Under Construction

…AND I DON’T HAVE FOOD POISONING

Which is a solid WIN!

Played it safe, just got a little stir fried chicken breast with rice going for dinner. Added a little veg and egg for good measure :D

Pray I don’t poison myself this week, they might not find the body for days…

:D

…if I died now everyone’d be creeped out at the funeral cos I’d STILL be smiling with sheer joy.

libtheip:

aka someone related to me

sports day ‘00

note: yes i finally did this! sorry it took so long but i kept to my word :)

also yes, this is tagged with ‘asian kid’

and yes it’s ollie for those who know him

OH NOES MY SECRET SHAME, thank you for this, my dear little sister….

HOW FREAKING CUTE WAS I :P

bnutt:

(via check-point)

I’m currently writing an essay (due tomorrow at 5pm :P) called “What is Practical Theology?” and writing about how an article I’ve chosen counts as a legit piece of practical theology.

I have to say, this article nearly makes me want to cry.

It’s called Theology and Butterflies: A Reflection on Finding Hope in Urban Ministry and its about how can Christians (and people in general) cope with violent and horrible tragedies? It’s about a death in the innercity of somewhere in the UK. It is about a community of people who, after a horrible and violent tragedy, had to try and reconcile what had occurred with who they knew God was.

How they could find hope in the streets. Among poverty, violence and social disorder.

And one of those who was lost in this tragedy (the writer never says what exactly happened), his family found a poem about butterflies in his papers. And the butterfly quickly became a symbol, a metaphor of hope, for his community. One part of it involves the butterfly explaining to its friends, who thought it was dead when it went into a cocoon, goes like this:

“I left the life you thought I knew.

You thought that I was dead

I did it just to show to you

we die to grow,” she said

This poem contained so much hope for that family and that community. The hope of “transformation through loss … the possibility of resurrection, and new life” (Eleanor Williams, Theology and Butterflies, 2008).

One of the issues I’m writing about has to deal with whether the butterfly imagery, not part of church teaching or the bible but containing truth aligned to the teachings of  bible, is legitimate theology.

Of course it is.

It is, as the article says “[articulating] profound truths but in a way that was grounded in this one family’s experience”

Why does it make me tear up?

Because it’s a story of tragedy in the city and of a hope greater than anything being found, passed on by the God who loves and is personal to everyone, including that family. Reaching each person in their own way because He knows each individual more than sometimes we know ourselves.

That’s why I’m doing this course. Because that God and that message of Hope is what I want to be studying. That maybe I’ll get the privilege to take part in delivering that hope.

Theology is both dangerous and beautiful. For all the intellectual ‘theologizing’ one can do and all the big words and clever arguments one can build, the beauty of theology is that is is for all people.

And I think that is easy to forget.

It’s for everyone. It is for the whole world.

God is personal and active in people’s lives, why can’t He help a family through grief without going through the theologians? Churches, ministers, scholars etc. they can sometimes fall into seeing God as the water supply to thirsty masses (that part’s true) and that somehow they are controlling a dam - with their hands on the tap, controlling God and His truths’ outflow to the masses (that idea’s bordering on heresy now…).

He’s a flood.

It’s a privilege to be part of God’s work in reaching out to others. But no one should be deceived…

…He could do it without us if He wanted to.

What’s wrong with using a poem about butterflies to comfort a family in the truth of the Hope they have in Him? That message of hope about God didn’t come from the church.

He doesn’t need us, but he wants us.

At the end of the day, the truth is the truth. The God who’s words and teachings I’m studying here is not just an intellectual exercise or someone who you need to do enough or be smart enough to every truly understand in any way be close to.

He’s the God who knows everyone.

The God who knows you inside and out.

The one who can speak His truth to you through the Bible, through an intellectual argument for from somewhere even more personal like the poem in your lost loved one’s papers.

He’s personal.

He’s the God over every freaking thing ever, everywhere and FORever.

But He’s also more personal than husband, wife, brother, sister, mother, father, friend or foe can ever be.

You can hold the image of the big God over everything. The ultimate power over the universe. That is God.

But the word “Immanuel” (or Emmanuel) used to describe Jesus means “God with us”. That is God! With us.

Hm God is God both over us AND with us.

That’s quite an often understated revolutionary idea.

That God Himself, ruler of the Universe, at one point took human form and died to save people He loved. Forever.

Not to be found in other religious systems.

The Gospel

© God

esthersunn:

until Doctor Who Series 6 comes out.
KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I’M SO EXCITED!! <3

AH MAH GASH

“You know the parts of the body that tickle? Your neck, armpits, ribs, side. That’s because they’re full of nerves. SO. If it tickles, it also hurts. A lot. See?”

I hate it when the Jujitsu master does demonstrations on us…ouch… :P

Argh this week is gonna be crazy, got the usual constant stream of Greek but this time I also get the JOY of 2 essays with a total of many hours of reading required before I can start writing them (due next monday) and there’s a large manatee taking up space in my room and smoking pot.

UGH

Fun week ahead eh?

Note: the pot-smoking manatee is VERY likely just a figment of my imagination.

Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
(Psalm 55:22)

It’s been almost exactly 40 hours since I woke up on friday morning, I’ve slept 1 hour since.

The reason is pretty epic - from friday midnight to saturday noon we did 12 hours of straight worship in the Prayer Room and I was on from 5-7am. So I finished at Toastie Bar (an epic St Andrews thingy) at 3, got in an hour’s nap, got my guitar and went to the room. Stayed there until noon. Went to halls for lunch. Did reading and watched videos all afternoon (strangely, I felt no particular need to go to sleep) and went to a Worship Night at church in the evening. Afterwards a bunch of us went to the prayer room for a bit more worship and prayer and so here I am; it’s 40 hours after I woke up from a real sleep and I’m about to go to bed. 

Just one musing. I’m not feeling freakin’ dead right now! It’s odd, I was feeling like the walking dead when I rocked up to worship at 5am but the 7 hours I ended up being in there passed ridiculously quickly and I felt rested and refreshed during and after (I also consumed NO COFFEE today). The same goes for after the Worship Night and my time in the Prayer Room (not but a mere 2 hours hence).

It’s weird, I’ve felt more tired at 2am after a day of relative inactivity with a good sleep before. Right now I’m actually doing pretty well.

“Cast your burdens on the Lord and He will sustain you”

I’ll say…

:D

GOODNIGHT

…I now call on the churches of Hong Kong to begin series of preaching on tithing and stewardship of blessings and riches and giving back as He’s given to us.