Day: May 13, 2013

True Romance


With a possible longish Sunday looming and my (sort of) promise to Kiddo to visit one of the churches she recommended, I decided not to watch the FA Cup final between Man City and Wigan. I was fully expecting Man City to win anyway so it was an easy decision to not watch the match.

I was up early on Sunday and what a surprise. Wigan had won by an injury time goal! I was thinking of the Wimbeldon Crazy Gand’s exploits in a final many years ago – with Lawrie Sanchez scoring the winning goal – against the might of Liverpool. This was in the 80’s when Liverpool had not yet been knocked off their proverbial perch.

And so, although it was very early for a Sunday morning and I have had a late night, I got up and watched the reply on ESPN, which was screening (milking) the event on a rolling basis. Until recent years, I had associated Wigan with rugby and didn’t realise they have a football team of premier league standards. But like I said in a previous entry, I get Wigan. The underdog over achiever of a survivor… I sincerely hope they survive the drop. They would have to beat Arsenal but other than I have a small soft spot for Spurs, watching Wigan claw their way out of relegation after winning the FA Cup would be absolutely thrilling.

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Missed Opportunity. For now.


I was at a non-work/community volunteer type of training in the city on Sat. It was supposed to go on till 4 but there was a birthday party on, near home. A gorgeous little princess was turning 3 – a precocious little thing whose love for people around her (and food…) is so magnetic that it was hard to even be late for the party, let alone miss it.

And so I left the training soon after lunch, and came home in time to get to the party with Tress.

Later that night, I started to think about what I thought might happen the next day.

Some thought there was going to be a question and answer session in LifeGate church that arvo. I said to my mate that if he wanted to be present to say something, I would be with him.

I wanted to be there and stand with him. In the same way I was there and stood with Lim Kit Siang on the night his son, Lim Guan Eng was sentenced to jail, back in Malaysia in the 1990’s.

I have always believed a wrong need to be called out, and efforts to fix the wrong must be made. No one can and should think of carrying on as though life goes on, by simply discarding the wrong. Justice I think is front and centre of Christianity.

In particular, if a church has committed a wrong, so much more it needs to fix the wrong before it can move on. To move on without fixing the wrong is to betray what a church is all about. It isn’t just about coming together. It is coming together in truth, sharing in a righteousness won for us by our God, who “stopped” to fix our problems before “moving on”. Righteousness is perhaps together with justice at the front and centre of Christianity.

Anyway, as it turned out the fabled question and answer fizzled out into a non-event.

I had in any event, thought about being at the Q&A, to be with my brother – as he responds to misleading and dishonest things said about him. In thinking about how the session may pan out, one of the scenarios played out in my mind was one of reconciliation.

I was preparing to contemplate the prospect of reconciliation, should the Q&A elicit answers and responses that lead to a genuine step to fix things. That then would have truly constituted thoughts, feelings and actions that accompany responses to what God has initiated. That was a prospect in my mind because I believe that is what God wants. God does not want us to forget things in a hurry. He wants us to deal with things. Moving forward can only be meaningful, and therefore fruitful, if it is done in a way which doesn’t sacrifice the elements of truth, justice and righteousness.

Alas, the prospect of substantive reconciliation dissipated and the spectre of moving forward with unholy haste and of lies, deceit and bad faith continue to hang over LifeGate Church.

26.38


26.38. By itself it looks good. In fact I might have had a car with a plate bearing those numbers. Chinese love these numbers. Loosely it may be read to sound like “easy path bears prosperity”. Silly perhaps but in a community where one goes out every day to scrap to earn a living and provide for the family, every little bit helps – even loose numerology of some sort.

Those numbers were in reference to Sir Alex Ferguson of course.

26 years (and a bit) bearing 38 trophies.

The match last night was due to start 12.45am and I have a (another) busy week so I hadn’t planned to watch it. I did however set up the hard disk recorder. Hopefully I got the programming right and hopefully I had it recording long enough to include all post match activities. I’d find out tonight…

Again, “Thank You”, Sir Alex. Your hard work and dedication meant so much to so many.

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