We have all heard the saying that the rearview is always clearer than the view through the windshield. (1)Also, we can’t connect the dots looking forward, we can only connect them looking backward. (2) Both point to the fact that setbacks and detours in life always make more sense after we have gone through them.

Show and Tell is an activity that attaches narratives to inanimate objects or things that cannot speak, like our pets. The narratives are as real as the experience and perception of those who talk about them. One who recently went through months of mistreatment and the mental ordeal would speak of the ordinary bread as a token of Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life that sustained her daily through a time that could only be described as a ‘sandstorm’. Jesus was literally the Light that saw her through each day till the storm suddenly stopped and changed course!

A close relationship with God is one where we have no problem revealing our deepest needs. It centers on this biblical truth: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)

Never before have words been given so much power than in today’s digital age. We pay great attention to words used by politicians, scientists, celebrities, the news media, and content posted by the public on social media. Words have the power to provoke, attack, accuse, bully, hurt and at the same time, entertain, unite people, provide hope, comfort, security, and pleasure. We select and use words – whether spoken or as text - to advance our convictions, confirm our beliefs, confront falsehoods, create alliances, cover real intentions, or convince our audience of some ‘truths’.

MOSES HAD A BURNING BUSH EXPERIENCE with God that changed his life trajectory, and although that was the only instance in the Bible when God chose to draw a man’s attention to His presence by igniting a bush (that wasn’t even charred by the flame), that mysterious appearance is often burned into our mental image of God. Nowadays, when we hear people in church say they sense a powerful presence of God, we associate His presence with worship songs, prayer, and listening to sermons. To be sure, these activities, as well as being in a church service or a fellowship group can help increase our awareness of Him, but God is not a sleeping genie we rouse on demand.

Our names are the most public aspect of our identity. Today, users of social media adopt cool usernames to differentiate themselves from other users, and most of us also have multiple usernames to access online shopping, internet banking, virtual private networks (VPNs), online information, and other resources.

Who holds the pencil pretty much determines what comes out of it. Yet the difference between inanimate pencils and living humans is the agency or the free will we have to choose who controls our lives, and the way we live our lives as a result of that.  

Pencils don’t have fancy brand names like pens, nor are they used for signing trade agreements or big contracts. Yet, unlike pens, they are more practical for writing on different ordinary surfaces and can be used at all writing angles. So what does the humble pencil tell us about ourselves? That we are more like ordinary pencils than we are like luxury pens. That our lives have the God-created potential for making practical differences in everyday situations, and that our potential is not ranked by the world’s standard of importance.

The way a pencil is designed with lead on one end and an eraser on top emphasize revisions being an integral part of using the pencil. Our laptops and mobile devices also have keyboards that are designed with the ubiquitous ‘delete’ key, ready to deal with any mistakes. It doesn’t judge the mistakes we make, it simply erases them.

These are everyday reminders that in life, even when we put in our best efforts or have the best intentions, we can still make mistakes – some easier to erase while others leave more permanent marks.

This week, we continue with the pencil analogy to see that for pencils to be useful, they need to be sharpened as they are being used. The fanciest and sleekest pencils will soon lose their efficacy if the wood and graphite are not regularly shaped to keep their tips pointed for the tasks they are applied to. So it’s true that pencils need to be ‘defaced’ to be useful!

Pencils may be out-of-style today, but as metaphors, they provide image-rich illustrations for understanding how God thinks and what He sees in us.

Imagine there is an assortment of pencils sitting in a pencil holder. Some are new, some have seen better days, some long, some shorter, some with darker lead than others, some branded, others are plain. If you need to pick one from the bunch to write an important note – which would you choose? Or does it really matter?

Seriously, the pencil is not just a piece of wood or a hollow barrel. The lead inside determines the quality of the pencil and the quantity of output it is capable of.

LET’S FACE IT, trusting people is hard, especially when it involves something that is highly personal. Who do you trust with your deepest fears and anxieties? Who do you turn to when you feel mistreated or harassed? Who can you talk to when you are confused or when things are spinning out of control?

We cannot always be certain if the people or organisation we turn to have our best interests at heart, or if they care about us at all. So we trust only what we can see, and we assess someone’s trustworthiness by their behaviour. We also look for signs of their reliability such as the consistency between their actions and what they say, their approachability and availability, the level of in-person support they offered in the past, and also, their transparency.

Not surprisingly, most of us struggle with trust issues.

We are living in an image-rich world where we see photos and videos of freak accidents, severe weather, health crisis, racially motivated attacks, and all kinds of real human stories uploaded on the internet as soon as they take place. “The woman with the issue of blood” could very well caption a photo of a sick woman who took great risks to get close to Jesus and was healed by Him.

Today, Pastor Beatrice Kang gave a passionate persuasion to not ignore God’s assignment to believers. Resurrection Sunday may be over, but Resurrection Life has only begun - not for some of us but for all of us who know Jesus. We cannot allow ourselves to a BAU existence with a ritualized Christian life that departs from a lifestyle that reflects the missional Kingdom mandate.

Have you ever followed a drama series or watched a movie with twists and turns that kept you spellbound to the end, only to reach an anti-climactic conclusion. By then, you have invested too much emotionally to shrug it off, wondered why you failed to see it coming, what you had misinterpreted along the way, and how the ending made you feel so cheated.

When Jesus gathered His disciples – not one, not three but all twelve – to have a final meal with Him before His death, there was no ambiguity that it would be their last supper together because He told them, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before My suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”

Are you facing something in your life that is so difficult and disheartening that you are ready to throw in the towel? Don’t give up yet! Broken hearts, broken dreams, broken relationships, broken communication, and broken trust all need our attention because they don’t become useless when they are broken. You could be running an outdated OS that is inadequate for tackling the current issue at hand.

If you see yourself like driftwood, let God repurpose your personal mission as a lifeboat – first for yourself, and then for those around you.

When your head is buried in the ground, you’re stuck in a mental framework that keeps you from seeing any progress so that it looks like a dead-end and a road block everywhere you turn.

Give yourself a break. When you are exhausted, you can rest to recharge. But when you are feeling emptied and burned-out, rest becomes less effective for your recovery to a previous functional state.