Jed polishing brother-in-law’s army boots.  He’s not into the army thing (thankfully), but the novelty of playing with the brush and boot polish.

My new job requires me to advise on issues arising from business transactions carried out overseas, and I have to confess that I’m quite amazed at how inept / incompetent / corrupt certain foreign Governments can be. 

I think I am too naive.

In response to one of my "why is this like that" questions, a colleague could only shrug his shoulders in resignation.

"You will see that in some places there is no reason or logic to why things are done are certain way.  They just are, and many times the instructions given by one agency will contradict the instructions given by another."

Which, unfortunately, creates a lot of excitement for me at work.

So, while our Government / public service may not be perfectly competent, and whatever its failings — and I believe I’ve seen quite a bit of its shortcomings in the past 8 years — I think Singaporeans have very much to be proud of, and thankful for.

Josh is developing much faster than Jed.  At 6 months, he can already sit up, creep / crawl, and appears to be trying pretty hard to stand up — that would put him about 2 months or more ahead of Jed in terms of development.  I suppose he’s come to realise that unless he can get around on his own, he’s not going to be able to get his hands on any of the more interesting toys in the house.

We’ve got a couple more weeks or perhaps months of peace.  Once Josh learns how to crawl more competency and snatch stuff from Jed, family life will get more complicated.  In the meantime, here’s a delightful photo of the two of them holding hands and watching TV.

A little over the top.  But what’s life without a little melodrama ?

Dear friends,

This is finally it.  After this e-mail, I will pull the plug, let the life slip from this notebook and be gone, possibly forever.

You have been so much a part of my work life in the past 2 years, that it feels like I’m pulling the plug on my life support.  A part of me wishes that I could stay and linger a little longer.

When we meet again, I hope that I’ll be in "heaven" but maybe it’ll be "hell" — these things are unpredictable — in which case I may return from the dark side.

I wish you all the best in life and work …

As [ Jesus ] went along, He saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind ?"

"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life". … Having said that, [ Jesus  healed him ].

John 9 : 1 - 7

When bad things happen, Christians often turn to God for a solution, or for a reason, or both.  When illness strikes, we turn to God for a miracle and, if none appears to be forthcoming, for a divine reason for the status quo.  When a project or relationship fails, we also often turn to God for a solution and, if none appears to be forthcoming, for a divine reason for the status quo.  Why ?  Why me ?  Why did God allow this ? 

I wonder how many of us would be satisfied with the answer that God gave the man in John 9.  That is, that the man was born blind, and remained blind for a good part of his life, because God intended to use him as an example for others.  Personally I don’t think I’d be too happy.  I’m only glad to be part of some bigger divine plan, so long as it doesn’t involve any pain or suffering or hardship on my part.  So perhaps this would be the type of answer that I wouldn’t be fully prepared to hear.

I’ve been re-reading Philip Yancy’s "Reaching for the Invisible God" and he writes, in respect of Job, that

"the Bible offers no systematic answers to the ‘Why?’ questions and often avoids them entirely. … for a simple reason : no time-bound human, living on a rebellious planet, blind to the realities of the unseen world, has the ability to comprehend such answers — God’s reply to Job in a nutshell".

Interestingly, a pastor friend whom I caught up with recently, and who has been struggling with cancer for a number of years, arrived at a roughly similar conclusion.  That sometimes God doesn’t answer our "why"s because we would not be prepared to hear the reason.  That sometimes, or many times, he doesn’t know the reason for a bad incident — a very humbling conclusion to reach given that pastors are expected to know the answers to everything.

The foregoing, of course, doesn’t mean that we should give up seeking the divine purpose or lesson underlying every major incident in our lives.  However, we must be prepared to continue to trust in God’s greater divine plan, even when the divine purpose or lesson for a bad incident is not immediately obvious to us.

Joyce lamented the other day how those most in need of legal help are often the most undeserving.  Despite the inability or plain refusal of these clients to pay, they make unreasonable demands of the lawyers who are representing them at a discount, and are rude, vulgar or uncooperative.

On the other hand, it is often the clients that most deserve legal help, in the sense that they are able and willing to pay top dollar for legal services, that are usually pleasant to deal with.

A situation which I thought was interesting because of its parallels with the Bible’s message of unconditional love and grace.  The worst sinners are those that are most undeserving of divine pardon.  Thankfully, God did not turn His back on the rude, the vulgar, or the unrighteous.  It is these people that Jesus sought out during His earthly ministry, and died for.  It is these people that God continues to call to in love today.

While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with Him and His disciples … When the teachers of the law who were the Pharisees saw Him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked His disciples : "Why does He eat with tax collectors and ’sinners’ ?"

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous but sinners".

- Mark 2 : 15 - 17

It’s nice to be able to take the family out on a weekday, when there are no crowds to contend with.  We visited the Jurong Bird Park today — a first for Jed and Josh.  I think the coolest attraction by far is the Lory Loft, because the birds would actually come up to you and feed from your hand.

Of all the telemarketing calls I’ve received before — and I’m getting a lot more nowadays (now if only this were a reflection of my wealth, but if I were really wealthy the private bankers not telemarketers would call) — this is the one which was handled the worst.  It came on Saturday night somemore …

Caller : Hello.  May I speak to Mr [ name of my dad ]  please ?

Me (Slightly disturbed) : I’m sorry, he’s deceased.

Caller : Oh.  May I know when he would be home then ?

Me (Irritated and wondering which part of "deceased" he does not understand) : He’s dead.

Caller : How about Mrs [ name of my mother ], is she at home now ?

Me : No, and I don’t know when she would be.

Children have an amazing capacity to learn from people and the environment.  Sometimes by watching something being done just once.  Which is why Jed surprises us almost every day by doing something cute and unexpected, usually based on what he observes or is taught at home or in school, such as "sayanging" his brother Josh, telling the neighbour’s dog "you go and drink water or else you fall sick" after feeding it biscuits, going to the potty and peeing on his own, building a lego tower and, in this video (sorry haven’t figured out how to rotate it), bursting into "Jesus Loves Me" though we don’t recall really teaching him before.

Now that I’ve resigned, I should have more time to mull over life and blog.  But since I’m typing this at slightly past midnight I guess that, ironically, it hasn’t happened.

It’s the kids, I tell you.