Colour reflects what is essential.

Colour and Christmas are two things I so love in life.  With Christmas fast approaching, I had the coming together of these two, key themes, when I recently bought a shirt.  The woman, selling the shirts, on helping me choose which one, asked me if I liked a particular style, to which I replied - 

"Yes, I like colour and it is for Christmas". 

She immediately said to me - "Merry Christmas". 

So this went down in my diary as my first exchange of "Merry Christmas", which automatically became a red letter day in my calendar, a milestone event in my year.  

All this happened over a simple, everyday encounter which served as a reminder, that another year is about to end, which is a natural time to reflect upon how life is going.   In indulging in my annual, end of year reflections, I came across one simple, but powerful, line - "In my beginning is my end".  This so captivated me, but what was it about these six words that had me mesmerized?  On research, I did discover that this was a line from T.S. Eliot's poem, Four Quartets.  

Then it struck me.  What is my beginning?  God. What is my end?  God.  

In between, it is all about God, who is enmeshed in our human reality, all the way. With this assurance, hope is embedded in the harshest of our reality.  Thus hope lies at the core of our human reality.  Wow!    

How to be a Christian in Buddhist Thailand?

A typical bus of My Bangkok

During my daily routine, I recently had two natural, human encounters with bus conductors.  I get around My Bangkok using public transport.  So bus conductors are people I encounter every day.  Yes, My Bangkok still has bus conductors.  Some are regular and know me.  

One has even become a good friend.  So when I saw her recently at the bus stop, she became very excited, coming over with a big smile to greet me.  She took hold of my hand, explaining why I no longer see her so regularly.  I was touched and taken aback by this most welcome encounter.  Next time, I will take hold of her hand.  

Two days later, I got on a bus to be greeted by a bus conductor, who was the exact opposite.  He stood right back from me, saying nothing, showing no sense of engagement.  His behaviour was such that it made me ask myself - what is going on here?  

Quite naturally for me, this questioning deepened to my asking myself - how does one be a Christian in Buddhist Thailand?  On later reflection, I realised I could also ask - how does one be a Christian in secular Australia?  Still, I am here in Thailand, not Australia.  So my question stood.   

I would not name this as a World War III question.  Nor would I think this demands a deep theological response.  I would simply say that it raises the challenge of our being human together.  No matter who we are, we enjoy a shared humanity.  It makes the uncomplicated demand that we make the other feel at home in our presence.  Humour, a smile are great tools for engagement, leading to a good, natural and huiman encounter.  

How did I become such a good friend with his woman bus conductor?  On first meeting her on a bus, she too was most unfriendly.  I rsponded by greeting her in return, with humour in my poor Thai, which she loved and to which she responded most positively.  She even asked for my phone number (which I never gave).  How funny! 

  

It is not rocket science.  I am not on Mars.  It is just about being a decent human being, who sees the other as my equal and partner on this planet.  And that is not always easy but, after all, we are all human. 

It's Melbourne Cup Day!

Everyone is going on about an election happening somewhere in the world, on the first Tuesday in November.  But don't they get it?  The first Tuesday in November is Melbourne Cup Day.  The Melbourne Cup is a horse race that holds the title of "stopping a nation", namely Australia.

  

While the US election may raise people's prejudices, fears and ire, the Melbourne Cup is about enthusiam for life and gladly belonging somewhere in the world.  It is a gala event that can excite any heart or community.    

Life is too short.  That may be a cliche, but it is true, for life is meant to be lived and enjoyed.  We just get distratced too easily, along the way, by the loaded agenda of others.  Despite all in our world that may say otherwise and disturb us, life is a gift to be grabbed and savoured.  It is a Melbourne Cup event, not a US election campaign.    

I am so Western

A few days ago, I went to the hospital for a health check procedure.  As I do, I went on my own.  That is just normal for me. 

As part of procedure, staff at the hospital needed to look after my belongings, while I was being checked elsewhere in the hospital.  So along came a person from the Finance Department to take my bag into their care.  Before taking it into their safe keeping, she asked me to count any money I had on me.  I was to do so there and then, in front of her and the nurse.  I found this to be confronting and intrusive.  I thought to myself- Why don't they just have a locker for me to use?  

But then I thought, the nurse had asked me - Don't you have family with you? 

It struck me.  That's it.  Here, there is no need for any locker, as the family accompanies any patient to the hospital.  They are the security system.  Once again, it is the cultural card.  They have their system, their security.  It is their family.  I am ever so Western, just going along alone and independently.  Our western, male way serves a good purpose, but it is not always the way to go.  That is for sure.  

Life is ever full of insights and learning, when one lives outside one's own comfort zone.      

And the journey can be rough going.

 

They say that a picture tells 1,000 words.  Well, here are more than 4,000 words.  These are the Four Lubeck Martyrs - a Lutheran Pastor and three Catholic priests.  For being good Christians, standing up for good and doing the right thing, they were executed.  This says it all.  

.  On November 10 1943, four Lübeck churchmen were beheaded in Hamburg:

The Lutheran Pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink and the Catholic Chaplains Hermann Lange, Eduard Müller and Johannes Prassek. The National Socialist People's Court had sentenced them to death in the summer of 1943 for "subversion of military strength, insidiousness, favoring the enemy, and listening to enemy transmissions."

Life is a journey we share

                       I have been away on a holiday that was more than a trip.  It was a journey.  

                                And what a stupendous journey it was, for so mnay reasons.  

I saw some of the most beautiful parts of the world that I have ever seen.  I naturally reflected how we are connected with nature, finding myself being enlivened, refreshed and rejuvenated.  I had approached my holiday with a "take it as it coimes" attitude.  Well, that did not prepare me for what I was about to experience, for the journey was full of the beauty and goodness of this world.  I rather needed to go with my eyes wide open, from the very beginning, and so appreciate the whole journey to the full.  

It taught me that I need to appreciate better the journey and not take it for granted, as I so often do.  So be prepared, I tell myself.  Wake up and enjoy the journey to the full.  I saw so much that left me in awe, wonder struck.  It told me that I need to get out of my bubble, for God and creation are so much bigger than my little world.  Thank God!

Life is truly a journey.  

-We meet ones along the way.  We hear their stories.  We become connected.  We learn from each other.  -The way is unknown and so we make mistakes, but we learn from them.  

-We are not alone . We share the journey with equals.  

-The journey can be both exciting and lonely, but we keep going.  We have no other choice.  

Above all, along the way, you meet people who are so kind.  This is key, as their kindness sustains you on the way.  I say - "Kindness meets kindness".  Life is a journey, a journey best shared.  

And you know what?  I would worry so much about little things on the way and I discovered that it all worked out, in the end.  Not because of me, but because of God who opened so many doors (be they ever so little ones) for me.  It is true what I often say in greeting others - Vaya con Dios!  

  

Adieu My Bangkok!

Admit that God deserves to be loved very much, yea, boundlessly, because He loved us first, He infinite and we nothing, loved us, miserable sinners, with a love so great and so free. This is why I said at the beginning that the measure of our love to God is to love immeasurably. For since our love is toward God, who is infinite and immeasurable, how can we bound or limit the love we owe Him? Besides, our love is not a gift but a debt. And since it is the Godhead who loves us, Himself boundless, eternal, supreme love, of whose greatness there is no end, yea, and His wisdom is infinite, whose peace passeth all understanding; since it is He who loves us, I say, can we think of repaying Him grudgingly? ~Saint Bernard, On Loving God

 

I read this and thought what an extraordinary insight.  Just revolutionary!  And it comes from a 12th century, French monk, St Bernard of Claivaux, theologian and church leader.  He shares so passionately on God's intimacy with us.  Who are we to be honoured with such intimacy?  Yet, who are we not to be so honoured?  Truth is it is God's choice, pure and simple.  So much love is so readily on offer to us, here and now.  Revolutionary stuff!  Yet what do we do with it?  Do we even know about it?  Sadly, we too easily squander this precious opportunity in life.    

I was struck recently by how we waste love offered, when I read a news piece on abortion.  I am against abortion, but I do not want to appear as an anti-abortion extremist or terrorist, for we kill life in so many ways.  Abortion is but one way.  Still, what I read just left me speechless.  It is the testimony of a nurse in Queensland.  

"Some babies born alive after an abortion were never held by their parents but were instead placed in witches hats, taken out of the room and left to die."  

When so much love is offered us so freely, so intimately, by a God of life, how can we do that?  Do we really get it?   God's love is such that it revolutionizes our lives.  Revolution!  It is a word we pull back from, are threatened by.  Yet our faith in God and humanity calls us to revolution, for it is so far from human conception or thought.  Are we held back by the very word?  Is it such a dangerous word?  Yet, revolution is at hand when we fully partake of God's love and life. 

If we truly believe that God loves us so deeply, so intimately, we will never be the same again.  I reflect upon this mystery in the midst of My Bangkok, a somewhat crazy place, knowing that I am about to take my leave for three weeks holiday and explore the bigger world.  Such reflections on the mysteries of life deserve a wider field of  exploration, than even that of My Bangkok.  Adieu My Bangkok!  I will return soon, hopefully wiser and healthier for the experience.