Easter Bee

Today Pastor Tony gave one of the most humanized illustrations of Christ's death for us. It went something like this:

| A man was driving down a country road one beautiful morning. His son was next to him. The day was so nice he decided to wind down the windows.

As they were traveling along, a bee suddenly flew into the car. His son was terrified for he had a fatal allergy to bee stings.

As the bee buzzed around in the car, the father tried to protect his frantic son. When the bee finally landed on the windshield, the father quickly grabbed the bee with his hand and held it.

The little boy was relieved. But before he knew it, his father let go the bee and it started buzzing around again.

"Dad", he wailed. "What are you doing?!"

"Don't worry," assured the father. "The bee can't harm you anymore."

He opened his palm and showed it to his child, "Look, the stinger's in my hand." |

Thank you Jesus for the pierced hands that saved us from the sting of death.

Happy Easter to all.

Chasing the Filopio

We just spent 3 days listening to Dr. Jackie Pullinger. She’s the author of Chasing the Dragon. In comparison to hers, my life is a joke. It was not her intention to make my life feel like a joke, but that’s just how it is.

How does a teenage girl from the west come to the east and minister in one of its darkest cities? A city that even easterners fear to tread? God’s grace, no doubt. But it also took oceans of obedience and loads of faith on her part.

For over 40 odd years, Dr. Pullinger has been ministering to the poor, the down-trodden, the “bad” (as some of us holier-than-thous would label them) – from addicts to prostitutes to pimps. Her life is one amazing testimony after another; testimonies of obedience followed by God’s amazing power.

I had to reevaluate. She said no ministry exempts us from ministering to the poor, because ministering to the poor was what Jesus did plenty of. That’s when I realized the Bible doesn’t make mention of Jesus playing the drums. Then I realized how I needed to re-prioritize.

Yes, yes, I know Jesus is glad when we play the drums (or piccolo or triangle for that matter) unto Him. However, I’ve come to realize how little I’ve done of what Jesus did most. It’s not too late though. Thankfully at the end of her amazing stories, Dr. Pullinger didn’t leave us hanging.

She even told us where to start. You can do the same. Pray that God will open our eyes to see the poor. How can we begin to minister to them when we can’t (or don’t want to) even notice them? Once we’ve learnt not to turn a blind eye, we can at least start praying for them.

After that, who knows where God will lead.

For now, I need to write a book about my comparatively nonsensical life. Hazel said my title should be equally nonsensical and suggested Chasing the Filopio. I was leaning more towards Chasing the Mimsy, Chasing the Slithy Toves or Chasing the Mome Raths. Which you likes?

These titles are inspired by a song about some of us. The lyrics go like so:

Twas Brillig and the Slithy Toves
Did Gyre and Gimble in the wabe
All the mimsy were the Borogoves

And the Mome Raths outgrabe.