Mark 8:34

Its been an exciting day all in all. So much so that even though I only slept 3 hrs the night before, I can’t sleep. Or mebbe it’s the 5 cups of coffee I’ve had.

Through a weird confluence of events, I ended up driving Simon’s car back from church to his place, and it was just abt the most nerve-wrecking experience ever. It’s a BMW, for goodness sake. I even had a send a common friend back in his car, all the way in unfamiliar-territory-for-me Serangoon. Thank God the car came back in good shape.

Grins.

Arsenal lost tonight, and is now behind Blackburn. So my comment abt a certain pathetic red club is again proven to be spot-on. Tonight’s the League Cup Final between Wigan and Man Utd. Tee hee. Can’t wait.

Anyway, today at DM, Weixiu invited a friend called Ivan down, to give us BS on the book of Mark. Mebbe cos the topic touches at the core of something that’s personally very relevant to me, but I started from being very lost at the start of the BS, to being perhaps just a tad too eager to push home my own point. He was talking abt dying to the self as being something very central to the gospel, since the crown jewel of the gospel is the Cross, whilst we all are called to die to self so we can follow Christ.

The topic veered off from there into a discussion of how much we sugar-coat Christianity to make it palatable to others. So we always emphasize the God who heals, who delivers, who saves, who blesses, who loves… etc. Seldom, if ever, do we hear messages that tells us being a Christian involves sufferings and hardships of all sorts. Somehow we don’t really need Jesus’ assurance anymore to “Take heart, for I have overcome the world.” Somehow we seem to have overcome the world on our own already.

I think since almost 2 yrs ago I’ve felt that we’ve been too eager to emphasize what’s beneficial to ourselves abt Christianity (salvation of our souls, fellowship of believers, a Tower of refuge, a Friend who’s always there), and we’ve very conveniently shunted out the many times the Bible says “In this life you will have tribulation”, or the times Jesus time and again reminded the disciples that “WHEN you are persecuted for My name’s sake…” We quote successful examples of Christians who’ve climbed really high on the social ladder and exhort them as role models of testimony for God, whilst neglecting the obvious fact that practically all of the characters in the bible went against the grain of the social hierarchical system to be a giant for Christ.

And so even as I feel that to turn around and trumpet suffering as the ultimate calling for a Christian might be throwing the baby out with the bath water, I think its safe to say that our tendencies make it very hard to overstate the case whenever we make suffering a key component of our Christian education. The understanding that we have many things to give up indeed, if we are to ever claim to be denying ourselves and following Him. The appreciation of the fact that Success and Prosperity theology goes against every grain of the biblical principle that we’re not called to hoard possessions on earth. The realization that ‘excellence’ and ‘efficiency’ are words that belongs in the corporate world – while ‘grace’ and ‘forbearance’ are the words that need to take centre stage in any ministry.

I could go on.

I realize that even I myself am not immune to these expectations. When my life started to unravel and fall apart I was like the man in “The Parable” of Larry Crabb’s “Shattered Dreams”. I started with a self-righteous faith in God that He really has a plan for me. Then the self-pitying appreciation of myself, for my decision to stick with God despite my circumstances. And finally, without realizing when or how it happened, it all turned into a bitter outburst at God for abandoning me to my fate.

Yet the journey back from such a road as this has helped me value these valleys in every person’s life. Because a in a sugar-coated gospel, you will only ever find yourself and your met expectations. But a walk in the valley is the only time you will ever meet with God.

For the moment now, at least, I understand a little bit more abt why Larry Crabb says God shatters all our dreams in order to give us His. That’s what Jesus meant when He told us to deny ourselves, take up His cross and follow Him. Our dreams lead to prosperity, good life and happiness. His dreams led Him to the cross, to pain and to suffering.

We need to trade our comfortable and even our very justifiable dreams for the symbol of a lost cause.

Talk abt becoming God’s own fool…