Leave it to God to do the judging; we are just called to love

Have you ever seen those people who stand on the streets holding cardboard signs that either say, "Repent for the Kingdom of God is near", or "Jesus died for your sins"? If you haven't seen them on the streets of downtown, you've probably seen them in an end of the world type movie, like 2012.

When I was shopping with a sister in a busy intersection of Mong Kok this afternoon, we saw one of these men. We just walked by him, and I jokingly said to my friend, "heh, maybe we should go say hi and give him a shout-out." Jokingly, because I was taught not talk to strangers. Not thinking too much more about it, we spent the next 2 hours wandering around and looking at the interesting knick-kacks in Flower Market.

As we were leaving, we spotted the old man again! The "normal" me would just smile and walk by, but for some reason, I turned to my girlfriend and asked if we should go say hi, to which she agreed! We timidly went up to him together to ask if we could buy him a drink, since he had been standing there holding the sign for some time now. He declined our offer, but began chatting with us about theology. Splendid! I love talking to theology; this was turning out to be much less frightening than I imagined it to be!

The conversation we had was quite interesting, and personally, I questioned a lot of his theology and also how effective his method of standing there with a cardboard sign was. However, I realized that it's not for me, but for God, to judge; I was only there to give the man encouragement. I pray that somehow and some way, God will use this man to point others to Jesus. Because the simple Truth, with everything stripped away is that "for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

True love is costly

It's interesting how love and pain go hand in hand sometimes. One would think that in love, there should be no pain, that we'd just be lying on fluffy clouds and skipping in meadows with one another in perfect harmony... and yet, often times, real love is only experienced through pain and suffering. Think about it, any true act of love requires sacrifice. When we help others, it requires us to step out and give up our time, our energy. When a mom gives birth to her precious child, it requires painful labor. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, it cost Him His life.

Yesterday was supposed to be the greatly anticipated annual super duper lovely jubbly Island ECC Sports Fellowship summer time junk trip. Boy was I looking forward to it, especially when I was going to bring my cousins! The summer had been pretty rough on all of us, and we were really looking forward to being able to get away and have some fun in the sun. Unfortunately, 9 hours before we were about to take off, one of my cousins called and informed me that our aunt, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, was not doing well and was struggling immensely to hang onto life. So yesterday, instead of riding on jet-skis, the Carebears (cousins) spent the afternoon together in the face of pain and suffering, comforting each other, and rooting each other on.

It's one thing to hear about suffering; it's another thing to be in the midst of it. Suffering is heart-wrenching and agonizing. Suffering makes time drag on forever. Suffering can deflate people and make them bitter. And perhaps that's why Jesus had to come and live in this fallen world, so that we would know that He too, experienced in our pain and suffering, and because of that, can give us the hope that we need, because He is victorious over pain, and suffering, and even death itself.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

An unexpected love opportunity

I was really looking forward to catching up with a sister over dinner. We were both super busy this summer, and hadn't really seen much of each other. Even finding a time that we were both free to meet was quite a challenge. So you can tell my excitement when dinner time drew near. I was literally skipping down the street on the way over to meet her.

We ended up going over to her house for dinner, and although we spent some time catching each other up on what's been going on, an unexpected house guest arrived (her brother's friend, who was in town for a holiday) and joined us at the dinner table.

Hm, so much for girl talk. So, in efforts to be welcoming to the house guest, we ended up talking about everything else under the sun, like scaling mountains and internet speeds, to life at boarding school and Judgment Day; everything besides what I had intended to talk to my close girlfriend about.

Honestly, in the back of my mind, I was trying all night to figure out an excuse to get away from this house guest, so that I could catch up with my sister. But perhaps it was God's plan for us to talk to this house guest instead, because for a part of the night, we talked at length about faith issues and his personal view of faith. In retrospect, I feel very privileged that I had this opportunity to have such a heart to heart talk with someone whom I just met, and I appreciate his honesty in opening up his heart to a stranger, like me.

Although I didn't share the gospel with him, but I pray that seeds were planted, and that God will make them grow. I pray that he will discover that following Jesus is not about following a set of rules and rituals, but about having a personal relationship with the Creator and Savior of this world, who loves him dearly.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

May we continue to lay down our agendas for the sake of reaching out and helping those who are still walking in darkness!

Loving my grandma

My grandmother, 嫲嫲, is the one who brought me up when I was young. She was the one who pulled me out of bed in Kindergarten, and dressed me as I kept sleeping away. She was the one who gave me extra pocket money to spend during the week. She was the one who let me take a break to watch tv and order pizza, instead of making me study.

When I got older and moved away, my grandmother was the one who would ask about my work and my love life, every time I came back to visit her. She was the one who would make sure that I was well fed, and got a chicken drumstick for every meal that I had with her. [In the Chinese culture, a chicken drumstick is considered the best part of the chicken, reserved for the child that they loved.] And she did it every time I saw her, without fail. Whether I visited her for lunch, or for dinner, the drumstick would always be there, steamy hot, waiting for me.

Recently, my grandmother hasn't been feeling so well. So, today, I blocked off my schedule, and took a 3+ hour car ride just to see her. It hurt to see my granny sleeping in her bed, looking weak and sick. But I was glad to see her, because I wanted to thank her for all the chicken drumsticks that she had saved for me, and so lovingly served me, year after year. I only got to talk to granny for a short time today, but I'm thankful that I got to thank her for her love, encourage her with God's promise of eternal life when we believe in Him, and show her that I loved her too.

Granny, I hope you feel better!

Love challenge: Go out of your way to sincerely thank someone for something they have done.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."