Parable of the Unjust Steward: Mystery solved?

Chaplain Mike rules the day again!

Has anyone ever read the Parable of the Unjust Steward?

Just a few months ago, I was struggling with interpreting this very same parable. I just didn't make sense - Why would any boss praise his subordinate for giving away his money??

So today, when I was catching up with Chaplain Mike's older posts, I saw his take (or rather, C. Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables, p. 224) on it:

The subordinate goes to each of his boss’s debtors and writes off his own commission from what they owe. In so doing, “his master was not out any money rightfully his, the servant himself absorbed the loss, amends for previous wastage were partially made, and the man gained new friends who would care for him after his firing”

It's a pretty brilliant explanation, but I'm still not totally convinced. Thoughts, anyone?

Here's the audio bible version of the parable for you to listen, if you like :P

There's no point in having mega churches

Chaplain Mike just wrote an excellent post about why he doesn't see the need for big/mega churches.

I fully agree with what he's said. But, to be fair, mega churches aren't exactly a new thing that's only occurred in today's modern society. In fact, you could probably say that the first mega church appeared almost 2000 years ago! And it didn't take months or years for the church to expand - All it took was one sermon. Overnight, the size of the early Jerusalem church exploded by 25 fold, from 120 disciples to about 3000 members!

Listen to these passages in Acts 2:

So a little bit of Christian trivia, for those who might be interested - What happened to the early Christian church, and how did it become such a split of churches and denominations as we know it today?

Well, the early Jerusalem church quickly grew in size to 5000+ members over the weeks after the Pentecost, and administration became more and more difficult. To make things easier, the church itself was 'split' into groups. These groups, however, lived as one church with one faith, one baptism, common dogmas and very closed rituals throughout the whole world for about five centuries. It was only later in 451 AD that a true split occurred, in terms of teaching and practices.

You can read more here and here.

So, do we really need mega churches? I would compare the Jerusalem church to the Catholic church today, where people are given more individual attention, but basically follow the same set of teachings. Like Chaplain Mike, I too do not see the need of having huge congregations worship together, like a multinational corporation. It becomes too commercialized for me.

I grew up in a very small church. Because it was small, it was very personal and very close knit. Everyone knew everyone, and could support each other in a very personal manner. I'm not saying that this can't happen in 'small groups' in mega churches, but is there a need? Or is it pure publicity and commercialization at work?

Perhaps the only other 'advantage' to having a mega church would be the fact where there'd be a huge pool of talents to harvest and put to use. There'd be no shortage for musicians or sound crew, no shortage of people to take charge of bible study groups. But then it also becomes a pseudo corporate ladder for the people to climb.

Having served in the worship team previously, I'd like to pose this question to my readers: Which do you think is better - A worship team that sounds great and is professional, or a worship team that's not really that good, but with team members who are sincere and committed to Christ?

We humans like to complicate things, don't we? As our thinking becomes more individualistic, so does our faith - We start to live by our own rules, and to interpret things by our own thinking.

Warning: Don't eat apples!

Stop it! It's NOT an apple! You know the myth that the Adam's apple was named like so because Adam ate of the 'apple' in the garden of Eden? Who said it was an apple to begin with?! *rawr* See, that's how the Bible gets distorted over time, through myths and the like. (And if it really was an apple, why are we still eating is so happily??)

Read (or listen) carefully now:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. (Genesis 3:1-6, NIV)

So, how did it become an apple?? *puzzled* But it's amazing how many people actually think that apples caused humanity's downfall...

Thinking about apples, I can't help but think about the iPhone.

I know, I know, I'm becoming really mainstream

and annoying of late. I actually am thinking of becoming an Apple convert! *gasps* But the reason why I've been thinking of Apple a lot recently is really because of the event I'm in the midst of organizing - It's constantly on my mind these days.

A little bit of shameless advertising: SMUS (also known as StartMeUp@Stockholm) will be a 2 day 1 night camp for youth to learn about entrepreneurship, then go out and be actual entrepreneurs for the duration of the camp.

We're hoping to get smartphone product loan sponsors (well they can give it to us if they like! :P), which will be used to film and livestream what the participants are doing throughout the camp. (Think: Live paparazzi!) So if you know anyone who has phones to spare/is working in a telco company/is working in Apple/Sony Ericsson/Nokia, drop me a mail at followSMUS at gmail dot com! :D

Christians are savages and butchers

I watched this video posted by BibleExposition.net on Yom Kippur, by SourceFlix.

The Sacrificial Lamb from SourceFlix on Vimeo.

Does anyone else watch this video and feel like they're being thrust into a horror movie? I found the scene where they slaughtered the lamb, then cheered and rejoiced, extremely disturbing. Animal cruelty organizations should come down on this.

"Animal sacrifices are a very heavy thing... The only thing that gives life meaning is the recognition of death, and doing animal sacrifice correctly, recognizing that could be me... that what I owe God for is my life. It's a very powerful experience (not for God, He's not going to eat the steak) - It's for us. It's my recognition that I've done something that damages the world. This animal should be me."

I wonder, then, why they didn't just use human sacrifices. If someone died, would you rejoice or mourn?

Q: "Can you receive the forgiveness of sins without the shedding of the blood of animals?"

A: "No. It says in Leviticus that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.."

Now, before the rest of the world thinks that the Bible is a book for savages, and all Christians are blood thirsty creatures, let me clarify this. This ritual was stated in Leviticus. In the Old Testament. Before Christ came, there was no other way of atonement for sins. Blood for blood. It sounds cruel to use an animal's life to substitute your own, I know, but that was exactly what it was. But wait, didn't Jesus come to be the sacrificial lamb for the rest of eternity?

Are we falling into that trap of following a ritual blindly, without ever wondering why they came to exist in the first place, and whether such a ritual is relevant now?

Jag alskar dig, eller jag gillar dig?

I was spending time catching up with my blog following - Everyone's been so productive and the few days away at DisruptiveCode really 'disrupted' my schedule! :P (Not to mention my 1 day bimbo hunt to try to make CritiqalChristianity look nicer. I still think it looks kiddish, but I'll get my ass moving to change that soon.)

Every time I read Idle musings of a bookseller's posts, I can literally feel his passion for books ooze out of him. Friends, this is not a job - This guy sells books not because he has to, but because he loves to.

How many of us are passionate about what we do? How many of us love our jobs and our studies?

I love my job. I can't see myself doing it for the next few years, and I don't love all parts of it, but I do love it. It's the reason why I can spend weekends and weeknights thinking about it, scribbling bits of thoughts on it, looking out for it wherever I go.

I'm also running an event, StartMeUp@Stockholm (S.M.U.S). I dream about it. I talk about it to almost everyone I meet. I even worked on it till late last night and didn't realize that I'd subconsciously crawled to bed and knocked myself out - half of my body dangling off the bed's edge. And I will shamelessly start promoting it the moment our online publicity material goes live :P

2 weeks back, I also visited a dear friend of mine who's been happily attached for several years now. Looking at the couple, you could see the sparks still flying between them. They didn't have to express their feelings for each other out loud - their actions, glances and expressions exuded the tender love that they felt for each other.

What about you? Are you counting down the hours to fika or to the end of the work day, where we make a beeline for the nearest bar for a beer and good company (the best part of the day)? Are you in a relationship or in a marriage because it's just too tiresome to change the status quo?

What about Christianity? Is Christianity a passionate relationship or a cold ritual to you? Is 'I am a Christian' a dormant label on our tshirt which helps to fill out spreadsheets with the field marked 'religion'? Do you want to go about telling the world about your passion and love, or do you find yourself sometimes reluctant to tell others that 'i go to church on Sundays'?

I pose these questions not only to you, my readers, but to myself as well.

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." (Matthew 7:3-5, NIV)

The Nazi revolution begins!

This post comes terribly late, but I guess stale news is still better than moldy news.

Sweden's elections took place last Sunday, and the final tally is out - The Blue party (right wing) won with 49.28% of the votes, the Red/Green party (left wing) took second place with 43.6%, while the Sverige Democrats took a surprising 5.7% of the remaining slice.

Don't remember the Sverigedemokraterna (SD)? Read There's a bomb in Stockholm to see what the huge fuss is about.

All in all, a very disappointing election. It was especially shocking to see that in some municipals, more than 11% of the population had supported SD. More than 1% of the voters had submitted blank votes, while 15% didn't even show up for voting. Many people treated the voting process lightly, and a large percentage voted without even knowing what the party was truly offering. Sad, isn't it?

But I've never gotten so involved in politics before. Singaporeans might complain when taxes rise from 5% to 7%, but we are contented enough to not bother ourselves with trying to vote PAP off the seat. Sweden, too, in a very similar state of content - which probably explains the uninformed manner of voting. People simply don't care.

As Christians, are we also in a state of content? Perhaps the members are happy, weekly activities are going well and everyone has settled into a comfortable routine. "Don't fix what isn't broken", after all.

Or, are we like this group of enthusiastic artists who want to make a difference? (Thanks Julie for the heads up! :))

Let's make a difference today!

Pastoring should be an unpaid job

Alan Knox at The Assembling of the Church posted about his friend Eric who's resigning from professional pastoring:

After much study of scripture, prayer, discussions with some of my friends, and reading good books, I have come to the conclusion that I can no longer in good conscience remain a salaried pastor. I cannot find it anywhere in the bible, so I’m not going to do it.

Last Wednesday evening I informed the sweet people of Chevis Oaks Baptist Church that I will be resigning as pastor.

I'm impressed, I really am. I've friends who have given their 101% to serve wholeheartedly in mentoring the music ministry while holding on to their full time jobs to pay the bills. Others have given up their holidays to help out youth ministry, or taken huge pay cuts in well paying jobs to serve in church.

Contrary to thought (and bad publicity), pastors don't always make obscene sums of money. And pastoring isn't always an easy job. It can be discouraging and pressurizing,

It's difficult enough to take on the role as a full-time pastor in a church (salaried or not), and another completely different story to step back into reality with no job waiting for you, plus a family of 5 to support. That, my friends, is pure faith.

I've posted quite a bit today. Thanks to these posts, I've questioned myself, been encouraged, and inspired. What a great journey!

I'm a bimbo

After spending 2 great days at Disruptive Code (#dcode) with many of the best web developers around, I took a look at my blog and was ashamed. I didn't even have a 'retweet this' button!

So today I set out with the goal of trying to get my blog a little more spruced up, and to slowly move away from my customized Blogger template settings :P

It was, let me just say, a painful process. Five hours later, I've finally gotten my little buttons up, and I'm still on the awful customized template. *hides face*

I admit it. I'm a bimbo. Even though I look nothing like it, and I've been denying this for ages. I'll go dye my hair blond in just a bit. Anyone remember the bimbo cheer?:

I'm a bimbo! *clap twice*

I'm a bimbo! *clap twice*

I'm a B-I-M... *voice drains away*

I'm a B-I-M... *voice gets smaller*

... whatever I'm a bimbo! *shrugs and looks around in triumph*

Don't know how it goes? Poke me and i MIGHT show you :P

But!! I've finally gotten my twitter livestream up, as well as all the fiddly buttons. Make it worthwhile, and tag your tweets with a #critchris hashtag so others (and me!) will know what you think :)

Update: New banner finally up too :)

There's a bomb in Stockholm!

The Swedish elections are underway, and voting ends this Sunday! Unlike Singapore, where the majority aren't very hyped up (or perhaps even unaware) about who gets a seat in the parliament, Swedes are actually rather passionate and concerned about who they're voting for. You can almost feel an undercurrent of electric tension pulsing through the city. It's amazing, because Swedes are generally very temperate creatures - if you can feel their emotions churning, something big is definitely up!

On my way to work today, I passed by approximately 15 police cars/trucks/motorcycles. That's more police seen in one day than in the past 8 months! Every corner I turned I saw the neon blue and yellow trucks, and for once I was really afraid of exceeding the speed limit. I thought - there must have been a bomb threat! But in peace-loving Sweden?? How could that be??

Well, it turns out that the leader of Sverigedemokraterna, a controversial political party who's against immigrants, had a speech at Sergelstorg just a few streets away from my office. So much hassle and bustle for one man! I later learnt that many people fear that Sverigedemokraterna would get enough votes to get a seat in the parliament, and that several appearances had already been canceled earlier this week because the audience got violent. So, the huge army of policemen weren't undeserved.

A quick line about the Sverigedemokraterna party - They started off on the same track as Hitler and the Nazis, have evolved since, but have kept their implacable opposition to immigration and multiculturalism.

It's interesting, though, how people possessively claim countries as their own. After all, someone had to first migrate here, right? Who gave us the right to say that 'this land is ours, and we have the right to buy/sell/rule it"?

Sometimes, in my daydreams, I think about the past where the Red Indian tribes would take whatever they needed - not more, not less. They took enough to sustain and survive, and whatever they took was later returned to the earth. They didn't claim more - that would take extra manpower to maintain and that simply didn't make sense. If there was a lack of food, they would share. The whole tribe was like one big family, one large corporation withOUT the politics.

But then the Whites came in, drawing territorial lines and introducing technology. Bargaining power came into place and the whole "just be self-sustaining" thing just went pfft! out of the window.

Sad, isn't it, how we've evolved? Technology was supposed to make life simpler and better, yet we now seem to have made life more complicated. We've come to think that we can do anything. And we've come to 'play God'.

We dictate, we rule, we create, we destroy. We want power. But, most of all, we want freedom. We want to overrule God's dominion over us, to be greater than God, to disprove God's existence.

Has our pride grown so great?

But then again, what if there's no God?


Photo courtesy flickr user Heinrock

Church is just another compulsory lecture

Church attendance is compulsory. Skip, and you will 'flunk' your life.

Let's see why this statement is true:

We go for lectures

We take notes

If it's boring, we fall asleep

Otherwise, we'll pass funny notes to entertain ourselves

After lectures, we hang out with our friends

We go to church

We take notes

If it's boring, we fall asleep

Otherwise, we'll pass funny notes to entertain ourselves

After church, we hang out with our friends

It's strange, don't you think, our mentality of going to church? It's as though it's a compulsory class that we have to go for. Why are we wasting our Sundays going to church to sleep, when we could spend that time lazing in bed, nursing a hangover or having a great weekend at the beach with our friends?

It's as though church is a module that you sign up for, that we sometimes skip because there are more important things to do. In fact, church would probably be the least interactive lecture that I've ever attended - nobody every raises questions or asks the pastor to clarify areas in the middle of a sermon. After all, why not? Aren't we constantly encouraged to speak up in class so that everyone can learn a bit more?

[random mumblings] I find myself constantly thinking of ways to make the Bible easier to read, simpler to access. But what happened to that thirst for knowledge, that hunger for God? Where is our want to know God better? [/random mumblings]

Mood: Sketchy

I've been in a sketchy mood ever since I went to France over the weekend, and was in the mood to cartoonize the entire Voxbiblia site. But I realized it might not be so practical, and decided to make it my blog's pic instead. You think? :P

Freeology

So, here's a work-related question:

Should Voxbiblia give away free KJV audio Bibles, no strings attached?

I previously blogged a post about Voxbiblia giving away free audio Bibles, and it seems like few people are willing to spend time creating an album to get one. (Makes the Bible sound sadly cheap and unwanted huh...)

And so I was wondering what the response would be like if we were to give away KJV audio Bibles for free, with no strings attached.

Photo ©Copyright/Courtesty of zazzle.com

Why the KJV? Because...

... There's no copyright issues involved

... Therefore there are no royalties to be paid

... Although it was really expensive creating high quality recordings, it would be more worthwhile letting more people use it, instead of trying to recoup the money spent or earn a profit from it

What do you think? Should Voxbiblia give away free KJV audio Bibles?

[interesting fact] The KJV Bible will be 400 years old next year! O.O [/interesting fact]

We're crappy at adapting

Technology's a wonderful thing, but can we adapt fast enough to use it?

This video reminds me of my dear mum, who's fantastic but (used to be) computer illiterate. I remember asking her to hibernate my computer once - only to have her press the power button. I didn't save my work, so pfft! it all disappeared. If that happened today, I'd probably throw a fit :P [Hint: Ctrl+S is your best friend :D]

Sometimes, I wonder how many people will get used to Voxbiblia's new style of navigating the Bible. It's a terrific concept and I love it, but people take time to grasp new concepts, even if there's helpdesk :P I wonder how many people would have the time or patience to fiddle with Voxbiblia...

But well, if you're one of those people, drop me an email and I'll happily get back to you! :)

Why not? It's free!

Yesterday, I blogged a post on how I get to give out free audio Bibles. I received several requests for them, but when I asked them to do up a quick album at Voxbiblia with their favourite Bible verses, the interest suddenly switched off.

I couldn't help but wonder - why? Was it a lot to ask for others to share verses which inspired them? Is it because people naturally don't like to share verses which have kept them going, or is it because this comes from a "company's request"?

I realized that when people hear that something is free, they instantly go "Why not? Give me two!" But how many people, upon getting these free gifts, actually keep and use them, even if these things are valuable?

In actual fact, the free audio Bibles are not free. Someone paid for them, and it wasn't in cents. It was in thousands of dollars. But rather than trying to recuperate the 'loss' by waiting for people to purchase them, my boss decided to give them away so that others might benefit from them. But if we don't have to pay for stuff, do we really treasure it?

It's the same with Christianity, I guess. We all go around promoting that God's gift to us - the gift of eternal life - is free. But how many of us, after receiving this gift, actually treasure it?

So anyway, I decided not to give away these audio Bible for absolutely nothing. A bit stingy of me, given my boss' generosity, but if you really want a free audio Bible, just take 5 minutes to create an album, or if you have no Bible verses to share, drop me a comment/email on why you would really want one! :)

I get to give out free audio Bibles!

Now, I have a wonderful boss at Voxbiblia who's encouraging and inspiring in many ways, but we have a constant friendly debate on the prices of our audio Bibles. You see, the publishing houses (copyright holders of the respective Bible translations) not only collect royalties for the Bibles we sell, they also fix the prices that we can sell it at.

I personally think it's a little expensive. But it's out of our control.

Then today, my boss announced that he was feeling generous. You see, he prepays a minimum sum in order to host the Bible translations (NIV, TNIV, KJV, etc) on our site, and he felt that it'd be a waste if no one got to use it.

Here's the nice part - I get to give away free NIV, TNIV or KJV audio Bibles to anyone I want! Quick, become my friend! :P

In any case, tweet me @chrishweehwee if you'd like a free NIV, TNIV or KJV audio Bible, or drop me a mail at chris@voxbiblia.com :)

In return, I'd love it if you peeps could drop over to Voxbiblia.com and create an album that shares with me your favourite Bible verses. It's something that I ask all my interviewees, and these verses have been a source of inspiration to me. Tell me how these Bible verses have inspired you (write that in the description). Then include the album title in your tweet/email, so I can read it when you're done!

Edit: If creating an album is too much hassle to ask for, then simply retweet my tweet or post this message on your Facebook wall, and I'll get you an 80% discount on your purchase instead :)

I can only give away that many audio Bibles (depending on the translations), so do it now! :D

And of course, if you have the cash to spare, do purchase one as well so that I can keep my job :P

Michael Jackson set the trend, the rest of us simply adopted his values

I've recently started on a course called Trendspotting, under the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship. It's an interesting class, attended by people from all faculties and all walks of live - I've never seen a class so full of people who want to learn, and aren't taking the module just to get their credits.

One of the things that we discussed today was that our values often times play a significant role in forming trends. I agree - When someone throws out an idea/product that corresponds with the values in our life, we get hooked on to it pretty fast. And when we adopt an idea/product that is in line with our goals in life, we start a trend.

But one thing our professor pointed out was that people had noticed a trend of our shifting values. Over the last 30 years (and even before), we have started to shift from having idealistic values and valuing security, to materialism and openness to change.

I was a little uncomfortable with him labeling materialism as a value. Does anyone else see the irony in this? We've shifted so far from preserving 'old traditions and values', to actually associate materialism with something of value.

One of the synonyms of value is "To regard highly". I think it's scary that we live in a society that regards money so highly, that they can abandon ideals such as justice and equality with the flick of the finger. Then again, I'm an idealist. I don't want to live for money - I want to live. And I've seen, too many times, how the pursuit of money can destroy your ultimate aim - the pursuit for happiness.

I'll end this post with a last thought - Could it be that our values aren't what's shaping trends, but that our trends are also what forms our values? In the chase to keep up with the 'next big thing', our personal values change. Michael Jackson was a trend-setter whose dance moves revolutionized today's dance forms. Back in his time, line dancing was the most extreme you could get. (Have you watched the Stylistics? It's hilarious! :P) And I bet that, when he first started, his now-famous-crotch-grabbing-with-a-high-pitch-yell move was considered unthinkable and obscene. Now, you see that dance move everywhere, especially in the hip hop and modern dance sectors. Did our values set the trends? Well, Michael Jackson's values, openness to change and exploratory mind did set the trend. But for the rest of the world, I believe that trends were what mutated our value system.

But I could be wrong - After all, I'm just a student.



[On a side note, I really liked Michael Jackson's dance moves, and I thought he looked good when he was still in his Thriller era :P]

Sketchy Ice Creams

Benjamin Myers wrote a touching blogpost about his daughter breaking her drawing arm, and subsequently posted a funny video about how someone had already documented it happening:



I wonder what fathers must go through every day. My dad is the sole breadwinner in my family, yet he still finds time to plan his days around us. I remember, as a young mischievous kid, jumping on my dad when he got back from work, bouncing on his tummy and getting him to play the guitar and sing songs with my mum and sister. Sometimes I honestly wonder where he finds the time and energy to look after two kids (one of which is very hyperactive), protect us from our own mischief while supporting the family at the same time.

So imagine a father with gazillions of kids, all clamoring for His attention. All wanting to feel loved, supported, special. All wanting a healing touch. Yes, I'm talking about God. I wonder where He gets all the time to hear what we've got to say, much less respond to us. If he gets one email per prayer request, I bet His mailbox would be flooded in a split second. And yet, He's still giving out the promise that He will hear all prayer. And I haven't heard the "Due to the overwhelming number of emails that I get each day, I might not be able to respond to all of them. But I do promise to read all your emails" disclaimer yet!


"As for me, I will call upon God; And Jehovah will save me. Evening, and morning, and at noonday, will I complain, and moan; And he will hear my voice." -- Psalms 55:16-17 (ASV)

I'm quite a feminist

I'm quite a feminist.

The reason why I can't say that I'm a true feminist is because I don't agree with quite a number of the extremist views of feminism. I believe that man and woman should get equal rights, but not that women are the superior race. Which also means that, being a feminist, I don't expect guys to open doors for me :P

But there's one phrase in the Bible which puzzles me:

"As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached?" (1 Cor. 14:33b-36 NIV)

Yet, did God not give women intelligence as well?

I was watching a movie, Pope Joan, the other night. It depicted the oppression of women, particularly those in the post Roman times, perfectly. It tells the story of a talented woman, Johanna Anglicus, with great wisdom. So great was her thirst for knowledge, that she begged her brother to teach her to read and write. Yet, instead of bring praised and recognized for her abilities, she was criticized and called an abnormal creature for most of her childhood.

Later, she disguised herself as a man and, in time, became a valued aide to the pope at Schola Anglorum, a Roman church which had the ruling authority over the Roman empire. Despite being a foreigner, her wisdom impressed the people and when the reigning pope died, she was unexpectedly elected as his successor. She went on to care for the people, tending to the needs of the poor and essentially banishing the elitist system.

When she died, her identity was discovered. Despite all the good that she did for the people as well as all the societal reforms that she set in place, she instantly became the shame of Roman church, and her all her efforts were undone overnight. It was a sad story of how society's pride destroyed wisdom, and I was left with a heavy burden on my heart.

But one phrase struck deep in the movie -

"How can woman be second to man in creation? She was made out of Adam's rib. Adam, on the other hand, was molded from common clay.

As for strength of will, woman can be viewed as superior to man. Eve ate from the apple as a love of knowledge and learning. Adam ate only because Eve asked him to."

Indeed, why are woman asked to be silent? Why were women deemed as second class citizens since the beginning of time? We all have different places in life, it's true, and I do agree that the rise of feminist views are probably what's caused our current dwindling birth rates - the one thing that men cannot take the place of. But why has society categorized women as less when we can do everything man can and, dare I say it, more?

So, if anyone is reading this, let the verbal war begin :P

Sportsmanship and crutches

Wow. When I watched this clip, I almost started crying in office.

Julie wrote a wonderful post about this clip, which you can read here. (Thanks Julie for sharing!)

I'm a shooter. I train air pistol semi-seriously (don't laugh now, it's a serious sport!) back in Singapore. But no matter how serious I was, I will always remember the values that my coach have implanted into me: When you start a competition, you finish it. Even if you know you've screwed up, even if you somehow misfired a horrible shot and know you cannot possibly win, you keep shooting.

That's true sportsmanship, not the guys playing soccer while trying to get away with as many fake faults as possible :P But this also applies very much to every part of life. We all stumble at some points in our life. We crumble, we fall. And when we finally get on our feet again, there are people telling us "it's over, stop running!". Some friends might assist you along the way, giving you a shoulder to lean on, but few of them keep supporting you till the finish.

Is there anyone we can hold on to for support? I have a friend who once told me that "the only reason why we want to believe in God so badly is because we want to have a crutch to lean on". Is that true? Perhaps. But knowing that I've got a dependable 'daddy' to run my race with has helped me get this far.

What about you? Who has been there for you when you needed it most?