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When Seniors Paint the House

11 March 2021 blogpastor Leave a comment

When I was in my 30s and 40s, even in my 50s it would take me one day to paint the whole living and dining areas. Last week it took me two days to do a small bedroom that serves as my study/prayer room.

It took three hours to prepare the room. My wife and I had to move all the books systematically onto the bed, and shift the empty bookshelf to the corridor. Then the desks, cabinets, camera cabinet, and chairs into the living room.

Besides that the walls and ceiling had to be wet wiped of dust and dirt. The edges had to be taped up and cardboard and paper arranged on the floor and the paint stirred with brushes and tray all readied for the painting.

The original paint on the walls were lime green and yellow. My grandchildren had stayed in this room for some time. This meant I had to splash on generously and laboriously two coats of white because I wanted a lighter colour, a prayer retreat colour.

After painting two coats, which took about five hours, there was the cleaning up – anther forty minutes of washing, throwing the paint-spotted old newspapers and cardboard, removing the tape, and setting up the bookshelf and cabinets again.

I was tired three quarters of the way, and my wife had to help out. Without her, the project would not have gotten done.

The next day, with some aches from stretching and stooping, using muscles seldom used, this ageing couple had to prepare the other half of the room, removing everything from the bed: the things stored below, and the mattress and other stuff on the bed, and beside it. Then it was the same process all over again. The wet wipes, the stirring of the paint, up and down the ladder, the tapes, the two coats. This time it was more difficult but with God’s strength, when everything was finally done, I had such a good feeling of accomplishment.

There are two more bedrooms and many more ceilings to paint. They will be done at a leisurely pace – at a senior citizens’ pace. There is no hurry. No deadlines. I wonder how long it will take before I embark on the next round of painting and which part of the house will get a new coat.

Multi-tasking During Online Worship

5 March 2021 blogpastor Leave a comment

Let us face it: online worship is here to stay – for the next two years, at least. Unlike on-site worship, that has established norms that developed over many generations of church culture, online worship has none.

NORMS IN ON-SITE AND ONLINE WORSHIP

On-site worship service norms are clear and established. Not so with online worship service. A norm is a guideline or expectation of proper behaviour that each society and culture decides as acceptable, and what violates that acceptability, and what to do with that violation. We all know what behaviours are expected in on-site worship services: punctuality, dressing, how to enter the sanctuary, how to sing during worship, or attend to the preaching and what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, before, during and after the worship service. It is taught. It is mostly caught. But everything is new in online worship. It seems many of the guidelines and norms have been held in abeyance or thrown out.

MULTI-TASKING DURING ONLINE WORSHIP SERVICE

Multi-tasking seems to be the order of the day. While the online worship service is being streamed, or viewed later, viewers could be doing various other things while watching. Since there are no norms for online worship, anything goes! Here are some of the imagined possibilities.

Nail clipping or polishing,
Having your meal
Surfing other channels, websites
Answering emails, WhatsApp messages and social media
Doing your housework: folding and ironing clothes, vacuuming and mopping the floor, etc
Doing your hair or facial routines
Preparing meals
Chatting on phone or zoom or someone with you
Exercising
Reading or writing something unrelated.

INVASION OF GLOBAL ONLINE CULTURE

Multitasking during the online worship service is not something taught by the church. It’s the force of sheer habit and the invasion of a global online culture into the new territory of online worship culture. Since there are no established norms other forces hold sway. We are a people conditioned to require endless stimulation and engagement to stave away boredom and to feel productive and connected and excited. Multitasking gives us these. Since the church gives no guidelines, each person does what is right in his or her eyes, or gropes sincerely in this gap of ambiguity.

NAVIGATING THE NEW TERRITORY

A mature Christian would ponder about how to navigate this new territory. If the believer would ponder over the purpose of worship, he should be able to draw some principles upon which to form new norms of online worship for himself or for his or her family.

We know the purpose of worship is for us to glorify God and enjoy Him. We remember the Lord and all he has done for us through his finished work, and respond by giving him thanks and praise, and also to attend faithfully to what he wants to say to us through his Word, his Spirit and his Body. This requires the positioning of our whole body and soul to be actively and wholly involved. This cancels out most multitasking during online worship.

Its hard to imagine Moses multitasking while God spoke to him during his burning bush experience. He was on holy ground – to multitask would akin to tearing out the heart of that encounter, that worship experience. Jesus reproved the Pharisees and scribes, “These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”(Matt 15:8). We cannot afford to let our hearts drift away from God during online worship. St Paul said to the Corinthian church. “I have the right to do anything,” you say – but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything” – but not everything is constructive. (1 Cor 10:23 NIV).

The main idea is to participate, to be attentive to, and respond to how the online service is moving your heart, and not merely to watch the whole program like a task to dutifully complete to soothe your conscience, and to have some comment to make in case some leader asks you about it.

DIFFICULT WORD TO ACCEPT

This is a difficult word for people to hear. Everyone wants to be in control and do whatever is right in their eyes. This is precisely where coming under Jesus’ rule and kingship cuts the Adamic tentacles of rebellion that still desperately cling to our hearts after our conversion to Christ. Discipleship is not theory. It is very practical. It boils down to how you posture your heart and how you behave in all spheres of thought, speech and conduct. In this instance, we are talking about online worship conduct.

You may disagree with me and I am certainly aware that worshipping online at home becomes a challenge, even a meaningless routine, or worse – a drag – after the initial novelty has worn out.

I fully encourage support of return to on-site worship services. If you cannot do it every Sunday because of safety and other constraints, then less frequently, but seek to resume attendance with your whole body and soul. You can read more about my thoughts regard this HERE.

Understanding the Catholics

3 March 2021 blogpastor 3 Comments

I have included in my blogroll three blogs written by Singaporean Catholics. I believe that these are interesting blogs in themselves, but I encourage readers to explore them to understand more about Singaporean Catholics and their beliefs, and depend less on hearsay and preconceived ideas.

There is sufficient misunderstanding of differences among denominations to start a civil war, so every bit of openness and careful listening to appreciate one another is a move forward. The Church encourages inter-faith dialogue, so why not encourage inter-denomination, or inter-Christian tradition dialogue too.

One thing we digital citizens can do is read what Catholics write in their blogs. Here are three that I know of and they are all in my blogroll for your convenience. If you are using your mobile or tablet, the blogroll is below the articles after the Recent Posts and Themes. If you are using your laptop it is on the right sidebar.

For an immediate taste and see, click on the names here Fr Luke Fong, and Fr Chris Soh, SJ, and Jacinta Teo.

To look at summary of their beliefs on an official site click HERE.