————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Chinese has an old saying, “Compare yourself with others would exasperate yourself greatly人比人氣死人.” This implies that we tend to use external material things such as wealth, position and fame to define / measure a person. As a result, we were exasperated because there is always someone has better wealth or position or fame than us.

There was a conversation between a senior monk and a junior monk when they saw a large crowd of people enter into their temple to worship. The senior monk asked the junior, “How many people do you see?” The junior tried very hard to count them but fail in his attempt. The senior monk then said, “It is no need to count them. There are only TWO people. One is fame (名) and the other is profit (利) ” This is an interesting yet insightful observation for our life in this world. You may argue that there is nothing wrong with rich and famous. I agree with you. The question is do you compare with other rich and famous constantly? And, most importantly, do you think rich and famous are the best things in your life?

We were allowed to have “one” life in this world, as Bible told us. How to live a life that is worthy in God’s eye is depending upon how we view what are the best things in our life. A few years back, Rick Warren wrote a series of popular books. One of them is called “Purpose driven life”.  He said that the first purpose of our life is to worship God because we were planned for His pleasure. The second purpose of our life is to have a real fellowship with our brothers and sisters in God’s family. If purposes of life are to worship God and to fellowship within God’s family, then worshiping Him and fellowship with others should be the best things in our life.

Our human limitation, however, is that we need to hold something “tangible” in our hands in order to prove that we have possessed them. Hence, it is hard for us to visualize something, which is intangible, in our hearts. David C. McCasland, author of “Pure God”, once wrote in RBC devotional, “The best things in life are the eternal riches that come from God’s goodness and grace in Jesus Christ. We do not hold them in our hands, but in our hearts. 人生最美好的事就是擁有來自上帝的慈愛與基督的恩典，這是一份永恆的財寶，不是握在我們手中，乃存在於我們的心裡。”  It is an enlightening remark.  David hints us that the best things in life are to have God’s richness and goodness. And, use our hearts to receive God’s grace and to experience His goodness proves to be even more important than anything in our hands.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, can we do a reality check about ourselves? “What are the best things in our life?” Hope your answer is God, Himself. Let’s us not to set our eyes on that which is “temporary” but on that is “eternal”. May God remind us constantly!

———————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Summer is almost over and college is ready to start. Like other families, we dropped off our daughter yesterday to her college. This year she is about to move in a new dormitory with her good friends that she met in her first year. Pinpointed the load of stuff that we need to unload, I asked my sons to come with us in order to help my aged back during unloading.

Entered the dormitory, we realize that we are late, because the other girls have moved in already. There is only one bed left, which is very close to open windows with a very awkward orientation. My wife said, “We have got a bad one again – a bed with a difficult and awkward position next to the door and window”.

An initial look of the room seems to be older and a lot smaller than last year’s room and space. My immediate reaction was this is another rip-off from college. 🙂 Later after we unloaded my daughter’s stuff, we stopped by a neighboring “brand new” dormitory for a dinner. When we saw its good and new air conditioned room and cafeteria, we sighed again. Well, sometimes it is not by choice – as my colleague always said.

The good part is I didn’t hear my daughter complained much. She told us that they had to go through a lottery system in order to get a new room. She thought it is understandable that is not easy to get a “good room” for 4 girls. Considering her situation, I agreed with her. I guess she is thrilled to live with her other good friends, regardless of the condition she had. This reminds me of an important perspective of good friends.

I think most of us would agree with me that we need friends to support / accompany us throughout our life. Friendship probably is one of the most important relationships, in addition to family, that we all need to develop in our life. Good friends, however, are sometimes hard to find. Just look back your past and count how many good friends you have. You may be amazed that it could be just “handful” or may be NONE – we may have many “old friends” but none of them is “good friend”. Isn’t this something revealing?

What constitutes a good friend? You may have your own standard and criteria. But, there is one person who is unparallel by others – He is our Lord, Jesus! There is one hymn called “What a friend I have in Jesus” which is one of my personal favorites. Its first stanza gives us a picture of how a good friend we can have:

耶穌是我親愛朋友，背負我罪擔我憂，

何等權利能將萬事，帶到主恩座前求！

多少平安屢屢失去，多少痛苦白白受，

皆因我們未將萬事，帶到主恩座前求。

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and grief 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, I do hope that you have good friends in this world to accompany you and to support you. Sincerely I plead to you: to realize that the only true good friend is our Lord Jesus Christ. Please talk to Him today and you shall know…..

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Entering my house after a fishing trip, my wife asked, “Got anything?” “No, they are too small”, I responded. My kids also asked, “Daddy, did you catch anything?” “No. It is not a good day for me.” I answered.  The truth is I did catch a few “undersize” ones and some “undesired” ones. I released them in observation of the regulations of DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) agency – catching is only allowed in certain species and certain size of fish at certain period.

The other day when I was fishing on a shore bank of a lake, a mother and her daughter came to where I was fishing and asked to fish alongside with me. Her son with his father was on a boat ready to head out toward the lake. I asked the son, “What kind of fish are you targeting?” “Everything!”, he responded. I smiled and responded, “Good luck”.

You may think that I must be a fishing junkie because I kept talking about fishing. Well, not quite there yet. As I spent more time on it, I find it has many lessons left to be learned. So, please bear with me and don’t feel bored. Because, one of the important lessons of fishing is a training of “patience” or “loooong suffering” 🙂 From the two events that I have experienced, there are life lessons that I would like to share with you.

Oftentimes, people think fishing is all about catching many big fish from a trip. This impression probably is instilled from watching TV Fishermen show, as the show promotes the excitement of catching big fish. The bad is it distorts the reality. If fishing is only about catching big fish, then, you will have your share of rejection – catch nothing.  In fact, an important aspect of fishing is to have a right mind set in between “gain” and “loss” 得失之心.  If you are too eager to catch fish from a trip, then, you may find yourself disappointed after the trip. On the other hand, when your intention of fishing is to relax and to enjoy the environment, then you could easily cope with the feel of rejection. This is a lesson of “How to let go”.  One of my colleagues at work just spent a week long of vacation in camping and fishing around local mountain area. His result is nothing but a small trout. He told me that he is not regret in spending time in relaxing and enjoying the beautiful natural environment – this is exactly the mindset I admire.

My dear brothers and sisters, there could be many milestones in our life journey. Some of them may be so important that we are very eager to reach, while some may not. When you think success is an absolute requirement for certain milestone, you may also need to be ready for any unexpected since the gain and the loss are so close to each other. My experience to cope with frustration of failure or rejection is to learn how to “Let Go and let God”.

Jesus taught us in the Gospels that, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 因為凡要救自己生命的、〔生命或作靈魂下同〕必喪掉生命．凡為我喪掉生命的、必得著生命。人若賺得全世界、賠上自己的生命、有甚麼益處呢．人還能拿甚麼換生命呢。(Matthew 16:25-26)” This is a very important aspect of gain and loss. Only when we realize that what is the “real gain” then we will learn what the “real loss” in our life is. Hope we all can learn from it.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Last week, I was chatting with my wife and she told me one thing that is surely raised my attention. It is from one of our neighborhood friends.  She observed that I was not walking around the neighborhood as frequent as I did in the past. And, my usual smiles seem missing when she saw me. She thought that I must have too much in my mind.  I didn’t realize that my facial expressions was that obvious 🙂

Someone once said, “After the age of 40, it is you who is responsible for your own countenance”.

I guess it bears some truth especially nowadays, a lot of pressure is coming from this world upon you.  Hence, after certain age, you may feel that you are overloaded by life pressure. Ha…ha…ha. Seriously though, it is true that one’s countenance does reflect his life experiences and, more importantly, what is inside in his mind. The other day in our small group meeting, we were talking about whose face was shining with light. Someone mentioned that he saw a pastor with a shining face. Therefore, we can deduce that how you live your life would reflect in your face and appearance and it is obvious when you are older. This reminds me of what Moses reminded Israelites, “As your days, so shall your strength be. 你的日子如何、你的力量也必如何 (Deuteronomy 33:25b)”

On the other hand, can a person project to others may be very different from who he is on the inside? I think it is very likely. In fact, there is a devotion that I read a while ago titled “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. It depicts a contradictory living between Dorian’s outward appearance and his corrupted heart. It is an enlightened story and a similar story from Pharisees was seen in the New Testament — that is the reason Jesus criticized them as hypocrites.

My dear brothers and sisters, God prescribed a life journey for each one of us. Do we become more like or not-so-like His son Jesus Christ in the end of our journey would tell the story of our living. We may not escape from pressure of this world but we can live a “joyful” life because we have a treasure – Jesus Christ – in us. Therefore, please remember that

“We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 我們有這寶貝放在瓦器裡、要顯明這莫大的能力、是出於　神、不是出於我們(2 Corinthians 4:7)”

I hope you will have a shining face when I see you next time 🙂