On being genuine

Genuineness is a highly underrated virtue, yet it is the one that can arguably touch the most lives and reach the most hearts. We live our lives under various masks and guises, sometimes even in front of ourselves. Yet, when we can strip away these layers of protective covering, placed their because we are inadvertently afraid if someone sees the real us there would be no way they would accept us for who we really are, we find we can come to a new dimension of personal and spiritual effectiveness.

 

 

John 1:47 - When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”

Psalm 32:2 - Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.

 

Building deep friendships

Some friendships are worth keeping. This may mean some sacrifices along the way, but true friends are hard to find. We make many new friends everyday, and many more acquaintances, but life is more than mere passing acquaintanceship. To live life to the fullest, we need a small number of trusted, intimate friends whom we know we can count on. This number may vary from one to three or four, for most people. To build such friendships, we need a certain investment of time and effort. But once we find someone with whom we know we can make this journey, it is certainly worth this extra effort to cultivate the friendship.

Avoiding the pitfalls of being hurt

Hurt always stems from expectations not met. Only those from whom we expect a certain behavioural response can actually hurt or disappoint us. If we do not expect another to behave according to our expectations, we do not set ourselves up to be hurt. This is not to be confused with love. We can love someone deeply and sincerely, but if we refuse to superimpose our own personal behavioural standards upon them; we can avoid the pitfalls of hurt and despair that if left unchecked eventually lead to the demise of the relationship.

Weathering the test of time

Communication and commitment are the two essential components of a long-term successful relationship. After the first flush of initial positive chemistry that accompanies any new relationship, be it romantic or platonic, between lovers or between friends, it is these two elements, communication and commitment, that bind the relationship allowing it to weather the stern test of time.

The complexity of human existence

Behind every individual lies the great story of his or her life. We meet many people every day. On this vast canvas of human life, each individual seems like a mere two-dimensional dot. That is if we take people at face value. In actual fact, each one of those dots is a three-dimensional line, with a great depth of experience that lies beyond the surface of superficial interactions. If we care to explore this added dimension, we will never cease to be amazed at the complexity of human existence.

The biggest hindrance to fulfilling one’s potential

The biggest single hindrance I have observed that prevents Malaysian young people from fulfilling their potential as human beings is lack of self-acceptance or self-confidence. This probably stems from the Asian culture where from young parental praise and encouragement is considered taboo, with parents instead publicly continuously criticising their children in the belief it is good for them.

The goal of education

The goal of education in many parts of the world is “to know, to understand and to apply”. In Malaysia, this has depreciated to the goals of “to know and to remember”. The real goal of education, which is I believe practised in the elite schools of the world is however not merely to “know, understand and apply” but rather to acquire the skills required to be able “to learn, to think and to communicate” because once one is properly equipped with these skills, one can achieve the former goals on one’s own.

These educational goals require an alternative approach to curriculum design. Instead of designing curricula that provide students with content to be known and understood and later applied, the basic approach should be one of discovery. Students should not be told in class what they should know, but rather where to find out what they need to know. They should then be sent away to discover this knowledge on their own, thus simultaneously learning “how-to-learn”. Having discovered this information (knowledge), the student should then be assigned work requiring them to organise and use this knowledge to solve particular problems, thus simultaneously teaching students “how-to-think” as well as “to understand and apply”. The final goal of this elitist curriculum can then be shaped by requiring students to always present their findings and formulations in a variety of ways, thus developing their ability to effectively communicate.

Being realistic in our expectations of relationships

Unrealistic expectations cause many relationships to fail. For example, many people expect their spouse to fulfill their every emotional need, to be their all-in-one human support provider, but this is putting an unnecessary strain on the relationship because in truth no one human being is perfect or can perfectly fulfill all the needs of another human being. Instead, what we need is a network of close interpersonal relationships, with each one playing a unique and significant role. It is this mesh of relationships that enrich our lives and provide for all-round deeper experiences of human interaction. When these relationships are bathed in the light of God’s love and submitted to His sovereignty, it is then that we will truly begin to experience the fullness of human love and true fellowship of mankind.

Understanding the difference between MIDI and Digital Audio

It’s always hard at first, for those not familiar with the concepts and technology involved, to explain why it is not possible to take your favourite music CD, pop it into the computer, and extract out the music notes. It’s one thing to tell folks that MIDI files, from which scores may be printed out, contains control data while digital audio files are bit representations of sound and thus not quite the same thing. Most often, if one attempts to explain this sort of thing, one is faced with blank stares. However, if one draws analogies from everyday life, there is a greater possibility of being understood. More specifically, try explaining our initial problem like this: you know how you need eggs, flour, milk and sugar to bake a cake. Well, supposing I give you that delicious cake and ask you to extract the eggs, flour, milk and sugar from it…. Impossible? But if I give you a recipe book, you’ll be able to bake me another cake just like the first one, using fresh ingredients. Think of your CD recording as that cake. It sounds right and all the ingredients are there, but they’re quite impossible to extract from the end product. MIDI information on the other hand is like your recipe book. It contains the information you need to make the cake, but it isn’t the cake itself. In the same way that you can’t pop your cake into some magical device and get back all the original ingredients or even the recipe, there’s no way you can pop in your music CD and get back the music notation from it.

The deepest levels of discipleship

One of the crucial steps in mining metal ores is purification by fire. The metal is heated well beyond its boiling point and impurities float to the surface of the molten metal where the miners are able to scrape them away, leaving the pure element that can then be used for a variety of useful purposes. This process is similar to the Baptism of Fire spoken of by Jesus, different than the Baptism of the Spirit and Baptism by Water. When we go through the Baptism of Fire, we are typically faced with trials where we truly “feel the heat”, well beyond our “boiling point”. These trials of life could be anything that affects us deeply enough to feel this way. Their role? To bring to the surface any minor impurities that may still be buried deep within, that typically we were even unaware of. Such things as deeply buried habits or tendencies or even mere attitudes that are less than perfect, because we are to be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect, so Jesus commanded us! This is a tall order, but one that the Lord Himself will meet. For it is indeed an honour to be called go through the Baptism of Fire – once we have been purified, it is for service – we will be ready to be used for a variety of useful purposes. This is what being a Christian is all about in its deepest levels of discipleship.