我上個學期上了一個 Spiritual Discernment 的課程 (由 Dr. Gordon T. Smith 教）。從教會歷史的傳統裡面，尤其是天主教的靈修傳統，有很多先賢，例如 Ignatius of Loyola, Theresa of Ávila, St. John of the Cross，還有 evangelicals 如 John Wesley 跟 Jonathan Edwards 等，都提供了大量的方法和傳統，讓我們談論屬靈經歷時，能夠用準確的詞彙及文法 (“grammar”) 描述，以至於我們能夠彼此分享那些經歷，並且正確地印證那是否從神而來的。

“A discussion about discernment is a reflection on the nature of religious experience. Experience is inherently pliable and intangible and thus hard to define. We affirm that the Spirit of God communicates inwardly to the consciousness of those who are prepared to listen. Fine and good. But what form does this take? And how is it recognized? How can we talk about it meaningfully? ……

Therefore, we need a language to be able to speak about this experience, not only to make sense of our own encounters with Jesus but also as a way to be in conversation with others about our experience…… that we have a common understanding, with terms of reference, and a grammar that authenticates and strengthens that experience. To find this, we must turn to the Christian spiritual heritage so that our experience and our conversation are informed by the Christian tradition.”

Gordon T. Smith, The Voice of Jesus: Discernment, Prayer, and the Witness of the Spirit, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 34-35.

今日信徒不能夠有建設性地彼此分享屬靈經歷，部份原因是因為我們跟歷史、傳統脫節了，以至我們喪失了很多先賢所聚得的屬靈智慧，幫助我們理解我們的屬靈經歷。正如一間沒有圖書館的大學一樣，那般悲哀。

唯有我們珍重教會歷史，向先賢汲取經驗，齊齊學習怎樣談及和印証屬靈經歷，我們的團契小組聚會才不至於淪為那種「我覺得係咁就係咁」的情況。

讀上面介紹 Gordon Smith 的 The Voice of Jesus，也許是一個好的開始。

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The embattled scion of Toyota Motor Corp.’s founding family is admitting that the company strayed from its core values in a quest for rapid expansion.

The priorities of the world’s largest auto maker are supposed to be safety, quality and volume, Akio Toyoda says in a prepared statement he will make on Wednesday while testifying to a congressional committee in Washington.

“These priorities became confused and we were not able to stop, think and make improvements as much as were able to before …” Mr. Toyoda says in the statement, obtained by The Globe and Mail.

Extracted from The Globe and Mail (Feb 23, 2010)

Some questions we can ask ourselves in light of this:

• What are my personal priorities?
• What are my family priorities?
• What are my vocational priorities?
• What are the church’s priorities?

短短的二十分鐘訪問裡面，陳兆焯已經總括了很多牧養上的智慧，尤其是道成肉身的牧養工作 (incarnational pastoral care) 所需的原則。

我可總括為以下十點：

1. 不以個人成就得失為事奉目標
2. 清楚自己呼召
3. 著重建立關係
4. 拒絕功利主義：不要只懂得問「有甚麼用？」
5. 全情投入、不離不棄地與人一起同行
6. 對人常存盼望：今天的失敗，不等如明天沒法改變
7. 體恤人有個別差異的需要，不以大方向或發展理由壓倒一切
8. 塑造分別為聖的群體，顛覆 (subvert) 世界的價值觀
9. 相信團隊的判斷和能力，不由上而下強行改革
10. 容許人犯錯，從而讓人學習承擔和責任的功課

從陳校長身上真是學到很多。

We say no to good ideas every day; we say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number, so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose, so that we can deliver the best products in the world.
……
I think that this is so ingrained in our company that this hubris that you talk about, that happens to companies that are successful but then decide that their sole role in life is to get bigger, and they start adding this and that and this and that, I can tell you the management team of Apple would never let that happen. That’s not what we’re about. So, focus on people, and ensuring that it’s a small list of things to work on and putting all of our wood behind those things, that’s the magic behind us.

This is something that many program/event-oriented churches need to learn from.

It also applies to personal development too.

社會福利署 總臨床心理學家劉家祖表示，很多父母有一種錯覺，認為子女是屬於自己，有權打罵或決定他們一切，部分尋死父母恐子女無人照顧，遂帶著孩子陪死，劉指這是錯誤想法。他說，子女是獨立生命，並非財產，父母有責任保護他們成長，但沒有權利奪去他們生命；這種行為屬於謀殺，須面對法律制裁。

子女非父母財產【明報專訊】2010年2月8日

「兒女是耶和華的產業*；所懷的胎是他所給的賞賜。」（詩127:3）

我相信唯有上帝透過聖經啟示給我們的價值觀才能保障人的價值，防止這類慘劇發生。

“The legal term for God’s and Israel’s relationship to the Land, as mentioned earlier, is ‘usufruct.’ I AM freely gives his land to Israel as a beneficiary to maximize their opportunity to enrich themselves by means of it, but Israel will be held accountable to not abuse their benefactor’s trust; he reserves the right to withdraw his gift if Israel breaks covenant with him. When that relationship is broken, the people suffer first judgment in the Land and, if they persist in unbelief, expulsion from it.”

Bruce Waltke, An Old Testament Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 543.

所以兒女是屬上帝的。父母只是管家而已。

“God does not change, but changes…”

(inspired by James 1:17, Hebrew 1:12, 1 Cor 15:51-52)

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With so many questions up in the air, will the show be able to answer them all in the end? I am sure millions of fans worldwide are dying to know. But that is not as important as whether the characters can find resolution in their story arcs, for that is where we viewers have most of our emotional investment. Who cares what that smoke monster is, really? What we care about is whether Jin and Sun can reunite, who Kate loves the most, if John has really died in vain, or if Hurley can really break the curse in his life.

I think LOST is proof that Lyotard’s definition of “postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives” is not entirely correct. Yes, we are incredulous about modernistic, overly-optimistic, manipulative, and oppressive metanarratives, but we still crave for metanarratives that can explain the lingering mysteries and tie all the loose ends together. Deep in our human psychic has this craving for resolution. It’s in our DNA. We’d go crazy if LOST just ended with season 5.

LOST perfectly demonstrates that small, local narratives can co-exist with a larger metanarrative that gives meaning, or at least enrich the meaning of our human existence. If we only have local narratives that are radically different and mutually exclusive, I believe we will end up with tribalism and even more antagonism in our humanity. If we only had a single metanarrative that seeks to explain everything but ignores the intricate differences and diversity of our human experience, it will also lead to an ahistorical and inhumanistic structuralist view of life that fails to touch the human soul. Rather than opting for either-or, why can’t we have both?

I believe LOST gained such popularity worldwide because it is able to make each of us resonate with the characters and the experiences that they struggle through, while hinting that there is something larger going on out there that ties all our experiences together, and that there IS a meaning behind all those seemingly improbable coincidences. LOST is only fictional, yet it has already tapped into the deepest needs of our human soul. What if there is a real metanarrative to our common existence? What would that mean to us?

That, is why I have been called to be a story teller…. telling this metanarrative that ties all the threads of our lives together.

H/T: littleho

This is a great illustration on what the local church is supposed to be. The local church is NOT about creating endless events to attract people to come, but empowering disciples to go into the world who embody the church in them.

We don’t go to church. We are the church, wherever we go.

We must be a missional church because God is a missional God.

Here are some characteristics that I think a good church should embody:

• God-centered – Specifically Trinitarian, in that the Father is glorified in everything when the people of God conforms more and more to the image of the Son, through the reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Mission oriented – Participating in the mission of God for the redemption of the world. Just as how the Father sent the Son and the Spirit, we are being sent into the world (John 17). The church should follow God’s lead in doing mission, paying attention to where He is currently at work.
• Biblically informed – The people of God should be thoroughly familiar with the over-arching biblical story and live out their lives according to their roles in the trajectory of that story line. They should also be able to retell this story well as part of any evangelistic effort. Telling people the biblical narrative is to tell people who God is and what God is up to with this world.
• Eschatalogically minded – The church should live out the present in light of the future redemption and glory God has prepared. This includes having a worshipful community that patterns after the eternal worship in the future (Rev 5). The church should also convey to the broken world a message of hope in light of God’s salvation and promises. Evil does not have the last word because God is sovereign and in control.
• Servanthood and Cruciform – The church should not be triumphalistic, but be demonstrative of God’s strength in weakness, serving others in humility and in cruciform.
• Be loving and hospitable – The church should demonstrate love, grace, and forgiveness in its congregational life, because that is how people can recognize them as Jesus’ disciples (John 13). Just as God is hospitable to us, the church should demonstrate God’s hospitality in welcoming and embracing everyone without prejudice, especially those who are weak, powerless, and oppressed. God’s compassionate heart is always on the side of those who are marginalized by society.

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我們曾聽聞在墨西哥，墳場的設計是很特別的。墨西哥的墳場，分為前後兩個區域。前面區域的進口，門檻上面寫：「死人的墳墓」。這個很容易理解。不過，墳場 的後面再有另一個區域，用另一面牆分隔開來，上面寫：「真正死了的人的墳墓」。究竟這前、後兩個部份有甚麼分別？原來有這樣的一個規定：如果一個人死了， 就會把他∕她的屍骨埋葬在前面的區域——「死人的墳墓」。但是，如果那管理墳場的人發現，某一個墳墓連續五年以上沒有人去看過、拜祭過、打掃過，就會把骸 骨搬到後面的那個區域——「真正死了的人的墳墓」。我覺得這種規矩和安排有很深長的意思：只要仍然有人記得起你，你在其他活着的人的生命中仍然留有痕跡的 話，你是未死的。那些活著只為自己的人，從來沒有對他人的生命付出過、留下痕跡，才是「真正的死了」。

是網頁結束、我們在天家再見的時候了！– 溫偉耀、溫葉麗芬

“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” (vii)

“I don’t even think there’s that much correlation between my running every day and whether or not I have a strong will. I think I’ve been able to run for more than twenty years for a simple reason: It suits me.” (44)

“Once, I interviewed the Olympic runner Toshihiko Seko…… I asked him, ‘Does a runner at your level ever feel like you’d rather not run today, like you don’t want to run and would rather just sleep in?’ He stared at me and then, in a voice that made it abundantly clear how stupid he thought the question was, replied, ‘Of course. All the time!’…… despite being worlds apart in terms of strength, the amount we can exercise, and motivation, when we lace up our running shoes early in the morning we feel exactly the same way.” (45-46)

“No matter what, though, I keep up my running. Running every day is a kind of lifeline for me, so I’m not going to lay off or quit just because I’m busy. If I used being busy as an excuse not to run, I’d never run again. I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit. All I can do is keep those few reasons nicely polished.” (73)

I think ministry is also like running a marathon in some sense. I know I cannot run far if I continue this lethargic, impulsive, and undisciplined lifestyle. It is time for me to shed some pounds, find my focus, and single-mindedly run towards the goal of my life. Murakami started running when he was thirty-three. I am thirty-three this year. I guess it’s never too late to start.