Stagnation

That's it...I think it's starting. I haven't blogged for 5 days, and I'm dry. It's the beginning of the end of my blog. Haha... :P

Chronicles

Ok, so there's this recent hype about the Chronicles of Narnia. Went to watch it a few days ago as a Company outing, and I gotta admit I don't recall ever watching any movie so critically. I probably don't recall as much of it now as I did when i first exited the cinema, but I do remember it's a pretty good movie - though I think it took me something like three quarters of the movie to begin to see the Christian themes and parallels that the author of the book has tried to insert.

One particular scene I remember, though, was one where the wolf-dog-thing was about to be killed by the white witch for betrayal, but before she could, he addressed "Your Majesty.....(I can't remember what the rest of the sentence was)" and when the witch began to reply, he said "I mean you no disrespect, but I wasn't talking to you" (he was actually talking to Edmund, coz in that fantasy world they called the 4 humans who would save their land "Your Majesty"). When I saw that scene, the only thing I remember thinking was "Wow. I want to be that sure of who my God is, where my priorities lie, and who my bosses are", and that He and they in return will know that He and they has/have my undivided loyalty. I want to be able to walk into the office, say "Sir" and immediately my boss will be the first to look up from his computer screen, even before any other colleague, specialist or warrant officer can futile-ly attempt to pile work on me (attempt, because they know I can't or at least won't say no; futile because my boss will deflect all the flak for me [not like that's really happening now - that's why I said "I want"]). Alas, this is but mere fantasy, is it not?

David and Goliath

There, I promised another entry didn't I? :P

I was reading the story of David and Goliath and it amazed me how many parallels I could draw to my own life, and how many lessons we can all learn from it.

David was but a shepherd boy when his 3 eldest brothers followed King Saul out to battle against the Philistines. David stayed behind to tend to his father's flock of sheep (parallel number 1: while other people go out and have all the fun, I stay behind and basically do nothing - or, if anything, rubbish). One day, David was sent by his father, Jesse, to bring some food for his brothers and their commander. At the same time, he was tasked to bring back assurance (or some token or pledge) from them (parallel number 2: David was sent to bring food and news for various people i.e he was a messenger and fatigue worker. I am a signaller and frequently end up doing fatigue work, known in colloquial local lingo as "sai gang").

So, David went out and did as he was told. While he was speaking with his brothers, Goliath once again came out and challenged the Israelites. When the Israelites saw him, they ran in great fear. However, David asked the people who were around him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?" (Lesson no.1: Be confident in your identity. David knew that as a part of God's people, they had a right to God's help in securing their victory. Lesson no.2: Know your enemy. David knew that one of the differences between his folks and the Philistines was that the Philistines were uncircumcised. What's the big deal, you may ask? Well circumcision is a sign of submission to God, because once a part of one's manhood is removed, is signifies that one operates not by his own effort but that he must trust in God for everything. Moral of story: know what sets you apart from those who come against you, and use that against them.)

Back to the story...when Eliab, David's eldest brother, had heard him ask that particular question, he responded with anger and asked David "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle." (parallel no.3: do work for other people then get scolded for it...) David replied, saying "Now what have I done? Can't I even speak?" (parallel no.4: nobody really wanted to listen to him, just coz he was junior). Finally, what David said was overheard and reported to Saul, who sent for him immediately. David encouraged Saul (parallel no.5 - those who know will know, those who don't it's alright) by saying "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him." Saul initially doubted David's ability to fight, but after some persuation finally relented (Lesson No.3: don't discount what the guy says or what he can do just because he is young - we've been here in a previous entry, I believe...). Saul eventually sent David out with his own armour, which David politely refused because he simply couldn't handle the huge, heavy thing.

So, David went out with nothing more than his shepherd's bag, sling and 5 smooth stones. At the same time, Goliath approached, looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he said "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" He cursed David by his gods, and said "Come here, and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field." To cut a long story short, David charged forward, released a single stone from his sling and took Goliath down with a shot straight to the forehead (talk about your ancient-day sniper!) and that marked the victory for the Israelites.

Ok...one more entry to go, I think...and that'll last you the week till I can post again.

The Voice of David

I'm challenging myself to see how long I can maintain this before it, like my previous Online Diary (for those of you who knew about it), falls into disuse. And like its predecessor, this one is likely to contain bags and bags of hot air (or, at the very least, entry after entry of subjective philosophical theories) so for those of you who somehow (or somewhy) ended up reading this, please pardon my entry (or entries) if it seems like I'm rambling endlessly, because I probably am.

What's that, you ask? Why "The Voice of David"? Well let me explain (of course you'll let me explain)..... King David was known as a man after God's own heart. He is also credited with having written an I-don't-know-what-percentage of the Psalms. But before King David was known as "King David", he was known as - yup, you guessed it - "David".

Now, the story is told - you can read it in 1 Samuel 17 (I think I'll cover it more in another entry; there's so much to learn from the story of David and Goliath) - that when David was a young boy (some say he was 12, but I don't know for sure) there was a confrontation between the Israelites, of which David was one, and the Philistines, where Goliath came from. To cut a long (but interesting) story short, David's older brothers, along with the rest of the Israelite men, were terrified of Goliath (c'mon, if your enemy stood 3 meters tall, wouldn't you be terrified too?) even though they had all kinds of weapons to use against Goliath. When David came to visit them, they called him wicked and conceited because he had confidence that God would lead them to victory against the Philistines. Finally, Saul, who was King at the time, (and in those days the King would lead the army into battle from the front, not some air-conditioned control room like they do nowadays - but that's another lesson for another time) listened to what David had to say, allowed him to go out and challenge Goliath, and David finally emerged victorious by killing Goliath with a single stone from his sling.

What we learn from this is that as leaders, we should take note not just of the opinions of those who are senior and more experienced, but also those who are young. Dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Business School says of his younger alumni leaders "When you seek out junior voices, two things surprise you: how much these young alumni have to say and how important it is." Even the Benedictine monks recognise this principle - when there is a decision to be made, the abbot asks the opinion of each of the monks, beginning with the youngest. Through this, we also learn to practice humility (an article was once written, though where it was published escapes my memory now - that we don't learn to be humble so much as we learn to practice humility), not only by taking into account what those younger than us say, but also by doing certain things that they do, like getting your own water/coffee/insert-beverage-of-your-choice-here instead of ordering (ok, I'll say it nicely - asking) someone to do it for you. (content adapted from Leadership Wired, the online newsletter of John C. Maxwell, available at www.MaximumImpact.com)

Anyway, I think that's enough food for thought for now - still got a lot of stuff waiting to burst forth from my itchy typing fingers though, but I guess I'll leave that for another time.