We have all read or heard of biblical accounts of people who were called by God. Seemingly overnight, their lives were turned upside down and transformed into epic biographies. Think of Noah, Moses, Joseph, Esther and the apostle Paul. They make getting a call from God the epitome of Christian living. Suddenly, their lives had purpose and a definite sense of mission that gave meaning to their mundane existence, and the drudgery they endured a grandiose justification. All of us are called; yet, not everyone embraces God’s call with open arms.

Most people find optical illusions mind-bending. But while they take practice and time to solve, once you see the embedded images, you cannot ever ‘unsee’ them again. How many fish do you see below? Almost instantly, the brain tells us four fish because we see the head, tail, eyes and shape of four fish. If that is our conclusion, we move on without a second thought.

WHAT IS THE PASSION OF CHRIST? Some of us may recall Mel Gibson’s evocative movie that depicted the epic life and suffering of Jesus leading to the crucifixion. The dictionary describes passion as a powerful human emotion or expression. Those who prefer less intense and dramatic connections with people may find it undesirable and dangerous!

Remove, Replace or Remain.

Would you use an AI-generated avatar to replace someone you wish you could have a better conversation or relationship with? No matter how real the avatar looks and sounds, you know it is not the real person and you are only using technology to trick your emotions and entertain your fantasies of perfection.

When glitches appear in our plans for the future and our perfectly laid out assumptions of realities, we are quick to see the people at fault and the problems they cause. Then, we look for solutions that make sense to us.

Today, if someone from the past caught up with you, what kind of Christian will they see? Will they find that the intervening years and seasons of life have brought no real change in you? Or will people sense something intrinsically different about you that inspires them to not let life slip away for one more day?

Firstly, the Holy Spirit is a person who carries God’s heart: He grieves when we sin, He cries with us in our emotional pain, He quietly cheers us on when we face daunting ordeals. We can break the silence in our relationship with the Holy Spirit by talking to Him audibly just as we would speak with someone present.

Humans are plagued by all kinds of fear. We struggle with the fear of rejection, the fear of being wrong, the fear of losing friends, the fear of looking inapt, the fear of criticisms and the list goes on. Invariably, they point to our fear of other people and their opinion of us. Think of a time when you were in a position to help or protect someone but stopped short.

Today’s question addresses the hard topic of whether we have made Christian discipleship an option because we prefer a customizable relationship with God that is less demanding on our commitment of time, interest and reciprocity. We are happy if we could just be tagged as ‘followers’ with the occasional catchup with God without being accused of neglecting Him.

There is moral panic in today’s society about the power and peril of artificial intelligence (AI). While we love the benefits of AI in healthcare, transport and manufacturing, we are also wary of the unpredictability of its output in many other applications.

Living with a high degree of predictability and routine may be beneficial in some settings and for a season of life. But for Christian growth, we must leave the door open to some degree of spontaneity, change and even disruptions in life.

Christians today live in a post-truth world where we prefer to emphasize our emotions and opinions over our obedience to the Word of God. Many of us let our friendships run primarily on the basis of amiability and reciprocal goodwill. We are guided by cultural norms to leave many things unsaid to avoid embarrassing our friends, or making them feel uncomfortable.

If we don’t live out the realities and redemption of Easter in our Christian life, we will always people walking around in ‘funeral clothes’ doing what people do during mourning – relying on self-soothing habits to cope with hopelessness, constantly seeking activities to divert our attention from feeling gloomy, and staying in echo chambers with other ‘mourners’ constantly crying over spilt milk.

Chess is an adversarial game played between two opponents who are each serving a king on opposing sides. The goal of each player is to checkmate their opponent’s king by consistently making maneuvers to thwart or increase the difficulty of the opponent’s every move

To military personnel, proper body armour is a critical component of warfare to ensure that they will survive wounds that might otherwise incapacitate or kill them. Christians, too, are instructed to armour up because overcoming the Enemy is not something that just happens without our consciousness of who God is.

UNLESS WE ARE LIVING IN CHRONIC DENIAL, we’ll have to admit that we are constantly facing battles in life. Whether we are battling financial struggles, chronic sickness, challenging relationships, painful disappointments, or discouraging outcomes, unwelcome surprises have a way of throwing our lives off-kilter and our emotions into chaos. 

Have you ever opened your home to a visitor, offered your guest a comfortable seat with a commanding view of your life, and then promptly excused yourself to get busy with the exigencies of life, returning only to ask your guest for more time, more resources and greater patience with you? If this sounds preposterous, consider Christians who, after inviting Jesus to make their hearts His home, prefer Him to sit quietly as a sponsor and spectator. Instead of paying attention to the things He nudges us towards, we go on with life pretty much our own way – with little change inside.

People spend an inordinate amount of time sitting. Once out of bed, we sit to have breakfast, sit on the commute to work, sit in the office, sit for lunch, sit for dinner, sit to watch TV and then it’s bedtime again.

Few of us pay attention to how we sit and what we sit on. During the lockdowns of COVID-19, many worked while sitting in bed, on couches and dining chairs which are not designed for adequate support of our bodies for prolonged sitting. However, over time, our preferred chair becomes second nature to us, and we conclude that living with aches and pain is the new normal without examining what we are relying on for support.

What sparks joy in you? Do you find yourself endlessly pursuing one self-gratifying activity after another only to find short-lived joy that is soon replaced by a feeling of emptiness in your soul? Or are you more inclined to invest your time and attention to things that are more sustainable though they demand, on your part, a continual reliance on God as He reveals a deeper and deeper aspect of His heart with you? In other words, are you happy just to catch natural phenomena like sunrise or rhythmic springs, or do you seek the pleasure of being in the company of the God who creates such wonders of nature?

According to psychologists, we rely on stereotypes or mental shortcuts about people to draw conclusions about their motives, character or behaviour. Thus, we may conclude that people with body tattoos are dangerous, or that older singles and divorcees are difficult people. At the same time, our behaviour is shaped by our imagination of how we appear in people’s minds and the reaction we think they have to their mental image of us (Cooley’s looking glass self). So, among Christian friends, we want to appear godly and austere. To people at work, we want to appear competent and hardworking. Empty-nesters want to be seen as rekindling their marriages when their children fly the coop. Those in leadership position want to be seen as powerful and important.