A Very Strange Weekend

Three whole days offline...

I only have a laptop and it crashed on me. It was something with the motherboard, so I had an entire 3 days:

1) without Internet - no emails, no checking out the worship ministry forums I'm involved with...

2) no e-books; AND

3) no typing - I was scribbling email and blog ideas on post-it notes. Talk about pathetic!

So what did I do over the weekend? It was spent:

1) playing the piano - for me, not for ministry, but just for me. I've forgetten what that was like...

2) reading REAL books, not PDFs and e-books - got loads of ideas, as usual!

3) playing with my two boys!

As you might have guessed, I got many emergent curriculum opportunities with my kids. Those opportunities were always there, but it's too easy to miss them (many adults do).

When you see how alive and in the moment young children are, you can understand why there are parents who willingly forgo additional income to stay home and home-school their kids. If you impose a decent curriculum on them they're happy. And if you can flow with them on what catches their attention at the moment, they're happy too.

Yeah, my sons have been teaching me by example how to be happy even without a computer. :) We had a great time creating and singing silly songs around the piano. The teacher-JJ side of me was satisfied at how the song rhythm was helping them get a better sense of syllable placement, crucial to their language growth. The Daddy side of me was thinking "why didn't I do this ages ago?!??!?"

But anyway, it's time to get back to work. For all of you who tried to email me about ministry and business matters over the past few days, I'll be giving you proper replies soon, give me a while to catch up.

How about the whackers, JJ? Any updates?

Err... no. I've decided to pursue the secular philosophy of "living well is the best revenge". I just had a fantastic weekend feeding on the faithfulness and love of God, shown in the joy and fun I had with my two sons. If the whackers had seen how little their threats bothered me, how easily they get forgotten and how happy I am with my two sons, they would have gnashed their teeth in frustration.

I can live with that.

I don't know if things are different in other countries, but my whackers grew up in the 50s and 60s. Those were years of huge political turmoil and upheavel around the world. Many nations were fighting for their political independence from their colonial masters. Communism was still seen as a viable political system, and many did consider it as a tool for gaining national independence.

I've noticed that many people growing up in that era have a fascination with making bold political statements and having over-the-top, larger-than-life displays. The CAUSE (whatever they were fighting for) was the ends that justified all means, and those people felt the need to announce their cause to all and sundry.

When it comes to hostilities, it translates to large threat displays. They want you to be intimidated, or to go over-the-top in fighting back. (Think Taiwanese politics). Ignoring such people, or (God forbid) joking about them was the worst possible thing you could ever do to them.

For me, I see threat displays as being VERY foolish. The Japanese have a saying "A cornered mouse can bite a cat", in other words, if you drive people to desperation, they may escalate the conflict far more than you are mentally and emotionally prepared for. Your CAUSE, whatever it may be, won't help you very much then. Bringing about your downfall has become THEIR cause.

"As far as it is up to you, leave in peace with everyone" (Romans 12:18, paraphrased)

Of course, I don't believe that means being a doormat and putting up with abuse. I have many people tell me to just endure the nonsense and try to give a gentle reply, after all a gentle answer turns away wrath (Pro 15:1). I point out to them that Proverbs also tells us what kind of people to avoid, and those admonitions are as valid as giving a gentle reply.

Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended. (Proverbs 22:10, NIV)

Anyway, this post is just a quick update, not a full teaching or sharing thing. Those will come soon. In the meantime, I'm trying to find my feet and catch up with all the online backlog. So be patient, I'll be in contact with you soon with some new things to share!

Be blessed!