I had a thought provoking 30 second conversation with a friend when I mentioned in passing, "What do you think about all the millennium stuff?"
I don't know what I expected they would say, but I got a slight shock when they responded that it sounded like a fairytale. That was the extent of the conversation, so I don't know if they thought every scenario was too fanciful, or just a particular view like post millenialism was too much to swallow.
Actually in America people seem to fall into 2 camps; eschatology preoccupies their brain, or they blow off the idea. But I didn't think an Asian would be so left- brained and concrete.
I guess with all the problems it does seem like there will never be a "happily ever after"for planet earth.
And yet, once upon a time there was no universe, and now there is. So why can't the same hand that made everything fix it up, correcting every mistake so that things are the way they are supposed to be. Our God is up to the task.
But that does not let us off the hook. If we get caught up in the idea only God can make a difference, then we will walk by a lot of problems that are right within our sphere of influence instead of reaching out a hand like the good Samaritan. Our good intentions might flop, but we are obligated to try.

Woody Allen said something like, “I don’t mind death it’s dieing I’m afraid of.” Dieing does sound scary. No wonder the rapture theory sounds so appealing; you can skip the dieing part.
Sometimes my brushes with death were frightening; other times it happened too fast to be scared. Once I was electrocuted when a live current went through a gate and I grabbled onto the gate handle; if no one rescued me, it would have been a terrible way to go. When I was in intensive care after my first baby was born; I suppose I could have died but it felt a lot better than being electrocuted. A robber tried to steal something belonging to my husband, and I chased him through the desert by myself on foot; I didn’t stop to think it might be dangerous, but later learned he shot a police officer through the kneecap. In Jakarta, our car was surrounded and rocked from side to side during a huge riot; people were dying around us. Then in Yellowstone, a mother grizzly reared up on her hind legs when my daughter and I accidentally came upon her with a cub- we did everything wrong; screamed and ran. Worst of all was when my kids all got cerebral malaria, the variety of malaria that is 100% fatal without treatment. The anopheles mosquito bit my kids while we camping on a remote beach; it skipped over me, but I could have lost all of my children at once because they were sick for a whole month before the doctors figured out what was the matter with them…
We can’t control how we end up dieing, only how we live. I guess that’s why the bible doesn’t say much about death; it is not our concern for the moment. I watched the 300, and when the Spartans wanted to curse someone they said, “May you live forever.” Christians consider death as an enemy, and yet Christians should have at least the same fearlessness about death as the Spartans- not because we want glory on the battlefield, but because Jesus is waiting for us on the other side.

I am doing research on death for my theology paper,and I think that I am sort of morbid for choosing that topic. From the time I had to bury my pet turtle at age five, I was sort of curious about death and wondered about it. Mostly I am a bit scared of death even though I was a hospice worker and know that sometimes death is God's cure for what someone is going through.

Having said all that, I am not convinced we should dwell on death too much. Maybe it is good to have some pat answers about death so we can put the topic on a shelf and just know God is taking care of us now and always. I think it is a dangerous topic because it nurishes suicidal tendencies that maybe should be starved out.

And I also know people who are involved in spiritualism which I think is like drawing blood, then jumping into a shark tank. They are out of their league, and I don't think we are meant to peer into "the other side". I think people are like fish. Saltwater fish can't live in fresh water, and fresh water fish can't live in saltwater. The dead can't be here and the living can't be there, and we need to be content with that arrangement.

Okay, I'm not a blogger by nature because first of all nobody is out there reading what I write; except for my teacher who has to when it is course related.

I guess I am not thick skinned enough to let everything bounce off me... I doubt there will be an American Independence Day worship service in the US where a Malaysian will have to listen to a lot of anti Malaysian stuff- not because we are tactful, but because we don't have a common history.

So I feel a bit ambushed when I have to listen to it at STM. Americans have never had a war against Malaysia, or been her colonial master. I guess Al Gore insulted Malaysia several years ago; we aren't as polite as Asians in general. So I apologize for that. But I disagree the message he was trying to convey was wrong. Unfair situations in the US have been changed by people caring enough to conduct a civil rights movement at great personal danger. But you have to think real freedom and equality is worth it.

As I see it, what is wrong with the Iraq war is the same thing wrong with the status quo in Malaysia. Not enough Americans are bearing the brunt of the war. If it was painful enough, the war would stop pronto. When things hurt enough for enough people, then there is incentive to make changes. But if you can coast along bearing a bit of pain, the situation is perpetuated.

My country isn't perfect; but neither is anybody's. So, why not just say horay, happy birthday Malaysia without criticizing my country from the pulpit.

Blog, blog, oh blog...

It's good to keep in mind both the private reality spoken about by Bultman and the public reality talked about by Moltmann since they both influence each other. There can't be a public reality unless there is a collection of private realities... and what the public thinks impacts what the individual is exposed to, so they are very entwined.
Of course, what individuals and the public accept can be very off base; case in point is the rapture theory. One person postulates something, and another and another believes it until the theory snowballs.
Our warped perception shouldn't be taken as the Truth, and to do that causes us personal pain. For instance if someone tells you something negative like you are stupid, it is their perception. If you believe them, their perception becomes your perception. Despite the fact you might be Einstein. Additionally, circumstances can change- you might be uneducated, but have the potential to develop into a great thinker if that is trait is nourished, which it won't be if you don't think you have what it takes and nobody else does either.
That's why it's important not to get too existential about things. Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life for a reason; people are always equating what they think wih what is the ultimate truth. And we must quest after His truth, or we will always be a little or a lot off target.

I think about ants as having a collective soul, as opposed to individual souls. Maybe they don't have any soul at all, but I think they do. It distressed me to swallow a bunch of ants that had crawled into my coffee cup a few nights ago. I thought the milk had gotten scum, but really there must have been a bunch of those "little guys" who drown in there when they decided to dive into my coffee. Anyway, do I feel guilt; that western thing? Yes. I do not go out of my way to kill creatures, but you have to take that sort of thing in stride literally, or you couldn't take a step.
At the time, I considered the ants as individualized pieces of a whole, and unless the entire colony is wiped out along with the queen, I don't think of it as a true death. So their soul is made up of thousands of components, thousands of eyes and antenea and legs to form one consciousness. This sure looks like the case if you have ever seen an ant colony on the move, carrying their eggs to a new location. It is one machine.
I don't see it the same way for a duck or a mouse. They live in communities, but have personalities of their own. Which is why I would rather swallow ants by mistake than a mouse. Of course, many people think of the animal kingdom as souless droids altogether.
People are not ants. Collectivity is good until it stamps out individuality, freedom of thought and action, and creativity. Conformity is okay to a point, but after that people suffer. This can led tyrany of the majority. Unless there is great tolerance for a wide variation of ideas and behavior, I am wary of an extreem collective approach. What I see of a collective approach in churches is not really that happy- new ideas are not encouraged and people are stifled. But the selfishness of individualism is irksome too. It is a trick to get it right.

I think the real value of having Veronica come was not so much in what she said, but that she was invited to our class to say it. She was important for Rajan’s sake alone; he really perked up and became engaged talking about issues with her after class. It’s important to see everyone worthy of respect on campus, because there doesn’t seem to be much respect in the community at large. And if that worthy person is a woman, so much the better because there needs to be more Tamil women around STM; about the only ones seen around campus are maids. I always say hi to them, but it ends there with the language barrier. Sometimes I give them old clothes or little odds and ends because I doubt they earn much. My maid in KL is an Indian; she is about my age. Her life has been pretty rough. For one thing, she can’t read or write. She can’t even recognize her name in print- which is such a shame because she is really smart with so much practical know how.
It’s funny how we chose to sit in class; it’s pretty much along ethnic lines. I don’t sit with the girls for instance, even though I really like every girl in that class. Leeyng is so talented, funny and smart. Pheung is so good- quiet and sweet the way I wish I was… Sharon is so cultured and intellectual. Yet I sit with Jeremy, Sharon sits with Rajan and Oliver, and Pheung sits with Leeyng. I am trying to remember who I sat with in the US… no particular pattern comes to mind; I think I just slunk in and sat in the back somewherer, never with my best friend at SMU- the father of one of my students, who is black. For lunch, the black girls went to one restaurant, while the white girls went to another. The white guys went off by themselves and so did the black guys. It is strange to me that it shook out like that because I didn’t think the color barrier was a big deal in Houston; my best friend from my old neighborhood friend was from Jamaica. But I guess in class we acted on it unconsciously.