Ups and Downs
 
I have been with the company for a year, yesterday. Yes, time flies. So much has happened in this past year. We sold our house in Burwood East in June, bought our current place in Forest Hill in August and moved in October. Meanwhile, kiddo got accepted to Mac Robertson Girls in August and started in January this year. Our friends from Klang moved to Melbourne in December, we went to Malaysia for a holiday in January and here in Melbourne right through the year, we saw important changes to the church we attend.
 
Last week, when we were having coffee, my colleagues from my department remarked that things felt quieter than usual. It could have been the school holidays with parents taking time off work. Or it could be a lull resulting from nature taking it course. In his classic work “The Screwtape Letters”, Wormwood asked his ward not to be tricked into thinking success is at hand simply because the believer is having a low period. It was simply a case of physical lull – the body needs to rest and cannot be at a perpetual high, lest it breaks down beyond repair. This is true for one’s spiritual journey as much as it is at work situation.
 
Human beings tire. They slow down when they do. We have to respect that, provided there aren’t clear signals of laziness.
 
Sometimes we don’t recognise that in church life. We equate physical lulls to spiritual lows. We should sometimes simply accept that what is sometimes seen as being anointed is nothing more than a physical high. If you get a relaxed and well rested Saturday that allowed you just the right amount of food, drinks and sleep, you may feel very well on Sunday morning. If you happen to be given a mixture of good weather, pleasant people and great atmosphere, the physical wellness can lend a sense of being anointed – no? Well maybe a high, which is not purely spiritual.
 
At work, the department has grown. After I joined a year ago, they recruited a part time company secretary a few months later. It then recruited another lawyer, last month. I think the department, and the company as a whole, needs to deal with business-as-usual without the excitements. In the 1 years since I joined, my boss became the acting general counsel, got pregnant, became the permanent general counsel, had a baby and is planning her wedding now. A colleague got married, went on a 2 month leave which included a honeymoon in Europe and now has that recruit as a staff reporting to her.
 
The company has had a number of projects which drove everyone really busy – broad/direct marketing initiatives for the first time, automated underwriting, potential quasi merger and acquisition transaction and renewal of major contracts.
 
These all provided loads of momentum and excitement. The question now must be – can it be motivated to continue performing at a high level minus these factors? It has to I guess. I hope people realise that. I don’t know what sort of plans would be required to prepare for this.
 
Muslims React in the usual way

Geert Wilder is now an infamous name. He is the right wing Dutch politician who made a film suggesting the Quran has a propensity for violence. I am inclined to say “like duh…”
 
It is almost a self evident proposition. A few months ago an Iranian Muslim made a film about Jesus. He may think he portrayed a benevolent picture of Jesus. However, in questioning the death and resurrection of Jesus (he suggested a disciple of Jesus was transfigured to take on the appearance of Jesus, and died in the place of Jesus), this Iranian filmmaker in fact undermined the basic claims of Christianity. In my mind, this can be viewed in the same way as what Wilder has done to the Quran. Muslims will claim the Quran is a book of peace, not violence. So the suggestion that it preaches violence would be going against the very grain of the religion – which is what this Iranian filmmaker did to Christianity.
 
Did anyone hear any chest thumping call for the life of this Iranian filmmaker? If you even whisper anything negative about Islam, chances are someone will rant about killing you. That person will readily kill you in the name of Islam. He wouldn’t be sitting down with you to have a measured discussion to show you were wrong and that those parts of the Quran which encourages violence were in fact taken out of context, etc. Whereas churches and groups of Christians would form discussion groups to counter the points raised in the Iranian film, the response of the Muslim community is to threaten to take the life of the Dutch filmmaker. This response, unsurprisingly, goes to prove what Wilder suggested…