Month: November 2013

The first certainty


A friend was relating to us yesterday, the sad story of his co-worker being terminally sick. It must be such a confronting matter to deal with. I cannot imagine what a person does, when confronted with the reality of an impending death – and one that is near. If there is luxury of time to absorb the initial shock before emerging to make the most of what time remains, it would indeed be a triumph of sorts, given the circumstances. Absent such luxury, how does one work out priorities and action at this time?

I guess that dilemma, pressing and focused as it is, is simply a microcosm of life generally. 6 months is a lifetime for some. That lifetime is 70, 80 or 90 years for others. Or if you live in a place like Ikarian or Okinawa (I think), perhaps 100. Whatever the number, it is finite. The end comes – sooner or later. For little Ezra that was 22 days. For JFK it was 46 years. My late grandfather (who was 90 when he died, I think) often quoted Psalm 90.

Psalm 90

9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. 10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. 11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

We are to acknowledge our mortality so that we may be wiser. Accept death’s reality and one lives wisely. There is a lot to be said and done in response to this pearl, no?

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Little Ezra’s mark…


Tress and I visited a family on Friday night. They’ve been in Melbourne for over year. They have the usual challenges for a relatively new migrant family and we just wanted to make ourselves available as friends and for company. We sat in their kitchen, as we listened to their stories.

The next morning, I woke early and went to St Alf’s for a men’s breakfast talk. Mark Sneddon talked about the challenges of balancing professional, family and personal issues and how his faith and Christians around him helped him deal with those issues. It was a highly personal and thought provoking talk. It invited compassion, understanding and camaraderie as men, to come alongside each other and support each other through life’s often hard journey.

Having visited the new migrant family and talked to them the previous night, listening to Mark really reinforced the reality of life’s many challenges many people have to face. Little did I know how these two encounters were to pale into insignificance in terms of the impact on Tress and I, compared to what lied ahead of us.

Tress and I were working on the garden on Sunday afternoon, and Tress had then gone into the house to do some cooking while I continued working in the garden. When I started cleaning up, I picked up my phone and read a text from my uncle Stephen which left me completely shocked and speechless.

Little Ezra came into the lives of my cousin Ruth and her husband Jonathan in Adelaide on October 18. He was little but otherwise looked healthy and well. His photographs, taken with proud beaming parents holding him in turn, were of the usual angelic beauty of baby pictures. My uncle Stephen and auntie Paddy had then joined them from Malaysia a week or so later and had been staying with them, cooking traditional confinement meals for Ruth which Jonathan also enjoyed. All seemed well and everyone were truly happy.

So it came as a shock when we were told that baby Ezra had passed on. He went to be with the Lord on the morning of 10 November. He was just over 3 weeks old.

For the next few hours, I was numbed, not quite knowing what to think or say. I tried to ring my uncle but someone picked up the phone but did not say anything. I then thought I’d leave them alone for a while, but I still do not know what to say to them. All I wanted was for them to know that they have people who would pray and be at their side if they needed or wanted this. God is all loving and all knowing – we are often asked to relate to our Creator from His purpose, not ours. And yet, often it is our narratives, our experiences, our journey that shape us and put us in a position to relate to Him. How do these two spheres interact? When and how, does His purpose make sense of our individual journeys? CS Lewis’s Screwtape said this:

Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks around upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.

Only He can make us respond that way, and only we can decide to respond that way…

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Roger Scruton


I was reading a newsletter from the Institute of Public Affairs, which carried a promo on the English philosopher Roger Scruton who would be visiting Australia early next year.

I clicked on a couple of links on the newsletter and was immediately sucked in. A link to a you tube “clip” was an hour long and I thought I’d watch a couple of minutes to decide if I’d watch it later. I ended up watching the whole hour. It was an interview in the US in an organisation known as the “Common Sense Society” and the topic of discussion was mainly on moral relativism.

I’m now wondering if I’d seek out his books for reading over the summer months…

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Cup Weekend


 

Tress and I (and LBJ) were at Mornington Peninsula from Sat to yesterday. We stayed in a property a couple of kilometers after Rye. Dreamily named “Limestone”, it’s owned by a couple Graeme and Lyn Hardiman. We had booked “Waves at Tyrone” also owned by the Hardimans but ended up in Limestone at their request.

It was only 300-400m to the beach so we went there on Sat. It was a great spot as it was dog friendly so LBJ could be let loose while Tress and I sat on the beach.

The Chews came up for a visit on Monday, we had lunch at Sorrento and we came back yesterday, after a very relaxing weekend away.

Earlier on Sat morning we had done some work in the garden, including applying some “weed and feed” chemicals and weed killers, as well water and plant some shrubs. After a really nice lunch at Madam Kwong’s we pushed off just after 1pm and got to the property around 2.30. We spent a few hours on the beach, walked a little bit, and then came back home and watched tv, read and just relaxed.

When the Chews visited, we drove to Sorrento and lunched at a joint famous for its vanilla slice. The Moroccan beetroot salad was delicious as well. I first had the vanilla slice from this place back when I workd with David Sharrock in Sharrock Pitman and he organised a weekend team build event in Sorrento. That was more than 8 years ago now…

I’ve just finished re-reading Clive James‘ trilogy autobiography (Unreliable Memoirs, Falling Towards England and May Week was in June). I first read these 25+ years ago and reading them again all those years later has been a differenty albeit familiar experience. Famous Australian artistes hidden as semi fictional characters are far more easily recognisable now. I also have a copy of North Face of Soho on my shelf – which I picked up when we got back from Rey yesterday.

It has been a great year of reading for me. Trips to Malaysia, NZ and Singapore as well as daily commutes on trains gave me plenty of reading hours and my Kindle Paperwhite has been a joy of a reading tool.  At times during our stay in Limestone in Rye, I found the companion of a good book almost as comforting and soothing as being there alone with just my lovely wife.

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LifeGate Ills Continue


A dear brother is hopefully, near a bend in his (and his family‘s) journey out of a difficult situation. He has much to offer and I sincerely hope he would start on that path of serving directly and actively again.

Last week however, he had a visit from 2 members of the LIfegate board. John Burger and Ben Foo are people we’ve been blessed to have known during our time at ICC Church. The account of their visit to Jason’s however, tells me they still have no idea how to sort this mess out.

Tham Fuan, Kheang Te, Lettice Chia and David Chiang have wronged Jason badly. Jason and his family are now hurting and suffering the consequences of their wrong act. To send John and Ben to his home without any sincerity to help Jason and his family, is like playing with  a burn victim’s wound without any idea of how to salve and heal him. To drop in cold and then seek to leave hurriedly wreaks of wanton carelessness with a victim’s emotions and well being.

For as long as they dont do the simple yet difficult thing of acknowledging the wrong, the LifeGate leadership would continue to be mired in such foolishness.  What fools. While I would forgive and seek reconciliation at the drop of a hat, how glad I am now I am no longer in fellowship with such obstinate fools for now. I hope this all end soon.

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