Retiring

Parents don’t have the option of retiring their roles.

One Person

If you ever feel that one person is not enough to change the world…

Virtually Friends

Today I was catching up with my Singaporean friends over MSN. One of them asked if I missed them. It made me pause to reflect about the nature of my relationships back in Singapore. While I was in Singapore, most of our interactions were spent over the internet – chatting, facebooking or even short text messages. It might even be frequent or regular, but it was mostly impersonal and virtual. One extremely long plane ride later, nothing has changed. The interactions made are the same albeit the different location and time difference. So honestly, what is there to miss?

I think we were made to be more than this.

As much as we are socially inclined, I think we are physical beings as well. There is a difference between a voice and a person. What we miss is not the person, but the presence of the person. Yet armed with such knowledge, why do we persistently deprive and withhold our presence from one another? I’m not merely talking about our local friends. For some of us, that bedroom door of ours is the Pacific that our family members have to sail cross to get to us. For others, it is their computer that we have to scale. Although I think I might have invested most of my time into people through the internet, it may appear that I have made my computer the lord of my presence.

No longer.

Leadership Beliefs

Can everyone be a leader?

Before you instinctively rush to answer the question, I would like you to pause and reflect upon your answer.

Is your answer the model answer that has been taught to you?
Is your answer John C. Maxwell’s answer instead of your answer?
Is your answer your mere belief?

or

Is your answer your understanding of leadership that is in line your observations of reality?

Now that you have considered these aspects, tell me again…

Can everyone be a leader?

Bucket List – Jumper No.4

Bucket list #3 – bungee jumping

Ablaze

“Give a man a fire and he’s warm for the day. But set fire to him and he’s warm for the rest of his life.“
-Terry Pratchett, Discworld

Classic Chef Line

You know how they always say that “You can plant a church as long as you can hold a cell group and play a guitar,” ? Allow me to alter that a bit.

Unless you are rich, you can plant a church as long as you can hold a cell group and cook for yourself.

Yes, you heard me right on this one. We need to learn how to cook. It is a survival skill. Anyone who is serious about church planting needs to learn how to cook. Let me show you my point. Prior to cooking, I have been eating the cheapest Subway 6-inch sandwich a la carte for lunch and dinner until I could memorize the ingredients in french. They are priced at $3.94, tax included / without tip. That would be a minimum spending of $55.16 per week on food.

Recently, I’ve just bought…
Spaghetti – $1.99
A can of pasta mix – $5.99
Minced pork – $2.05
Total: $10.03

They lasted me for a week.

I’m going back to Singapore with renewed determination to learn how to cook from my mum. Besides the point that they are paying for all my ingredients and experiments, I’m sure she would appreciate some help as well. I cannot believe that I have been missing such an important life lesson, free of charge! Some people pay to learn how to cook! Seriously, I cannot stress my point enough. Cooking is a survival skill. And mind you, I am not talking about all the lame barbecuing and omelet dishes. I am talking about chopping pork cubes to save your life. If you are serious about planting churches, go learn how to cook. Now.

Mark Bittman: How is it that (in your life) could you actually create new things everyday…
Jamie Oliver: If you’re going to eat three times a day till the day that you die, why not be good at it?

Just something to inspire you