Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Hey LoG :)
Sunday, July 24, 2011
:D
Saturday, July 23, 2011
(guys, i am spamming becos nobody else is blogging. please write.)
Friday, July 22, 2011
you know you're meant to be in LOG when:
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Challenging
hm we had a chat w jude in e morning and as always, he challenged us. and what he said abt challenging others struck me. so yep here are my reflections on challenging others and being challenged.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Re: Von
I think for most of us we have understood the reality of community and its difficulties, but within an acceptable, comfortable zone. Bringing a person into community sort of throws the dynamics into disarray, having to make awkward small talk, being mindful of not leaving the person out of conversation etc etc. We become too protective of the broken community that we already have such that we scowl at accepting another broken person. Like a bunch of homeless people rejecting another homeless dude cos theres no space in their makeshift cardboard house. So, agree with von.
You can read his full article here but I actually don't like the tone. Too hard-line realistic.
http://www.pietyhilldesign.com/blog/2007/04/02/genuine-community-by-dietrich-bonhoeffer/
poupou
im surprised the way it came out of my mouth today. its such a scary image (hence we all push it out of our minds) that i think it has to be said again.
when we are at the peak of community living, there will be high turnover rate
people will flock here because there is much to gain here (we have much to offer). and even more will receive and start finding their own life purpose and vocation. log to me is family and home, and where i am most comfortable. but i also hope and pray that we will never love community more than we love God. it is a dangerous situation that i also find myself in. when i seek a comfortable familiarity instead of getting to know another brother/sister-in-christ, i know that i am secure in my friends' acceptance and not in God's love. maybe this is why we come across as exclusive. we have been secure in one another all along, instead of being secure in God. because God's love is not exclusive, it is for everyone. i've always wondered why we havent attracted enough strangers, because i know that if we really were for God, there would have been visible signs of growth (and i mean in numbers). perhaps this is the first hurdle to cross in reaching out to people: to be secure first in God's love, then only can we be family and home to one another without consequences
von.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
morning shine
Every now & then, what happens before our eyes is our personal world shatters collapses before our very eyes. This world in which we strive to build, every thing, my house my shield my circles my hopes my dreams just seems to breakdown upon their own weight of importance & expectations & illusions & hollowness.
We constantly try to build our lives, & sometimes we are crushed by the unnecessary weight. & when we are crushed, we turn to addictions, illusions & anything we can to fill this hollowness & pain in us.
Do you know why we feel the need to constantly do something; sometimes the 'something' is 'nothing'. To think less, to feel important, to feel tired. To break away is rather difficult. Sometimes our minds are hardwired to do something. It is so reflexive so natural & so part of ourselves.
& when we are spent, we are trapped in this looping spiralling thing that simply traps us.
We have to look at what we were, what we did, what makes us who we are today. How have our values shifted. What are the pains we bear/bore. What do we base our future on. our strengths our weaknesses our losses. our knowledge our wisdom & our foolishness. our pride & our shame.
In this hall of mirrors we see ourselves painfully naked. Then descend into the darkness--the darkness in which we have shifted attention away from all we know, all we think ourselves to be. Let God hold you in his hand for a while. I wouldn't think it as illumination, rather we cling to the refound hope & joy in the Lord.
night
Hey LoG :)
Just felt like sharing something I've been thinking about lately. It all started I guess when melmel shared about what he felt was his vision for LoG and talked about how it would all be like in the future. He mentioned a lot of things like Kong's dream, attending each other's weddings where LoG would take up one huge table for ourselves :) and stuff like that. I can't exactly remember the things that he said but I do remember just trying to understand what it would be like and so I let my imagination run wild. I can recall very vividly that I was greatly overwhelmed with emotion at the images that came to my mind though I cannot exactly remember the image that appeared in my head (it was sort of like all of us going to church and each of us also with our own families and our kids all knowing each other.. something like that). I was almost moved to tears, which upon reflection sounds a bit ridiculous but I really was. In that moment, I realized just how badly I wanted that image in my head to be a reality. I realized just how much I would give to have that instant in the far flung possible future to be my present. But ultimately I also truly realized what was in that image which I so desperately craved. In that image, I saw love. Love in great and sheer abundance, freely given and freely received. It was that vision of love that left me wanting, it left me hollow, for it showed me truly how hollow I was. I think perhaps it was God's message to me, to remind me once again what it is that I truly want and what I am fighting for.
This realisation did not occur at once and even now I am trying to fully grasp the message but I think I know now what my dreams are or at least what they are about. I shall continue dreaming then to remind myself of what my ultimate destination of my journey is. I will do my best everyday to remember this message and to live it as much as I can. During my times of struggles I shall recall that they are not truly struggles, for they are but stepping stones on my stairway to heaven and ultimately they get me where I want to go.
I shall dream then, till my dreams become reality.
Love,
Andrew
1 Comments:
got goosebumps <3
______________________________________________
Sunday, July 24, 2011
:D
1 Comments:
HAHAAHHAHAHA.
anne
Saturday, July 23, 2011
(guys, i am spamming becos nobody else is blogging. please write.)
came home from a whole afternoon of writing and a crisis in my face. i dont think i ever shared with you guys about losing my sister to marriage. i think when god conceptualised marriage, i was meant to gain a brother, but i have never felt certain about it. right now, i just want to tell her 'i told you so'. but more than that, i want to run to her, and hold her and cry for her because i know how hard it must be for her. but i cant, because we have somehow built a barrier when i was growing up. dont let your thots run wild, nothing major happened, no scandal. it was a gradual thing. but then again, that's the worst kind. when you dont know how it happened. i get more fearful every time i read this article, cos i worry for my sister, i worry for my niece, and im gonna be away for so long.
so for all my brothers-in-christ, dont think you have a long way to go. we're all actually reaching there. please remember this before you propose.
and for all the girls, dont give your men discounts.
von.
0 Comments:
______________________________________________Friday, July 22, 2011
you know you're meant to be in LOG when:
- you keep bumping into loggers!
- all the time
- even when there's like maybe less than 30 loggers in the whole world
- as compared to few tens/hundreds in other groups of friends you have
thankyew ricer, bel, kris, soo, raphael, nut, and the rest of the loggers im gonna randomly bump into :D
von.
*disclaimer: you are still a logger even if you dont randomly bump into anyone else :/ bump into me!! :D lol!!
0 Comments:
______________________________________________Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Challenging
hm we had a chat w jude in e morning and as always, he challenged us. and what he said abt challenging others struck me. so yep here are my reflections on challenging others and being challenged.
Challenging. I think I’ve been in two minds about challenging others for quite some time now. On one hand, I know it needs to be done so that people can grow; on the other, I know that a lot of sensitivity is required because there is a very fine line between judging and challenging. And we often feel judged when people challenge us. It’s not that they are actually judging us; but we feel judged all the same because of our pride. And for most parts, I have erred on the side of sensitivity because I didn’t want to hurt people’s feelings by causing them to feel judged.
So you can see that there are two parties to challenging – (1) the one challenging; and (2) the one being challenged. And then there are three types attitudes that (1) can take:
(a) He challenges because he judges;
(b) He doesn’t challenge because he doesn’t want to judge or make (2) feel like they are being judged; and
(c) He challenges because he knows that even though (2) might feel that he is being judged, he cares for (2) enough to risk (2) thinking that (1) is being judging.
So (c) is clearly the most loving attitude to take. The problem is that as (2), we often feel that (1) is taking the attitude of (a) when he is actually taking on the attitude of (c).
Ok sorry I know that I’m being really cerebral here. The point I’m trying to make is, cut my pb some slack cos he loves all of yall very much. Haha! No but seriously, I think as the ones being challenged, we need to swallow our pride and know that our community challenges us because they love us.
As for the ones challenging, we need to be clear in our hearts that we must love first, then challenge the person, because we want what’s best for that person. Then, sensitivity and gentleness will come naturally, because we do everything in love.
- Mel
0 Comments:
______________________________________________Sunday, July 17, 2011
Re: Von
He who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.I think what after Von mentioned that this quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer is worth a second mention, especially those who weren't around for the session. He writes this in the context that idealistic dreams imposed on the community by individuals are the reason that it breaks down. When such dreams are shattered by the reality of community, people become disillusioned and leave.
I think for most of us we have understood the reality of community and its difficulties, but within an acceptable, comfortable zone. Bringing a person into community sort of throws the dynamics into disarray, having to make awkward small talk, being mindful of not leaving the person out of conversation etc etc. We become too protective of the broken community that we already have such that we scowl at accepting another broken person. Like a bunch of homeless people rejecting another homeless dude cos theres no space in their makeshift cardboard house. So, agree with von.
You can read his full article here but I actually don't like the tone. Too hard-line realistic.
http://www.pietyhilldesign.com/blog/2007/04/02/genuine-community-by-dietrich-bonhoeffer/
poupou
1 Comments:
what happened to tangs post? :O
By 
jes,
July 18, 2011 10:36 AM
im surprised the way it came out of my mouth today. its such a scary image (hence we all push it out of our minds) that i think it has to be said again.
when we are at the peak of community living, there will be high turnover rate
people will flock here because there is much to gain here (we have much to offer). and even more will receive and start finding their own life purpose and vocation. log to me is family and home, and where i am most comfortable. but i also hope and pray that we will never love community more than we love God. it is a dangerous situation that i also find myself in. when i seek a comfortable familiarity instead of getting to know another brother/sister-in-christ, i know that i am secure in my friends' acceptance and not in God's love. maybe this is why we come across as exclusive. we have been secure in one another all along, instead of being secure in God. because God's love is not exclusive, it is for everyone. i've always wondered why we havent attracted enough strangers, because i know that if we really were for God, there would have been visible signs of growth (and i mean in numbers). perhaps this is the first hurdle to cross in reaching out to people: to be secure first in God's love, then only can we be family and home to one another without consequences
von.
0 Comments:
______________________________________________Saturday, July 16, 2011
morning shine
Every now & then, what happens before our eyes is our personal world shatters collapses before our very eyes. This world in which we strive to build, every thing, my house my shield my circles my hopes my dreams just seems to breakdown upon their own weight of importance & expectations & illusions & hollowness.
We constantly try to build our lives, & sometimes we are crushed by the unnecessary weight. & when we are crushed, we turn to addictions, illusions & anything we can to fill this hollowness & pain in us.
Do you know why we feel the need to constantly do something; sometimes the 'something' is 'nothing'. To think less, to feel important, to feel tired. To break away is rather difficult. Sometimes our minds are hardwired to do something. It is so reflexive so natural & so part of ourselves.
& when we are spent, we are trapped in this looping spiralling thing that simply traps us.
We have to look at what we were, what we did, what makes us who we are today. How have our values shifted. What are the pains we bear/bore. What do we base our future on. our strengths our weaknesses our losses. our knowledge our wisdom & our foolishness. our pride & our shame.
In this hall of mirrors we see ourselves painfully naked. Then descend into the darkness--the darkness in which we have shifted attention away from all we know, all we think ourselves to be. Let God hold you in his hand for a while. I wouldn't think it as illumination, rather we cling to the refound hope & joy in the Lord.
night
1 Comments:
who posted this! always the same style but never sign off ._.
-soo