Thoughts on Ageing

Lately, I have been thinking about ageing.

It started with the shocking discovery of 5 or 6 white hairs on the top of my head. I haven't had my hair coloured since I was pregnant with my younger daughter, who just turned 2. I've no plans to dye my hair for the sake of covering up the evidence of ageing. I may change my mind though.

Today, I was thinking about something that I find profoundly difficult: my mother. What will I do as she gets older? Will I have to move back to Sg? If I don't move in with her, what kind of example will I be setting for my children? And if I do move in with her, how will I cope with all the emotional baggage from our dysfunctional relationship that I've suppressed for the past 20 years?

I read stories of people who have done well and wonder: what will it be like when my husband and I are in our 50's? Will we have the means and the options, or will our options be constrained by our means? Will we do a sea change - retirement village - aged care home, and all the way the gradual but certain descent into physical immobility?

Two things remind me of how transient and irrelevant all these anxieties are. At the same time, the words of One who was both human and divine come back to me. Life is meant to be abundant and joyful, regardless of one's personal circumstances and bank balance.

"I am come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly."

The first is The Shack, one of the most uplifting and transforming books I've read.

In the novel, Jesus tells me what I need to know but have forgotten.

• Life is about relationships, not rules.
• God is about love (a verb), not religious institutions.
• God doesn't want to make people into Christians; He wants to invite them into a relationship with Him.
• We have inherited a broken world because Adam sinned. If he had resisted the temptation to be independent, we would still be living in Eden and not arguing about climate change. Evil comes from wanting to be independent of God.
• God does not cause tragedy; tragedy is the consequence of a sinful and imperfect world that has chosen to live apart from God. But God can use tragedy to bring about a greater good.

The second reality check came from reading about the work of FoodWaterShelter, an Australian non-profit organization dedicated to buiilding villages for orphans in East Africa. The FWS team is made up completely of volunteers. One of the founding members talked of how she felt frustrated by the inability of many of her countrymen to appreciate how far they had come and how blessed they are.

This extract from the FWS website neatly sums up why they operate the way they do:

By using our creativity and forethought from the outset, we plan to impart knowledge and skills in a way that ensures we are needed less as each project develops. This not only allows us to concentrate our services where they are most required, when they are most required, but also ensures we leave the locals a legacy – and that’s what we’re all about.

In the end, life is about living well and dying well. Raging against the dying of the light is not part of the Grand Design. Life was not meant to be held on to tightly, but is just a doorway to something better and more beautiful and more lasting than our limited minds can imagine. In the meantime, there is much abundant living for me to do, and that includes thinking more about how I can make a difference in the world and less of how I can get those things I think I need to live well (like financial freedom: what does that mean anyway?).

Worms vs Hummingbirds

I read an article today on Sir David Attenborough receiving hate mail for his views on evolution.

When asked why his programs do not give credit to God for creating the natural world, he says he cannot reconcile the notion of a divine and benevolent God with a child in Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball.

Sir David also professes to being horrified that creationism and evolution are presented as equal alternative view points in some schools.

Let's compare this with an alternative portrayal of God's relationship with Earth in a book I read recently, The Shack by William Paul Young.

In the novel, the main character Mack and Jesus are enjoying a conversation surrounded by the most picturesque surroundings you can imagine: lake, waterfall, orchard, forest, mountain ranges.

When Mack expresses his appreciation of God's handiwork, Jesus replies that Earth would be even more beautiful if it were not "at war, striving so hard to survive".

Pressed for a clarification, Jesus explains: "Our earth is like a child who has grown up without parents, having no one to guide and direct her. Some have attempted to help her but most have simply tried to use her.

Humans, who have been given the task to lovingly steer the world, instead plunder her with no consideration, other than their immediate needs. And they give little thought for their own children who will inherit their lack of love.

So they use her and abuse her with little consideration and then when she shudders or blows her breath, they are offended and raise their fist at God."

You can say that's just the author expressing the views of eco-warriors and climate change activists.

But that doesn't make his view any less valid or worth thinking about.

Perhaps the thought that God made a perfect world and Man ruined it bothers us because, deep down, we know it's true. Maybe we feel guilty and helpless, and our guilt makes us defensive. If someone were to point out your faults to your face, how would you respond? I know I would get pretty huffed, even if I know what the other person says is the truth.

No one likes being confronted with their own ugliness. It's easier to point the finger at someone else than to say, okay, I'm partly to blame, so what do I do next? How do I make things better?

Review of "The Shack"

I am reading William Paul Young's book The Shack, the story of a grieving father's encounter with God in a run-down cabin in the wilderness.

Initially, I was very reluctant to touch the book. Stories about violence against children turn me off. I read a bit of the first chapter, skipped to the end (bad habit), and was intrigued enough to start again in the middle, from the bit where Mackenzie receives a typewritten note from "Papa" and goes to the shack to find out if God is for real.

The writing style and central idea remind me of Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet In Heaven. But it's the writer's use of characters and ideas that contradict all the stereotypes we were taught about God, religion and religious institutions, that makes the book a unique and worthwhile read. It made me uncomfortable to have so many of my assumptions challenged. That in itself is an intellectual exercise worth undertaking, for otherwise I would be stuck in my own way of thinking.

For these reasons, I encourage anyone who wants a more intimate relationship with God to read The Shack.

Rick Warren and the Presidential Inauguration

One of the most powerful influences on my personal development has just delivered the invocation for the Presidential inauguration.

I love the way he ended his prayer.

"I pray this in the name of the One who changed my life."

This was followed by the names of Jesus in different languages.

Watch the video of Dr Rick Warren's prayer for the nation.

Can This Man Change The World?

I am listening to the live webcast of President Barack Obama's inauguration speech.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/5269418/barack-obama-inauguration

Did you hear that bit about America being the friend of every man, woman and child who works for peace?

What a man.

What a moment.

What an opportunity for America and the world.

May God bless his leadership and all who seek after peace.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." - Matt. 5:9

How Many US Presidents Do You Remember?

A friend posted this video on FB which is really thought provoking.

It's not who you are.

It's how you've made a difference in someone else's life.

Have you?