Widow in a funeral

Our dear friend has been with that church for so long. She’d told us so many times that when she first walked into the church her two kids were only so young – maybe 3 or 4 years old. Those kids are 19 and 21 now. After spending nearly a lieftime in that church, one can only imagine the depth of descent her soul has plumbed.

Her husband, who has given his life and more for so long, has been trampled and discarded. A bunch of fools and ingrates who lied and schemed to get rid of him. These low life ockers rejoiced, I hear. How can they call themselves christians, let alone leaders?

Not a word, not so much whisper or a gesture, to indicate they know the depth of pain they have caused. What became of them I wonder, that they allow themselves to be the seats of such plots of hatred and evil. What’s worse – all dressed up in a despicable disguise to whitewash the dirty tombs. The ugly proclamation of altruism that is so misplaced its ugliness defies the basest imagination.

I did one thing well and that is to renounce and stay away from that squalor.

When I see that dear friend, I cant help but think of a widow in a funeral.

Of Tears and Other Public Displays

In introducing the bill for disability care, Julia shed a tear or two. It was a measure of public distrust in her, that so many expressed their doubt as to the authenticity of that emotion.

See this short piece where it said:

of “authenticity” as a leadership characteristic. Without it, leaders cannot expect to influence others

And also this:

it is also true that precisely because of the artifice she has employed as Prime Minister, many will dismiss the raw emotion as more play-acting.

And then there was this story on public apologies:

figures who have fallen from grace have little choice but to make public apologies that have a theatrical element in them.

And this:

But officials “feel compelled to apologize publicly’’ to keep their job

And finally this:

public mea culpas often seem designed to help people keep their jobs

Lawsuits… a la Grisham :-)

“The Litigators” was a hilarious work by Grisham. I don’t recall him creating such comic figures in his other books. And so while the subject matter was grave, the characters enlivened and gave a kaleidoscope of colours to the narrative.

The fact that litigation can be an expensive, drawn out and energy sapping endeavour was clearly interwoven with the elements of greed, freedom and family time represented by each of the 3 protagonists in the ambulance chasing firm. Other than the young Harvard lawyer who literally stumbled into this barely surviving practice, the other 2 lawyers reminded me of the first two firms in KL who invited me to spend some time with them when I first went back to Malaysia more than 20 years ago. Both did personal injury work, but the first did plaintiff work while the second did more defendant work. Invariably, the plantiff work firm made more money but it was a firm with little respect within the legal fraternity. Grisham showed why ambulance chasers are generally frowned upon. He exaggerated the behaviour of course but I’m glad he did because he made it really funny.

So last weekend I thought I had enough of another quick and dirty Grisham novel on lawyers and lawsuits but I had barely started on G. K. Chesterton’s “The Everlasting Man” when I felt the itch for more Grisham… oh no…

So much has been happening I couldnt really dwell on something potentially layered with meaning so a quick and dirty page turner looks the obvious gap filler.

It isnt always time wasting anyway. “The Confession” for example, started with a convict needing help and wandering into a church. There, he met a pastor who quickly discovered that convict had something important to say in relation to a death row inmate.

That scene of a man walking down the street and wandering into a church office and starting a process leading to a possible redemption of a condemned man, was played out as a possible real life scenario last night.

Someone rang, and recounted the aftermath of the weekend circus. One small detail amongst severl to have emerged was how a pastor was loathed to spend time in church office. That caller bemoaned the fact that the opportunity, such as illustrated in Grisham’s fiction, was probably denied to God knows how many souls. Simply because a pastor wanted to have a ministry largely on his own terms. Well he can now, pretty much.

You broke my heart

I know it was you, Fredo.

You broke my heart. You broke my heart

– Michale Corleone (The Godfather II)

Normal behaviour… and a circus

I remember wanting a lawyer to be transferred to my team. She would have the same pay, work in the same office, do similar type of work, but only reporting to a different partner.

Something as benign as that transfer had to start by a chat to her. Her then boss and I had to take turns to chat to her, before we did anything else.

We talked to her about what we had in mind, and we invited her to let us know what she thought about what we had in mind.

She was receptive (I wasn’t a bad boss…) and then we started planning the move.

Other than courtesy and decency it was also something one does if the action was going to affect a person, one would have thought.

It wasn’t something you would have thought necessary to point out to anyone calling himself and herself a leader but then again it has been a bit of a circus.

Et tu, Brute?

Man Plans – Only God Can

My plan of action worked out reasonably well yesterday. Tress and I had a very late night on Sat, getting to bed only well after 1am. but I still crawled out of bed on Sunday morning at about 6am. I went into the study, and spent some time before the Lord.

Tress and I were a bit excited when we took off just at 9.45, which was I think a great sign.

We pulled into the car park about a few minutes before 10 and to our surprise, the place was crowded. In the study earlier that morning, I had also turned on Light FM’s early morning broadcast which had a message on Pentecost Sunday. The crowd, Tress and I were told by a very friendly lady seated next to us, was because of Pentecost Sunday celebration.

The fact that this church celebrated Pentecost Sunday by involving kids and to teach them about the advent of the Holy Spirit and did this on a church wide celebration involving everyone, was another comforting sign. Also, the interpretation of the events of Acts 2 was done in such a confident and clear manner, bode well.

At the end of the service the friendly lady seated next to Tress walked us out into the foyer and introduced us to the senior minister. We had a quick introductory chat and Tress and I later said this was promising.

The first step to my plan of action has turned out very well…

We were both very pleased but there was then the spectre of an ugly afternoon in my previous home. I had wanted to stay away from that foolishness but like Al Pacino famously said in Godfather III, “Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in”. But I told myself this was just to be with a dear brother as he journeys through this foolishness perpetrated by others. So Tress and I went to that circus.

We kept our eyes on our plan of action however. I’m looking forward to wait before the Lord to see how the rest of this plan plays out. Only He can make it happen.