If you've never heard this bunch of kids singing, you've missed out on too much. A group of ordinary boys, aged between 7 and 14, projecting the vocal orchestration of an angelic choir...

The boys who make up the vocal band Libera have been described as “normal” and “ordinary”. However, as their recordings and performances demonstrate, the music they produce is truly extraordinary. With shimmering, mystical chords and ecstatic harmonies, they are unlike any other group you have ever heard. At times plaintive, at others climactic and transcendent. These are truly sounds to lift the soul. Celestial sounds for a new time.

I'm tempted to say something about the way they speak English in comparison with the local Malaysian and Singaporean English that so often makes me cringe; but I'll reserve that for another day. (Sigh... whither our culture?)

Both their singing and speaking got me gawking. See for yourself:

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I’ve purchased about fifteen new books in the past one week, all because there were seasonal sales going on at two major bookstores.

I’m still feeling squeamish about how I just hopped from shelf to shelf at the warehouse, gratifying my bibliographic carnality, justifying my purchases by saying to myself, “Can’t get these books any cheaper at any other time” and “I need this for my research”.

At some point, my friend who was with me said, "Hey, I have this one and that one. I can pass them to you if you want to read them". I guiltlessly replied, "Nah, I've gotta have my own copies". That was so wrong!

There now – on my four-tiered twelve-foot shelf – lie Sherlock Holmes, Oscar Wilde, Adibah Amin, Benedict XVI, Richard John Neuhaus, Bertrand Russell and others, all staring in utter disbelief at my flippant indulgence.

Is it mortal or venial? I could say I’m never going to do this again; but how dare I tell such a big fat lie.

I hate book sales. No, I love them. I just hate it that I love them. Sheesh. Maybe I should use the thickest book I bought for self-flagellation.

Still reeling. Aiyooo...

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My my my... here's a really interesting blog meme. And since I've been targeted by the Lonely Dissertator (well, he is the Lonely Dissertator, ya know), I'll do it:

1. Provide a list of the books you’re currently reading.

Bruce Davis, Monastery Without Walls (Berkeley: Celestial Arts, 1990).

E.A. Burtt (ed.), The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha (NY: The New American Library, 1955).

John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994).

John Paul II, That They May Be One: On Commitment to Ecumenism (Rome: Vatican, 1995).

Richard P. McBrien, Catholicism (NY: HarperSanFranciso, 1994).

2. Pick up the nearest book.

3. Open to page 123.

4. Find the fifth sentence.

5. Post the next three sentences.

Since we are not called upon to be anything in particular, we need no space. We are free. If we were anything, we would not be free.

6. Tag five more people.
Blogpastor
Drifting Sojourner
Dr Alex Tang

Sivin and Wilful Sunflower have been tagged. Really, I don't know anyone else who reads my blog and who might respond to being tagged. So I'll have to settle with just three.

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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.

I'm a fan of the 1970s.. but that's another story all together. Just wanted to highlight this piece of CD I've been savouring. If you love purity - just plain wood and steel, minus all the distortions and the bing-bang-boom of contemporary music - James Taylor's One Man Band is something you don't want to miss.

And if you've always loved James Taylor's fingerpicking, his voice and his songs, then this is definitely one piece of art you don't want to wait for another few days to get.

Posted by SK at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This bloke had been visiting my house, every single day, for two weeks.

He'd hang himself on the gate of my doorstep and put his hands through the grilles to irritate my two dogs. He'd make faces at them. Why, there was once, he even made faces at me!

And then, he'd sit on the top of my car for hours, picking fleas and lice from his body. Sometimes he'd vandalise my car by trying to pluck out little fixtures from the body of the car.

Apparently, he has been swinging from house to house around my neighbourhood, vandalising and disturbing the peace. One of my neighbours' Chinese New Year decorations were all damaged by this brat.

It has been several days since he last visited. I'm not sure if he has been caught by the authorities. But I sure wouldn't be surprised if he turned up again.

There's something about my encounter with this little fellow that has quite shocked me: my first reaction at his initial appearance was fear. I mean, a gorilla like me fearing a little monkey like him?! Cummon!

Lesson: We fear what we don't know.

And I swear he wasn't afraid of me one bit.

Posted by SK at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

What's keeping me busy?

This.

It's newly done.

Posted by SK at 8:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By the way, I've finished writing my doctoral dissertation. Yeah, all 280 pages of it, the whole hundred thousand words.

The finishing line is much nearer now than it was five years ago.

And I love God more now than when I first started.

The only thing is, my understanding of God, of the faith, and of the church has changed because of what this rigorous discipline of research has put me through. The peril of discovering things by accident which you never expected to discover. I'll have to decide what I'm going to do about that.

It's been one hell of a journey.

Posted by SK at 2:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I spoke at a Methodist Church yesterday, and this was how I was introduced by the local pastor to the congregation:

"Our preacher today is a very young man. He has kindly consented to speak at our service this morning. He has been teaching us a course on Authentic Spirituality in the past several weeks. We find his teaching... err... weird.

Let's welcome Mr Sherman Kuek!"

Posted by SK at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Tagged by Daniel. Eight random facts about me, me, me.

1. Sherman does not watch television.

2. Sherman’s mind does not rest.

3. Sherman is an insomniac. He sleeps for an average of 3 or 4 hours every night, and has been like that since his secondary school days. (For the reason, refer to point 2.)

4. Sherman hates clichés.

5. Sherman dislikes conformity for the sake of conformity.

6. Sherman dislikes travelling although travelling just about characterises most of his work.

7. Sherman feels very awkward being the centre of attention in any group although being in the spotlight just about characterises most of his work. Contrary to popular belief, he is rather shy and introverted.

8. Sherman has a very hidden sense of humour behind his utterly serious look. Only people who know him beyond a superficial relationship would get a taste of his humour.

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TMNet - register today! Good deals! Promotions! Attractive packages! Get effective access to the World Wide Web! You know you wanna!

I'm a happy customer.

More than a month ago, I discovered that TMNet had a seasonal offer to upgrade my broadband package from 512 kbps to 1.0 Mbps for only an extra ringgit per month (RM67-00) for the first three months, and then subsequently for RM77 per month. That was, in my assessment, a good deal. So I applied to have it upgraded. I was told that the upgrade would take five working days tops from the point of application.

Unfortunately, within the next one week, there was no change in my bandwidth. So I sent them an email, and they called me to find out what was wrong. I explained the situation to them, and they said they'd check things out. Later on they called me again, asking if there was any change in the bandwidth, as they'd made some adjustments - I said no. So they said they'd work on it again.

This happened at least five times. One of the times, they even told me they had changed some cable from their end. And yet, there was still no change in my bandwidth. This had been going on for the past one month.

Suddenly, late this morning, another call came from them: "Sir, we have adjusted your bandwidth. The technical department realised that they had not upgraded your bandwidth to 1.0 Mbps, that's why you kept getting a low bandwidth. Try it, it should be okay now."

I gawked at my phone receiver. I was a little too happy to yell, "Gimme back my one ringgit, you swindlers!" I could only manage a fumbling, "Oh, yes ar? Thanks ar..."

TMNet - register today!

Posted by SK at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I’m so flattered to have been given a Thinking Blogger Award although I’m not so sure how much I deserve it. But thanks, Bob, for thinking that I’m thinking! It’s nice to know at least someone thinks so. And apparently, I’m a:

Theologian and stand-up comedian with an intense interest in contextual theology and lately, I heard, Asian theology (but that's probably more imposed upon him). The same intensity is seen in the way in which he shares these ideas and thoughts.

Well, with my intense interest in contextual theology and my being Asian, I guess I can’t escape any of my theological construction being categorised as Asian theologies – and of course, being tainted with humungous Western fingerprints because of my colonialised family background (sigh, I agonise over that).

There are just four other people I'd like to pass this award on to, since several others have already been tagged together with me:

1. Very Lord Alwyn Lau the Poster of Great Moderns
I have no better way to describe Alwyn than calling him a brother who's an "ally". He talks of the most unlikely things and identifies the most unsightly things of life. Sheer brilliance. Definitely PhD material. If you have a million buckaroos and are on a lookout for a PhD scholarship candidate, he's the one. Here's a secret: he even talks some theological stuff I have no idea about! He's the reason why I think I'm not overtly intellectual.

2. Her Grace Willful Sunflower, the Princess of Wails
Now, this girl is something. Okay, yes, she wails. A LOT. But that doesn't mean she's not thinking. It just means she thinks coherently but doesn't act upon her thoughts (the greater decisive factor for her daily behaviour pattern is her feelings). And yet, read the way she analyses issues - you go, girl.

3. His Most Serene Highness Lord Hedonese the Proclaimer of Divine Intervention
Hedonese used to post his thoughts and academic writings but has been rather quiet recently, save for some publicity material for conferences which he frequently posts up. I enjoy reading the stuff he writes; having different theological positions on certain issues doesn't deter me from enjoying the deep reflections of another brother. So, Hedonese, where have you been? I've been waiting to read more...

4. His Imperial Majesty Justbk the Idle of London
Okay, he's not exactly idle. I think he can get pretty busy, judging by the frequency of his posts (or lack thereof). But when he does post something, it's always worth a read and ceaselessly thoughtful. I certainly think he should post more, but I think he's got a life.

Anyway, guys (and gal), here's what you need to do in acceptance of this friendly award:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think;

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' (like the one above) with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative gold version if silver doesn't fit your blog).

Also, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging.

Posted by SK at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Very Sir Lord Sherman the Implacable of Dicken St Charles Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

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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.

I’m now in the midst of preparing two sermons and a course curriculum in Contextual Theology, whilst also trying to find as much time as I can to recuperate as I’ve been rather unwell recently.

To most people, I look more like a “part-time minister” of sorts because of the itinerant nature of my work. So there’s hardly one point of time when I’m seen working for eight straight hours within a single environment. And yet the more I evaluate the magnitude of my work assignments, the more it seems like I have more than a fulltime job – no kidding.

One major thing that’s on the backlog (well, it has actually been on the backlog for several years now!) is my doctoral thesis. The good news is, I’ve recently submitted my fifth chapter, and this leaves me with the final chapter to work on. Even so, I’ve complete about a third of the final chapter. So I have just about two-thirds of the final chapter to work on. I’m very near completion, and yet the goal doesn’t seem quite as near as I’d like it to be in the light of all the various other assignments I have lined up.

May Day! May Day!

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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.

Link: Tricky Stress

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Arrived home late last night (near midnight) and was greeted with some internet and blog complications.

While in Kuching, my access to the blogging interface was blocked by the hosting company because apparently my blogging interface functions in a way that causes the server to overload. So I was ding-dong-ing with the hosting company over this issue over a couple of days. Now it's resolved - thank you so much for your very kind help, Bob. Very grateful to you. And Sunflower, thanks for helping me get help from Bob!

I also came home to find my modem dead. Because lightning struck and went through the phoneline and made the modem router crash and burn. Had to buy a new modem router - thanks, brothers and the soon-to-be wifey for chipping in to get what would've been hardly affordable if I had to purchase it myself.

Now we're back in business...

I have a replacement lecture to deliver at the seminary tomorrow afternoon. And then, I'll be off to Johor Bahru. Then on Tuesday, Singapore. By Tuesday evening, I'll be back in Seremban. This Saturday and Sunday, I'll be in Kuala Lumpur. I told my mother-in-law-to-be that I'm really quite busy - she giggled like I was joking. Haha...

Posted by SK at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

A Very Happy
Chinese
New Year
to All!

From Sherman Kuek

Posted by SK at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm in Kuching now. After some hiccups with Air Asia, I managed to touchdown more than half an hour after the appointed time.

Air Asia! It's so affordable! "Now everyone can fly..."

... so long as you don't mind your flights being delayed indefinitely or changed in the last minute to a weirdest departure time at the blatant expense of your convenience (and sometimes not even being duly informed of the change)...

or all of the above. I've had all the above, and MORE than that. One of my flight times was changed at least 3 times!

I hate Air Asia - never had a pleasant experience with them so far. But yeah, "now everyone can fly".

Posted by SK at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'll be in Kuching from 15 (Thursday) to 25 (Sunday) February. Will be spending Chinese New Year there with the future in-laws.

Anyone interested to meet up?

Editor's Note: I'll be in Kuching by 1330 hours today. Will be back in West Malaysia at midnight on 25 February. I reckon there'll still be sufficient technical facilities available for me to blog... but still, one can't be too sure.

Posted by SK at 1:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Pictures from my trip to Myanmar have been posted up here.

Posted by SK at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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).

A very Blessed New Year to all of you!

A brand new year ahead. This year, as it has been with all other years in human history, more babies will be born and more people will die. It is a paradox that from the day we are born, we start dying.

Who knows what this year will bring? Our future is in the hands of the Lord, and only he knows how he will lead us through the various challenges we're confronted with in the coming year.

Of course, for some, the future is a non-existent entity, and hence there is no future to be known (**cheeky grin**). I'm too ignorant to be sufficiently sure if the future is a knowable entity. But whatever the arguments may be, if there was a future to be known, he'd know it. And for me, it's enough for me to know that only he knows if there was a future to be known – this tongue-twisting reality is enough for me to entrust the future into his hands.

There is no more appropriate way to begin a year than with a prayer. The next several entries shall consist of reflective prayers based on the prayer the Lord Jesus taught his disciples. Then perhaps after that I'll post up some introspective reflections I had during my moments of solitude throughout the trip in Myanmar.

And so I pray...

Posted by SK at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

And more. There was time for lots of personal reflection. So much time that I even managed to develop a new theology in my moments of silence. So I reflected a lot on my personal struggle and the struggles of many other friends throughout the years with the institutional church. If we have all been so committed to our faith and to the message of the gospel, why have we often not found ourselves fitting the mould of the institutional church? What's wrong with us? And if it's true that the institutional church doesn't always stand in coherence with God's Kingdom concerns, then why does he still allow it to exist? Why does he not abolish the institutional church and establish a church that's entirely organic and missional in nature?

I believe - after years of pondering, virtually - I've found the answer now. Now that I'm back from my trip and have a couple of days to sit in front of the computer screen before I zoom off again, I'm in the process of articulating my theological thoughts regarding this issue. It's going to be a rather new ecclesiological articulation from the viewpoint of an organic missional follower of Christ. I and others like me have for far too long found ourselves displaced. It's time to return with a connected understanding and to see how we fit in the scheme of the church even if we don't always condone how her policies and procedures often take precedence over Kingdom-life.

It'll take a couple of days before I start posting installments of this ecclesiology, but I'd say it's going to be worth the wait. This frame of thought, I increasingly find, is helping me discover answers to so many ambiguities I've entertained regarding my role in the church and why many like me have existed in such a state of tension with the institutional church. It helps me to understand how I should relate with the institutional church from where I stand, since God isn't likely to abolish the institution in the near future - and this ecclesiology explains why God has good reason to require the presence of the institutional church on earth even if it doesn't always see things from his point of view.

Until then...

Posted by SK at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You scored as The Philosopher. Hola, thinker! You always always have your thinking hat on. Somehow you have the special ability to pick out the oddities of life and the particular something that catches your eye. A little different from the shouter, you shout out in a deeper context. Not many may understand what you've typed, but to you, recording your train of thoughts is all that matters!

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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.

Interviewer: Hi Sherman, thanks for being here with me today. Which church are you from?

Me: Oh, that really depends. How do you define "church"?

Interviewer: Do you think it's important that a church be involved in mission?

Me: That depends. What do you mean by "mission"? Does the church have one mission, or does it have multiple missions? Do mission trips have anything to do with the "mission"?

Interviewer: How about evangelism then? In your assessment, is it crucial that all Christians be involved in evangelism?

Me: That depends. How do you define "evangelism"? By the four spiritual laws? By the sinner's prayer?

Interviewer: You know, recently, there've been issues about Christian leaders falling into sin and all. How do you think sin should be addressed in the church?

Me: That depends. What do you mean by "sin"? Are you referring to sin in the Pelagian way or the Augustinian way?

Interviewer: Hey, are you evangelical or not? When you were nominated for this interview, we were told you were evangelical.

Me: Err, that depends. What do you mean by "evangelical"? If I disagree with the common definition of some evangelical jargon, does it make me non-evangelical?

Interviewer: Okay. Thanks for nothing.

Fortunately, all this is just a daydream. I really don't think any interviewer with preconceived notions of how Christianity should look like would survive me very well. It wouldn't take too long for him to find that religious evangelical jargon doesn't work very well on me.

Posted by SK at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

People measure their milestones according to significant events in their lives; I think it’s quite a common phenomenon. Of course, on a lengthier scope, I measure my milestones in accordance with my age. But on a shorter scale, I typically measure my milestones according to my educational journey. This is partially because I’ve been a formal student since the age of four, and have never for a moment stopped my formal education since. Effectively, I’ve been a student for 26 years of my life.

The last milestone I charted began in July 2002 when I began my journey as a doctoral student in Contextual Theology. Tonight, the thought that I have completed 85 percent of my thesis suddenly struck me as something terribly significant. 85 of a hundred thousand words written, and it has taken over four years so far. And I now stand at the verge of completion, with only 15 thousand words left to complete a series of arguments to support my thesis.

And much has taken place within these over four years. I’ve been places – Indonesia, Europe, the Philippines, Africa. I’ve met people - some of whom look like they’re here to stay in my life and others who have left with no evidence of their presence whatsoever. I’ve made humiliating mistakes - too ashamed to name them so publicly.

Things have changed. I have changed. I began my journey as a newly graduated seminarian, young but having experienced enough to suffer from disillusionment at the idea of churchmanship. Now I’m a seminary teacher, still rather young and still extremely disillusioned with the idea of churchmanship - but wise enough to know that I mustn’t give up embracing a hope which God himself isn’t willing to give up.

I started out with big dreams. And now, after rather many failures that have defined the past four years of my life, I’m a bigger dreamer than ever - because I gave up my own tiny dreams for something bigger. If anything, I’ve learned to look beyond myself. I’ve learned to understand that my worth as a human person is best demonstrated when I see that there’s a world beyond myself and learn to live for others.

In the past four years, many of you - my friends - have popped this question before - what about marriage? And I believe I’ve always told you, “I’m not searching for someone, so I’m not even thinking about marriage. At least not now.” It still remains partially true. The only part that has changed is that while I wasn’t searching for someone, I recently stumbled across someone. I swear it wasn’t my fault; I just never expected that depth and simplicity - two seemingly conflicting virtues - could be so beautifully integrated and embodied within one human life. But don’t go trying to speculate too much, okay? The right doses of information will be released at the right time. There’s still a long process to go through before specific names are being mentioned. But yes, there’s someone in the picture, and I do suppose that the responsible thing to do for me would be to actually start thinking of marriage. (*Three deep breaths*)

Just some thoughts lingering early in the morning to clear my cache so I can go to bed empty-headed. So what else lies ahead? Who knows? My present mission is to impart the little knowledge I have to those who seek guidance under my ministerial care. My immediate goal is to complete my doctoral thesis, to submit it, and hope to pass. And then, to move on being the simple man that I am in God’s grand scheme of life.

The winding path is bound to lead somewhere.

Tonight, I'm reminded that I'm human. Don't see me as anything less, but don't see me as anything more.

Posted by SK at 4:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

What do you think of an interactive website that provides latest information pertaining to Christianity in Malaysia?

This will include a blog with updated information by a panel of bloggers, a forum for all to participate to discuss issues (especially issues related to our local context), and several other features.

The idea of this project would basically be to gather a community of people who are interested to explore what it means to be both Malaysian and Christian.

This is an idea that has just been mooted by a friend yesterday, and we've decided to think about it seriously. What do you think? Also, if we do decide to start a website like that, what would an appropriate name be for the website?

Posted by SK at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

I don't usually do such a thing since to me it borders on vain narcissism, but for today, what the heck...

You Are Jean Grey

Although your fate is often unknown, you always seem to survive (even after death). Your mind is your greatest weapon, literally! Powers: telepathy and telekinesis, the ability to project thoughts into the mind of others, communication with animals

Posted by SK at 6:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

You're the person who sees through clay and mud and finds diamonds in a life. For all the happiness that you find in life, it's something you truly deserve.

Happy birthday, sis. You are deeply loved.

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The night was warm and there was no breeze. The entire surrounding was embraced by a strange stillness. But amidst this stillness, there was a rage in my heart as I dug the ground furiously with the spade in my hand. I kept digging with uncontrollable tears as I sank deeper and deeper with the descending level of the earth.

I was burying someone on that still night. Someone I loved very much. And it hurt me so that this person was now gone. Strangely, I had no idea who this person was that I was burying. But I was burying him/her. Alone. Wrapped in white linen, this very small person lay still by the grave that I was digging. I was breathless, whilst this body there had no breath. I was the only sign of life.

As the grave was prepared for the body to lay within it, I stopped my digging. I paused a brief moment to settle my lack of breath. And then I looked at the body wrapped in white linen. And I sobbed. And sobbed. And sobbed. And then I lifted the body up with both my arms, hugged it tightly, and gently placed it at the bed of the ground. And I covered the grave with the earth that I had dug out of it.

And then I woke up. Dazed. Mystified. Grieved. I have no idea what that was about. The picture is clear in my mind, but you can't snap a picture of what you see in a dream.

Posted by SK at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

On 5 August last year, I wrote:

I am still furiously coming to terms with the fact that I let myself be talked into this. I am not sure what I have walked into. Is blogging for those who have something original to say? If so, I am the unlikely candidate. I mean, my blog name itself says it all. Or perhaps blogging is for those who have nothing original to say, but who have an original way of saying it. Perhaps I may fit into this latter category. Just perhaps.

I suppose this, for me, is one of those occasions in our life journey when we start off on a venture just for the kicks. And then we uncover the consequences later. And in the process, we discover something of the "unknown". Just perhaps.

As of now, I have taken the plunge. "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God."

Reality bytes...(what pun?)

Dear blog, happy first birthday. You have taken me where I've never been before. Thank you. Here's to the next one year.

Posted by SK at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

He has a strange way with people - they all love him. He relates with them in the most unorthodox ways, but they seem to appreciate it. I never understood why, but I'm beginning to see that what people appreciate about him is a quality of authenticity that's so lacking in many plastic souls in this world. He's no plastic. He's real.

He's an adventurer. Not the mountain-climbing type, but the street-roaming type. The type who visits little towns and obscure villages. Out there, he's just, well, at home. I guess it's probably because he's spent most of his life as a young man without a place to call his home, so the world is his home.

He sings out of rhythm but insists that it's the rest of the world that's gone out of rhythm. Every song that he sings - pop, rock, jazz, gospel - becomes a country song when he sings it (to our utter dismay). When I was little, he used to tell me to clap furiously after every song he sang. Now he does it to his grandchildren.

He still can't seem to tell the difference between a computer monitor and a television. To him, terms like "email", "forum", and "chat" are abstractly philosophical. In their most concrete forms, these things are like electricity - you can't see it, you don't know what it looks like, but you know it's there. He knows these things exist only because mum and I keep talking about them.

I've ever seen him trying to handle a remote control like it was a handphone (or was it a handphone like a remote control?) But that was long ago. Now, I'm sure he thinks handphones are the coolest things because he calls me all the time when I'm out, just to ask what movie I'm watching and who I'm eating with. I'm cool with that. When I want to say something in a way he can't answer, I'll just send him an SMS (text) - he can't for the life of him figure out how that one works.

Happy 63rd birthday, dad. You're one of a kind. It feels kind of awkward saying I love you; maybe it's because I'm really growing up now. Anyway, I'm giving you the best birthday present ever... ME!

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Not much reflective thinking has been done in the past couple of days. There are sporadic seasons when the creative mechanisms of the mind seem silent. Or even worse, sluggish. Nothing abstractly conceptual seems to be churning in my mind. But still, within the heart, there's a quiet confidence and knowing that it's all right.

In the past couple of days, I've been preoccupied with the fixtures and the tweaking of my new car. Guilt threatens to grip my conscience, hehe. But I figured, with all the intensive work that I've put into thinking in the past couple of months (since the year began, actually), what's a man gotta do to get his well-deserved break?!

Anyway, I'm uploading pictures of my new car here only because friends from afar are asking what it looks like and what its look has mutated into since it got into my hands. So I gladly oblige...

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Coming into my driveway tomorrow. Then in the next few days, it'll be put under a tedious process of dressing up and minor renovations, afterwhich it'll be my faithful companion for the next few (or many!) years of my life.

And, not forgetting...

My faithful companion for the past four years. Honey, I love you, but we're stifling each other. I'm growing, can't you see (duh)? Don't worry, mum will take good care of you...

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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.

For some, it's daunting; for the others, it's exciting - really depends on what sort of personality one is, doesn't it? I mooted this idea of getting them to blog because I felt that it's a tremendously effective way of disseminating information and ideas to the world in as short and as (almost) costless a way as possible. A couple of them have already begun their blogging exercise (for examples, see here and here and here and here). I'm really happy with what I'm seeing so far. I hope they have as much fun as one should have when communicating theology to the world.

This reminds me, next month marks the one-year anniversary of my blogging career. It's therefore in order that I acknowledge some people who have been propelling factors in my participation in blogdom. Thanks, Sivin, for encouraging me to embark on what has now become an almost daily spiritual discipline for me. Thanks also, Irene, for being the ever present help whenever the blog technicalities get a tad too tedious for my fat fingers - and remember to have your meals regularly; I mean it!

As with anything else, blogging can be and has been used for the most nonsensical purposes. But at its best, I think it has revolutionised the dissemination of beneficial information.

Got blog?

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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."

In the past couple of weeks, I've been having conversations with people from the pulpit, from lecture desks, and within circular settings (yes, I mean circular, not secular - for me, there is no secular). In my interactions, very sure signs of fatigue have now appeared: incoherent trains of thoughts, disconnected ideas, slurred speech, and inability to articulate with as much linguistic precision as I'd like to have done.

Too much travelling. Too much running around. Too much talking. Too much teaching.

Too little listening. Too little learning. Too little silence. Too little rest. Too little contemplation.

The implications are obvious if I don't self-impose a discipline of physical and mental rest. This is something I'm unwilling to compromise on. So for now, I'll rest. I'll sit at my desk and work with my thoughts, I'll blog, I'll sleep, I'll live with a rhythm. I won't be pulled by anything that threatens to drain out from me that which I don't possess. In that sense, I'll be resting.

So in the meantime when I'm asked to "do this" and "do that", to "come here" and "go there", my response has to be, "Sorry, closed for today." But for anything that helps me to relax and re-create... let's rock!

For now.

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If having this brother on the poster would still make people buy the drink, then I'd say the drink is really good! (That man might as well be me!) Puts contemporary advertising into a proper perspective, doesn't it? Ah, the power of satire.

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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.

With the way it was so hyped up - ironically, by many local churches and Christian ministries all around the region - I'd have expected a very convincing screening of the story that would shake the faith of millions of Christians to the core. But I found no such thing in the movie. It's most likely because I didn't read the book. And I'll bet most of the viewers won't have read it either. Anyway, I came out of the movie thinking through the entire reconstructed story about Jesus having a lineage of descendents birthed through Mary Magdalene and stuff, and concluded with the question, "So?"

I mean, why should such stories compel anyone's faith to be shaken? Anyone can take the characters from any historical event and fabricate an entirely new story. After all, look at Gladiators... no one came out of that movie pointing out how that story was a twisted version of the historical reality and all. It was seen as something fictional, even if the movie was filmed as though it was something real.

As a movie itself, I found The DaVinci Code boring, long-winded, and complicated. The genre felt more like that of National Treasure, minus the excitement. I also think that non-Christians and even most Protestant Christians would have a problem trying to understand the whole issue with Opus Dei in the movie, which was Dan Brown's rendition of the terribly warped perception that many have towards this Roman Catholic Order. Even a simple joke like the final remaining descendent of Jesus trying to test if she could walk on water didn't manage to provoke the slightest giggle from the audience.

I guess what I'm saying is, I don't see how this story / movie is a threat to the Christian faith at all. Could we perhaps have fallen for the gimmicks of the marketing experts by having contributed to the elevation of hype among Christians? We've probably done a better job at publicising The DaVinci Code than the marketing agencies have. All this hype we've given to the movie prior to its release sure is making someone rich.

At any rate, give me the following other movies to watch and stories to read, which I find more meaningful: 1) Harry Potter - an epitome of missional friendship; 2) X-Men - a hyperbolic reality of the dilemma of human insecurity; 3) Star Wars - a lesson in Kingdomic paradigm.

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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.

But I'll be here for only three full days before I hit the road again. This Sunday, I'll be preaching in another Presbyterian Church (Hebron Presbyterian Church) in Johor Bahru before I enter Singapore again. On Monday morning, I'll be departing from Changi Airport for the ALCOE VI which is held in the Philippines. Will be away for five days, afterwhich I must be back in time for another speaking engagement in a Lutheran church (BLC) in Kuala Lumpur.

So what's going through my mind as I keep up with this pace? Two things. Firstly, I think this is all good and meaningful as long as it's done in the company of friends. I've developed a disdain for a "public" ministry that rests on a reputation (which I don't have anyway). Half the time, it feels like people are holding me in high regard based on things about me that they don't really know. As far as I'm concerned, ministry is all about friendship... ministering to friends and being ministered to by friends.

Secondly, it feels strange saying this, but it's been ages since I've missed my own local church community when I'm on the run. For as long as I can remember, my ministerial activity has been itinerantly mobile. Thus, I've never been able to develop really intimate relationships with my own local church. Neither did they seem very keen on such communal relationships. But since I moved to Seremban and participated in the life of the local church here, this community has become so much a part of my family. We actually miss them when we're away. Hence, whilst our minds have been very focused on our work away from home, our hearts have been very much with our local church community. And we were talking a lot about "our church" throughout our journey. This feels strange because I've hardly met people with such attachments in recent times, let alone experience it myself. But it's happening. It's beautiful when there's organic life behind and beyond the institution itself.

Busy days ahead. The little that has been entrusted to me has to be fulfilled to the best of my ability. And as I keep pace with the goals set before me, I must remember: this is a journey to Christ, with Christ, and for Christ.

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I'm presently still writing my doctoral thesis on Theology and Contemporary Culture. More specifically, I'm seeking to defend a sustained claim that the Asian Church is obligated to interact with a contextualised rendition of modernity that originated from colonial imperialistic activity but which has morphed into various contextualised modernities. This may sound like something bordering on postmodernity, although I've actually rather quickly dismissed (in my writing) the relevance of postmodernity for Asia. But that's besides the point.

The point is, I find that I'm now writing obsolete thoughts. I'm no longer as excited about what I'm now writing as I was when I first embarked on this project some years ago. When I first started, this entire train of thought was a profoundly new discovery for me. But the dilemma I face is that my intellectual growth has far exceeded the rate of my wr