works
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." James 2:17,18 这样信心若没有行为就是死的。必有人说，你有信心，我有行为。你将你没有行为的信心指给我看，我便藉着我的行为，将我的信心指给你看。雅各书2:17,18
"Heaven never helps the men who will not act." Sophocles
A Maodun in the Market The Chinese word for contradiction, Maodun, is made of the words "Mao" [spear] and "Dun" [shield]. In ancient times, a weapons merchant hawked both a sword that could penetrate anything and a shield that could stop anything. This of course led onlookers to ask what would happen if the unstoppable spear struck the impenetrable shield. It was a "maodun"--a contradiction, an impossibility--much like the maodun of "faith without works."
Faith without action is not merely dead but stillborn; it never lived. For how can faith not affect what we are, and what we are not affect what we do? Faith infuses us with the unstoppable force of life and direction. The visible manifestation of that unstoppable force of faith within us is the visible life we lead--our actions and works. Faith that has no power to change or direct is not faith (unless we claim that the unstoppable force of faith has been stopped in its tracks by the impenetrable shield of the world--but is that possible?
We of course need both faith and actions. Ephesians 2:19 says works are not enough (lest we boast in them). But if a changed life does not follow the birth of faith, then there was no faith, or else it was faith in the wrong thing--perhaps faith in religion, rites, rituals, or even faith in ourselves.
Jesus' life and message is summed up by two words: love, and stewardship. We are to love our Heavenly Father, and to love others as ourselves, and we are to be wise stewards and bear fruit during the brief years we are allotted on this little planet.
Jesus said it is impossible for a good tree to bear bad fruit, or a bad tree to bear good fruit. How much more impossible is it for a good tree, rooted and nourished, to bear no fruit at all! If the tree bears no fruit, it is because it never took root, it has not received nourishment, it has refused training and pruning--or quite simply it is dead.
What actions? Brother Lawrence, the 17th century French monk, said "And it is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelette in the pan for the love of God...When I cannot do anything else, it is enough for me to have lifted a straw from the earth for the love of God."
When Jesus said we would be rewarded for giving a cup of cold water in his name, he did not mean for us to make a ritual of everything we do--tacking a "in Jesus name" onto every act to rack up Brownie points for heaven. He meant that, whatever our deeds, great or small, do them out of love, and we will reap the rewards of love.
The Spear of an Unstoppable Life If that unstoppable force of faith wells up within us, there is no impenetrable shield that can hinder our lives from bearing witness more eloquently than words alone of whom we love and live for. So don't just have faith but be faith and live faith.
An Excerpt from "Adventures in Contentment"
by David Grayson (quoted in Lin Yutang, "Between Tears and Laughter")
[The man said], "I have been a botanist for fifty-four years. When I was a boy I believed implicitly in God. I prayed to him, having a vision of him a person before my eyes. As I grew older I concluded that there was no God, I dismissed him from the universe, I believed only in what I could see, or hear, or feel. I talked about Nature and Reality."
He paused, the smile still lighting his face, evidently recalling to himself the old days. I did not interrupt him. Finally he turned to me and said abruptly, "And now it seems to me there is nothing but God."
"Without God, man cannot; without man, God will not." Anonymous
www.amoymagic.com
"In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." James 2:17,18 这样信心若没有行为就是死的。必有人说，你有信心，我有行为。你将你没有行为的信心指给我看，我便藉着我的行为，将我的信心指给你看。雅各书2:17,18
"Heaven never helps the men who will not act." Sophocles
A Maodun in the Market The Chinese word for contradiction, Maodun, is made of the words "Mao" [spear] and "Dun" [shield]. In ancient times, a weapons merchant hawked both a sword that could penetrate anything and a shield that could stop anything. This of course led onlookers to ask what would happen if the unstoppable spear struck the impenetrable shield. It was a "maodun"--a contradiction, an impossibility--much like the maodun of "faith without works."
Faith without action is not merely dead but stillborn; it never lived. For how can faith not affect what we are, and what we are not affect what we do? Faith infuses us with the unstoppable force of life and direction. The visible manifestation of that unstoppable force of faith within us is the visible life we lead--our actions and works. Faith that has no power to change or direct is not faith (unless we claim that the unstoppable force of faith has been stopped in its tracks by the impenetrable shield of the world--but is that possible?
We of course need both faith and actions. Ephesians 2:19 says works are not enough (lest we boast in them). But if a changed life does not follow the birth of faith, then there was no faith, or else it was faith in the wrong thing--perhaps faith in religion, rites, rituals, or even faith in ourselves.
Jesus' life and message is summed up by two words: love, and stewardship. We are to love our Heavenly Father, and to love others as ourselves, and we are to be wise stewards and bear fruit during the brief years we are allotted on this little planet.
Jesus said it is impossible for a good tree to bear bad fruit, or a bad tree to bear good fruit. How much more impossible is it for a good tree, rooted and nourished, to bear no fruit at all! If the tree bears no fruit, it is because it never took root, it has not received nourishment, it has refused training and pruning--or quite simply it is dead.
What actions? Brother Lawrence, the 17th century French monk, said "And it is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelette in the pan for the love of God...When I cannot do anything else, it is enough for me to have lifted a straw from the earth for the love of God."
When Jesus said we would be rewarded for giving a cup of cold water in his name, he did not mean for us to make a ritual of everything we do--tacking a "in Jesus name" onto every act to rack up Brownie points for heaven. He meant that, whatever our deeds, great or small, do them out of love, and we will reap the rewards of love.
The Spear of an Unstoppable Life If that unstoppable force of faith wells up within us, there is no impenetrable shield that can hinder our lives from bearing witness more eloquently than words alone of whom we love and live for. So don't just have faith but be faith and live faith.
An Excerpt from "Adventures in Contentment"
by David Grayson (quoted in Lin Yutang, "Between Tears and Laughter")
[The man said], "I have been a botanist for fifty-four years. When I was a boy I believed implicitly in God. I prayed to him, having a vision of him a person before my eyes. As I grew older I concluded that there was no God, I dismissed him from the universe, I believed only in what I could see, or hear, or feel. I talked about Nature and Reality."
He paused, the smile still lighting his face, evidently recalling to himself the old days. I did not interrupt him. Finally he turned to me and said abruptly, "And now it seems to me there is nothing but God."
"Without God, man cannot; without man, God will not." Anonymous
www.amoymagic.com
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Tiger Zhou & the Preacher
Bill Brown ... ... Xiamen University
The beautiful South China tigers, or Amoy Tigers, in West Fujian's Meihua mountain reserve (in Longyan), remind me of the story of Tiger Zhou, from the 1930s (told in "Twice Born--and Then?" by Andrew Gih).
Tiger Zhou was a gang leader, and so hardened in heart that he threatened to kill his own father (unimaginable in China, a land in which filial piety is the foundation of society). After hearing a Chinese pastor in the countryside preaching, Tiger Zhou angrily told others, "He makes us all out to be sinners! If he keeps this up, I'll beat him." When the Chinese preacher heard this, he was frightened, so he prayed, but felt strongly to continue preaching the same message.
After the next evening's message, furious gang members told the preacher, "Last night we did not talk to you, but now we tell you that if you do not behave yourself, we will attend to you tomorrow."
The preacher decided to preach anyway and put everything in his Father's hands. The next night the place was packed as people from all over came to see Tiger Zhou and his band pummel the preacher. But at the end of the sermon, the preacher heard a scream, and saw a man had fallen to the ground, crying, "My sin, my sin." He ran to him and found it was Tiger Zhou! He confessed to the preacher how he had threatened to murder his father, and on the Chinese preacher's urging, he walked the several miles to his home the next day and asked his father's forgiveness, and healed the relationship not only with his father but with his Heavenly Father.
Tiger Zhou returned to the services the following night, and Andrew Gih (of the Bethel Band) wrote,
You and I have probably not fallen as far as the murderous Tiger Zhou, but we still fall short in other ways. What can change us? We may faithfully follow the 3,305 rules of Confucius, but in the end, like the great philosopher himself, we will find that even a lifetime of faithful outward observances of ritual will not change the inner heart. We are still tigers--or worse.
Confucius resorted to systems and government to change people. The Taoists, such as Lao Tse and Mencius, appealed to principles. But as great as Confucius, Lao Tse and Mencius were, they all admitted that they were unable to tame the tiger within. No wonder that China's ancient classics wrote that the people anxiously awaited the coming of the "virtuous Prince" who would save them from the guilt and punishment of their failings.
Tiger Zhou met that Prince, face-to-face--and found that the Prince did not come to tame the tiger but to complete it.
No Tame Tigers We cannot change ourselves any more than the leopard can change its spots, but that is okay because our Father made us tigers for a reason. And our Father does not want "tamed" tigers but obedient tigers--and there is a big difference. Tamed tigers are cowed, listless, purposeless, and obey their master out of fear. But obedience is willful and purposeful, born of love and respect and, above all, trust. We obey not just a master but a Father, and we trust that our obedience will not only bring joy to our Father but also, in the end, greater happiness and fulfillment in our lives than if we went the way of Tiger Zhou.
So if you're a tiger, be a tiger! But don't waste your strength and purpose like Tiger Zhou. Be a tiger with a purpose.
Supplement
"Tiger and Fox"--ancient Chinese Story.
A tiger was about to kill a fox when the fox said, "Stop! You can't touch me! I'm king of the forest and all creatures fear me!" The tiger laughed in disbelief, so the fox said, "Follow me and you'll see that I am feared by everyone." So the tiger followed the fox as he wandered up and down the forest paths, and sure enough, all of the forest creatures shrunk back in fear.
"It is true!" said the tiger. "You are feared by all! You must be king indeed." And so the tiger left the fox, totally unaware that the animals had been in mortal fear not of the fox but of the tiger walking behind him.
We may be like the fox--a small creature in a vast threatening woods, but we can choose to walk with Him who made the tiger--or choose to go it alone.
www.amoymagic.com
The beautiful South China tigers, or Amoy Tigers, in West Fujian's Meihua mountain reserve (in Longyan), remind me of the story of Tiger Zhou, from the 1930s (told in "Twice Born--and Then?" by Andrew Gih).
Tiger Zhou was a gang leader, and so hardened in heart that he threatened to kill his own father (unimaginable in China, a land in which filial piety is the foundation of society). After hearing a Chinese pastor in the countryside preaching, Tiger Zhou angrily told others, "He makes us all out to be sinners! If he keeps this up, I'll beat him." When the Chinese preacher heard this, he was frightened, so he prayed, but felt strongly to continue preaching the same message.After the next evening's message, furious gang members told the preacher, "Last night we did not talk to you, but now we tell you that if you do not behave yourself, we will attend to you tomorrow."
The preacher decided to preach anyway and put everything in his Father's hands. The next night the place was packed as people from all over came to see Tiger Zhou and his band pummel the preacher. But at the end of the sermon, the preacher heard a scream, and saw a man had fallen to the ground, crying, "My sin, my sin." He ran to him and found it was Tiger Zhou! He confessed to the preacher how he had threatened to murder his father, and on the Chinese preacher's urging, he walked the several miles to his home the next day and asked his father's forgiveness, and healed the relationship not only with his father but with his Heavenly Father.
Tiger Zhou returned to the services the following night, and Andrew Gih (of the Bethel Band) wrote,
"It takes the power of God to transform such a man's life. You may train the tiger; you may teach the tiger; but he will still be a tiger. It takes the power of God to transform livfes. Let us be faithful to God and to the souls before us."
You and I have probably not fallen as far as the murderous Tiger Zhou, but we still fall short in other ways. What can change us? We may faithfully follow the 3,305 rules of Confucius, but in the end, like the great philosopher himself, we will find that even a lifetime of faithful outward observances of ritual will not change the inner heart. We are still tigers--or worse.
Confucius resorted to systems and government to change people. The Taoists, such as Lao Tse and Mencius, appealed to principles. But as great as Confucius, Lao Tse and Mencius were, they all admitted that they were unable to tame the tiger within. No wonder that China's ancient classics wrote that the people anxiously awaited the coming of the "virtuous Prince" who would save them from the guilt and punishment of their failings.
Tiger Zhou met that Prince, face-to-face--and found that the Prince did not come to tame the tiger but to complete it.
No Tame Tigers We cannot change ourselves any more than the leopard can change its spots, but that is okay because our Father made us tigers for a reason. And our Father does not want "tamed" tigers but obedient tigers--and there is a big difference. Tamed tigers are cowed, listless, purposeless, and obey their master out of fear. But obedience is willful and purposeful, born of love and respect and, above all, trust. We obey not just a master but a Father, and we trust that our obedience will not only bring joy to our Father but also, in the end, greater happiness and fulfillment in our lives than if we went the way of Tiger Zhou.
So if you're a tiger, be a tiger! But don't waste your strength and purpose like Tiger Zhou. Be a tiger with a purpose.
Supplement
"Tiger and Fox"--ancient Chinese Story.
A tiger was about to kill a fox when the fox said, "Stop! You can't touch me! I'm king of the forest and all creatures fear me!" The tiger laughed in disbelief, so the fox said, "Follow me and you'll see that I am feared by everyone." So the tiger followed the fox as he wandered up and down the forest paths, and sure enough, all of the forest creatures shrunk back in fear.
"It is true!" said the tiger. "You are feared by all! You must be king indeed." And so the tiger left the fox, totally unaware that the animals had been in mortal fear not of the fox but of the tiger walking behind him.
We may be like the fox--a small creature in a vast threatening woods, but we can choose to walk with Him who made the tiger--or choose to go it alone.
www.amoymagic.com
Monday, May 4, 2009
Rev. John Sung: Gulangyu Miracles
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8 耶稣基督，昨日今日一直到永远是一样的。希伯来书 13:8
John Sung (click here for biography & photos), the famous Chinese evangelist from Fujian, is said by many to have been the greatest evangelist of the 20th century--perhaps surpassing even Billy Graham. But like most famous figures, he was controversial. Chinese flocked to hear him, but many foreigners, including missionaries, were not so enamored of him, as I learned when I interviewed two elderly Christians (brother and sister) on Gulangyu Islet, who shared with me about the John Sung service they attended, and of John Sung's unique preaching style--as well as the controversial healings.
I have seen amazing answers to prayer, but even so, I am skeptical of the "professional healers," so this story was especially interesting to me, and is a good reminder that our Father is indeed "the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow."
Interview of two eyewitnesses of John Sung's Gulangyu Service (1930s), Bill Brown, 2008
Gulangyu Brother: "We were junior high students when John Sung preached here on Gulangyu in the 1930s. Foreign missionaries did not like his style. They said he was too theatrical on stage. He was animated, and waved his arms about as he preached. He prayed for hours, and then preached for hours, but people could never get enough of his preaching.
"So many people went onto the stage for John Sung to pray for them that it was like an assembly line. They went up the left side of the stage, John Sung prayed for them, then he touched their forehead, and they would exit the right side of the stage. But many of them fainted when he touched their forehead, and someone would catch them. And after his services, there were crutches left by those who had been healed."
Bill Brown: "This sounds like a modern televangelist meeting to me! Were any healings really documented? Did you personally see any people that you know for sure were healed?"
Gulangyu Sister: "We were just children, and did not know most of the people. But one that for certain was healed was our school principal's son, who could not walk because of childhood illness [I was just told it was congenital, and he'd not walked since birth]. They wheeled him in his chair up the left side of the stage. John Sung prayed for him as quickly as he prayed for everyone else, and touched his forehead--and the boy got up out of his wheelchair and walked off the stage! So we don't know about the other healings, but that one healing was enough to shake up a lot of people on Gulangyu Islet!"
Related Link: "Water From a Chinese Rock"
Mr. Lim, who is writing a dissertation on John Sung, wrote the following about this famous healing:
"Following up on your interview account, I have actually met and interviewed (2003) the older brother of the young boy healed by Sung. The family's name is X.., I was told the boy was five years old and his father taught at the Anglo-Chinese School (some literature say college, but i know it's a high school, can you confirm?). Apparently he walked home by himself. His grandmother, though a faithful Christian, doubted the news she heard that the grandson could walk. Upon seeing the boy walking towards her house, she suddenly found that she could not utter a single word (literally). Realizing she was much like Zechariah of old who was mute due to his disbelief, she quickly knelt to confess her sin of disbelief. She regained her speech after that...
[The rest I have discretely left out; needless to say, this made a big impact upon the family, especially upon the healed boy's older brother, who is still alive today. It helped give him courage during the difficult 50s and 60s].
"Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize... Philippians 3:13,14 "弟兄们，我不是以为自己已经得着了。我只有一件事，就是忘记背后努力面前的，向着标竿直跑，要得神在基督耶稣里从上面召我来得的奖赏。" 腓利比书3:13,14
www.amoymagic.com
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Secret Giver at XICF Retreat
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Jesus, in Matthew 6:3,4 "你施舍的时候，不要叫左手知道右手所作的。要叫你施舍的事行在暗中，你父在暗中察看，必报答你。（有古卷作必在明处报答你） 马太福音6:3,4
Susan Marie has been hard at work pulling together the annual Xiamen International Christian Fellowship retreat, which this year will be held in a remote town (the very area ZhangzhouLin Yutang was born).
Our XICF numbers almost 200 some Sundays, with upwards of 50 children in the Awana Sunday School program. And many of the adults are students from Africa studying at XIamen University on Scholarship, and could not afford even the minimal cost of the retreat this year, so XICF has given scholarships to make sure money alone does not deter them from joining in (unfortunately, I can't go because I have classes all day Saturday, and cannot change them!).
One family in XICF gave Sue 1,000 Yuan as an anonymous gift to help those who could not afford to attend the retreat. But to our surprise, as Sue was finishing up some last minute paperwork for the retreat, she was that this family is only taking one room for 3 adults and 2 children! So obviously they themselves are not burdened with too much money--or else they just choose to be very good stewards of what they have.
I wish I could share the names of this family, but they chose to give as Christ commanded, in secret--and their reward will come not from men but from our Father.
Thank you, secret giver, for being a blessing to many this coming weekend at XICF. And thanks to all of those in XICF who, weekly, give of their time and skills, as well as their money, to make this fellowship such a special place.
Taste of Heaven Yesterday, three women shared their experiences with us, and one noted that she had never attended such a fellowship anywhere else in the world, with so many people from so many countries worshipping together. As she said, "XICF is a taste of heaven!"
www.amoymagic.com
"But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Jesus, in Matthew 6:3,4 "你施舍的时候，不要叫左手知道右手所作的。要叫你施舍的事行在暗中，你父在暗中察看，必报答你。（有古卷作必在明处报答你） 马太福音6:3,4
Susan Marie has been hard at work pulling together the annual Xiamen International Christian Fellowship retreat, which this year will be held in a remote town (the very area ZhangzhouLin Yutang was born).
Our XICF numbers almost 200 some Sundays, with upwards of 50 children in the Awana Sunday School program. And many of the adults are students from Africa studying at XIamen University on Scholarship, and could not afford even the minimal cost of the retreat this year, so XICF has given scholarships to make sure money alone does not deter them from joining in (unfortunately, I can't go because I have classes all day Saturday, and cannot change them!).
One family in XICF gave Sue 1,000 Yuan as an anonymous gift to help those who could not afford to attend the retreat. But to our surprise, as Sue was finishing up some last minute paperwork for the retreat, she was that this family is only taking one room for 3 adults and 2 children! So obviously they themselves are not burdened with too much money--or else they just choose to be very good stewards of what they have.
I wish I could share the names of this family, but they chose to give as Christ commanded, in secret--and their reward will come not from men but from our Father.
Thank you, secret giver, for being a blessing to many this coming weekend at XICF. And thanks to all of those in XICF who, weekly, give of their time and skills, as well as their money, to make this fellowship such a special place.
Taste of Heaven Yesterday, three women shared their experiences with us, and one noted that she had never attended such a fellowship anywhere else in the world, with so many people from so many countries worshipping together. As she said, "XICF is a taste of heaven!"
www.amoymagic.com
Success or Slavery?
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic." Numbers 11:5 我们记得，在埃及的时候不花钱就吃鱼，也记得有黄瓜，西瓜，韭菜，葱，蒜。民数记11:5
"Things done don't talk of; things completed don't cast blame; don't blame someone for the past." Confucius, Analects (Bayi:21) 子闻之曰：“成事不说，遂事不谏，既往不咎。”
Were Those the Days? In the late 90s, an elderly Chinese neighbor lamented to me, "I miss the great days of the 1950s! Life was simple, you didn't have to lock your door at night, no one would ever steal your bicycle! Not like today!"
Numbing Nostalgia. Nothing numbs memories better than nostalgia! It is true that few people stole bikes in the 1950s, but one reason was because few people could afford a bicycle, so anyone pedaling about town on a stolen bicycle would have stuck out like someone today driving around Xiamen in a stolen Maserati (though we do have a few now!).
There was, of course, a heady, fresh spirit in the New China of the 1950s. The Chinese had, at long last, created their Promised Land, but they had no ideas of the two difficult decades ahead of them before then began the amazing reforms of 1978. I think that my neighbor who longed for the 1950s, would not have cared to repeat the 60s and 70s. And I suspect that, if pressed, he would have admitted that the China of the 90s, where people had bicycles, fridges and televisions, was much better than the China of the 50s, when most people had a tough time finding food, much less a bicycle.
[Of course, today it is again hard to find bicycles--but that's because most people now have cars.]
It is tempting to idealize the past when swamped by the complexities of today and the uncertainties of tomorrow, but the past was never as good as we remembered it--as the Jews learned the hard way.
Slaves or Victors The children of Israel spent 40 years in the desert on their way to the Promised Land because they still had the mentality not of conquerors but of slaves. They faced problems not as opportunities to learn and grow but with complaints, and longings for the "free" fish and vegetables of Egypt. But the price of those "free" fish and vegetables had been mindless but relatively "secure" dawn-to-dusk slave labor in the fields and brickyards, and barely subsisting upon the "free" fish and vegetables scavenged from river and fields.
Success or Slavery? Do we see adversity as an opportunity to grow, or are we slaves to a past that never really existed--or perhaps slaves to our fears of the future? It is our choice.
Regardless of what we face today, today is the best day of our life because it is the only day we can do anything about. Yesterday is but water under the bridge. We should learn from it but not long for it. And tomorrow offers hope and a Promise, but only if we prepare for it today. So don't be slave to past or future but seize this day, and be thankful that every day is a new day--lest we end up like the poor guy in Groundhog Day who lived the same day over and over. (I certianly would not care to relearn the lessons of puberty, my first date, Air Force basic training, or my first year in China!).
Learn from yesterday--and then move on.
See The Night After Groundhog Day
www.amoymagic.com
"We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic." Numbers 11:5 我们记得，在埃及的时候不花钱就吃鱼，也记得有黄瓜，西瓜，韭菜，葱，蒜。民数记11:5
"Things done don't talk of; things completed don't cast blame; don't blame someone for the past." Confucius, Analects (Bayi:21) 子闻之曰：“成事不说，遂事不谏，既往不咎。”
Were Those the Days? In the late 90s, an elderly Chinese neighbor lamented to me, "I miss the great days of the 1950s! Life was simple, you didn't have to lock your door at night, no one would ever steal your bicycle! Not like today!"
Numbing Nostalgia. Nothing numbs memories better than nostalgia! It is true that few people stole bikes in the 1950s, but one reason was because few people could afford a bicycle, so anyone pedaling about town on a stolen bicycle would have stuck out like someone today driving around Xiamen in a stolen Maserati (though we do have a few now!).
There was, of course, a heady, fresh spirit in the New China of the 1950s. The Chinese had, at long last, created their Promised Land, but they had no ideas of the two difficult decades ahead of them before then began the amazing reforms of 1978. I think that my neighbor who longed for the 1950s, would not have cared to repeat the 60s and 70s. And I suspect that, if pressed, he would have admitted that the China of the 90s, where people had bicycles, fridges and televisions, was much better than the China of the 50s, when most people had a tough time finding food, much less a bicycle.
[Of course, today it is again hard to find bicycles--but that's because most people now have cars.]
It is tempting to idealize the past when swamped by the complexities of today and the uncertainties of tomorrow, but the past was never as good as we remembered it--as the Jews learned the hard way.
Slaves or Victors The children of Israel spent 40 years in the desert on their way to the Promised Land because they still had the mentality not of conquerors but of slaves. They faced problems not as opportunities to learn and grow but with complaints, and longings for the "free" fish and vegetables of Egypt. But the price of those "free" fish and vegetables had been mindless but relatively "secure" dawn-to-dusk slave labor in the fields and brickyards, and barely subsisting upon the "free" fish and vegetables scavenged from river and fields.
Success or Slavery? Do we see adversity as an opportunity to grow, or are we slaves to a past that never really existed--or perhaps slaves to our fears of the future? It is our choice.
Regardless of what we face today, today is the best day of our life because it is the only day we can do anything about. Yesterday is but water under the bridge. We should learn from it but not long for it. And tomorrow offers hope and a Promise, but only if we prepare for it today. So don't be slave to past or future but seize this day, and be thankful that every day is a new day--lest we end up like the poor guy in Groundhog Day who lived the same day over and over. (I certianly would not care to relearn the lessons of puberty, my first date, Air Force basic training, or my first year in China!).
Learn from yesterday--and then move on.
See The Night After Groundhog Day
www.amoymagic.com
Friday, May 1, 2009
MacDonald's Secret of Life
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 耶和华说，我知道我向你们所怀的意念是赐平安的意念，不是降灾祸的意念，要叫你们末后有指望。 耶利米书29:11
"The one secret of life and development is ..." George MacDonald (the rest is below)
When a Beijing radio station interviewed me a few months ago about my favorite book, movie and song, I easily picked "Lord of the Rings," (read the blog to see why). I could even narrow the movie down to my favorite line.
I was only nine when I first read the Lord of the Rings, and being one of the smallest kids in 3rd grade, I was heartened that the fellow chosen to save the day was an insignificant member of the smallest people of Middle-Earth, the Hobbits. Elrond said of these diminutive, peace-loving Hobbits, "This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields, to shake the towers and counsels of the Great. Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it?"
But of course my favorite part from the Rings film was:
Frodo: "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought."
Over a century before Lord of the Rings was filmed, George MacDonald, whose writings most influenced C.S. Lewis, wrote something quite similar to Gandalf's speech:
"No man can order his life, for it comes flowing over him from behind...The one secret of life and development is not to devise and plan but to fall in with the forces at work--to do every moment's duty aright--that being the part in the process allotted to us: and let come--not what will, for there is no such thing--but what the eternal thought wills for each of us, has intended in each of us from the first." George MacDonald [327]
Ring Bearers We, like Frodo, have not only been Chosen for a 70-year Quest, but also Equipped to carry it out. Our Father asks but one thing of us, and no other--to never give up. Our only task is to accept the Ring handed to us and to bear it, in His strength and wisdom, not ours, to the end--which for those who complete the quest is but the Beginning.
Refusing the Quest Of course, we are not made to accept the ring, but if we do not, someone else will. And if we refuse to carry out the sole purpose for our brief life on this spinning little planet, we may well share the fate of the fig tree in the vineyard (Luke 13:6-9). But that is for another day.
Note: The George MacDonald quotes above are from C.S. Lewis' George MacDonald Anthology (365 daily quotes).
http://ourdailynoodles.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-favorite-book-movie-song.html
www.amoymagic.com
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 耶和华说，我知道我向你们所怀的意念是赐平安的意念，不是降灾祸的意念，要叫你们末后有指望。 耶利米书29:11
"The one secret of life and development is ..." George MacDonald (the rest is below)
When a Beijing radio station interviewed me a few months ago about my favorite book, movie and song, I easily picked "Lord of the Rings," (read the blog to see why). I could even narrow the movie down to my favorite line.
I was only nine when I first read the Lord of the Rings, and being one of the smallest kids in 3rd grade, I was heartened that the fellow chosen to save the day was an insignificant member of the smallest people of Middle-Earth, the Hobbits. Elrond said of these diminutive, peace-loving Hobbits, "This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields, to shake the towers and counsels of the Great. Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it?"
But of course my favorite part from the Rings film was:
Frodo: "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought."
Over a century before Lord of the Rings was filmed, George MacDonald, whose writings most influenced C.S. Lewis, wrote something quite similar to Gandalf's speech:
"No man can order his life, for it comes flowing over him from behind...The one secret of life and development is not to devise and plan but to fall in with the forces at work--to do every moment's duty aright--that being the part in the process allotted to us: and let come--not what will, for there is no such thing--but what the eternal thought wills for each of us, has intended in each of us from the first." George MacDonald [327]
Ring Bearers We, like Frodo, have not only been Chosen for a 70-year Quest, but also Equipped to carry it out. Our Father asks but one thing of us, and no other--to never give up. Our only task is to accept the Ring handed to us and to bear it, in His strength and wisdom, not ours, to the end--which for those who complete the quest is but the Beginning.
Refusing the Quest Of course, we are not made to accept the ring, but if we do not, someone else will. And if we refuse to carry out the sole purpose for our brief life on this spinning little planet, we may well share the fate of the fig tree in the vineyard (Luke 13:6-9). But that is for another day.
Note: The George MacDonald quotes above are from C.S. Lewis' George MacDonald Anthology (365 daily quotes).
http://ourdailynoodles.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-favorite-book-movie-song.html
www.amoymagic.com
Thursday, April 30, 2009
What is YOUR Tea?
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth." Isaiah 11:3,4
"Middling people are shocked at the wickedness of the wicked; Gibbie, who knew both so well, was shocked only at the wickedness of the righteous." George MacDonald [326]
Ironically, it was good intentions that led to the 19th century opium trade and the two Opium Wars that impoverished China and enriched the West.
Opium was forced on China at gunpoint so we could earn enough silver to pay for tea. And tea was popular in part because Christians had promoted it as a substitute for alcohol!
Tea Addiction Tea was not addictive but its profits were. And tea taxes were highly addictive to governments (they sparked the Boston Tea Party; the tea tossed into the sea was shipped from Xiamen; so no Xiamen, no USA!). And the tea taxes helped finance the armies that forced the opium trade on China to get the silver to pay the Chinese for tea, etc., etc.
Britain imported about 2 pounds of tea in the 1660s; this rose to 15 million pounds in the 1780s and 30 million pounds in 1830. Lots of tea, lots of taxes, lots of opium to pay for the tea to pay the taxes. Happily, America was the first Western country to make the opium trade illegal, and when the decision was made, the Chinese Viceroy said it was the first instance he'd seen of a "Christian country" acting in a Christian manner. (Sadly, the other nations kept up the trade for decades longer).
It was a vicious cycle, but in fairness to Britain, their entire Parliament opposed the 2nd Opium War! The Prime Minister simply dissolved parliament, told the common people they were fighting for the honor of the Queen, and the people supported him. Had they known it was over opium and not honor, I've no doubt the British common folk, like those in Parliament, would have opposed the wars, and the trade as well--and found something to drink besides tea--and alcohol. (In the 20th century, Britain's poor working class nobly sympathized with Gandhi, even though his fight for India's freedom cost many of them their jobs). It was a very small minority of Westerners who were behind the opium trade, but they made such immense profits that they wielded the political and military power to force the trade on Asia for a century.
The High Price of Low Cost I love tea but I would certainly not impoverish an entire nation to insure its supply. But are there other "teas" in my life? Consider the high price behind the low cost we enjoy in America. I marvel that I can buy something "Made in China" cheaper in the U.S. than I can here in China, where we make far less money to pay for those things.
And many of my friends back home complain that everything is made in China--yet our American companies make everything in China precisely so we can buy things more cheaply. We also complain that Chinese work for so little, but here's a news flash: Chinese would like to earn more! I've not met one Chinese who does not want to be paid a fairer wage, but they are paid next to nothing so we can continue to buy at the superstore that boasts "We sell for less" daily.
"When the harm is done and belongs to the past decades, when the sufferings and wrongs of the people are mere memories, pointing out mistakes is a luxury of the reminiscent historian whose voice is calm and tinged with an exquisite regret." Lin Yutang
As Lin Yutang wrote (back in 1943!), we can safely heave a sigh of regret over wrongs committed a century ago, but a thinking person should be able to see what is happening today as well--if the media did not distort world events. This is perhaps why the Prince of Peace will judge not by eyes and ears but heart and conscience.
In Isaiah 11, the "Prince of Peace," is described as judging not by what he sees or deciding by what he hears, but "with righteousness judging the needy." He judges by his heart, not his senses, because he knows what he sees or hears is but the tip of a very large iceberg--and given the nature of our media, probably only one side of the tip.
What is our tea today? And is it worth what we pay for it--or what we make others pay for it? It is no wonder that George MacDonald was surprised not by the wicked of the evil but by the wicked of the righteous--especially when the righteous commit evil in the name of good.
There are no easy answers but there is a correct answer. We must pray for wisdom and discernment, that we may not be driven by the rantings of either extreme Right or Left, but gently led from Within by that still, small voice that tells us that the price of tea or anything else is very important, because if we aren't paying, someone else most certainly is.
A Challenge: Read "Lords of Opium" (Opium Wars in China)
Very relevant quote from Lin Yutang, my favorite 20th century Chinese writer [Between Tears and Laughter, 1945, p.100]
"I am not convinced that all the idiots lived in the past and the great extraordinary minds live only in the present. History has repeatedly proved governments to have been stupid and wrong and the moral instinct of the people to have been right. If the governments could be wrong in the past decade, they can be wrong now. Be a gadfly, therefore,, and sting the governments.
But it is almost a law of human nature that we have all the rights and privileges to sting a dead statesman, like Neville Chamberlain, but not the living great of this earth. When the harm is done and belongs to the past decades, when the sufferings and wrongs of the people are mere memories, pointing out mistakes is a luxury of the reminiscent historian whose voice is calm and tinged with an exquisite regret. When the mistakes are being committed before our eyes, to point out the mistakes and errors of the living great is to arouse all the ire of the red-hot patriots.
www.amoymagic.com
"He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth." Isaiah 11:3,4
"Middling people are shocked at the wickedness of the wicked; Gibbie, who knew both so well, was shocked only at the wickedness of the righteous." George MacDonald [326]
Ironically, it was good intentions that led to the 19th century opium trade and the two Opium Wars that impoverished China and enriched the West.
Opium was forced on China at gunpoint so we could earn enough silver to pay for tea. And tea was popular in part because Christians had promoted it as a substitute for alcohol!
Tea Addiction Tea was not addictive but its profits were. And tea taxes were highly addictive to governments (they sparked the Boston Tea Party; the tea tossed into the sea was shipped from Xiamen; so no Xiamen, no USA!). And the tea taxes helped finance the armies that forced the opium trade on China to get the silver to pay the Chinese for tea, etc., etc.
Britain imported about 2 pounds of tea in the 1660s; this rose to 15 million pounds in the 1780s and 30 million pounds in 1830. Lots of tea, lots of taxes, lots of opium to pay for the tea to pay the taxes. Happily, America was the first Western country to make the opium trade illegal, and when the decision was made, the Chinese Viceroy said it was the first instance he'd seen of a "Christian country" acting in a Christian manner. (Sadly, the other nations kept up the trade for decades longer).
It was a vicious cycle, but in fairness to Britain, their entire Parliament opposed the 2nd Opium War! The Prime Minister simply dissolved parliament, told the common people they were fighting for the honor of the Queen, and the people supported him. Had they known it was over opium and not honor, I've no doubt the British common folk, like those in Parliament, would have opposed the wars, and the trade as well--and found something to drink besides tea--and alcohol. (In the 20th century, Britain's poor working class nobly sympathized with Gandhi, even though his fight for India's freedom cost many of them their jobs). It was a very small minority of Westerners who were behind the opium trade, but they made such immense profits that they wielded the political and military power to force the trade on Asia for a century.
The High Price of Low Cost I love tea but I would certainly not impoverish an entire nation to insure its supply. But are there other "teas" in my life? Consider the high price behind the low cost we enjoy in America. I marvel that I can buy something "Made in China" cheaper in the U.S. than I can here in China, where we make far less money to pay for those things.
And many of my friends back home complain that everything is made in China--yet our American companies make everything in China precisely so we can buy things more cheaply. We also complain that Chinese work for so little, but here's a news flash: Chinese would like to earn more! I've not met one Chinese who does not want to be paid a fairer wage, but they are paid next to nothing so we can continue to buy at the superstore that boasts "We sell for less" daily.
"When the harm is done and belongs to the past decades, when the sufferings and wrongs of the people are mere memories, pointing out mistakes is a luxury of the reminiscent historian whose voice is calm and tinged with an exquisite regret." Lin Yutang
As Lin Yutang wrote (back in 1943!), we can safely heave a sigh of regret over wrongs committed a century ago, but a thinking person should be able to see what is happening today as well--if the media did not distort world events. This is perhaps why the Prince of Peace will judge not by eyes and ears but heart and conscience.
In Isaiah 11, the "Prince of Peace," is described as judging not by what he sees or deciding by what he hears, but "with righteousness judging the needy." He judges by his heart, not his senses, because he knows what he sees or hears is but the tip of a very large iceberg--and given the nature of our media, probably only one side of the tip.
What is our tea today? And is it worth what we pay for it--or what we make others pay for it? It is no wonder that George MacDonald was surprised not by the wicked of the evil but by the wicked of the righteous--especially when the righteous commit evil in the name of good.
There are no easy answers but there is a correct answer. We must pray for wisdom and discernment, that we may not be driven by the rantings of either extreme Right or Left, but gently led from Within by that still, small voice that tells us that the price of tea or anything else is very important, because if we aren't paying, someone else most certainly is.
A Challenge: Read "Lords of Opium" (Opium Wars in China)
Very relevant quote from Lin Yutang, my favorite 20th century Chinese writer [Between Tears and Laughter, 1945, p.100]
"I am not convinced that all the idiots lived in the past and the great extraordinary minds live only in the present. History has repeatedly proved governments to have been stupid and wrong and the moral instinct of the people to have been right. If the governments could be wrong in the past decade, they can be wrong now. Be a gadfly, therefore,, and sting the governments.
But it is almost a law of human nature that we have all the rights and privileges to sting a dead statesman, like Neville Chamberlain, but not the living great of this earth. When the harm is done and belongs to the past decades, when the sufferings and wrongs of the people are mere memories, pointing out mistakes is a luxury of the reminiscent historian whose voice is calm and tinged with an exquisite regret. When the mistakes are being committed before our eyes, to point out the mistakes and errors of the living great is to arouse all the ire of the red-hot patriots.
www.amoymagic.com
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Jesus on Chinese Busses & Banquets
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
[Jesus said], "Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last." Luke 13:30 13:30 [耶稣说]"只是有在后的将要在前，有在前的将要在后。"路加福音13:30
"So the sage wishing to be above men puts himself by his words below them, and wishing to be before them, places his person behind them." Lao Tse V. 66 道德经: "是以欲上民，必以言下之；欲先民，必以身后之。"
Chinese have often remarked on my patience in board
ing the bus last, while everyone else fights to get on first. But as I watch the arcane Chinese art of bus packing, I respond, "It's not patience but logic. Jesus said, 'The first shall be last and the last shall be first.' Those who fight to get on first are pushed to the back and get off last, whereas I, in taking my time, will be the last one to board but the first one to get off the bus!"
And thus I dispel any illusions of my sainthood. I board last not because I'm patient but because I'm too impatient to fight the crowd, and I can think ahead far enough to know that if I let them fight it out, and I board last, I will be the first off--and have fewer black eyes and bruised knuckles.
What is true of boarding Chinese buses is true of life in general, as Jesus' taught by both his life and his preaching. His common theme was to put others first, and if we want to lead, we should first learn to follow, and to serve. Jesus very last act before he was betrayed and crucified was to act as a lowly servant and wash his disciples' feet. If he chose this as his final act, the point he was making must have been very important to him:
"When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you." John 13:12-15 耶稣洗完了他们的脚，就穿上衣服，又坐下，对他们说，"我向你们所作的，你们明白麽。你们称呼我夫子，称呼我主，你们说的不错。我本来是。我是你们的主，你们的夫子，尚且洗你们的脚，你们也当彼此洗脚。我给你们作了榜样，叫你们照着我向你们所作的去作。" 约翰福音13:12-15
Jesus and Chinese Banquets Jesus' "The first shall be last" sounds like good strategy for Chinese buses. But he also understood Chinese banquets, which have elaborate rules to decide who sits at the host' right hand, or left, or facing them. Jesus said Pharisees "love the place of honor at banquets" [Matt. 23:6], but he warned that when we attend feasts, we should not sit at the place of honor, lest the host move us to a lower place and we lose face. Rather, we should choose the lower place, and perhaps the host will move us to a higher place, for "those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" [Luke 14:8-11].
Low Seas, High Places Jesus was from Asia, not the West, so it is no surprise his thoughts and teachings remind me so much of ancient China's philosophy. Consider Lao Tse's comments on putting others first:
"Rivers and seas can receive the homage and tribute of valley streams because of their skill in being lower, thus they are kings of all. So the sage (ruler), wishing to be above men, puts himself by his words below them, and wishing to be before them, places his person behind them. In this way, though he is above me, men do not feel his weight, and though he is placed before men, they do not fee it an injury to them. Therefore all in the world delight to exalt him and do not weary of him. Because he does not strive, no one finds it possible to strive with him."66 道德经: 江海之所以能为百谷王者，以其善下之，故能为百谷王。是以欲上民，必以言下之；欲先民，必以身后之。是以圣人处上而民不重，处前而民不害。是以天下乐推而不厌。以其不争，故天下莫能与之争。
Standing on Tiptoes And in closing, Lao Tse also said that "He who stands on his tiptoes does not stand firm; he who stretches his legs does not walk (easily). (So), he who displays himself does not shine; he who asserts his own views is not distinguished; he who vaunts himself does not find his merit acknowledged; he who is self- conceited has no superiority allowed to him." 道德经24 "企者不立；跨者不行；自见者不明；自是者不彰；自伐者无功；自矜者不长。"
Early Worms Today, whether boarding a Chinese bus, attending the banquet, or simply going about your daily job, put others first, because the first shall be last. And if that doesn't convince you, then don't forget that "The early worm gets eaten by the bird--so sleep in!"
Related Links:
Arcane Art & Science of Chinese Mini-Busing
Famished at the Feast
Turning the Tea Tables (a Cross-Cultural Confrontation)
www.amoymagic.com
[Jesus said], "Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last." Luke 13:30 13:30 [耶稣说]"只是有在后的将要在前，有在前的将要在后。"路加福音13:30
"So the sage wishing to be above men puts himself by his words below them, and wishing to be before them, places his person behind them." Lao Tse V. 66 道德经: "是以欲上民，必以言下之；欲先民，必以身后之。"
Chinese have often remarked on my patience in board
ing the bus last, while everyone else fights to get on first. But as I watch the arcane Chinese art of bus packing, I respond, "It's not patience but logic. Jesus said, 'The first shall be last and the last shall be first.' Those who fight to get on first are pushed to the back and get off last, whereas I, in taking my time, will be the last one to board but the first one to get off the bus!"And thus I dispel any illusions of my sainthood. I board last not because I'm patient but because I'm too impatient to fight the crowd, and I can think ahead far enough to know that if I let them fight it out, and I board last, I will be the first off--and have fewer black eyes and bruised knuckles.
What is true of boarding Chinese buses is true of life in general, as Jesus' taught by both his life and his preaching. His common theme was to put others first, and if we want to lead, we should first learn to follow, and to serve. Jesus very last act before he was betrayed and crucified was to act as a lowly servant and wash his disciples' feet. If he chose this as his final act, the point he was making must have been very important to him:
"When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you." John 13:12-15 耶稣洗完了他们的脚，就穿上衣服，又坐下，对他们说，"我向你们所作的，你们明白麽。你们称呼我夫子，称呼我主，你们说的不错。我本来是。我是你们的主，你们的夫子，尚且洗你们的脚，你们也当彼此洗脚。我给你们作了榜样，叫你们照着我向你们所作的去作。" 约翰福音13:12-15
Jesus and Chinese Banquets Jesus' "The first shall be last" sounds like good strategy for Chinese buses. But he also understood Chinese banquets, which have elaborate rules to decide who sits at the host' right hand, or left, or facing them. Jesus said Pharisees "love the place of honor at banquets" [Matt. 23:6], but he warned that when we attend feasts, we should not sit at the place of honor, lest the host move us to a lower place and we lose face. Rather, we should choose the lower place, and perhaps the host will move us to a higher place, for "those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" [Luke 14:8-11].
Low Seas, High Places Jesus was from Asia, not the West, so it is no surprise his thoughts and teachings remind me so much of ancient China's philosophy. Consider Lao Tse's comments on putting others first:
"Rivers and seas can receive the homage and tribute of valley streams because of their skill in being lower, thus they are kings of all. So the sage (ruler), wishing to be above men, puts himself by his words below them, and wishing to be before them, places his person behind them. In this way, though he is above me, men do not feel his weight, and though he is placed before men, they do not fee it an injury to them. Therefore all in the world delight to exalt him and do not weary of him. Because he does not strive, no one finds it possible to strive with him."66 道德经: 江海之所以能为百谷王者，以其善下之，故能为百谷王。是以欲上民，必以言下之；欲先民，必以身后之。是以圣人处上而民不重，处前而民不害。是以天下乐推而不厌。以其不争，故天下莫能与之争。
Standing on Tiptoes And in closing, Lao Tse also said that "He who stands on his tiptoes does not stand firm; he who stretches his legs does not walk (easily). (So), he who displays himself does not shine; he who asserts his own views is not distinguished; he who vaunts himself does not find his merit acknowledged; he who is self- conceited has no superiority allowed to him." 道德经24 "企者不立；跨者不行；自见者不明；自是者不彰；自伐者无功；自矜者不长。"
Early Worms Today, whether boarding a Chinese bus, attending the banquet, or simply going about your daily job, put others first, because the first shall be last. And if that doesn't convince you, then don't forget that "The early worm gets eaten by the bird--so sleep in!"
Related Links:
Arcane Art & Science of Chinese Mini-Busing
Famished at the Feast
Turning the Tea Tables (a Cross-Cultural Confrontation)
www.amoymagic.com
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Teacher for Life in China
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet." John 13:14 我是你们的主，你们的夫子，尚且洗你们的脚，你们也当彼此洗脚。 约翰福音13:14
"According to the custom of ancient China, a teacher was a master for life,a member of the Confucian trinity of "emperor, father, and teacher." Lin Yutang
A group of people in their mid-20s were posing for a photo in front of the 1,000-year-old temple on top of N. E. Fujian's beautiful Mount Taimu (in Ningde). When they told me they were on a class reunion, I asked, "What college?"
"Kindergarten!" they said. "Not college! "We're paying our respects to our kindergarten teacher who helped set us on the road to college!"
It is no wonder that Lin Yutang wrote, "According to the custom of ancient China, a teacher was a master for life,a member of the Confucian trinity of "emperor, father, and teacher."
I can't even remember my college professor's names, much less grade school, but this group was reuniting to show respect for a teacher they had not seen in almost 20 years!
Teacher's Day is celebrated the world over, but only in China is every day Teacher's Day. Only in China do stationery shops have rows of "For my Teacher" cards on sale twelve months out of the year.
But being a teacher incurs not only great rewards but also sobering responsibility. I receive letters from students I've not seen in fifteen years, and it is gratifying to know they are working on companies or universities everywhere from Australia to Finland. And judging by the letters, I had a good impression on many. But I also remember that, far too often, I was impatient with students. Some were, of course, lazy, but others that I thought were lazy or careless simply did not understand (or perhaps did not believe) the crazy foreign teacher's requirements, and his warnings of a slow death if they failed to finish their assignments. I hope that over the 21 years here I've mellowed somewhat (though I still make latecomers sing a song, regardless of their excuses).
Fortunately, my Chinese students have a forgiving nature, perhaps because they know that "once my teacher, always my teacher," so they'd better learn to put up with me, just as they put up with their parents (there is, in fact, an old Chinese saying that the teacher is like a father).
But over the years of teaching in China it has also become painfully evident that all of us are teachers for life, leaving and impression, for good or ill, on each person we encounter. I hope we can all become better teachers and students, both in and out of the classroom.www.amoymagic.com
"Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet." John 13:14 我是你们的主，你们的夫子，尚且洗你们的脚，你们也当彼此洗脚。 约翰福音13:14
"According to the custom of ancient China, a teacher was a master for life,a member of the Confucian trinity of "emperor, father, and teacher." Lin Yutang
A group of people in their mid-20s were posing for a photo in front of the 1,000-year-old temple on top of N. E. Fujian's beautiful Mount Taimu (in Ningde). When they told me they were on a class reunion, I asked, "What college?"
"Kindergarten!" they said. "Not college! "We're paying our respects to our kindergarten teacher who helped set us on the road to college!"
It is no wonder that Lin Yutang wrote, "According to the custom of ancient China, a teacher was a master for life,a member of the Confucian trinity of "emperor, father, and teacher."
I can't even remember my college professor's names, much less grade school, but this group was reuniting to show respect for a teacher they had not seen in almost 20 years!
Teacher's Day is celebrated the world over, but only in China is every day Teacher's Day. Only in China do stationery shops have rows of "For my Teacher" cards on sale twelve months out of the year.
But being a teacher incurs not only great rewards but also sobering responsibility. I receive letters from students I've not seen in fifteen years, and it is gratifying to know they are working on companies or universities everywhere from Australia to Finland. And judging by the letters, I had a good impression on many. But I also remember that, far too often, I was impatient with students. Some were, of course, lazy, but others that I thought were lazy or careless simply did not understand (or perhaps did not believe) the crazy foreign teacher's requirements, and his warnings of a slow death if they failed to finish their assignments. I hope that over the 21 years here I've mellowed somewhat (though I still make latecomers sing a song, regardless of their excuses).
Fortunately, my Chinese students have a forgiving nature, perhaps because they know that "once my teacher, always my teacher," so they'd better learn to put up with me, just as they put up with their parents (there is, in fact, an old Chinese saying that the teacher is like a father).
But over the years of teaching in China it has also become painfully evident that all of us are teachers for life, leaving and impression, for good or ill, on each person we encounter. I hope we can all become better teachers and students, both in and out of the classroom.www.amoymagic.com
Monday, April 27, 2009
Our Spiritual Software & Hardware
Bill Brown ..Xiamen University
"For physical exercise is of some value, but godliness has value for all things..."1 Timothy 4:8 4:8 "操练身体，益处还少。惟独敬虔，凡事都有益处..." 提摩太前书4:8
"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" 1 Corinthians 3:16 "岂不知你们是神的殿，神的灵住在你们里头麽。" 歌林多前书3:16
I just returned from my morning spiritual
exercise. It was not a Jesuit "Spiritual Exercise" but an hour walking the beautiful Xiamen Boardwalk with my best friend, Susan Marie. This is a daily ritual that does wonders not only in keeping body and soul together but also husband and wife!
Why Walk? Paul said that exercise was only of "some" value because in his day people did not live sedentary lives. Only athletes training for competition needed to push their bodies further than the demands of the day. But today, most of us engage in little physical activity, and it shows not only in our physical health but our spiritual as well, because the two are usually related.
We cannot compartmentalize spiritual and secular activities (being holy on Sunday and a holy terror Monday through Saturday). In the same way, we cannot nourish our spirit while ignoring our physical well-being, which influences our emotional and psychological outlook, which in turn can affect our spiritual walk. This is inevitable because our Father created us as spiritual beings but for now has encased our spiritual software within the hardware of a physical b
ody, and he expects us to care for both.
Heavenly Bodies Many people cling to Paul's "exercise profits little" comment as an excuse to neglect their bodies, but Paul also asked us, "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" 1 Corinthians 3:16 "岂不知你们是神的殿，神的灵住在你们里头麽。" 歌林多前书3:16 If our body is ineed God's temple, then we had best be good caretakers of it, because in this life we only get one. And the best way to keep the body is to use the body.
Use it or Lose it. Scientists have shown that one of the greatest aids to combating cancer, heart disease, obesity, depression--just about everything!--is exercise. And it doesn't mean we have to join the Xiamen International Marathon! A simple daily walk will work wonders in keeping body and soul together--and keeping them functioning as our Father intended. But in today's world, it is so easy to give our physical temple the short end of the deal.
The Vicious Cycle I can easily spend ten hours a day in the classroom or at the keyboard and exercise only my mouth and my fingertips. But when I don't take time to exercise each day, I tire easily, lose energy and enthusiasm, and cannot sleep well. The lack of sleep only worsens the vicious cycle, and before long my teaching, writing, and relationships with my loved ones, and even my Father, are affected. The solution for me is a morning walk with my wife. And after enjoying the Xiamen Boardwalk's brisk sea air and scenery, or the trails or our home in Reedley, California, I can be much more confident that I will hit the day, rather than have the day hit me.
The Daily Road to Emmaeus. Today, go for a walk--but let it do double duty. Don't just look at the scenery. Look within, and listen, and let that daily walk become a daily road to Emmaeus, nourishing the soul even as it restores the body.
In closing, some of the greatest people in history were productive even well into retirement because they disciplined themselves to begin each day with a healing and restorative walk, followed by a time of quiet reflection and prayer. They also took mental breaks through the day. During the horrible height of World War II, Churchill still took time off in the afternoon to paint in his garden--and I know of a Chinese billionaire in Hong Kong that does the same,
www.amoymagic.com
"For physical exercise is of some value, but godliness has value for all things..."1 Timothy 4:8 4:8 "操练身体，益处还少。惟独敬虔，凡事都有益处..." 提摩太前书4:8
"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" 1 Corinthians 3:16 "岂不知你们是神的殿，神的灵住在你们里头麽。" 歌林多前书3:16
I just returned from my morning spiritual
exercise. It was not a Jesuit "Spiritual Exercise" but an hour walking the beautiful Xiamen Boardwalk with my best friend, Susan Marie. This is a daily ritual that does wonders not only in keeping body and soul together but also husband and wife!Why Walk? Paul said that exercise was only of "some" value because in his day people did not live sedentary lives. Only athletes training for competition needed to push their bodies further than the demands of the day. But today, most of us engage in little physical activity, and it shows not only in our physical health but our spiritual as well, because the two are usually related.
We cannot compartmentalize spiritual and secular activities (being holy on Sunday and a holy terror Monday through Saturday). In the same way, we cannot nourish our spirit while ignoring our physical well-being, which influences our emotional and psychological outlook, which in turn can affect our spiritual walk. This is inevitable because our Father created us as spiritual beings but for now has encased our spiritual software within the hardware of a physical b
ody, and he expects us to care for both.Heavenly Bodies Many people cling to Paul's "exercise profits little" comment as an excuse to neglect their bodies, but Paul also asked us, "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" 1 Corinthians 3:16 "岂不知你们是神的殿，神的灵住在你们里头麽。" 歌林多前书3:16 If our body is ineed God's temple, then we had best be good caretakers of it, because in this life we only get one. And the best way to keep the body is to use the body.
Use it or Lose it. Scientists have shown that one of the greatest aids to combating cancer, heart disease, obesity, depression--just about everything!--is exercise. And it doesn't mean we have to join the Xiamen International Marathon! A simple daily walk will work wonders in keeping body and soul together--and keeping them functioning as our Father intended. But in today's world, it is so easy to give our physical temple the short end of the deal.
The Vicious Cycle I can easily spend ten hours a day in the classroom or at the keyboard and exercise only my mouth and my fingertips. But when I don't take time to exercise each day, I tire easily, lose energy and enthusiasm, and cannot sleep well. The lack of sleep only worsens the vicious cycle, and before long my teaching, writing, and relationships with my loved ones, and even my Father, are affected. The solution for me is a morning walk with my wife. And after enjoying the Xiamen Boardwalk's brisk sea air and scenery, or the trails or our home in Reedley, California, I can be much more confident that I will hit the day, rather than have the day hit me.
The Daily Road to Emmaeus. Today, go for a walk--but let it do double duty. Don't just look at the scenery. Look within, and listen, and let that daily walk become a daily road to Emmaeus, nourishing the soul even as it restores the body.
In closing, some of the greatest people in history were productive even well into retirement because they disciplined themselves to begin each day with a healing and restorative walk, followed by a time of quiet reflection and prayer. They also took mental breaks through the day. During the horrible height of World War II, Churchill still took time off in the afternoon to paint in his garden--and I know of a Chinese billionaire in Hong Kong that does the same,
www.amoymagic.com
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Tugging Rice Plants
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." Jesus, in John 15:5 我是葡萄树，你们是枝子。常在我里面的，我也常在他里面，这人就多结果子。因为离了我，你们就不能作什么。 约翰福音15:5
“Pulling rice plants to make them grow." Ancient Chinese Proverb 拔苗助长
Pulling Rice Plants In ancient times, an impatient Chinese farmer tried tugging his rice plants to make them grow faster. But the next day he found the plants withered and dead because he had pulled their roots loose from the soil. Ever since, Chinese have used the phrase "tugging rice plants".
Like the foolish farmer's rice plants, we must grow naturally from within, nourished and pushed up from the roots, rather than pushing ourselves, or allowing ourselves to be pulled prematurely from without. There are seasons for growth and seasons for bearing fruit, and we can't rush either one--though we may undergo some painful pruning if we forget that growth must be followed by bearing fruit.
Growth or Fruit? I fed and watered my fruit trees faithfully (peaches, plums, nectarines, oranges), and they sucked up all that I could give them, but they used it not on bearing fruit but on just increasing their own size. They were large, beautiful, and shady, but unlike a Chinese silkworm, I don't eat leaves, so after the third fruitless season I pruned them back almost to the trunk.
I could almost hear their woody whining of complaint as I whacked and hacked. When I finished they looked dead, and probably felt it. But the next year they came back fuller than ever, and the vibrantly green new branches produced more fruit than we and our friends and neighbors could eat. And so I learned that the trees not only need to be well rooted and well nourished, but that they also must be pruned, lest they expend everything I give them on themselves and give give me nothing in return.
We too must remain rooted and grounded, and centered on our purpose--which is not to grow for the sake of growth, but to grow that we may bear fruit. And if we fail to bear fruit, we may undergo a painful pruning to remind us of Why we are here.
Of course, unlike the rice plant or the grape vine, we can refuse the pruning, or even separate ourselves from the branch in our attempts to accomplish too much too quickly. But then we simply do to ourselves what the foolish farmer did to his rice plants--and with the same result.
Related: Sown in China (In Memory of Steve C.)
拔苗助长 ["Tugging Rice Plants"]
Click Here for Source: ICIBA Salon
古时候宋国有个农夫，种了稻苗后，便希望能早早收成。
每天他到稻田时，发觉那些稻苗长得非常慢。他等得不耐烦，心想："怎么样才能使稻苗长得高，长很快呢?想了又想，他终了想到一个"最佳方法"，就是将稻苗拨高几分。
经过一番辛劳后，他满意地扛锄头回家休息。然后回去对家里的人表白："今天可把我累坏了，我帮助庄稼苗长高一大截！"
他儿子赶快跑到地里去一看，禾苗全都枯死了。
www.amoymagic.com
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." Jesus, in John 15:5 我是葡萄树，你们是枝子。常在我里面的，我也常在他里面，这人就多结果子。因为离了我，你们就不能作什么。 约翰福音15:5
“Pulling rice plants to make them grow." Ancient Chinese Proverb 拔苗助长
Pulling Rice Plants In ancient times, an impatient Chinese farmer tried tugging his rice plants to make them grow faster. But the next day he found the plants withered and dead because he had pulled their roots loose from the soil. Ever since, Chinese have used the phrase "tugging rice plants".
Like the foolish farmer's rice plants, we must grow naturally from within, nourished and pushed up from the roots, rather than pushing ourselves, or allowing ourselves to be pulled prematurely from without. There are seasons for growth and seasons for bearing fruit, and we can't rush either one--though we may undergo some painful pruning if we forget that growth must be followed by bearing fruit.
Growth or Fruit? I fed and watered my fruit trees faithfully (peaches, plums, nectarines, oranges), and they sucked up all that I could give them, but they used it not on bearing fruit but on just increasing their own size. They were large, beautiful, and shady, but unlike a Chinese silkworm, I don't eat leaves, so after the third fruitless season I pruned them back almost to the trunk.
I could almost hear their woody whining of complaint as I whacked and hacked. When I finished they looked dead, and probably felt it. But the next year they came back fuller than ever, and the vibrantly green new branches produced more fruit than we and our friends and neighbors could eat. And so I learned that the trees not only need to be well rooted and well nourished, but that they also must be pruned, lest they expend everything I give them on themselves and give give me nothing in return.
We too must remain rooted and grounded, and centered on our purpose--which is not to grow for the sake of growth, but to grow that we may bear fruit. And if we fail to bear fruit, we may undergo a painful pruning to remind us of Why we are here.
Of course, unlike the rice plant or the grape vine, we can refuse the pruning, or even separate ourselves from the branch in our attempts to accomplish too much too quickly. But then we simply do to ourselves what the foolish farmer did to his rice plants--and with the same result.
Related: Sown in China (In Memory of Steve C.)
拔苗助长 ["Tugging Rice Plants"]
Click Here for Source: ICIBA Salon
古时候宋国有个农夫，种了稻苗后，便希望能早早收成。
每天他到稻田时，发觉那些稻苗长得非常慢。他等得不耐烦，心想："怎么样才能使稻苗长得高，长很快呢?想了又想，他终了想到一个"最佳方法"，就是将稻苗拨高几分。
经过一番辛劳后，他满意地扛锄头回家休息。然后回去对家里的人表白："今天可把我累坏了，我帮助庄稼苗长高一大截！"
他儿子赶快跑到地里去一看，禾苗全都枯死了。
www.amoymagic.com
Friday, April 24, 2009
Eternally Empty Jars of Clay?
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 2 Cor.4:7 我们有这宝贝放在瓦器里，要显明这莫大的力，是出于神，不是出于我们。歌林多後书4:7
"Clay vessels' usefulness is in their emptiness. Doors and windows in the walls are useful for their empty space." Lao Tzu, Daodejing v.11埏埴以为器，当其无，有器之用。凿户牖以为室，当其无， 道德经:11
Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism, had a good point when he said a clay vessel could be filled only when it is empty. The problem was that he urged us to empty the vessel of vain or useless philosophies, but then offered nothing to actually fill the empty vessel.
In his distrust of vain philosophies, Lao Tzu sounded somewhat like the Apostle Paul, who wrote in 1 Tim. 6:20, "Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge." 提摩太阿，你要保守所托付你的，躲避世俗的虚谈，和那敌真道似是而非的学问。" 提摩太前书6:20
Eternally Empty Vessel? Lao Tzu, like Paul, warned us against filling ourselves with wrong knowledge, but unlike Paul, Lao Tzu lacked an alternative to fill men's hearts, so his solution for achieving peace and happiness throughout the country was to keep people's minds and hearts empty and their bellies full. He wrote,
"So the wise, in governing, empties their minds, fills their bellies, weakens their wills, and strengthens their bones. He tries to keep them empty of knowledge and without desire, and if some have knowledge, he keeps them from using it. Inaction brings universal good order." Dao Dejing v.3 道德经3: "是以圣人之治，虚其心，实其腹，弱其志，强其骨。常使民无知无欲。使夫智者不敢为也。为无为，则无不治。"
It may well have brought stability, but mindlessness and emptiness seems a heavy price to pay for it--and a waste of our 70 years of life.
Moving Full Vessels. Lao Tzu also said, "It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to try carrying it full." Lao Tzu Daodejing v.9 9 道德经: 持而盈之，不如其已； Again, he is correct. But if minds and hearts are empty, people would not be carrying the empty vessel anywhere because they lack purpose, goal and direction. So Lao Tzu's point is philosophically piquant but practically speaking rather irrelevant if the vessel is eternally empty.
Empty Vessels Going Nowhere. Lao Tzu was, needless to say, a brilliant man, with penetrating insights into humanity on both individual and social levels, but in the end he could counter the formalistic and deadening systems and rituals of Confucianism only with a philosophy of nothingness (which, however, has very many practical points to it--so I do not throw the baby out with the bathwater).
Full of ourselves. We often say an arrogant, self-centered person is "full of themselves". We do need to empty our vessel of ourselves, but then we need to be filled with a new self--a "new creation in Christ." And we will learn that a vessel filled with Light is not any heavier to carry than an empty vessel, and even if it were, we are not the ones carrying it.
Light Yoke As Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:29,30 我心里柔和谦卑，你们当负我的轭，学我的样式，这样，你们心里就必得享安息。因为我的轭是容易的，我的担子是轻省的。 马太福音11:29,30
Empty Vessel or Full? Our threescore and ten years of life are too brief to pursue it without meaning, purpose or direction. Fortunately, we do not have to. Put your empty vessel to use; and discover that a vessel filled with light is truly useful, and easier to move towards the Goal than either an empty vessel or a vessel filled only with ourselves.
www.amoymagic.com
"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 2 Cor.4:7 我们有这宝贝放在瓦器里，要显明这莫大的力，是出于神，不是出于我们。歌林多後书4:7
"Clay vessels' usefulness is in their emptiness. Doors and windows in the walls are useful for their empty space." Lao Tzu, Daodejing v.11埏埴以为器，当其无，有器之用。凿户牖以为室，当其无， 道德经:11
Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism, had a good point when he said a clay vessel could be filled only when it is empty. The problem was that he urged us to empty the vessel of vain or useless philosophies, but then offered nothing to actually fill the empty vessel.
In his distrust of vain philosophies, Lao Tzu sounded somewhat like the Apostle Paul, who wrote in 1 Tim. 6:20, "Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge." 提摩太阿，你要保守所托付你的，躲避世俗的虚谈，和那敌真道似是而非的学问。" 提摩太前书6:20
Eternally Empty Vessel? Lao Tzu, like Paul, warned us against filling ourselves with wrong knowledge, but unlike Paul, Lao Tzu lacked an alternative to fill men's hearts, so his solution for achieving peace and happiness throughout the country was to keep people's minds and hearts empty and their bellies full. He wrote,
"So the wise, in governing, empties their minds, fills their bellies, weakens their wills, and strengthens their bones. He tries to keep them empty of knowledge and without desire, and if some have knowledge, he keeps them from using it. Inaction brings universal good order." Dao Dejing v.3 道德经3: "是以圣人之治，虚其心，实其腹，弱其志，强其骨。常使民无知无欲。使夫智者不敢为也。为无为，则无不治。"
It may well have brought stability, but mindlessness and emptiness seems a heavy price to pay for it--and a waste of our 70 years of life.
Moving Full Vessels. Lao Tzu also said, "It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to try carrying it full." Lao Tzu Daodejing v.9 9 道德经: 持而盈之，不如其已； Again, he is correct. But if minds and hearts are empty, people would not be carrying the empty vessel anywhere because they lack purpose, goal and direction. So Lao Tzu's point is philosophically piquant but practically speaking rather irrelevant if the vessel is eternally empty.
Empty Vessels Going Nowhere. Lao Tzu was, needless to say, a brilliant man, with penetrating insights into humanity on both individual and social levels, but in the end he could counter the formalistic and deadening systems and rituals of Confucianism only with a philosophy of nothingness (which, however, has very many practical points to it--so I do not throw the baby out with the bathwater).
Full of ourselves. We often say an arrogant, self-centered person is "full of themselves". We do need to empty our vessel of ourselves, but then we need to be filled with a new self--a "new creation in Christ." And we will learn that a vessel filled with Light is not any heavier to carry than an empty vessel, and even if it were, we are not the ones carrying it.
Light Yoke As Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:29,30 我心里柔和谦卑，你们当负我的轭，学我的样式，这样，你们心里就必得享安息。因为我的轭是容易的，我的担子是轻省的。 马太福音11:29,30
Empty Vessel or Full? Our threescore and ten years of life are too brief to pursue it without meaning, purpose or direction. Fortunately, we do not have to. Put your empty vessel to use; and discover that a vessel filled with light is truly useful, and easier to move towards the Goal than either an empty vessel or a vessel filled only with ourselves.
www.amoymagic.com
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The Prophet Within
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
[Mistakenly posted in "Off the Wall", and relocated here]
"I see that you are a prophet." John 4:16
"I give up! I've not yet met one person who could look within and see his own faults and accuse himself!" Confucius, Analects 5.27 子曰：“已矣乎，吾未见能见其过而内自讼者也。
The Samaritan woman at the well asked Jesus for his "living water" and Jesus replied, "Go get your husband and return." When she said she had no husband, Jesus shocked her by saying, "That is true. In fact, you've had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. So what you've said is true." John 4:16
Deflecting the Spear. When the Samaritan woman asked for Jesus' living water," he tried to open the well within her by prodding her to look within.
But like many of us, she skillfully redirected the focus of the conversation. She replied, "I see you are a prophet....should we worship on this mountain, as Samaritans do, or in Jerusalem, like the Jews."
Like the woman at the well, we too often focus on other issues--perhaps "greater" issues--when we should be looking within. No wonder Confucius said in the Analects, "I give up! I have not yet met one person who could see his faults and accuse himself!"
We don't need prophets to help us see afar, because the root of our problems lies close at hand. We only need open eyes, hearts and minds to see within.
In responding to the Samaritan woman's question about whether to worship on the mountain or in Jerusalem, Jesus said, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem....Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:21-24
The Prophet Within Today, we do have a prophet at hand. The prophet is our conscience, and if we look within and listen, we will see the future, because we are writing our future today.
Today, I will not look afar for answers, but look within, and if I don't like what I see today, I'm quite sure I'll care even less for tomorrow--and I'll ask my Father to help me write a different future by what I do this day.
www.amoymagic.com
www.amoymagic.com
[Mistakenly posted in "Off the Wall", and relocated here]
"I see that you are a prophet." John 4:16
"I give up! I've not yet met one person who could look within and see his own faults and accuse himself!" Confucius, Analects 5.27 子曰：“已矣乎，吾未见能见其过而内自讼者也。
The Samaritan woman at the well asked Jesus for his "living water" and Jesus replied, "Go get your husband and return." When she said she had no husband, Jesus shocked her by saying, "That is true. In fact, you've had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. So what you've said is true." John 4:16
Deflecting the Spear. When the Samaritan woman asked for Jesus' living water," he tried to open the well within her by prodding her to look within.
But like many of us, she skillfully redirected the focus of the conversation. She replied, "I see you are a prophet....should we worship on this mountain, as Samaritans do, or in Jerusalem, like the Jews."
Like the woman at the well, we too often focus on other issues--perhaps "greater" issues--when we should be looking within. No wonder Confucius said in the Analects, "I give up! I have not yet met one person who could see his faults and accuse himself!"
We don't need prophets to help us see afar, because the root of our problems lies close at hand. We only need open eyes, hearts and minds to see within.
In responding to the Samaritan woman's question about whether to worship on the mountain or in Jerusalem, Jesus said, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem....Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:21-24
The Prophet Within Today, we do have a prophet at hand. The prophet is our conscience, and if we look within and listen, we will see the future, because we are writing our future today.
Today, I will not look afar for answers, but look within, and if I don't like what I see today, I'm quite sure I'll care even less for tomorrow--and I'll ask my Father to help me write a different future by what I do this day.
www.amoymagic.com
www.amoymagic.com
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Secret of the Universe in 3 E-Z Steps
Bill Brown ... .Xiamen University
Life in 3 Easy Lessons?
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17 各样美善的恩赐，和各样全备的赏赐，都是从上头来的。从众光之父那里降下来的。在他并没有改变，也没有转动的影儿。雅各书1:17
Life is a class, the earth is our classroom, and we are here to learn and grow--but as the days, years and decades fly by, it is easy to forget just what we are here to learn--and that the Final Exam is fast approaching.
Life in 3 Easy Steps Although our cultures, languages, and individual lives and experiences are endlessly diverse, we are all learning the same lessons. Unfortunately, many who would be our earthly "teachers" have complicated the course beyond all recognition. It reminds me of my wife's book, "Flatten Your Belly in 3 Easy Steps." The author spent over 300 pages describing those 3 easy steps. And I have a book that, right on the front cover, promises to teach me piano "in no time at all." Yet I had to read 180 pages of history and technical details before I even reached the page that said, "And now, we will learn to play a song on piano."
Likewise, many claim to have the E-Z Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, but they couch that E-Z answer in endlessly verbose volumes of philosophy, religion and science. Even as a child, I read volumes on Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, and Islam. How often I wished I could find a simple summary of what it was all about, but usually I just found myself even more confused. Even the very name of God was puzzling.
Laozi, founder of Taoism, said, "The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name. Having no name, it is the Originator of heaven and earth." [道德经:道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。无名天地之始.]
The "I Am" Moses actually asked God his name. God's answer would not have surprised Taoists. God gave no name! He simply said, "I am that I am." Exocus 3:14 ["我是自有永有的。"出埃及记3:14], and told Moses to tell the Jews, "I AM has sent me." But those two words, "I am," summarized all that the ancient philosophers could learn about the eternal, unchanging, and unknowable principle. That, of course, did not stop the Taoists, Buddhists, Jews and everyone else from writing endlessly about God. Much more can be written about the unknown than about the known and verifiable.
Back to Basics. It is interesting that Jesus reserved his strongest words (and anger) not for the cruel Roman occupiers, or even the sinners, prostitutes and tax collectors, but for the so-called spiritual leaders who complicated God all out of recognition and laid heavy religious burdens upon people. Jesus said God is unchanging Light, and Love. And most importantly, Jesus said that God not only can be known but wants to be known because we are his children.
Perhaps Jesus made things too simple, because for 2,000 years we've been trying to complicate it, but for Jesus, life boils down to 3 E-Z steps.
The Secret of the Universe in 3 E-Z Steps
1. Know the "I am." Lin Yutang said finite minds cannot grasp the infinite, but that is okay because we don't have to understand God to know and love him, even as a baby can love and trust its father without understanding him.
2. Love God. The Bible says "God is love," and He wants our love not for his sake but our own, because we cannot receive love unless we ourselves learn to love. [There is a paradox here, for it is also true that we cannot love unless we have been loved; love must grow]. And how do we love God? Not through religion and rites and sacrifice but through obedience, and step 3:
3. "Love Others." God wants us to love Him, and love others as ourselves. This, of course, assumes that we love ourselves too (not because of what we are, but because of Whose we are).
Great Works, Small Mind I still reread the great religious and philosophical works because each offers interesting insights, but they can be bewild.ering. So as I am tossed daily on the seas of a very busy and often perplexing life, my compass is simply Jesus' 3 E-Z Steps: Know God, Love God, Love Others as Myself.
Not that I live up to any of those, but it is a start. And that is all that this life is anyways--a start.
www.amoymagic.com
Life in 3 Easy Lessons?
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17 各样美善的恩赐，和各样全备的赏赐，都是从上头来的。从众光之父那里降下来的。在他并没有改变，也没有转动的影儿。雅各书1:17
Life is a class, the earth is our classroom, and we are here to learn and grow--but as the days, years and decades fly by, it is easy to forget just what we are here to learn--and that the Final Exam is fast approaching.
Life in 3 Easy Steps Although our cultures, languages, and individual lives and experiences are endlessly diverse, we are all learning the same lessons. Unfortunately, many who would be our earthly "teachers" have complicated the course beyond all recognition. It reminds me of my wife's book, "Flatten Your Belly in 3 Easy Steps." The author spent over 300 pages describing those 3 easy steps. And I have a book that, right on the front cover, promises to teach me piano "in no time at all." Yet I had to read 180 pages of history and technical details before I even reached the page that said, "And now, we will learn to play a song on piano."
Likewise, many claim to have the E-Z Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, but they couch that E-Z answer in endlessly verbose volumes of philosophy, religion and science. Even as a child, I read volumes on Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, and Islam. How often I wished I could find a simple summary of what it was all about, but usually I just found myself even more confused. Even the very name of God was puzzling.
Laozi, founder of Taoism, said, "The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name. Having no name, it is the Originator of heaven and earth." [道德经:道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。无名天地之始.]
The "I Am" Moses actually asked God his name. God's answer would not have surprised Taoists. God gave no name! He simply said, "I am that I am." Exocus 3:14 ["我是自有永有的。"出埃及记3:14], and told Moses to tell the Jews, "I AM has sent me." But those two words, "I am," summarized all that the ancient philosophers could learn about the eternal, unchanging, and unknowable principle. That, of course, did not stop the Taoists, Buddhists, Jews and everyone else from writing endlessly about God. Much more can be written about the unknown than about the known and verifiable.
Back to Basics. It is interesting that Jesus reserved his strongest words (and anger) not for the cruel Roman occupiers, or even the sinners, prostitutes and tax collectors, but for the so-called spiritual leaders who complicated God all out of recognition and laid heavy religious burdens upon people. Jesus said God is unchanging Light, and Love. And most importantly, Jesus said that God not only can be known but wants to be known because we are his children.
Perhaps Jesus made things too simple, because for 2,000 years we've been trying to complicate it, but for Jesus, life boils down to 3 E-Z steps.
The Secret of the Universe in 3 E-Z Steps
1. Know the "I am." Lin Yutang said finite minds cannot grasp the infinite, but that is okay because we don't have to understand God to know and love him, even as a baby can love and trust its father without understanding him.
2. Love God. The Bible says "God is love," and He wants our love not for his sake but our own, because we cannot receive love unless we ourselves learn to love. [There is a paradox here, for it is also true that we cannot love unless we have been loved; love must grow]. And how do we love God? Not through religion and rites and sacrifice but through obedience, and step 3:
3. "Love Others." God wants us to love Him, and love others as ourselves. This, of course, assumes that we love ourselves too (not because of what we are, but because of Whose we are).
Great Works, Small Mind I still reread the great religious and philosophical works because each offers interesting insights, but they can be bewild.ering. So as I am tossed daily on the seas of a very busy and often perplexing life, my compass is simply Jesus' 3 E-Z Steps: Know God, Love God, Love Others as Myself.
Not that I live up to any of those, but it is a start. And that is all that this life is anyways--a start.
www.amoymagic.com
Monday, April 20, 2009
In Heaven's Way or Ours?
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"...Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." Acts 5:38,39 "...不要管这些人，任凭他们吧，他们所谋的，所行的，若是出于人，必要败坏。若是出于神，你们就不能败坏他们。恐怕你们倒是攻击神了。"
"Those who follow Heaven are preserved; those who rebel against Heaven perish." Mencius "顺天者存，逆天者亡。" 孟子,高楼句上
When furious Jewish leaders hauled Peter and the apostles into the synagogue, and wanted to kill them, the Pharisee teacher of the law, Gamaliel, wisely urged caution. He reminded them that Theudas had claimed to be great and gathered 400 followers, but after he was killed, his followers had dispersed. Judas of Galilee also gathered followers for a revolt, but was killed, and this too came to nothing. Gamaliel urged the leaders to leave the Christians alone, for if they were not of God, nothing would come of it, but if they were of God--then the Jews would be guilty of fighting God.
Ironically, of the countless militant Jewish revolutionaries came and went, Few left any mark upon history. But Jesus was a revolutionary who refused to fight because the battle is within us, not between us. He entered Jerusalem triumphantly not on a war horse but on a donkey of peace, and he is still changing the world 2,000 years later. As Zechariah 4:6 says, "not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit," says the Lord Almighty." [万军之耶和华说，不是倚靠势力，不是倚靠才能，乃是倚靠我的灵，方能成事。 撒迦利亚4:6
When Confucius was detained in Kuang, he said, "As long as Heaven does not let truth perish, what can the people of Kuang do to me?" ["天之未丧斯文也，匡人其如予何"] That was assuming, of course, that Confucius was following Heaven's Way.
A few centuries later, Paul wrote in Romans 8:31. " If God is for us, who can be against us?" "神若帮助我们，谁能抵挡我们呢." 罗马书8:31
Going His Way? What was true for Confucius, or Paul, is true for us today. If we are following our Father's Way, in the long run nothing can stop us. But if we're going our own way, in the long run there is no long run. Even if we appear successful, our brief lives are but writings in the sand at low tide. As James, my favorite New Testament author, wrote,
"Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." James 4:13, 14
[你们有话说，今天明天我们要往某城里去，在那里住一年，作买卖得利。其实明天如何，你们还不知道。你们的生命是什么呢。你们原来是一片云雾，出现少时就不见了。 雅各书4:13,14]
Our days are brief; use them well, wisely, and in His Way, not ours.
"Ask not to be used but to be made usable." J.H. Taylor
www.amoymagic.com
"...Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." Acts 5:38,39 "...不要管这些人，任凭他们吧，他们所谋的，所行的，若是出于人，必要败坏。若是出于神，你们就不能败坏他们。恐怕你们倒是攻击神了。"
"Those who follow Heaven are preserved; those who rebel against Heaven perish." Mencius "顺天者存，逆天者亡。" 孟子,高楼句上
When furious Jewish leaders hauled Peter and the apostles into the synagogue, and wanted to kill them, the Pharisee teacher of the law, Gamaliel, wisely urged caution. He reminded them that Theudas had claimed to be great and gathered 400 followers, but after he was killed, his followers had dispersed. Judas of Galilee also gathered followers for a revolt, but was killed, and this too came to nothing. Gamaliel urged the leaders to leave the Christians alone, for if they were not of God, nothing would come of it, but if they were of God--then the Jews would be guilty of fighting God.
Ironically, of the countless militant Jewish revolutionaries came and went, Few left any mark upon history. But Jesus was a revolutionary who refused to fight because the battle is within us, not between us. He entered Jerusalem triumphantly not on a war horse but on a donkey of peace, and he is still changing the world 2,000 years later. As Zechariah 4:6 says, "not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit," says the Lord Almighty." [万军之耶和华说，不是倚靠势力，不是倚靠才能，乃是倚靠我的灵，方能成事。 撒迦利亚4:6
When Confucius was detained in Kuang, he said, "As long as Heaven does not let truth perish, what can the people of Kuang do to me?" ["天之未丧斯文也，匡人其如予何"] That was assuming, of course, that Confucius was following Heaven's Way.
A few centuries later, Paul wrote in Romans 8:31. " If God is for us, who can be against us?" "神若帮助我们，谁能抵挡我们呢." 罗马书8:31
Going His Way? What was true for Confucius, or Paul, is true for us today. If we are following our Father's Way, in the long run nothing can stop us. But if we're going our own way, in the long run there is no long run. Even if we appear successful, our brief lives are but writings in the sand at low tide. As James, my favorite New Testament author, wrote,
"Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." James 4:13, 14
[你们有话说，今天明天我们要往某城里去，在那里住一年，作买卖得利。其实明天如何，你们还不知道。你们的生命是什么呢。你们原来是一片云雾，出现少时就不见了。 雅各书4:13,14]
Our days are brief; use them well, wisely, and in His Way, not ours.
"Ask not to be used but to be made usable." J.H. Taylor
www.amoymagic.com
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Mencius' Bent Men
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"Seek and you will find; knock and the door will open for you." Jesus, in Luke 11:9 我又告诉你们，你们祈求就给你们。寻梢就寻见。叩门就给你们开门。路加福音11:9
"It was written of old, "Seek and you will find; neglect and you will lose it." Mencius, Gaozi 1 告子上:孟子曰：故曰：‘求则得之，舍则失之。’
When Jesus said, "Seek and you will find," he opened a door that Chinese had been struggling with for centuries. Three hundred years before Christ, Mencius wrote about the tragedy of man's loss of heart, purpose and direction. And both the Chinese and the Jews sought answers by creating ritualistic religions and ceremonies that served, if anything, to deaden the heart, rather than awaken it.
Jesus deliberately healed a man on the Sabbath, and when the Jewish leaders complained about his breaking their religious rules, he replied, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Matthew 12:11,12
Mencius was attacking the same blind hypocrisy in China when he wrote that men will seek lost fowl and dogs, but not seek their own lost heart and soul:
'Benevolence is the heart of man, and righteousness man's path. How tragic to lose the path and not pursue it, to lose the heart and not seek it again. When men lose fowl and dogs they seek them, but when they lose their heart, they do not know to seek it. The great end of learning is nothing else but to seek for the lost heart." Mencius, Gaozi 1 告子上: 孟子曰：“仁，人心也；义，人路也。舍其路而弗由，放其心而不知求，哀哉！人有鸡犬放，则知求之；有放心，而不知求。学问之道无他，求其放心而已矣。”
Seek & Find; Neglect & Lose Jesus said, "Seek and you shall find", and Mencius wrote, "Seek and you shall find; neglect and you shall lose." We must seek because we have lost, and because we are lost. As Mencius said, we have not only lost the path but do not even seek to regain it. This may have been in part because they had no guide to lead them back to the path.
Bent Men on Straight Paths Both Confucius and Mencius wrote of their inability to change themselves, much less change others. As Mencius wrote in Teng Wen Gong, "Never has a bent man made others straight." "枉己者，未有能直人者也。”
Fortunately for us, Jesus was the unbent man, and he said that he can make us, and our paths, straight. And like Mencius, Jesus said "Seek and ye shall find," but better yet, he also said "Ask and it shall be given to you." The answering to straightening our bent lives lies not within other people, or philosophies or religion, but in "asking" for help from the one unbent man.
Ask and it shall be given.
www.amoymagic.com
"Seek and you will find; knock and the door will open for you." Jesus, in Luke 11:9 我又告诉你们，你们祈求就给你们。寻梢就寻见。叩门就给你们开门。路加福音11:9
"It was written of old, "Seek and you will find; neglect and you will lose it." Mencius, Gaozi 1 告子上:孟子曰：故曰：‘求则得之，舍则失之。’
When Jesus said, "Seek and you will find," he opened a door that Chinese had been struggling with for centuries. Three hundred years before Christ, Mencius wrote about the tragedy of man's loss of heart, purpose and direction. And both the Chinese and the Jews sought answers by creating ritualistic religions and ceremonies that served, if anything, to deaden the heart, rather than awaken it.
Jesus deliberately healed a man on the Sabbath, and when the Jewish leaders complained about his breaking their religious rules, he replied, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Matthew 12:11,12
Mencius was attacking the same blind hypocrisy in China when he wrote that men will seek lost fowl and dogs, but not seek their own lost heart and soul:
'Benevolence is the heart of man, and righteousness man's path. How tragic to lose the path and not pursue it, to lose the heart and not seek it again. When men lose fowl and dogs they seek them, but when they lose their heart, they do not know to seek it. The great end of learning is nothing else but to seek for the lost heart." Mencius, Gaozi 1 告子上: 孟子曰：“仁，人心也；义，人路也。舍其路而弗由，放其心而不知求，哀哉！人有鸡犬放，则知求之；有放心，而不知求。学问之道无他，求其放心而已矣。”
Seek & Find; Neglect & Lose Jesus said, "Seek and you shall find", and Mencius wrote, "Seek and you shall find; neglect and you shall lose." We must seek because we have lost, and because we are lost. As Mencius said, we have not only lost the path but do not even seek to regain it. This may have been in part because they had no guide to lead them back to the path.
Bent Men on Straight Paths Both Confucius and Mencius wrote of their inability to change themselves, much less change others. As Mencius wrote in Teng Wen Gong, "Never has a bent man made others straight." "枉己者，未有能直人者也。”
Fortunately for us, Jesus was the unbent man, and he said that he can make us, and our paths, straight. And like Mencius, Jesus said "Seek and ye shall find," but better yet, he also said "Ask and it shall be given to you." The answering to straightening our bent lives lies not within other people, or philosophies or religion, but in "asking" for help from the one unbent man.
Ask and it shall be given.
www.amoymagic.com
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Why Pray?
Bill Brown Xiamen University
"Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This, then, is how you should pray..." Jesus, in Matthew 6:8,9 "你们不可效法他们。因为你们没有祈求以先，你们所需用的，你们的父早已知道了。所以你们祷告，。。"马太福音
Why Pray? When Jesus said that our Father knows what we need before we ask him, he could have said, "So no need to pray," but instead he taught how to pray, for Jesus himself prayed often. But why ask God for what he already knows we need, and is willing to give him? Because prayer is more than asking; prayer is conversation with my Father.
Sadly, we call God our Father, but rarely talk to him except when we need something or are in trouble--like the child off in college, perhaps. He's less a Father than a rescuer, or a Heavenly Santa Claus. But we need to do more than just ask for things. We need to converse with Him. So our Father waits for us to ask before giving because prayer is two-way communication with our Father, our Creator. It is the time to turn inwards, for as Christ also said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you."
How Not to Pray In Matthew 6:7, Jesus said to not pray like the pagans, who "think they will be heard because of their many words." We don't need to talk loud and long arguing our case like a lawyer before a court, or like the elderly lady in Nanputuo Temple endless bowing and mumbling, hoping to placate an ancestor or deity or demon. We don't need to worry about using the right words or forms or rites and rituals. Simple, heartfelt communication (which includes listening) is sufficient.
How to Pray In Matthew 6:6. Jesus said, "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." "你祷告的时候，要进你的内屋，关上门，祷告你在暗中的父，你父在暗中察看，必然报答你。" Prayer is not a time for public display of our piety or spiritual ascendancy (though there are of course times for public prayer), but the opportunity for one-on-one time with our Father. Prayer is the eye of calm in the midst of the maelstrom of modern life.
When you Pray... After discussing why and how to pray, Jesus taught the Lord's Prayer. Even this men have reduced to a magic formula, and repeat it as if in and of itself it will cover all bases and guarantee our success. But Jesus did not say to pray those words. He said "this is how you should pray."
Of course, there is great wisdom and beauty behind the Lord's Prayer (first addressing God not as some spirit or power or principle but as our personal Father, and going on from there!), but it is a guideline, not a formula.
All These Things... Our Father knows what we need before we ourselves know, or ask--but we still need to ask, because we need that time of communion with our Father--and He wants it as well. And it does not have to be prayer on our knees or in the closet. We can, like the 17th century French monk Brother Lawrence, converse with our Father throughout the day as we go about our Father's business, for this in itself is a form of prayer. But we still need the "quality time" alone. So do take time during the day to find a quiet place, look within, and listen to the still, small voice who knows us, and our needs, better than we do. And Jesus promised that if we seek Him first, "all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:33 "你们要先求他的国，和他的义。这些东西都要加给你们了。" 马太福音6：33
Why Should It [Prayer] Be Necessary?
George MacDonald (from C.S. Lewis' Anthology)
"But if God is so good as you represent Him, and if He knows all that we need, and better far than we do ourselves, why should it be necessary to ask Him for anything?" I answer, What if He knows Prayer to be the thing we need first and most? What if the main object in God's idea of prayer be the supplying of our great, our endless need-the need of Himself? . . . Hunger may drive the runaway child home, and he may or may not be fed at once, but he needs his mother more than his dinner. Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need: prayer is the beginning of that communion, and some need is the motive of that prayer. ... So begins a communion, a taking with God, a coming-to-one with Him, which is the sole end of prayer, yea, of existence itself in its infinite phases. We must ask that we may receive: but that we should receive what we ask in respect of our lower needs, is not God's end in making us pray, for He could give us everything without that: to bring His child to his knee, God withholds that man may ask.
www.amoymagic.com
"Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This, then, is how you should pray..." Jesus, in Matthew 6:8,9 "你们不可效法他们。因为你们没有祈求以先，你们所需用的，你们的父早已知道了。所以你们祷告，。。"马太福音
Why Pray? When Jesus said that our Father knows what we need before we ask him, he could have said, "So no need to pray," but instead he taught how to pray, for Jesus himself prayed often. But why ask God for what he already knows we need, and is willing to give him? Because prayer is more than asking; prayer is conversation with my Father.
Sadly, we call God our Father, but rarely talk to him except when we need something or are in trouble--like the child off in college, perhaps. He's less a Father than a rescuer, or a Heavenly Santa Claus. But we need to do more than just ask for things. We need to converse with Him. So our Father waits for us to ask before giving because prayer is two-way communication with our Father, our Creator. It is the time to turn inwards, for as Christ also said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you."
How Not to Pray In Matthew 6:7, Jesus said to not pray like the pagans, who "think they will be heard because of their many words." We don't need to talk loud and long arguing our case like a lawyer before a court, or like the elderly lady in Nanputuo Temple endless bowing and mumbling, hoping to placate an ancestor or deity or demon. We don't need to worry about using the right words or forms or rites and rituals. Simple, heartfelt communication (which includes listening) is sufficient.
How to Pray In Matthew 6:6. Jesus said, "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." "你祷告的时候，要进你的内屋，关上门，祷告你在暗中的父，你父在暗中察看，必然报答你。" Prayer is not a time for public display of our piety or spiritual ascendancy (though there are of course times for public prayer), but the opportunity for one-on-one time with our Father. Prayer is the eye of calm in the midst of the maelstrom of modern life.
When you Pray... After discussing why and how to pray, Jesus taught the Lord's Prayer. Even this men have reduced to a magic formula, and repeat it as if in and of itself it will cover all bases and guarantee our success. But Jesus did not say to pray those words. He said "this is how you should pray."
Of course, there is great wisdom and beauty behind the Lord's Prayer (first addressing God not as some spirit or power or principle but as our personal Father, and going on from there!), but it is a guideline, not a formula.
All These Things... Our Father knows what we need before we ourselves know, or ask--but we still need to ask, because we need that time of communion with our Father--and He wants it as well. And it does not have to be prayer on our knees or in the closet. We can, like the 17th century French monk Brother Lawrence, converse with our Father throughout the day as we go about our Father's business, for this in itself is a form of prayer. But we still need the "quality time" alone. So do take time during the day to find a quiet place, look within, and listen to the still, small voice who knows us, and our needs, better than we do. And Jesus promised that if we seek Him first, "all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:33 "你们要先求他的国，和他的义。这些东西都要加给你们了。" 马太福音6：33
Why Should It [Prayer] Be Necessary?
George MacDonald (from C.S. Lewis' Anthology)
"But if God is so good as you represent Him, and if He knows all that we need, and better far than we do ourselves, why should it be necessary to ask Him for anything?" I answer, What if He knows Prayer to be the thing we need first and most? What if the main object in God's idea of prayer be the supplying of our great, our endless need-the need of Himself? . . . Hunger may drive the runaway child home, and he may or may not be fed at once, but he needs his mother more than his dinner. Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need: prayer is the beginning of that communion, and some need is the motive of that prayer. ... So begins a communion, a taking with God, a coming-to-one with Him, which is the sole end of prayer, yea, of existence itself in its infinite phases. We must ask that we may receive: but that we should receive what we ask in respect of our lower needs, is not God's end in making us pray, for He could give us everything without that: to bring His child to his knee, God withholds that man may ask.
www.amoymagic.com
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
No Painfree Thorns
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"It is hard for you to kick against the prick." Jesus to Paul in Acts 26:14 [耶稣对保罗说] 你用脚踢刺是难的。使徒行传 26:14
"Others influence, but don't control, your advance or failure to advance." Mencius [孟子曰：“行或使之，止或尼之。行止，非人所能也。]
Head-on with Thorns. In English we say a "thorn in the side," but never a "thorn in the front," because most people with brains don't walk head-on into thorns. We get stuck in the side when we try to ease our way around thorns, and then we may pray, "Lord, deliver me from these thorns!" But maybe we aren't supposed to be in the thorn patch in the first place.
Once the Israelites had entered the land God had promised to them, they immediately broke their own promises to serve God, and to not worship idols or ally with the locals. So God said in Judges 2:2,3, "You want them, you can have them--but they will be thorns in your sides."
"Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides..." Judges 2:2,3 “。。。你们竟没有听从我的话。为何这样行呢。因此我又说，我必不将他们从你们面前赶出。他们必作你们肋下的荆棘。。。” 士师记2:3,4
The Israelites repeatedly disobeyed God and waltzed straight into the thorn patch--and repeatedly begged God to save them. And He did help them, over and over, only to have them walk right back into the thorn patch.
If we have more punctures than a pin cushion, we may be in the wrong place. Our Father will help us out if we ask him, but if we refuse to leave the briar patch, He's not going to bless us with painless thorns because the thorns have a purpose--to goad us back into the right direction. As Jesus said to Paul, when he was persecuting Christians, "It is hard to kick against the goad" (a sharp thorn=like stick used to prod oxen; they hurt enough already without kicking them!).
We can keep kicking the thorns, or we can get out of the thorn patch. If we choose the thorn patch, we have only ourselves to blame, as Mencius noted of the sidetracked Chinese prince.
Sidetracked Prince When Mencius heard that a prince coming to see him had been sidetracked by a court favorite, he commented, "others may influence where you go, but ultimately no one has the power to control you. You make the decision."
Of course, not all adversity comes from disobedience. Jesus said, "In this world you will have troubles." John. 16:33 But we don't need to multiply our troubles through disobedience.
Today, I might get scratched up a bit, but before I kick against the goad, I'm going to find out who's holding the other end!
www.amoymagic.com
"It is hard for you to kick against the prick." Jesus to Paul in Acts 26:14 [耶稣对保罗说] 你用脚踢刺是难的。使徒行传 26:14
"Others influence, but don't control, your advance or failure to advance." Mencius [孟子曰：“行或使之，止或尼之。行止，非人所能也。]
Head-on with Thorns. In English we say a "thorn in the side," but never a "thorn in the front," because most people with brains don't walk head-on into thorns. We get stuck in the side when we try to ease our way around thorns, and then we may pray, "Lord, deliver me from these thorns!" But maybe we aren't supposed to be in the thorn patch in the first place.
Once the Israelites had entered the land God had promised to them, they immediately broke their own promises to serve God, and to not worship idols or ally with the locals. So God said in Judges 2:2,3, "You want them, you can have them--but they will be thorns in your sides."
"Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides..." Judges 2:2,3 “。。。你们竟没有听从我的话。为何这样行呢。因此我又说，我必不将他们从你们面前赶出。他们必作你们肋下的荆棘。。。” 士师记2:3,4
The Israelites repeatedly disobeyed God and waltzed straight into the thorn patch--and repeatedly begged God to save them. And He did help them, over and over, only to have them walk right back into the thorn patch.
If we have more punctures than a pin cushion, we may be in the wrong place. Our Father will help us out if we ask him, but if we refuse to leave the briar patch, He's not going to bless us with painless thorns because the thorns have a purpose--to goad us back into the right direction. As Jesus said to Paul, when he was persecuting Christians, "It is hard to kick against the goad" (a sharp thorn=like stick used to prod oxen; they hurt enough already without kicking them!).
We can keep kicking the thorns, or we can get out of the thorn patch. If we choose the thorn patch, we have only ourselves to blame, as Mencius noted of the sidetracked Chinese prince.
Sidetracked Prince When Mencius heard that a prince coming to see him had been sidetracked by a court favorite, he commented, "others may influence where you go, but ultimately no one has the power to control you. You make the decision."
Of course, not all adversity comes from disobedience. Jesus said, "In this world you will have troubles." John. 16:33 But we don't need to multiply our troubles through disobedience.
Today, I might get scratched up a bit, but before I kick against the goad, I'm going to find out who's holding the other end!
www.amoymagic.com
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Chinese Prince's Foundation
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"When Peter saw him, he asked, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me." John 21:21,22 [彼得看见他，就问耶稣说，主阿，这人将来如何。耶稣对他说，我若要他等到我来的时候，与你何干。你跟从我吧。 约翰福音21:21,22]
"What does the great end result have to do with you, Prince? That is Heaven's business. Your business is just to be strong to do good." Mencius ["若夫成功，则天也。君如彼何哉？强为善而已矣。”]
Peter and the other disciples often asked Jesus about the future, and what part each person would play, partly because they were vying with each other for positions of importance in what they thought would be Christ's coming earthly kingdom. But Jesus' replies were basically 1), you must first serve if you are to lead, and 2), just do your own job, and leave the rest to the Father, who will weave it all together. Jesus' view reminds me of what Mencius said to a a Chinese prince:
"A prince lays the foundation of the inheritance, and hands down the beginning which he has made, doing what may be continued by his successors. As to achieving the great end result, that is Heaven's business. What is that to you, O Prince? Be strong to do good; that is all your business."
Foundations & Final Results. Mencius said that the "prince" lays the foundation for those who follow. In our case, Christ laid the foundation for us, his Family, and we are expected to carry on the work. Sometimes, of course, we may wonder just what is the point of what we are doing! But our job, for now at least, is not to understand how it all fits together but to be like Mencius' Prince, whose only job was to "do good" (just as our job is to do the best we can at the specific work our Father has given us).
My work may not seem very important, but I know that
1. My work is a small but integral part of the big picture.
2. Only those faithful in small tasks will ever be given greater tasks. Luke 16:10 [人在最小的事上忠心，在大事上也忠心。在最小的事上 不义，在大事上也不义。 路加福音16:10]
3. What I do today may help lay the foundation for those who follow--or it may weaken that foundation. I trust that today I am building up, not tearing down.
Today, as the shoe ad says, "just do it," with full confidence that if our Father gives us a task to do, it is not "busy work" but important, and he will "work out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." Ephesians 1:11
www.amoymagic.com
"When Peter saw him, he asked, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me." John 21:21,22 [彼得看见他，就问耶稣说，主阿，这人将来如何。耶稣对他说，我若要他等到我来的时候，与你何干。你跟从我吧。 约翰福音21:21,22]
"What does the great end result have to do with you, Prince? That is Heaven's business. Your business is just to be strong to do good." Mencius ["若夫成功，则天也。君如彼何哉？强为善而已矣。”]
Peter and the other disciples often asked Jesus about the future, and what part each person would play, partly because they were vying with each other for positions of importance in what they thought would be Christ's coming earthly kingdom. But Jesus' replies were basically 1), you must first serve if you are to lead, and 2), just do your own job, and leave the rest to the Father, who will weave it all together. Jesus' view reminds me of what Mencius said to a a Chinese prince:
"A prince lays the foundation of the inheritance, and hands down the beginning which he has made, doing what may be continued by his successors. As to achieving the great end result, that is Heaven's business. What is that to you, O Prince? Be strong to do good; that is all your business."
Foundations & Final Results. Mencius said that the "prince" lays the foundation for those who follow. In our case, Christ laid the foundation for us, his Family, and we are expected to carry on the work. Sometimes, of course, we may wonder just what is the point of what we are doing! But our job, for now at least, is not to understand how it all fits together but to be like Mencius' Prince, whose only job was to "do good" (just as our job is to do the best we can at the specific work our Father has given us).
My work may not seem very important, but I know that
1. My work is a small but integral part of the big picture.
2. Only those faithful in small tasks will ever be given greater tasks. Luke 16:10 [人在最小的事上忠心，在大事上也忠心。在最小的事上 不义，在大事上也不义。 路加福音16:10]
3. What I do today may help lay the foundation for those who follow--or it may weaken that foundation. I trust that today I am building up, not tearing down.
Today, as the shoe ad says, "just do it," with full confidence that if our Father gives us a task to do, it is not "busy work" but important, and he will "work out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." Ephesians 1:11
www.amoymagic.com
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