just minishorts.

Determined to NOT talk about the country, but still prioritizing the necessity of (positive) change, I stumbled upon this sudden revelation about the protestant movement. How throughout history, we've learn that God has called and raised up people who would respond to his call, and in many cases, respond against the unjust. To protest. To blame the current leader for misconduct.

We protestants, those of us who have been involved in the PROTES … we're all BLAMERS. In Christiandom, the Protestants ARE blamers (I know blame is a bad word but this isn't something we can deny ok…):

Brethrens
Lutheran
Anglican
Methodist
Evangelical
Reformer

B.L.A.M.E.R.

I think this revelation is supposed to tell us something.

I'm putting down the evidence, in the event that I kick the bucket and then some genius comes along and tells my family that I converted and therefore my body belongs to them.

DON'T LET THEM.

…

I have the right to believe in what I want to believe. I'm not Muslim. Never will be. Even after I die, no one can put my body into a Muslim cemetery. No one can take what I own away and give it to Baitumal - my belongings will go to my family. They decide what they want to do with it.

Don't let them come over and claim my body as theirs. The body belongs to the earth and it shall go back to the earth. The burial and the funeral, how my loved ones want me to go, that ceremony is up to them. But I'll put it here, its not going to be a Islamic ceremony, because I'm not Muslim. Don't label me after I die. Give my body that dignity, but more importantly, give my family that right to mourn for me - because I was theirs in my lifetime.

In response to this.

Sometimes Christians are so intent on holding on to their mini kancils that when the opportunity comes in the form of a first class jet ticket they refuse to board the jet because they’re insistent that the kancil is the only way to travel.

I can use that same metaphor, really, to describe how we tend to be stuck to our high horses when it comes to making a choice on how to achieve our goals. That God said it’s going to look like A,B,C, and when it appears in form X,Y,Z blatantly in our faces, we’re not going to move at all, because according to us, God said its going to look like A,B,C so X,Y,Z, won’t hold water.

Its little wonder that most of the world think we’re a bunch of weird, judgemental and prideful beings.

…

THe concept of being fixed about everything just stops us from Growing. You know I can put this into all stages of our lives. At age 5, many of us would have looked at a friend of the opposite gender and we’d go ‘yuck’ and nomatter what mummy says ‘its ok to sit with Joey Joey is a nice friend,’ Lisa will pprobably still go, ‘Boys are dirty and I don’t want to hold the boy’s hand.’.

Fast forward 10 years later, at age 15, is it actually natural to stay stuck with the mindset of a 5 year old in treating relationships with the opposite gender? Conditioning in human communities has sort of taught us that relationships are healthy, that being with a boy and attracted to a boy enough to want to know what its like to hold a boy’s hand, is very natural, and we grow naturally into it.

Challenges to the fixed perception of ‘rights’ and ‘wrong’s are natural, and it is natural to mold ourselves and shift our mindsets while sticking to the very basis of ‘right’ and ‘wrongs’ by limiting them to pure principles. This is why, Going back to the Christian principles outlined within the ‘ten commandments’, we are given principles that are general and specific enough to tell us how it is that we can treat people, and how we should live. DOn’t kill, don’t murder, don’t covet other people’s belongings, love each other, your neighbour, as your own.

God being transcendant, is beyond us. Loving God with all our being, doesn’t mean we have to be fixed about concepts of God. The moment we do that, and focus on just commandments no 1,2, and 3, and we start arguing about the how-tos, we get confused and begin to argue and fight for all the wrong reasons, resulting in a haphazard breaking of most of the rules nos 4 to 10. When we start to fight for the right to be right, we begin to get stuck in mini prisons of our own making, and in the process we break the rest of the commandments to not kill not steal not fight (God said to love each other, right?)

…

So what i’m saying is, all this witch hunting towards the new age beliefs is really quite ridiculous, because if we were actually willing to look closer at the concept of ‘new age’ (heck just check out the term itself). What on earth is new age?

It is nothing. NOTHING at all.

So why the heck are we so uptight about righting Christianity and putting it up against nothing?

And what if, what if, we were willing to look beyond the religiousity that surrounds what we know as today’s Christianity, and we were willing to strip away all the ‘human’ understanding that has cling-wrapped the stories and the testaments in the bible to tell us the contexts of living by Christ and for Christ in the 2000 years before, what if, the entire teaching is actually ‘new age’ by our standards.

..

So back to the kancil stuck Christian with the opportunity to sit in a jet plane to the land of finding our purpose? What’s the whole big deal about leaving a kancil to go on the Boeing 767? Or what if there’s a train, a bullet train, a steam train, a choo-choo train? Or if its only a bus…

Why are we so fixed on how-tos when the idea is getting to the destination… regardless of the method?

You know, a week ago I was in a conversation with a fellow Christian (a very very hyper, I love Jesus type, at that), and we were talking about the issues in the world. You know, things like the global fuel escalation crisis, food price escalation crisis, incompetent governments and corrupt politicians, suspicious opposition fronts, the struggles of living in this chaotic world, stuff like that. So I asked my friend, 'You know, where do you think we fit into this picture? Where do you think we fit into this time of the world?'

'I'm not sure. God will want me to do something. All I know is that I have to pray.'

'About what issues? What bugs you the most?'

'I'm not sure. God is silent still. I haven't found my calling. But right now, I know, all I can do is pray.'

Cue: This is where I burst.

I seriously, cannot, take, stupid, lazy, uncaring, reluctant, non-committal responses like that.

So when someone I know (or I don't know) comes and wants to talk about the situation (who doesn't, everybody is fighting to get his two-sen across) it gets really really annoying when some of them end up saying crap like, 'What can we do? Just have to pray lah.'

If let's say I get a little more provocative and go, 'pray? that's all? Pray until what? Why cannot do anything else izzit?'

And the crappy answer comes back in the form of, 'There's nothing we can do, this country is controlled by the Malays, we chinese cannot do anything.'

Then you see the exact problem. And I hate it because it's masquerading in a protective shell called God. It's a sickening veil that covers the 'bo-chap' attitude that 99% of us have but are too chicken-shit to admit because everyone wants to be seen as doing something different (i.e. I complain and complain and even if my complains don't make sense its doing something). I hate it because people like that actually walk around believing that they actually, genuinely, really really care for this world when in fact, what motivates them into action is race, money and whether doing something will benefit me or not.

Easy mah, there was this dude going, 'habis? YOU want me to join the protest kah? I'm not about to be sprayed with water cannons. My parents are not going to like it. '

I'm not asking you to join the protest, budak. You know? Maybe being a little bit more constructive, and careful in framing your complaints will actually help the situation. Blaming it on a 'Malay government and lop-sided race politics' sure as hell doesn't show us how God-loving you are.

So if any God loving Christian comes to me today, and I AM in a pissy mood, if anyone comes to me and asks me if I have not prayed for prices to go down, or whether I hear God's call, I'll just say this here now, 'Wah lau you still wanna wait for God to call at you ah? How you know? He will shout at you and tell you Move only you move issit? Shut up already and do something. Prayer comes in action. You worship God through your actions. And bitching about how teruk this country is because you're a Minority in a country doomed to be controlled by the Malays forever isn't at ALL action of loving, it's just racism to the core, and its disgusting that you can't even recognize it.'

Its not from the Christians alone though.

You see these kind of responses popping out of everywhere these days, especially in light of the damned fuel hikes. I mean, tell me, how many of your friends have told you, 'You know what? This country just isn't worth it anymore. We should all migrate overseas and go where things are better. Where the government is better.'

So you can actually do the maths. If every good person in this country started thinking like that, you'll be left with people who are just aren't worth it. You'll be left with a country of citizens who are just busy fighting over the right to earn freebies get higher salaries and the opportunity to not work and still live luxuriously. If you don't want to work and still want a lot of money, and if there are over 20 million of people with attitudes like that building up the bulk of Malaysians, hello, what kind of politicians will we have left?

Selfish, greedy, unwilling to be accountable, lazy, stupid, (put in label here), politicians.

Habis? what did you expect? Selection pool dah habis pilihan lah. All is left is the bad fish. So that's why we have what we have right now.

…

So are you going to sit and PRAY? Or are you busy planning to leave this country for greener pastures?

(I'm in a pissy mood.)

i don't always do prayers online
i think they're over rated
and always i try to punctuate properly
just that now i think its a little more convenient
to just type off the top of my head
i want to start off with the famous serenity prayer
one that transcents all religions
… u don't have to be christian to say this one

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
If I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with Him
Forever and ever in the next.

and then i want to dedicate a few simple wishes
that i hope god is mighty enough to listen
i believe he listens
i pray for understanding amongst our difference
and a love that transcends our colours
i pray mostly for those who claim to love this man called jesus
that they'll love people for who they are
whether they're buddhist, islam, hindu, ba'hai or anything
it doesn't really matter - we're all called to love each other
i pray for unconditionalism
that we're able to stop being believers of convenience
i pray for people to enjoy giving
i pray that people will learn to forgive great people who make mistakes
i pray that we can start to forgive murderers
and rapists and killers
or corrupt politicians who throw off country's legal systems
because sometimes i think
if we can't even forgive each other
you think we can forgive god for allowing cyclones and earthquakes upon the earth?

i think everything happens for a reason
a disaster should not happen so that we can complain or boast of how god loves the living more
it should happen so that the living can be given the opportunity to show the world
how we can love each other

so love each other we will

i pray that christians will stop obsessing with heaven
and start to live in this world
start to make a difference
and be christ to the people who need us