Friday's Recap (220509)

Dear Cell, last Friday we talked about our super-sense, the far sightedness of faith. As scientists fall back on science to discover the complexities of this cosmos (many, many universes), we Christians fall back on faith to discover the simplicity of the Creator of this cosmos. Needless to say, our faith has been a target of atheistic mockery because faith to them is an unfounded feeling, based on nothing the eyes can see, and as empty as the vacuum of space.

But let’s not be so quick to cast judgment on either side. As Christians, we have to accept that atheists have a point. Our faith is based on feeling, unsubstantiated by science and unrepeatable in scientific experiments. Hebrews 11:1 already put that definition beyond dispute when it says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” So, if you are looking for God to manifest himself to you in all His splendor and glory in the sky just above you on a particular date and for a particular time, before you commit to believe, then Christianity is not for you. You would do better worshipping gravity since, thanks to Newton, we know it exists, we can measure its strength and we can base all things in motion on it.

Anna recounted a joke about a class being challenged by their teacher to prove the existence of God. “Where is God?” the teacher taunted the class. “Show him to me to see.” A student then jumped out and said, “So, you must see to believe?” The teacher replied, “yes”. The student then smiled and said, “Teacher, have you seen your brain?” Well, this joke, which is faintly funny, would not be applicable today because the brain appears in all science textbooks. We can even describe our brain and name the various sections. Even preschoolers can tell you what a brain looks like since they are basically all alike. Some can go further and tell you that the brain is as soft as tofu, literally. So, the teacher in the above example, if she was given a chance to reply, would say, “Yes, I have seen my brain. Now, show me your God?”

If the atheist is honest enough and is willing to suspend judgment, he would have to accept that the brain doesn’t define you – the whole you, that is. The brain is a mystery. How it works is a mystery. How you, with all your eccentricities, emotions and creativity, emerge from the soft tofu we call brain is also a mystery. Neuroscientists conveniently define the mind as what the brain does. They say the mind emerges from the brain through complex neural connectivity. And this explains the mind as the seat of your personality and as the center of who you really are, which encompasses all your feelings, memories and future aspirations.

Well, the dots have yet to be connected. The missing link to connect the brain and the mind is still missing. It cannot be proved with scientific certainty that the mind emerges from the interconnectivity of our millions and millions of neurons. Just like evolution has yet to make the definitive leap to prove that tree-climbing chimpanzees evolved gradually to become civilization-designing human beings. But of course, to their credit, there is convincing evidence that evolution works on many levels from a single-nucleus cell to a complicated organism. But there are still mysteries yet to be solved and science has a short reach on this – albeit it is making positive progress.

Of course, we can rely on science on many things in life. We subject our children to study it. We live our life by its every dictates and precepts. We cannot imagine a world without science. It is like a world without music or worse, a world without love. But when it comes to questions about our origin, about how our universe evolved and about how the cosmos came to being, all scientists are as tongue-tied as theists. Some scientists have coined the term “eternal inflation” to explain the beginning of all things. They attribute “eternal inflation” as the first spark of all things we see today, that is, the beginning of universes, the milky-way, the galaxies, the solar system, our planet, and us. But when it comes to proving it, they are flat-nosed. Now, can Christians do any better? We are equally flat-nosed. While the scientists offer the concept of “eternal inflation”, we Christian introduce the entity called “eternal God”. Both are unproven, beyond evidence.

Beloved, love and faith are unseen evidence of how alive we are. No one can see love or measure faith but they are as real as the things our eyes can see and our hand can touch. God can communicate to you through this tangible page you are reading. He can also communicate to you through an inner prompting, a discerning intuition or a calm assurance, of which no other person or machine can document or record. His reality starts from inside of us and is later manifested in the reality our eyes can see. Much of what is not seen forms the building block of what is seen.

Our world as we know it, feel it and see it is created or upheld by much of which is immaterial and intangible. If you look out of the sky, into space and peer into the darkest region of our galaxy and stargaze into the galaxies of other galaxies, you will discover that the invisible rules. Scientists have recently discovered that what the human eyes can see constitutes only 0.01% of the entire composition of the cosmos. Imagine that! Only 0.01% is within our range of sight - the rest of which forms what scientists call “dark matter” and “dark energy”. What are they? Well, nobody knows for sure. Even if you could strip matter down, sub-atomic layer by layer, you will discover that the fundamental building block of all things material is invisible energy.

Indeed, if we only believe those things that our eyes can see, then we would be hard pressed to live life to its fullest. We will have to suspend our judgment and decision on a lot of things. Of course, some are clearly able to do it. Many dismiss the existence of God because the concept of God to them is not falsifiable or proved wrong. But as Christian, we rely on our faith to believe that God exists in the same way that atheist scientists rely on “faith” to come up with a hypothesis called “eternal inflation” to account for our existence. Quite crudely, you can say that theist and atheist alike have their own belief or pet religion.
So, where do we stand?

In Psalms 61:2, there is this assurance, “when my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” As Christians, this is where we stand, on the rock that is higher than us. The rock of all ages. The rock upon which the church is built. This is our blessed assurance. Our unshakable foundation. At this vantage point, we may not know all things. Our knowledge, just like the scientists or atheists, is limited. Our intellectual reach falls short. But we can rest assured and by faith that this rock of God stands taller than all other rocks of time. This rock will endure the test of time to prove that the beginning indeed has a beginning. It also has a Creator. You can call this Creator by any scientific-sounding names like “eternal inflation”, “endless universes” or “quantum fluctuation”, but the names do not change the name of all names, and that is, Jehovah God.

Let me end with this whimsical quote from an astronomer, Robert Jastrow, “For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

Ps: Yesterday, we also talked about experience as the best teacher in life. We all agreed that experience is a tough teacher. Many of us have life’s scars to show. Some of us come from broken families. Some of us have to endure a cheating spouse. Some of us have to suffer the pain of the death of a loved one. All these experiences add up to life’s maturity and we either flourish or flounder under the pressure.

Zen wrote a letter to us last Christmas about her own personal experiences in relationships. She wrote, “Whatever it is, the world has taught us that we are, firstly, very imperfect human living on this earth and secondly, we absolutely have no control over external events in our lives. We can try our best in marriages, friendships, family relationships, colleagues…But we absolutely cannot make it the best we want because it also depends on the willingness of the other party, and we know we are working together with yet another imperfect human.”

Indeed, all our relationships are flawed in one way or another. When asked at the cell meeting what we want to see in our spouse, the common answers were more patience, more smiles and more communication. While one spouse yearns for closeness, the other desires unspoken understanding. Beloved, our relationships cannot survive without deliberate physical and emotional intimacy. Note I deliberately used the word “deliberate”.

A marriage has no problem surviving honeymoon. It usually lasts only one or two week and it is the apex of marital intimacy and love. The relationship is usually the strongest during the honeymoon period. A marriage can also endure the first few years of living together when one’s fault and flaws are generally tolerated. But as the years roll by, as the strain of living together grows heavier, we become disillusioned, weary and cynical.

Beloved, don’t wait until emotional divorce steps in before we do something about our marriage. We need to pour new wine into new wineskin every day to keep the magic of marriage aflame. We need deliberate intention and effort. And the best time to do so is to consecrate time every day to engage in physical and emotional intimacy with the one we love. I sincerely believe that if you can be physically intimate with your spouse you can share anything with her and she can share anything with you. What we need here is not to find a new love, but to find new ways to love our forever love.

Be creative with her or him. Do something outrageous with her. Show him your naughty side. Sometimes, married couples need to be like children in the bedroom. Play childish games. Tickle one another. Hide the bolster or pillow. Let your imagination loose. Be anything to her or him but resist, at all costs, to be a stiff-necked, decent, protocol-abiding grown up in the bedroom. Practise intimacy with her every night, or at least three times a week, and spare just 30 mins each session, and watch your relationship grow deeper, stronger and richer.

Another thing I shared with you guys last Friday is Luke 10:38-42. This is the tale of two sisters, Mary and Martha. We all know the story. Martha invited Jesus to her house and she kept herself busy preparing a meal for Jesus. Mary did nothing but sat at Jesus’ feet, listening intently and enjoying his presence. The contrast is glaring. One was at the kitchen whipping up a storm while the other was quietly seated, listening to the one who calmed the storm. After all the commotion, Martha actually went up to Jesus and complained, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” More like a command than a complaint. Then, Jesus answered, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Sadly, many of us lived our Christian life the way Martha lived hers. Martha had opened her house to Jesus but not her heart. She was busy doing and had little time being who Jesus wanted her to be. Jesus said that she was worried and upset about many things but in fact, one thing that is needed. And the one thing is to sit at the feet of Jesus to recharge ourselves, renew our faith and restore our relationship with Him. One-to-one devotion is the one thing that will keep our godly bearing in this Christian life. So, I believe true conversion starts on a very basic and personal level. All our ministry work and services have to find its root at this very basic and personal level.

So, let’s strive for true intimacy not only with our spouse but with our God. Build up lasting relationships that can weather all storms in life. Let’s not get caught up with our own busy-ness that we forgot who we were keeping busy for.

Have a week of intimacy and quiet reflection!