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Last Saturday my family attended my daughter’s high school graduation ceremony at the Civic Center. Overall, it was a good experience even though we have to wait for more than 40 min. to get in. The ceremony was full of excitement and speeches from guests of honor and student graduates. Among the student graduates’ speeches, the recollection of high school years and appreciations extended to school teachers and guidance counsels were good and interesting. Speeches delivered by the guests of honor – the school superintendent, a police detective, a member from the education board and the school principal – were very inspiring. Particularly, the use of wheelbarrow as an analogy, by the high school principal, to illustrate that student graduates have to learn how to strike balance between load and goal in the future was an enlightening perspective.

After the ceremony, it was Kodak time for friends and families. I find that it was difficult to find a clear space for picturing, especially when you need to gather a few persons together. There were two interesting phenomena that I observed. One is families were eager to find a good spot for this special occasion in order to have a picture with their graduates.  It competes, however, with the other phenomenon – the graduates were eager to find their classmates to hug and to chat, as this could be their last opportunity to get together. Thus, we ended up to grab whatever space was available at that time to take a picture. It seems to me the emotion of excitement and reluctance to part among the graduates was the real reason crowded the Civic Center. As a result, we left the Center around 8:00PM … 🙂

The affection among the student graduates is the one that I find very precious. I thank God for giving us feeling for others – as we are not robots with programmed rules and architected structures; we are human beings with God’s breath. We can share our life journey with others and build a relationship with them. The sharing experience of life journey essentially provides us a good memory and it supports our next step of our life journey.

When Jesus was in this world, He chose 12 disciples to follow Him. He lived with them and shared with them for three and half years. The caring love and life examples that Jesus gave to them is one of the key thrusts that strengthen their journey of faith.  Every time I read the Gospel of John, the conversation between apostle Peter and Jesus would intrigue me. Especially, the question from Jesus to Peter, “Do you love me?” was asked three times repeatedly. Of course, you may already know the purpose of Jesus’ question to Peter is to re-establish Peter’s faith. (John 21:15-17). Jesus’ encouragement to Peter let me think of the famous hymn: “What a friend we have in Jesus!”

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and grieve to bear!

What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,

all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

My dear brothers and sisters, as we all love our children, oftentimes we also like to know whether they feel the same way, right? Therefore, let me ask you a question. What would you say if our Lord Jesus asks you today, “Do you love me?” Do you have an answer for Him?

You can keep your answer to yourself, of course. But, please remember, our Lord knows our heart.

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As my age advanced, hearing ability started to deteriorate. Sometimes, I couldn’t follow my wife if she didn’t speak loudly. Recently, I heard an interesting story from one of the radio broadcasts that I usually listen to.

A marriage couple celebrates their 60^th year anniversary by inviting friends and families to have a gathering. Because of their advanced age, both of them are having hearing difficulties.

During the celebration, the husband starts to say:

“Honey, after 60 years of marriage, my love to you is still “try and true!””

“What?” the wife responded with loud voice.

So the husband has to say it one more time. This time he raises his voice by saying

“After 60 years of marriage, my love to you is still “try and true”.

“After 60 years with you, I am tired of you too!” The wife quickly shouted it back.

From the story, you can see that it is very important to listen carefully otherwise, confusion and misunderstanding could happen. In addition, the feel of “I am tired of you” should not be foreign to us and in fact, it is prevalent in today’s society, I think.

Marriage was established by God after God created Adam (Genesis 2:20-25) and felt that Adam needs a suitable helper. God then created Eve from Adam’s rib. Adam called her “Woman” as Adam recognized her as his “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”. “Man” and “Woman” were then united into one flesh – marriage.  As apostle Paul indicated to us, the relationship between the church and Christ is like husband and wife – holy and intimate.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (你們作丈夫的，要愛你們的妻子，正如基督愛教會，為教會捨己‧Ephesians 5:25)

If the relationship of marriage is supposed to be holy and intimate, why after a few years of marriage, there exists such a feel of “I am tired of you”?  Why our love fades so soon? The probable cause, I think, could due to our limited and sinful flesh. The key is how we can emulate our Lord’s love to church onto our spouse.

How about within a church? Is our love to brothers and sisters fading too? Very likely! The good thing is our Lord knows our weakness (Matthew 26:41b). He encouraged us to remain in Him because He is the source of love (John 15). Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, let’s be reminded by the meaning of “Christ loved the church” when we have the thought of “I am tired of you” comes up. May our church be full of Christ’s love…..

Last Sunday, we had a great worship and gathering with our High School Seniors who are transitioning into a new milestone of their life – attending college. As I recall in my high school years, it was a period full of examinations and pressure. Started from 10^th grade, school already asked us to be prepared for college entrance exam (CEE). At 11^th grade, we had all kinds of simulated tests and subsequently at 12^th grade; we were at the most miserable and pressurized days in our life – more tests and intensive reviews. Everyone’s goal was set to have a successful test because the CEE was a means to determine our individual’s future. During those hot and humid summer days, relaxation was viewed as a sin to spend time on. The tension was so high to a point that I was about to snap, though I knew I should not give up. My mind, however, kept telling me that “it is easy to say than done”. When the day of test drew near, I felt I was completely exhausted and my head was spinning. As a result, I didn’t perform well on my test. Oh, well… I was glad it was over, however… 🙂

“Keep going, don’t give up” is an encouragement I used to tell my kids. I want them to realize that perseverance will help them sustain trials and difficulties. When I was serving in the Navy, my fellow-solider used to share with me his motto of success: “勉強自己，就是成功 (Push yourself means success)”. He encouraged me to push myself to get used to different environments or different situations in order to be successful. His point is we always like to stay in our comfort zone, status quo, without stepping out. Reality is the success wouldn’t fall from the sky automatically, he stressed.

After I professed my faith in Christ, I still think the motto has some merits. However, my view has since then changed, especially the meaning of “success”. I realize that if my goal is to be successful by the standards set by this world, then my faith is nothing but a religion. I would still subject to the same disappointment when I can’t arrive my goal. Our goal, as is set by our Lord, is to be like Him when we meet Him. A success would imply that we are mature in Him. To achieve this goal, we would need to have an attitude of “press on”, as apostle Paul instructed, and forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead (Philippians 3:12-13).

My dear brothers and sisters, while we are joyful to see our kids to attend college, it is also very important that we pay the price of praying for them – asking our Lord to guard their hearts without falling into temptation and deliver them from the evil one (Matthew 6:13). May our Lord lead them and protect them throughout their years to come. As brother George reminded us on his last Sunday sermon (Genesis 28:1-22), God’s ladder is the one which connects us to God. The ladder would give us a view above this world and God’s angels who were moving up and down on the ladder would be the messenger to report our status to Him and to carry His blessings to us.  Let the message of the ladder serves as a constant reminder to our High School Seniors and us.  May our Lord become their guide of life journey because He is the most loving and gracious Lord, He listens and He responds to our prayerful heart.

Let’s press on toward the goal of being mature in Him, my dear brothers and sisters!

Some of you may know that we have two “happy” gold fishes live in a 60-Gallon fish tank. Due to the size of the tank, I was never motivated to undertake the task of changing the tank water, frequently. As a result, the used-to-be-clear water becomes opaque after a period of time. My remedy is to clean / replace its water filters for the filtration system in the tank when I deem is necessary. However, the cleaning can only improve the clarity of the water so much. After a while, the cleaning becomes ineffective. Then, the gold fishes get agitated and jumpy. Finally during last weekend, my wife couldn’t stand that I keep delaying in changing the water. She nagged me. Thus, “changing the tank water” quickly moves to the top of my “Honeydew (Honey to-do) list” 🙂

After spent an hour, with my kids’ help, to drain the water, clean the tank and its water pump and refill the tank with fresh water, the fishes finally could enjoy clean and clear water. They are happy and quiet now. From here I learned a lesson. I don’t know about you, I have this put-off habit thinking “I could do it tomorrow”.  Sometimes, I could start a home project one day but finish it several months later (or still sit there). That’s reason my wife nags me all the times to get thing done. This reminds me a Chinese poem that I read before. Let me share it with you here (with not-necessarily-accurate English translation):

如果沒有明天, 曾經追逐的，不再重要；珍惜的，不再擁有；

啊! 如果沒有明天；那麼，該說的沒說，該做的沒做，該愛的沒愛；

這一切都將在沒有明天的遺憾中，留下一聲嘆息!

親愛的朋友，你知道你有明天嗎？你知道誰掌管明天嗎？

祂就是主耶穌基督!

If there is no tomorrow, whatever you have pursued is no longer important; whatever you have cherished is no longer belong to you.

Ah! If there is no tomorrow, then, whatever should have been said, whatever should have been done, whatever love should have been expressed are all losing their opportunities. Everything will be just a sigh under the remorse of if there is no tomorrow.

My dear friends, “Are you sure you have tomorrow?” “Do you know who holds the tomorrow?”

It is Jesus Christ, the Lord of all.

Every time I read it, I was reminded that our Lord is the Lord of time. In fact, He is the Lord of All. Without Him, our life would be full of emptiness because all our pursuits are no longer important. My dear brothers and sisters, let’s encourage one other and love one other while we still can….