LampPost

What remains - New year's Eve 2010

The year draws to a close. Time for one last post, a final word to bring us into the new year. First a myth, then a message.

 
Pandora was gifted by the gods. But the gods of Greek mythology were not like our God. Their beings were supernatural but their personalities and emotions were painfully human (and in many cases morally bankrupt). Prometheus had stolen fire from the gods and made it available to men. So the gods of Olympus decided to counterbalance the good that men had wrongfully obtained. 

Pandora was endowed with all manner of gifts by the gods. Gifts of great beauty, domestic and mercantile ability, guile, a shameful mind and deceitful nature, lies and crafty word. In short, "gifts" of both good and evil. And, as most of us know, these gifts included curiosity.

Zeus gave her a box, told her it held secrets and should not be opened. She was then presented to men, much to their awe and wonder. Little has changed through the ages. Many men still think from their nether regions. Prometheus was rightly suspicious of Zeus. He warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept any gift from Zeus (as one should alway beware of Greeks bearing gifts). However, Pandora was too good for Epimetheus to refuse. 

Once on earth, Pandora became curious as to the content of the box that Zeus had given her. She opened the box. It contained burdensome toils, sickness and diseases and a myriad of other pains. These foul fates rushed forth to afflict the world. Pandora shut the box as fast as she could but it was too late to trap the evil now released. The only thing she could retain was hope. 

 
2010 might have been, for you, a year of struggles, of difficult times, of aggravations and aggravating people, of trials and testing. A year of burdesome "gifts" from capricious gods.

But they are not our God. As Jesus said, if we know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him. So, while we cannot predict if 2011 will be any better or worse than this year, we can still believe in God's goodness and blessing for our lives, in His desire to see the best for us and in us.

Because there is always hope. With faith and love. These three remain.  

Jeffrey

get up keep going finish strong

Flash! LampPost's first Vid Post - The Messenger

For LampPost's first ever vid post, I have chosen a non standard option. As befitting an irreligious blogsite with a Christian bent, of course.

2010 has been a real trial (or more bluntly, crap) of a year for a lot of people. Other than insolvency practitioners. I know, I know, carrion feeders have an important role to play in the economic Serengeti, cleaning up the once bloated corporate carcasses brought down low by the dry and difficult times of their own or someone else's making. Still, it doesn't make it any easier to love vultures or hyenas. Which must make me, say, a small jackal ... since I do a little bit of legal work in this area!

I digress. Back to the vid post. I guess the end of 2010 can't come fast enough for most. Confronted the challenges as it confronted us. At least survived, if not really thrived. Just about run out of steam. Struggling towards the finishing line. To wind down for a moment's respite. Before winding up again in the new year. For a new year.

As we approach this arbitrary end, this momentary milestone in temporal time, can we find some final words of encouragement to take away, to infuse some positive perspective into the somewhat negative narrative of this year?

I offer you the words and music of Linkin Park, and the amazing video of Carlos Lascano.

Jeffrey

get up keep going finish strong

Christmas Present

 
Home today has the exhausted feel of the previous night's eventual silence. After hosting the guests of Christmas past. A recent past. Yesterday.

The turkey's been reduced to the bare bones of its prior existence. Along with its degustatory companions. The flickering lights on the inorganic tree bravely blink out their final moments of temporary significance before both are boxed in for yet another year. Or in the case of my place, till the end of New Year's Day.

Boxing Day. Semi meaningful in a semi forgotten way. Reprised in its present indulgent consumerism Boxing Day Sales form. At least everyone gets a bargain. Given the recession and the perpetual half price sales this year, everyday may be a bargain. Or more than you bargained for.

The discarded wrapping speaks of the day's original meaning. Not that ubiquitous clear plastic that encases your day's purchases and equally ubiquitous opaque plastic that carries it home. The paper based, gaudily coloured, festivity themed version that encloses a myriad of surprises both wanted and unwanted (and therefore to be recycled).

Christmas presents. From the present Christmas. Did you get what you wanted this Christmas? Did you give what was wanted in return? Did the Spirit of GFC (global financial crisis, that is) visit you this year? Did it dampen your expectations?

More importantly, did you remember to present your present to the Birthday Boy (to reverently use it as a term of endearment)? After all, for most of us anyway, Christmas Day is not our birthday and I am always slightly bemused by the fact we see fit to present each other with presents on someone else's birthday.

So, did He get what He wanted this Christmas? Or did the Spirit of GFC (generally forgotten Christ, to coin a new phrase) visit Him this year? Like maybe every other year? To dampen His expectations of what you might choose to do and who you might choose to become?

Jeffrey

get up keep going finish strong

Blessed Christmas y'all!

 
LampPost wishes all its readers a very merry and blessed Christmas. And a very happy Birthday to the Man to whom this blogsite is dedicated. 

Remember the Reason, enjoy the season. Yes, you can do both. It's meant to be a celebration after all.

And look out for my post Christmas, Boxing Day post.

ps. that's Tokyo at Christmas time, by the way. Can't wait to be there in April!  

Jeffrey

get up keep going finish strong

Sunday Takeaways - Algae Tinted Glasses

This week's post sort of qualifies for a Sunday Takeaway in that it sort of relates to Lighthouse's Sunday sermon theme for Gold December - treasuring one another. But first let's start with a fish ...

 
Or six. Cherry Barbs. Like the ones above. You can't just get one for your tank. Cherry Barbs need to be kept in a school, otherwise they get stressed. And they show their stress by floating on the surface. 

I am the official keeper of the Lai Family tropical aquarium. We originally got fish as pets for the kids to look after. Teaches them responsibility blah blah blah. Like all family pets, one parent eventually becomes the sole legal guardian. And since Michelle didn't really want pets in the first place ...

Yesterday, I had to go round to Animates, our local pet store, to get a few basic tank supplies. Estelle, my daughter, came along to help find some new fish to replace the ones that at various times got too old, sick, eaten, or plain "stressed". We bought a school of six. No prizes for guessing what we bought.

 
I also brought some tank water in for testing. I was a bit concerned that the water in the aquarium looked a bit green and cloudy. By the way, that picture above is not of my tank. Just consider it a dramatised reproduction, like something you might find on America's Most Wanted.

The fish didn't seem to mind but it just didn't look right. The tests results were surprising. The shop assistant declared the water to be in good condition and it was one of the better tests he had seen in months. I went home pleased if a bit puzzled. Then it came to me.

Algae. On glass. Yes, I know it's actually perspex. Artistic licence. Anyway, I found a grey green film of microscopic plant life lightly coating the inside surface of the glass. Not readily apparent on the outside due to the riotous background colour of aquatic plants, rocks, branches, fish etc. Not overly dense and overtly present to be noticed. There was nothing wrong with the water inside, it was the hazy glass through which I looked that gave me that false impression.

Sometimes we look at life through algae tinted glasses. We use that same cloudy pair to look at the lives of others. Somehow, over a period of time and without realising it, we let difficult and disappointing experiences surreptitiously grow a slightly pessimistic, cynical tinge on our glasses of perception. That leads to distorted impressions that leads to distorted actions and reactions based on what we lead ourselves to believe is the reality of the situation. And the resulting friction leads to a distortion in relationships with others, with our own self, even with God.

I requisitioned an old, disused bottle brush from my kids' early days and an overused toothbrush from more recent times and went to work. Funnily, the water seems pretty clear right now. And the fish still don't seem to mind, as if nothing was ever wrong. 

Jeffrey

get up keep going finish strong

Sunday Takeaways - Back to the future, love

 
History repeats itself. So I guess I should repeat myself. Let me explain.

Last Sunday's message by Pastor James was on John 15. Jesus' command to love one another. The main thrust of his pulpit message was for each one in Lighthouse to treasure one another. Love, essentially. 

I had my takeaway thought for LampPost. I started writing. It had a strangely regurgitated but not unpleasant flavour. Like the taste of an slightly forgotten idea tucked in the back recesses of mind's pantry, slowly and secretly ripening into a more mature, cheesy, yet palatable offering. 

An old blue. Deja vu. Flashback 22 September 2009. My very first Sunday Takeaway post. Love - An inconvenient truth. How inconvenient. There goes my post for this week. Or maybe not.

LampPost is now over a year old (d.o.b. 31 August 2009). Somehow I missed that milestone. 

The genesis of LampPost started as limited circulation email updates on my son's hospitalisation, surgery and recovery in about late July/August '09. I felt God-led to turn them into a source of encouragement for friends and family to hang tough in the faith.   

The positive responses to those emails planted seed thoughts in this little head. I can (or more specifically, should) write assessible and meaningful Christian thoughts to influence for God and good. With a bit of research and helpful advice along the way, the blog lights were turned on at LampPost.    

Looking back, I am truly glad that I started this. If I hadn't, it would have been just another one of my many potentially good ideas shelved away to quietly expire when past its use by date. By putting this blogsite out in the open, I have extended myself faith-wise and am the richer for it.

And the takeaway thought that caused the flashback? Love is more than a feeling, it is also an action. But it still needs its emotional component to avoid simply being duty or obligation.

Ah yes, that thought's a familiar flavour. Enough said. Back to the future, love.

Jeffrey

get up keep going finish strong

Inconsistently Christian - Faith Drift (Reprise)

Found the following picture when I was looking for images for my message last Sunday.

 
Instantly thought about my last post in this series. Just look at it. Again.

A blissful drift on the sea of comfortable existence. Watching the world float by. Carried on the ship of souls. 

Where does it go? Where will it dock? Which port of eternity will it unload its passengers? What will they find when they get there?

And what of the journey? Will the storms of life's passage nauseate on the rising tide of physical and emotional sea sickness? Will the tedium of the endless crossing enhance the inevitable sense of futility? Or will the cacophony of the world's on board entertainment drown out true meaning in the hollow exchange for the distractions of the here and now? 

Who cares? Not I, said the Christian drifter. My future is insured. I may not get the crown, but at least I get across. But that is not the way of the Cross.

Good comfort results in contentment. Bad comfort results in complacency. Like I said, faith drift.  

Jeffrey

get up keep going finish strong