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On the wall of my dinning room, there is a photo frame which was a gift from a dear family in Christ. Frequently, I would read its imprinted quote. It serves as a constant reminder to me of what kind of attitude toward life should be, especially when I was not in a good mood. The quote says, “Dance as though no one is watching; Love as though you’ve never loved before; Sing as though no one can hear you; Live as though heaven is on earth.” It is a “modified” version from Mark Twain’s famous quote of “Live Love Laugh” – “Dance like nobody is watching; love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody is listening; live like it’s heaven on earth.” Both of them have similar insightful meanings to life.

There are two pictures slotted on the frame, one is my graduation picture with my wife and the other one is a memory picture of my family taken on my 20+ years of wedding anniversary with my wife. To me, these two pictures remind me of how gracious our God is. It represents two milestones of my life journey. The first one is a personal endeavor to achieve higher education level, with my wife’s help (PHT = Push Husband Through). And the other is a reward of God for entrusting me with a family and 3 children. Is my life journey always smooth? Certainly not! Can I live like it is heaven on earth? Not yet. Can I dance like nobody is watching? Not sure, haven’t done that. Can I sing like no one is listening? In the bathroom, maybe. Can I love as though I’ve never loved before? This is a hard one. How about you, my dear brothers and sisters, what are your answers to those questions?

Last Sunday, Rev. P. C. Lo gave us a good encouragement from his topic of sermon: “Faith and Living Courage” (Psalm 3). He asked us: “Are your life journey getting smoother and smoother or getting tougher and tougher?” Oftentimes, we may be in a tough life journey, per Rev. Lo. He mentioned that there once a pastor said something like this when people meet together, “For people who are under age 30, they would talk about education degrees and resumes; for people who are age from 30 to 50, they would talk about experience and trials; for people who are over age 50, they would talk about illness and sickness.” This is a keen observation of our life.

Then, Rev. Lo used his recent experience in attending a wedding ceremony to illustrate that marriage life is supposed to be like a journey with love and encouragement between husband and wife. He indicated that first part of our life is accompanied by our parents while the second part of our life is accompanied by our spouse, which was a plan of God. How about King David’s life experience from Psalm 3? Is his experience worth us to ponder upon and learn?

Rev. Lo told us that Psalm 3 was authored by King David under a low valley of his life – his son Absalom betrayed him and wanted to kill him. Per Rev. Lo, King David would need a great courage to face the betrayal, and then he would need an even greater courage to face the difficulty in trusting God. Because, how can a prayer get a negative result – his enemies increased in multitude (Psalm 3:2). We could see a similar betrayal from mankind on Jesus, our Lord. However, it is quite a different story of Jesus from David’s because our Lord is sinless while David knows he is a man with sins. David felt powerless and distressful in facing difficulties because of his own sins. From Psalm 3, David experienced several difficulties in his life (Psalm 3:1-2):

• The betrayal of his own son
• The reconciliation between his faith and reality he encountered and observed
• His own sins

However, David’s faith sustains him through the difficulties – he believes that God has never departed from him and he trusted God completely (Psalm 3:3). That is a faith deserved to be pondered upon. During life difficulties, you may seek help from your friends and families or yourself. David was writing psalms to express his situations and difficulties to God. He was pouring out his soul to the LORD just like Hannah’s prayer to the LORD (1 Samuel 1:15). In essence, this is a faith that God will listen to our prayers and He will provide the best; regardless of we are in trouble or not in trouble.

Then, Rev. Lo shared with us his personal experience in facing difficulties. He prays consistently and earnestly every morning 6:00AM for the ministries in CCHC. He believes that as long as we keep doing our part – pouring out our soul to Him — He will protect and provide. Finally, Rev. Lo pointed out that we need to learn from David’s experience because his faith not only sustains him through difficulties, but also transcends malicious attack from others into forgiveness (Psalm 3:8). David’s faith reveals his essence of life during difficult situations. Let us all be reminded.

My dear brothers and sisters, can we live like it is heaven on earth? We should be if we could completely trust our Lord’s faithfulness. It is not easy but let us learn from David’s experience.