When Tragedy Strikes

Sometimes when tragedy strikes, it takes a lot of faith to believe that there could have been anything good that comes out of it.

... "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

- Mark 9:24

Mercy Saw Me

Self-righteous or not, I guess the reminder is that we're all made righteous by God.

Learnt this really really beautiful song when I attended Easter Sunday at Covenant Evangelical Free Church.



Mercy Saw Me
by Calvin Hunt

The years had left scars
The scars had left pain
How could He recognize me
I wasn't the same
I knew I should pay
And I knew the price
For justice and law
Demanded my life
But His tender heart heard
My desperate cry
And He saw my past
Through merciful eyes

Beautiful
That's how mercy saw me.
For I was broken and so lost
Mercy looked past all my faults
The justice of God saw what I had done
But mercy saw me through the Son
Not what I was
But what I could be
That's how mercy saw me

Whatever you've done
You can't go too far
That His eyes of mercy
Can't see where you are
He loves you too much
To leave you alone
You're flesh of His flesh
And bone of His bone.

And His heart cries out
For your heart today
See yourself through His eyes
And then you can say

Sin had stolen my dignity
And all my self-esteem,
But I was made brand new again
When mercy looked at me

Beautiful
That's how Jesus saw me...

MANCHESTER UNITED 7 – 1 ROMA

Just when I thought the dream was dead and buried, God once again reminded me of His grace… His kindness and His mercy… and reminded me that He’s a Man Utd fan…

Hehz…

The poetry of Man Utd’s game… tearing apart Roma’s defence at will, and the sort of goals that were scored, each one an absolute gem in itself… for all the hooliganism before the match began, United again reminded us of why this is called the beautiful game.

The perfect blend of experience and youth, that reminds us of past glories and gives us hope of future greatness… the strength of character to believe in themselves and come back spectacularly after so many have written them off… The hunger to win that is the mark of a champion… United had it all.

I woke up cringing at the thought of checking the scores, and I found myself checking the results on three different websites just to confirm that it wasn’t a cruelly distasteful and belated April Fools’ joke. Disbelief gave way to incredulity, which gave way to elation, which gave way to a joy that gave me a lift for the rest of the day…. To after that catch the goals that were scored on Youtube (bless the person who uploaded the clip…), only confirmed the class that this new generation of Man Utd players possess…

The future is bright indeed!!!

The Reds are marching on!!!!!!!!!!

Self-Righteousness

"Am I self-righteous? Why not? Its not like I can count on you to be righteous for me".
- Henry Rollins


I read this and it really cracked me up.

Too often I've been accused of being impossible to argue with, and many have therefore turned into a person who doesn't bother to engage in talking with me, but is only interested in telling me what's wrong with myself. Given some time, these people degenerate into telling OTHER people what's wrong with me (often times, hypocritically maintaining the mask of amiability towards me), lamenting how unrepentant I am.

I used to really detest such people. If you can't be bothered to talk it through with me, then don't hide behind the excuse that you can't win the argument. Its just that you can't be bothered... and I can't be bothered with someone who is only interested in telling me which part of myself offends their sensitivities. The ironic and sad thing is that such people themselves end up looking sort of self-righteous too...

(I've now learnt to ignore them. You can't stop dogs from barking.)

Back to the quote: There's at least a tiny grain of truth to be found in what Henry Rollins said... If nothing you've been saying tells me that you're more interested in protecting me and doing what's really good for me, then why shouldn't I stand up for myself? Who in his right mind faces the firing squard and not shy from it?

In MY (self-righteous) opinion, I think there're at least 2 ways of being so pompous. Either you are defensive when others attack you, or else you're the one who puts himself on a higher moral platform and does the judging.

My only defence? I think I spend most of my self-righteousness defending myself, instead of judging others.

Thought of the day - which side of self-righteousness do you fall on?

(P.S. If you find yourself answering "neither", its time to seek counselling.)