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Pleasure – sinful or sacred? There is this Hasidic story that a large drop of honey is placed on the first page of the Torah the first time a Jewish child opens the Scriptures to study it. The child is instructed to lick the honey from the page giving him a pleasurable taste of the sweetness of God’s Word. This is certainly a “sacred pleasure.”
The word “pleasure” is however not something we would link to the “sacred.” This word as well as its more learned cousin “hedonism” connotes something sinful, naughty, shameful, wicked, corrupted, depraved…I think you get the picture!
It is as though when we find some activity enjoyable, or pleasurable, it must also be suspect. Hence, we say that chocolate tastes so good that it must be sinful to indulge in it. Pleasures refer to the things that we should not like but we do anyway.
We all have our own “guilty pleasures.” Some of us like to watch horror flicks just to get some relief from too much care giving. That is, if we do not get too tensed anticipating the actor being mutilated. Some just gorge on their comfort food. Others go for body maintenance under the therapeutic hands of a skilled masseuse. Yet others relish the beauty of the sunset and a stroll on the beach.
Well, I have good news. God wants us to have a good time and enjoy life. Really. The Creator’s own pleasure is watching us creatures savor all that creation has to offer. In fact, Jesus was always getting into trouble with the religious authorities for having a good time. His favorite hangout was the beach. There by the seaside, He would preach, teach, heal, and have picnics with friends. But Jesus never let pleasure dictate His life or ministry. And here is how: whatever we do for fun and pleasure, we do it to the glory of God. That simply means that we do it not just for our own enjoyment but also to bring God pleasure.
So go on, enjoy! Better still, enjoy God…and that is pleasure forevermore.
Read the Eagles VantagePoint November – December 2011 issue now…
Our world is all wired up and connected. Cyberspace is not just information and technology. It is a social space where everyone and anyone can connect with someone somewhere on the planet in real time. You and I can have thousands, even millions, of friends out there at our finger tips! We can share our pictures, philosophies, politics, pleasures, and pet peeves and find like-minded people (people who would click “like”?) as well as opposite-minded ones to chat with, to poke, to tag, to twitter, and to do whatever social media is supposed to do.
By the way, this kind of attention is not new. Centuries ago, a monk by the name of Martin Luther “posted” his 95 theses on the door (like the wall of your Facebook) of a church and started the Protestant movement. He actually used the word “posted.” Today, what is posted on social media platforms may also start revolutions as we have seen in the Middle East.
When printing was invented, spirituality was altered. The masses could read the Holy Scriptures. The people could hear God for themselves and spirituality was no longer the prerogative of the elite. Likewise, the Internet has changed the way we perceive authority and receive knowledge. Now anyone can share his “expert” opinions on any subject online. Now no crime against humanity can be committed in secrecy. Videos are being uploaded as events happen. Voices previously muted or censored are being heard loud and repeatedly. Jesus did say once, “Whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops” (Luke 12:3).
Of course, any technology or medium can bring the best as well as the worst because the users are both saints and sinners. We used to blame TV for making us couch potatoes and affecting our minds. Ultimately, it is not about having your own blog, Facebook page, website, etc. It is about interaction. It is about another way of socializing. Another way of starting a movement, a revolution.
Say, I have to go online…there’s something I need to post.
Read the Eagles VantagePoint September – Ocotber 2011 issue now…
It is okay if you do not know answers to perplexing questions, whether philosophical, existential, scientific or religious ones. Omniscience is a pre-requisite of divinity, not humanity. I am not advocating ignorance. In fact, as followers of Christ, we must be curious, no, more – we must be hungry for the truth. But it is not required that we must have compelling and convincing answers for all hard questions to qualify as faithful witnesses for Christ. What have difficult questions about the Christian faith got to do with evangelism? Nothing. Tough questions are part of our finitude trying to understand the vicissitudes of human existence. And we all, religious or otherwise, simply do not have the capacity to know or understand every puzzle, dilemma, and enigma of life.
Try answering this: where exactly is heaven or hell for that matter? Do we have a grid reference to either location? Well, honestly nobody knows. Neither do I. Even if I can articulate some sort of reasonable answer from biblical and medical data for that question, I have to and probably should admit to my questioner that I basically do not know. Or who is God? And can I prove that He exists? Well, there is really a lot we Christians do not know.
But then, we are not slick salesmen peddling the Gospel with a set of watertight, foolproof or fireproof manuals and FAQs. Christianity contains both certainties and mysteries. God has revealed sufficiently for us to make an intelligent response to Him. And yet, there are “secret things” known only to God (Deuteronomy 29:29) and too complex for our brains to even begin to process! If our questioners are honest, they would certainly agree with this predicament.
Truth can be shared and imparted but mysteries are to be appropriated and experienced. Faith is not just merely knowing but taking a leap. Not in the dark but according to the light that we already have.
What matters is what we can know – that God is there, that God loves us, and that we are important to Him. You know what? Answering hard questions can help us be excited about our faith more than just winning arguments. It is okay if I do not know all the answers. It is not okay if I do not care. So please, give me your best shot!
Read the Eagles VantagePoint July – August 2011 issue now…
Here are some some interesting observations about Jesus’ ministry. Of Jesus’ 132 public appearances in the New Testament, 122 were in the marketplace. Of 52 parables Jesus told, 45 had a workplace context. Of the 40 divine interventions recorded in Acts, 39 were in the marketplace. Jesus called 12 workplace individuals, not clergy, to build his church. In fact, you could say that Jesus spent his adult life as a carpenter, until age 30 when he went into a preaching ministry in the workplace. It seems like if we are to follow Christ, the marketplace (or workplace) is the place to be!
Now here is what I read recently about some non-Christians’ attitudes towards their Christian colleagues. “I wish my Christian co-workers knew more about their faith – what they believe and why.” Isn’t that interesting? Who would have thought the people you work with and for wished you knew more about your faith?
Here’s another: “I wish my Christian co-workers had more hope in hard times.” Of all the things people are looking for in Christians, the one they are most interested in is hope. It seems that when bad things happen in our world – like terrorist attacks or tsunamis – or when bad things happen to people – like illnesses or family breakups – people are looking to Christians for hope.
What’s more ironic is this: “I wish my Christian co-workers behaved more honorably.” It seems that people expect Christ followers to live distinctive lives and are disappointed when they see no difference in the way we live or work. It’s the quality of our lives and our work that will speak louder than our words and our preaching.
It is enlightening that our non-Christian colleagues are not wishing that we Christians would keep our faith to ourselves. Or that we Christians would loosen up and party once in a while or bend the rules a bit to close a sale. The fact is that Christians are still the “go to” people when life gets hard and people are looking for answers. So when they do look to us for hope or help, will they be disappointed by the quality of our faith? Let’s preach less and start living authentically and working diligently. Perhaps then, we might be as effective as our Lord in marketplace ministry!
Read the Eagles VantagePoint March – April 2011 issue for more …
Superman was my favorite comic book hero and Christopher Reeve was every bit what I thought Superman should look like. Imagine the shock and profound sense of sadness when I read about the horse riding accident on May 27, 1995 that left him a paraplegic. What a tragedy! What a waste of incredible talents and genuine charm! The grief was not that Reeve’s Superman could no longer be super but that Reeve the good person and nice guy did not deserve such an awful vicissitude in life. Yet, in his unenviable existence as a handicap, Reeve had became a real superhuman – a hero in every sense of the word.
After five Superman movies, Reeve seemed to have the whole world at his feet. In reel life, he was the greatest of superheroes. Villains of the comic and celluloid world beware! In real life, he had a loving family and he was touring the world using his celebrity status for a greater good. He supported human rights and environmental preservation long before it was hip for movie and rock stars to do so. Occasionally, he would don his Superman costume and visit terminally ill children.
Later on, confined to a wheelchair, he would actively continue his life as an activist by raising millions of dollars for spinal cord research, while still continuing his involvement in the film industry. A director, a producer, and an actor, combined with being a husband and loving father, Reeve never gave up on life. He lived with the resurging hope that one day doctors might find a cure for spinal cord injuries.
Christopher Reeve had portrayed two heroic roles in his lifetime. One as the world’s greatest, fastest, and strongest hero fighting the bad dudes and rescuing the helpless and the innocent. Another as a normal and frail human being who managed to overcome life’s greatest obstacles to live in a meaningful and self giving way. He once said, “I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” By this definition, I am far from being a hero. And I think that if Jesus had a follower like Christopher Reeve, Jesus would have been proud of him.
Read the Eagles VantagePoint November – December 2010 issue for more about heroes…
Who says consumerism is not good? It is like a religious experience that will meet our basic needs and anxieties. With the constant supply and surplus of consumables and the allure of the finer things of life, we feel guilty if we do not consume and elated when we do.
Somehow everyone nowadays thinks he is entitled to have and to hold the latest gadgets, that dream car, that exotic vacation, and the coolest brands. It makes a difference to a young person (and the not so young!) whether her jeans have “Calvin Klein” or some no brand name imprinted on the rear. Yes, there are lots of products that will lift the soul.
Consumerism is demanding of its devotees. The modern family – the one rewarded in our new religion – is where both spouses work hard at their jobs, focusing on financial security now as well as for the sunset years. Childbearing? That is an option way behind stock options. The economic process defines for us what it is to be truly human and what the meaning of life is about, i.e., life consists of the abundance of things. This system punishes the unworthy – those who are unproductive and not so ambitious. Indeed, blessed are the materialistic for they shall amass beyond their needs.
Ironically, the Baal of the religion of consumerism has been courting a strong rival in Christianity in order to destroy it from within. Many high priests of consumerism are Christians who unabashedly and uncritically declare that prosperity is the Gospel.
At the end of the day, we ourselves are to blame because we have succumbed to the deadly sins of avarice and greed. Wall Street 2 is coming. Greed is still good? In what way do we Christians, if at all, actually resist consumerism? The answer is not asceticism or poverty for its own sake. Rather, we can be more frugal in our lifestyles. Or we can live more comfortably, but give more generously to good causes and the underprivileged. We can also choose work that will help people and add value to their lives rather than according to how well it pays. And last but not least, we can resist the worship of consumerism by being consumed with seeking first God and His Kingdom. Now will you buy that?
Read the September – October 2010 issue of Eagles VantagePoint for more…
“The men don’t get it.” This clever slogan advertising a credit card exclusively for ladies certainly expresses a distinctive difference between the genders. We men really do not understand women. They are emotional, irrational, and impossible! We fret when they cry and wonder why the tears seem to gush out so easily.
As my wife has frequently reminded me whenever she shares a problem that she is not looking for a solution but empathy. Of course, representing the typical male species, I am a problem solver. That is our default mode and we think that offering solutions is the most practical and “loving” thing to do. Indeed, marital relationships would be much smoother if husbands realize that a listening ear and an empathetic heart are what our wives really need first and most of the time. Solutions and answers can come later on but the emotional dimension is the key to a woman’s heart and mind. Maybe I am stereotyping but that is what my wife tells me!
Perhaps we are not all that different. Deep down inside, men and women have similar needs for acceptance, affirmation, applause, and adulation. We simply crave to love and be loved. It is just that we express it and seek for it differently. Indeed, discovering and speaking “love languages” has become an effective way for couples to understand each other and grow in maturity in their marriages or relationships.
Jesus certainly went against prevailing traditions and attitudes toward women. Men did not speak to women in public, yet He spoke to women in the open, such as the Samaritan woman in John chapter four. Unlike His Jewish and pagan contemporaries, Jesus was not derogatory about women’s nature, ability or religious capacities. At each of His encounters with women in the Gospels, Jesus treated them as people intrinsically intelligent and worthy of God’s grace. He did not view women in terms of sexual temptation or as objects of sexual gratification. He encouraged women to serve without specifying boundaries. Jesus certainly has gotten it!
The Eagles VantagePoint July-August 2010 issue seeks to highlight the challenges and prejudices that women face today as well as celebrate the role and contribution of the women in life and society. Most men have at least two significant women in our lives – mother and wife. Without them, we will never be. Got it?
I read an illustration recently about a perfect man who met a perfect woman. After a perfect courtship, they had a perfect wedding. Their life together was, of course, perfect. Then one stormy Christmas Eve, this perfect couple was driving along a winding road when they noticed someone in distress on the side of the road. Being the perfect couple, they stopped to help. There stood Santa Claus with a huge bundle of toys and a broken sleigh. Not wanting to disappoint any children on the eve of Christmas, the perfect couple loaded Santa Claus and his toys into their car. Soon they were driving along delivering the toys. The weather was getting worse and driving conditions deteriorated. Unfortunately, the perfect couple and Santa Claus skidded off the road. Only one of them survived the tragic accident. Who was the sole survivor?
The perfect woman, of course. Because, after all, she is the only one that really existed in the first place. Everyone knows there is no Santa Claus and no such thing as a perfect man!
Well, the men’s response might be: If there is no such thing as a perfect man or Santa Claus, then the perfect woman must have been driving… which explains why there was a car accident.
There is certainly no such thing as a perfect man although the media has offered examples of the macho man. The likes of Dirty Harry and James Bond are supposed to portray what real men are made of. They are strong, decisive, independent, and always in control of their lives, emotions, and romances. And, they certainly do not weep over flowers and sunsets.
Is the new sensitive man a modern construct in response to feminism’s assault on traditional notions of masculinity? What does it mean to be manly today? Is it swish or swagger? Society used to expect us men to swagger like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Now we are required to embrace our feminine side and to develop swishier traits such as the ability to create and nurture connections, kindness, and communication. Women have certainly come a long way in creating positive new roles for themselves in our modern era. Perhaps we men need to redefine what it means to be a man today.
When we come to the Church, we have an even bigger problem… where have all the (young and old) men gone? I have a feeling that this issue (May – June 2010 of Eagles VantagePoint) will help make more of a man out of me!
Once I was asked to speak with a young man who had loads of questions about Christianity. He was well read and had many objections. His friends were not able to entertain all his tough questions and thought that since I was teaching Christian Apologetics, I could be of help. So I sat him down in my office while his friends prayed in the next room. “Fabian,” I said, “What are your questions and if I can answer them to your satisfaction, would you consider following Christ?” He replied, “I don’t know because I have all these questions swimming in my head.”
For the next hour, he unleashed all his objections about Christianity and I patiently listened and offered clarifications, rationales, and all possible answers. After more than 2,000 years of study and scholarship, there are no questions under the sun that the Church has not encountered and sought to give reasonable answers. Fabian soon ran out of questions. I broached the question about following Christ if all his objections were answered. Then he revealed why he was hesitant about becoming a Christian. “I wouldn’t be able to enjoy life and do all the things I wanted!”
In other words, all the intellectual and philosophical questions were not the reason why Fabian could not follow Christ. They were excuses or a smokescreen. His issue was that by following Christ, life would be restrictive and boring. He would not be able to indulge in life’s pleasures and have fun anymore. That’s really a misconception about being a Christian. But where did Fabian get that impression from?
It would not be wrong to say that Christians are the ones perpetuating this misconception. We have often presented Christianity and the Church as no nonsense, humorless, dull, full of rules and regulations, and dead serious. Obviously God has a sense of humor to have granted Sarah fertility when she was way past the age. Obviously God was having fun, so to speak, when He commanded Gideon to fight against ten thousand commandos with only three hundred unarmed soldiers! Check out the March – April 2010 issue of Eagles VantagePoint, where we hope to have rectified this somewhat and suggest that humor is heavenly and laughter is divine. God must have a sense of humor. He created you, didn’t He? Come on, have a laugh… it’s okay!
The point about healing is not the healing itself. Luke 17:11-19 tells us about the ten lepers who were blessed for their faith. They had leprosy, a disease for which there was no cure. It was like a slow death sentence – an arm now, a leg or ear later. Everybody would have told them that it was useless to ask for help. If they had believed that, they would have died. But one day they heard about Jesus, and their hopes began to rise. Then they met Jesus and said to him, “Master, have mercy upon us.”
Jesus saw a way to test their faith. He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” They could have looked at each other and said, “Well, nothing is going to happen to us!” Instead, they obeyed him. As they went, they were cleansed. What a tremendous experience!
The point about healing is our response to the Healer. The ten were all healed. But only one took the trouble to come back and say, “thank you.”
It is not far-fetched to imagine tears running down our Lord’s cheeks when he asked, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?” There could be many reasons why the nine did not come back. Certainly one is that miracles do not automatically guarantee that they become changed in their attitude or freed from pride and self-centeredness. Instead of giving thanks, they were just as self-absorbed as they were in their previous leprous state.
All the ten lepers received a physical blessing the first time, but the one who came back the second time received an even greater blessing. Jesus said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” The man learned that spiritual blessings are more important than physical blessings. The lepers who did not thank Jesus had the blessing of healing, but they missed the blessing of wholeness.
The articles in January – February 2010 issue of Eagles VantagePoint will affirm that physical healing is a divine gift. Some do experience miraculous healing while others continue to live with their condition. God has His purpose in both situations and that purpose is to go beyond the physical.
Get the point?
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