I have written out of necessity to pass my theological exams and in the course of pastoral work. I have also steadily kept journals since I was in National Service, after I became a Christian. These were mainly my devotional jottings, prayers, feelings, and sermon ideas. However in recent years, I have experienced an unrelenting consuming desire to express myself through blogging. I now recognize it as a call to write, though at that time I merely viewed it as an act of faith and obedience to God’s prompting to enter blogosphere.
I wished I had started writing more seriously when I was younger but God knew better. I needed to live and serve and reflect. I needed to fumble and experience and grow. Furthermore, the writing passion in me could only be released and expressed through Web 2.0, a platform that is just five years old, and that makes publishing online so easily accessible to computer illiterates like me. So it wasn’t too late, but actually in good time, in His time.
Moses was a senior citizen when the Lord told him, “Write down these words…..”(Exodus 34:27). It was not in the most ideal of times when the call to write came to Moses. He was under great stress. He was pastoring about two million grumbling Israelites in the desert. He had no time to spare. He was eighty years old.
My heart leapt when I saw that John of Patmos received the call to write at the tail end of a ripe old age. While he was in enforced silence and solitude in the island of Patmos, the Lord appeared to him and said, “Write on a scroll what you have seen…” (Revelations 1:11).
Its not too late to write. And write I will.
His name was Peter Loke and I forgot his name. He greeted me by name as we stood in the Suntec covention hall elevator together with the guest workshop speaker on a wheel-chair. I was impressed he remembered my name, and I felt I had mattered to him. I was embarassed and perturbed that I knew his name but my mental secretary could not retrieve the folder with his name in it. Granted he was an acquaintance I got to know in merely a few meetings a decade ago when he explained to me some of the Eagles ministry programs. He was gentle, friendly, warm and clear in communication. I liked him and wondered why this nice guy wasn’t married then. I remembered having pulled his leg about this until one day he happily informed me he had tied the knot, and I went, Praise the Lord, that’s wonderful! So I kicked myself for not remembering his name and later during the leadership conference when I found out his name I was looking for an opportunity to say, Hey Peter Loke, so that he knows he is somebody to me, but it was not to be. Now its really too late. This morning I saw three obituaries for Peter Loke and my heart dropped like a breakfast plate. Lord, he’s just about my age. Another one just after Anthony Yeo is one too much. I wish I had remembered his name. I wish I had time to say, Hey Peter Loke! I wish I had coffee with him. Now he has gone home.
I don’t play football. I watch the occasional “big” matches, or watch the Footytube.com video clips of the goals that were scored. And I do like reading up news about football. Its a habit from the time I was in Secondary school. Reading the news from the sports page at the back to the headlines in the frontpage. Now the news are more up to date online. Since I started blogging, I have tried predicting every year but got it right only once. Forgot which year. But its very unpredictable the Premier league, more so with the rise of the Asian dragons and tigers and their bookies. Yes, of course there probably is some “betting” influence on the major games. I may sound cynical, but actually I am being very realistic about human greed. But before I ramble off on a tangent, here are my personal predictions based on gut feel: