Post-Ordination Musings
Hi everyone! I apologise for the long silence. It’s true, I haven’t said very much on this blog in recent times, except for the surge of photograph postings from some recent significant events (especially since my ordination).
To make up for the long silence, I decided to post up something more “personable” rather than just another reflective article, or worse still, a theological article! But this doesn’t mean that I’m done with all the theological stuff I’ve been wanting to share. Remember the series “Liturgical Contemplations” I started a while back? I intend to continue with it as soon as time permits. There is still much more that needs to be shared, especially with those of you who may be more conscious of the dire need for a liturgical renewal in the Church today.
Of course, if you’ve attended some of my formation sessions before, you’d probably have heard me speaking too much about the liturgy. In fact, I’ve probably half battered the subject to death, having dwelled on it for extended moments. But the liturgy is the source and summit of our lives, so it’s always an issue worth talking about.
Well, before we get back to Liturgical Contemplations in a day or two, what have I been busy with? Lots of talks and formation sessions in various places, in service of the Church of Jesus Christ. I’ve also been busy assisting my Bishop and some priests in the liturgy, most of the time with me preaching the homily. I’ve enjoyed most parts of my experiences as a Deacon, to be sure, but I’ve also missed home so much after having travelled around quite a fair bit.
Two days ago, I passed the one-month threshold of my life as a Permanent Deacon in the Church. Some people have asked me how life has been since this new “indelible mark” had been imprinted onto my soul. I’ve enjoyed my vocation very much so far! After years of struggling with the idea of what God might want me to do with my life, I finally feel at peace with who I am and what I am doing. This doesn’t mean there’s no challenge, certainly; but it does mean that I know I have obeyed the voice of Christ for my life (thus far, at least).
When you know that you are fulfilling the will of God, there is an incredible sense of settledness, a peace in knowing that you have chosen to walk within the will of God. Amidst all the tasks that I’m juggling with now, I would say, I’m experiencing that settledness.
Calm.
Yup, so the system is good to go! I've managed to embed a Twitter box onto this blog so friends can keep tabs on my whereabouts.
Just received news hardly an hour ago that my doctoral dissertation has been passed.
I was born in the 1970s. That was really quite long ago. And one would've thought that I'd be a fan of songs written in the 1980s or the 1990s - retro. But that's hardly so.
This bloke had been visiting my house, every single day, for two weeks. 
By the way, I've finished writing my doctoral dissertation. Yeah, all 280 pages of it, the whole hundred thousand words.
1. Sherman does not watch television.
May is coming up. May is usually the busiest month of the year for me. For some strange reason unbeknownst to me, a pattern has been established such that it is the “peak” of the year in terms of my ministerial activity. And after May, things gradually begin to slow down or settle into a more steady rhythm for the rest of the year (albeit not quite so soon as I’m making it sound). And then in December, everything will come to a standstill – or at least, I make sure it does.
The following is just a very interesting linguistic observation by my very linguistic friend. It should be of interest to those of you for whom English isn't a native or first language.
Arrived home late last night (near midnight) and was greeted with some internet and blog complications.
A Very Happy 
I'm in Kuching now. After some hiccups with Air Asia, I managed to touchdown more than half an hour after the appointed time.
I'll be in 
Yes! I'm back from an 18-day trip to Myanmar! It was a soul-enriching trip in many ways. In time to come, I expect to be posting some reflective entries based on my visit there. Photographs of my trip shall be posted in the photo section soon (I'll post up a link once they're up). 
I ain't got nothing better to do with my life than to spend half of it on the road. Been away again throughout the past weekend. Attended a wedding dinner which served superb wine (oops, there you go - now you know teetotality isn't my way of life and I wouldn't have exactly been very much loved by John Wesley), met up with some old acquaintances, and managed to grab some research material from the theological library in a neighbouring country. All in a weekend's work. Achieved everything I expected to for this trip.
There I was, sitting face-to-face with the interviewer of a major broadcaster. He was there to interview me on the all important subject of the Christian life and church.
Allow an aging man the privilege of some soulful chatter. I’ve turned 30 this year and I’ve yet to begin speaking much about myself on this blog. Primarily, it’s because I’ve deliberately positioned it as a platform for more reflective and theologically contributive thoughts. But today, I break my own rule in very minute measure. Just for a bit.
I taught my students to blog at the tutorial class this morning. Reason? I gave them an extended blogging assignment that spans throughout the entire semester. It's structured in such a way that those who choose to participate in this assignment have everything to gain, but those who choose to not do so stand to lose nothing.
When your body has been somewhat tossed around in a vehicle in accordance with the terrain of the Malaysian roads for as far as almost 2,000 kilometres in the past couple of weeks, all you'd want to do is shut down like my two doggies in the picture. While we may have a highway here, I'd gladly echo the words of an acquaintance of mine, "Highway my foot."
Everyone's going to blog on this soon, so let be me one of the first! I've gone to watch The DaVinci Code. And I didn't like it. Bummer.
I'm back! It's been a horrendously hectic weekend, but the weekend itself wasn't horrendous at all, if you get what I mean. On Sunday morning, I preached in a Presbyterian Church (Gereja Grace Batu Pahat) in a little town down south called Batu Pahat, and managed to catch up with a dear friend and to meet a number of new friends. Since it was Mothers' Day, I spoke on the "motherhood of God" (well yeah, as always, I had some eyesbrows raised... but those eyebrows soon settled into their original positions when they heard my explanation, hahah). On Monday morning, I went to Singapore for some other appointments. And today, I'm back in Seremban.
I know this is a rather abrupt intrusion in the midst of a serious and theologically constructive series of blogposts on Friendship. But I think I'll take a short commercial break.
My Burmese friend (who is also my student at 
Okay, Sherman on the Mount is so back.
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