When we last visited our gynaecologist, he expressed strong reservations about collecting Jed’s cord blood and advised us to think about it carefully.

Today we went for another checkup fully prepared to tell him a sob story about my Dad’s experience with cancer, hoping to use emotional blackmail if necessary to get him to agree to collect the cord blood.  Personally I thought that being rejected was a real possibility, hence I wasn’t looking forward to today’s checkup.

As it turned out, emotional theatrics were not necessary.  When we first stepped into the consultation room, our gynaecologist, as if prompted by some divine hand (ok maybe not "as if", he was actually moved by the Divine Hand in my opinion), asked if my father was still working.  (Now in all our past 7 visits to the gynaecologist, he had never asked about my father before).

This gave me the perfect excuse to tell him that my dad had blood cancer, and say that it was for this reason that we were "very keen" to collect Jed’s cord blood.  Our gynaecologist nodded sympathetically, and did not say another word to try and persuade us otherwise.

On a lighter note, I discovered another euphemism for "penis" from our gynaecologist today :

(During the ultrasound scan) "This is the head, here’s the heart, and over
there you see the teapot".

Had dinner in a cable car ("sky dining") to celebrate Joyce’s birthday.

Verdict :  Food was not spectacular.  Sadly neither was the view.  This shot of Harbourfront and the expressway was about the most exciting view.  We did three rounds between Mount Faber and Sentosa island - I don’t see us taking a cable car ride again anytime soon.

In 1888, German nihilist philosopher Freidrich Neitzsche (of the "God is dead" and Christians-are-fools fame) wrote his autobiography Ecce Homo, How One Becomes What One is, in which he discussed Why I Am So Wise, Why I Am So Clever, Why I Write Such Good Books and Why I Am A Destiny.

In the final section, Why I Am A Destiny, Neitzsche wrote :

"I know my fate.  One day there will be associated with my name something frightful - of a crisis like no other before on earth, of the profoundest collision of conscience … I am not a man, I am dynamite … religions are affairs of the rabble, I have need of washing of hands after contact with religious people … It is my fate to be the first decent human being, to know myself in opposition to the mendaciousness of the millenia …"

In 1889, upon witnessing a horse being whipped, Neitzsche threw his arms around its neck and collapsed.  He never recovered from this mental breakdown.  He died in 1900.

The widely held view is that Neitzsche went insane from syphilis, though some have expressed (speculatively in my opinion) the view that he went mad because his world without God (Neitzsche proclaimed that "God is dead") was simply too depressing for a mere human to bear.  The other possibility (also speculative) is that this was some kind of divine judgement for his arrogance (the way he went mad is a little similar to the account of King Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity in Daniel 4 : 28 - 33).

Whatever the case might be, I think it is a supreme irony that the man who claimed to be a genius (he admittedly was in many ways), who claimed to be the author of his own destiny, and who for most of his life lived according to this belief, should be struck down by insanity.  What does this demonstrate ?  That man is not, ultimately, in control of his own destiny.

To my beautiful and increasingly pregnant wife,

Happy birthday !  This post was written specially for you.  Laugh and don’t pretend not to know what I’m talking about.  If it’s any consolation, you’re not half as bad or demented as it makes pregnant women out to be.  And though I don’t look forward to growing older, I look forward to the time when we can look back together at life, work, parenting and ministry and laugh at how silly we’ve been, and how good God is.

Love always - Mel

Around the fifth month of pregnancy, the "nesting" instinct can set in. This is an uncontrollable urge to clean one’s house brought on by a desire to prepare a nest for the new baby, to tie up loose ends of old projects and to organize your world.

Females of the animal kingdom are all equipped with this same need. It is a primal instinct. Just as you see birds making their nests, mothers-to-be do exactly the same thing. The act of nesting puts you in control and gives a sense of accomplishment toward birth. You may become a homebody and want to retreat into the comfort of home and familiar company, like a brooding hen. The nesting urge can also be seen as a sign of the onset of labor when it occurs close to 40 weeks of pregnancy.

Nesting brings about some unique and seemingly irrational behaviors in pregnant women and all of them experience it differently …

This unusual burst of energy is responsible for women ironing anything in the house that couldn’t out run them. Being preoccupied with ant killing, squishing them one at a time for weeks on end. Packing and unpacking the labor bag 50 times. Cleaning the kitchen cupboards and organizing everything by size to the point that you make sure the silverware patterns match when it’s stacked in the cutlery drawer. Sorting the baby’s clothes over and over again is a favorite theme. Taking them out of the drawers and re-folding them, putting them away and doing it over and over again. Nesting will provide interesting stories for years to come.

…

Nesting can be one of the more humorous aspects of pregnancy. One that you and your partner are sure to laugh about in the years to come … if he ever forgives you for sending him off to work and ripping down all the wallpaper in the hall! You may laugh about it now but you probably won’t laugh when you’re in the middle of it. No one can pull you out of it no matter how silly your behavior may seem. It simply becomes something that you must do!

(Copyright © by The Pregnancy Weekly.  Read the full article here).

"Can’t we all just get along ?"

Rodney King / US President Dale (Jack Nicholson, in Mars Attacks)

According to the papers, the Singapore blogging community (which I’m not really a part of, I suspect, because I use far too few vulgarities in my blog) is aghast that two members of the online community have been charged under the Sedition Act for making some racist remarks.

I question whether it is really necessary for bloggers to be rude when trying to make a point.  I appreciate that sometimes we say rude things (i) on impulse because we are truly angry (ii) because that is genuinely how some of us speak (IMO, it’s not a person’s fault if, maybe because of a limited vocabulary, he has to use not-so-polite words to express what he wishes to say) (iii) as a literary device (eg. to add humour, etc.). 

Sadly, some of the vulgarities published in blogs appear to be completely gratuitous (senseless), devoid of literary or critical value.  I ask whether such bloggers, notwithstanding the fact that some of their thoughts are reasonably meaningful, resort to vulgarity just to gain notoriety, to distinguish themselves from the thousands of other blogs in existence on the internet.

Can’t we all just get along ?

I believe that the mark of an accomplished writer is the ability to entertain and convey his views persuasively without (generally) having to resort to vulgarities.

And I believe that a writer’s credibility lies not just in being critical, but in affirming of others where this is deserved, and in being constructive whenever possible.  In this respect, the Biblical exhortation in Philippians 4 : 8 is instructive -

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things".

Started reading The Question of God by Dr Armand M Nicholi, Jr, which compares the philosophical arguments of C S Lewis and Sigmund Freud on matters of pain, love, sex, and the meaning of life and death.  At chapter 2, the author notes -

Freud calls his worldview scientific because of its premise that knowledge comes only from research.  Of course, this basic premise cannot itself be based on scientific research.  Rather, it is a philosophical assumption that cannot be proven.  One can only assume that all knowledge comes from "research" and that no knowledge comes "from revelation".

You know that age is catching up with you when :

1.  Minor injuries seem to take forever to heal

I twisted my neck earlier this week while (believe it or not) combing my hair.  It’s been almost a week and, although the ache has gotten better, it hasn’t completely gone.  In the past, the pain could clear up within one or two days !

2.  You forget basic facts in the Bible

During Youth Fellowship today I said that the huge stone which sealed the tomb where the body of Jesus was laid remained there till after His resurrection.  Thankfully Libing and Youkai were alert and pointed out that according to the Gospels, the stone had actually been rolled away (by an angel) (Matthew 28 : 1 - 10).  Just goes to show that (i) teachers can be wrong (ii) my memory is failing me !!!

James penned his thoughts on the lantern-making activity at Sengkang last week.  I thought it was well-written and meaningful, so here it is :

On 3 September at Sengkang Student Care Centre, we found ourselves as lantern-making teachers to a bunch of highly excitable kids.  Not that we were complaining, for in them, we found innocence, amazement and a desire to learn.  This story is not about outreach of even lantern-making; it is about how a three-eyed fish lantern gave me some insights on how we should help kids grow.

At my table, I witnessed kids who tried their hands at making the prettiest fish lantern for themselves.  Kids, being kids, had their own definition of “pretty”, and some of the fishes started to have more fins and eyes than necessary !  In almost the same instance, their mothers started to “invade” my table, and took it upon themselves to help their kids make the “correct” looking fish lantern with two eyes and two fins, no more no less.  Poor kids !  One boy wanted a fish that was made by him – one that belonged to him and him alone.  His fish, his very own creation; not mummy’s interpretation of how a fish should look like!

Are we sometimes like that ?  Do we often overprotect our kids and cut short their learning experience ?  Are we so efficient that we end up being impatient with “wrong” turns that our kids make, pointing out and correcting “mistakes” too quickly ?  Let’s visit a mother in the Bible who figured she knew all the right answers for her child.

Genesis 27 onwards recounts how Rebekah, Issac’s wife favoured her younger son Jacob and led him to make some pretty bad decisions.  Firstly, she taught him how to deceive Issac into giving him the blessing reserved for the firstborn in the family, Esau, and incurred the wrath of Esau himself.  Secondly, when she got to know that Esau was plotting to kill Jacob, she told Jacob to flee to his uncle Laban for refuge.  This piece of advice also led him to be cheated by his own uncle.  Jacob turned out fine later when he began to seek the Lord and learn to depend on God for his providence, not on others’ advice or his own wit.  Jacob learnt his lesson, suffered the consequences and turned out for the better.

Do we allow our kids to understand that making a mistake or two is alright, as long as they know that you are always there for them when they fall and that a listening ear coupled with a sympathetic hug is always near ?  Pray for your children’s protection; let them know that they must obey God, yet allow your children to make decisions that they will live by, for God is there to help mould and shape their characters even when they seem to stray.  Let go of your children to God.  Your children will then go to God.  Happy parenting !

Copyright © 2005 by James Foo

I don’t profess to know much about eastern and new age meditation (notwithstanding the fact that I live in the East).  However, I’ve always thought of them as rather suspect because some forms, as I understand, encourage the practitioner to “empty his mind” of thought and feelings in order to attain a higher level of enlightenment, which then begs the question of what fills the empty mind thereafter.

The proverb, an “empty” or “idle mind is the devil’s workshop”, was not coined without reason.

(This is why I am in agreement with the Singapore education policy of teaching “moral education” in schools.  Though the efficacy of such instruction divorced from religion is suspect, I believe that if we do not fill the minds of our young with what is moral, we leave a vacuum for what is immoral to take its place).

I digress.  Today, I spent an idle afternoon reading the Lotus and the Cross by Ravi Zacharias, a short book about an imaginary conversation between Jesus Christ and the Buddha.  One of the parts I found interesting was a “discussion” between Jesus and Buddha on how their followers came to distort their teachings, and in particular on how the vacuum created by Buddhist teachings resulted in idolatry and superstition  –

(At a temple.  Priya is an imaginary third person participating in the conversation.)

Buddha : I’m not sure I like everything I see here, Jesus, I must admit.  These temples have become puzzling places for me.  I didn’t want to be deified or made into a statue.  The gold, the precious stones, all on a carved idol …

Jesus : Walking into the temple in Jerusalem and seeing what I saw was not my favourite moment. either.

…

Buddha : … I don’t understand how all this ritual and idolatory has come about.  I told my followers not to be burdened with images and with worship, but they didn’t listen.  What I taught and what has become of what I taught are two different things.

Jesus : That seems to be the inevitable result when someone assigns themselves authority over the intent of someone else’s thoughts or words.  My people also turned their backs on Me and polluted the worship of the true God.  But there’s a difference of the two, even here.

Priya : Please explain.

Jesus : Think about these two words, superstition and legalism.  They end up looking the same but are born out of different sentiments.

Superstition in its essence is actually a subtle lack of faith in God.  If there is no righteous God in control of all things, a person ends up trying to appease the world of unseen power.  Habits develop out of fear of the unknown.  You took God away from them, Gautama (ie. Buddha), so they live in fear of the spirit world.  Anytime God is displaced but belief in the spirit world remains, placation will dominate the individual’s efforts.

The corruption that attended my followers was the other side of the coin.  When grace is evicted, laws or power-seeking people take over.  Legalism enters and ceremony becomes the focus.

These two things – superstition and legalism – rush into hearts bereft of a God of mercy and grace.

Your followers are consumed with ritual and fear …

Buddha : Those are strong words, Jesus.

…

Jesus : … Now look at those people outside the spirit house nearby.  Why did they build that house, Priya ?

Priya : Oh, we all do that.  If we don’t, some bad things could happen to us.  So we bring offerings to appease departed spirits in the hope that no harm will come to us.

Buddha : But Jesus, this is all a corruption of what I taught.

Jesus : Maybe so, but let me trace that route of that corruption.  First you told them there is no God.  Then you told them there is no self.  You also told them there is no one to pray to.  You told them there is no evil one to fear.  You told them everything is only within themselves, even though those selves do not exist.  You instructed them that their good deeds have to outweigh their bad deeds.  You carved into their consciousness a huge debt.  You gave them scores of rules to live by.  You told them that all desire is to be cut off.  You told them you would cease to be, and, when they have paid, they will cease to be.  How can all these bring peace, Gautama ?

…

Buddha : Ah, but Jesus, haven’t many in Your Name also perverted worship, even though You offered Yourself, Your person, to them ?

Jesus : Yes, many have perverted worship of the living God and continue to do so.  But please take note of the difference : the entanglement of your followers in superstition was a logical departure from your teaching because there was no God to start with.  Their hearts drove them to a transcendent one, but you said there was none to be found.  The substitute was worship in any form.

The departure of My followers was inconsistent with My teaching because they forgot God.  They replaced the well of God with broken cisterns of their making …

Received an e-mail from a Christian to which was attached an e-mail from I suppose another Christian containing interesting "facts” about Hurricane Katrina.

Interesting "Fact" 1

Southern Decadence 2005, an annual Labor Day weekend homosexual celebration of debauchery was scheduled to begin this week in New Orleans with at least 100,000 perverts gathering there to commit unspeakable acts in public. Previous events were photographed and sent to the mayor and police officials but they did not care. They had their own lust: The $100,000,000 the event brings in.  Event postponed, hopefully indefinitely.

That there is an annual gay celebration – the Southern Decadence – at about this time in New Orleans every year is a fact.  But to suggest that the hurricane is God’s judgment on the state requires – and I find this rather disturbing – a leap of logic :

1. Does God have to use a force as destructive as a hurricane, and all the deaths and devastation that came along with it, to bring the a weeklong gay celebration to a halt ?  I’m not saying that God can’t use a sledgehammer to kill a fly if He chooses to, but the God I read about in Genesis 18 and 19 (account of the infamous cities of Sodom and Gomorrah) was prepared to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah entirely if there were even ten righteous men in it (ie. the minority is righteous).  In contrast, we are ascribing to God a willingness to destroy an entire city because the minority (100,000 celebrants vs a 800,000 city population) in it are wicked.

2.  Aren’t the majority of the 100,000 gay celebrants just visitors to the city, meaning that the people who suffered the most as a result of the hurricane are the residents of the city, and not the gay celebrants ?

3.  What actually caused the devastation – the hurricane “sent” by God, or the inept I-can-preempt-a-non-existent-nuclear-threat-in-Iraq-but-cannot-preempt-a-hurricane-that-my-metereologists-had-warned-me-about-for-days Bush Administration ?

4.  Does this mean that gay San Francisco and Amsterdam are also going to be destroyed soon ?

Interesting "Fact" 2

Katrina in Hebrew.  According to Rabbi Laser Brody, Katrina, written in Hebrew, has a numerical equivalent of 374.  He says two relevant passages in Torah share the exact numerical equivalent of 374.  One says, "They have done you evil" (Genesis. 50:17), and the other says "The sea upon land" (he says Exodus 14:15, but not in my Bible; maybe v. 16).  Rabbi Brody says, "The former passage may be an indication as to the spiritual cause of Katrina, while the latter passage describes the physical manifestation."

Rabbi Brody also says, "Katrina is hitting just as the bulldozers are completing the destruction of Gush Katif. The Talmud teaches that Hashem administers the world according to the "ATFAT" principle, in other words, "a turn for a turn"… My heart tells me that there’s a link between the forced expulsion of 8500 people from their blood, sweat, and tear-soaked homes in Israeli Gaza and between the nearly 850,000 people who are forced to flee from their homes in Louisiana.

Also very disturbing, this interpretation of Katrina :

1.  Why are Christians citing a extra-biblical interpretation of the scriptures by a Jewish Rabbi with approval ?

2.  “Two relevant passages in the Torah share the exact numerical equivalent of 374”.  What do the irrelevant passages say ?  (I think this is very selective reading of the Torah).

3.  Exodus 14 : 16 in its entirety is about the parting the Red Sea, ie. God dividing the water so that he Israelites can go through the “sea on dry ground”.  The parting of the Red Sea, which allowed the passage of the Israelites through the “sea on dry ground”, is entirely different from what happened as a result of the hurricane, sweeping of the “sea upon land”. 

The only portion of the e-mail which I can partly agree with is its opinion that the hurricane was another “birth pang”, an indication that the return of Christ, and the redemption of believers and creation, is near.

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies”.  (Romans 8 : 22 – 23)