danny’s space

Crunch. Matt, Nate, Calvin and I turned around awkwardly in our seats to see a red Ford hatchback frighteningly close to the rear window. Foot finally pressed firmly on the brake, the flatline-like tone of the reverse sensors reverberating around the car’s cabin, my heart sunk. Not again! My second three-point-turn accident in North Epping. What a wonderful way to end the morning. After dropping off Calvin, Matt and Nate, I drove back to the scene and surveyed the damage more closely.

The crunch wasn’t wrong. A large furrow in the rear right door of the red hatch, 15cm long, 10cm wide and a few deep. I got out a Post-It pad and pen from the car, took a few deep breaths, and walked up to the house where it was parked. A doorbell and a barking dog later, a man came to the door. I asked if the car belonged to him, and he indicated towards his neighbour. Another few deep breaths and a doorbell. No dog, just a tall friendly-looking guy around my age.

“Hi, sorry to disturb you, but is that red car outside yours? I bumped into it doing a three-point-turn. I’m really sorry.”

Unfazed, the guy replied, “Hang on, I’ll get my shoes and come take a look.”

After more profuse apologising, we inspected the damage together. He leaned down to take a closer look, brushed the bruised door with a few fingers, and stood back up. He managed to get a few words past my blurts of “insurance” and “sorry”:

“It should be fine. Don’t worry.”

The relief. We exchanged names and mobile numbers, and shook hands. I waved to him as I drove past a few minutes later while he was getting into the car, probably just to check it still worked fine.

Forgiveness. Grace. Mercy. I know it’s only a very minor incident, but it highlights these well.

I especially didn’t expect it after my last three-point-turn encounter, that time with a car belonging to a man from the Chinese congregation at church. We’ll call him Peter. That time, there wasn’t even a crunch. Not a sound. The only sound came from Peter’s mouth after he stormed into service, demanding to speak to the person who drove the blue Volvo that one of his friends saw reversing into his car. We inspected the damage, and it was a mere 2cm paint scratch on the bottom bumper. I’ve had grazes deeper and larger than that. Peter, quietly and calmly fuming, demanded insurance and license details and kept emphasising that the bumper looked highly indented while pressing on it determinedly with his hand. He kept repeating what an inconvenience it would be to him to have the car in for servicing, and said that he would contact me with the quote from the repair shop because some internal damage may have occurred.

What a difference! What a shocker was the reaction from the ‘mature Christian’, and what an embodiment of mercy was the reaction from that friendly young man behind the screen door.

Makes you think.

Was talking to Sara a few days ago about Christian hypocrites (for some reason…) and we came to the interesting conclusion that to be a Christian necessitates being a hypocrite. Let me explain.

People who know Christians are often put off by the hypocritical nature of their friends. My dad turned away from Christianity when he was a teenager because of the hypocrisy he saw in his ‘Christian’ friends. For a Christian, being tagged as a hypocrite usually means talking the talk but not walking the walk - professing faith in Jesus but acting no different from the world.

But the current proposition says that Christians are necessarily hypocrites, to some extent at least. Hypocrites need something to be hypocritical about - for example, Christian beliefs and a resultant ‘expected way of life’. The problem for Christians is that we aspire to an (in this life) unattainable standard, who is Jesus Christ himself. So no matter how much ‘good’ we do in our lives, at some level we will be hypocrites because we do not, and indeed cannot, wholly walk the life of Jesus who we proclaim.

Non-Christians don’t have this problem. They don’t have this standard to compare to, and therefore can’t technically be described as hypocritical in this sense. Of course, if they have their own values to adhere to and don’t adhere to them, then the hypocrite label would necessarily apply.

So perhaps being a Christian means being a hypocrite. We just have to make sure that even though we know we can’t attain perfection this side of the second coming, we don’t become complacent and become like the world.

As a Christian, I have certain hope of life after this short tour on earth. Funny that the results for an online survey would tell me that though!

A few of the ‘team leaders’ from the english congregation at church met with one of our pastors this afternoon to have an informal chat. It was a productive time and a lot of things were thrown around for improvement.

One thing that has struck me while serving at a chinese church is the parents of the youth. Apart from being a non-Cantonese-speaking Taiwanese at a Cantonese church, being of the ‘third culture’ generation as one of my friends puts it (i.e. not fully part of the Chinese or Australian culture and so creating our own hybrid one) makes it more difficult to understand the mentality of some parents. Cases in point: (1) pressure your children out of ministry to do well at uni; (2) not fully understanding the idea of an english ‘youth group’; (3) putting excessive pressure on children to perform well at school at all costs.

Now, many parents of youth I know aren’t as bad as I make them out to be. Often they’re appreciative, considerate and genuinely concerned for the wellbeing of their children. Which is hard for their children to understand, but in a few years time they will. Our pastor said something today though about the migrant syndrome which really hit me hard and made me reconsider the flak that I tend to throw the parents’ way.

Many of the people at church are migrants or children of migrants. My sister and I are too. As children who have grown up in Australian society, we rarely appreciate or understand how our parents feel and what drove them to immigrate from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, etc to Australia. Our pastor, however, being a migrant himself, gave a bit more insight into this matter, and you can see the painful logic and reality in his point of view.

Migrants are basically like uprooted people. They are removed from their comfort zone, their friends, their family, where they grew up, where they are accustomed to, where they can communicate readily without feeling like a second-class citizen (or worse). They move to a foreign country, learn the language, have very few friends or connections, and bring up a family, all while feeling insignificant and out of place. What for? Perhaps for a better life for their children - a noble goal which most Asian parents strive towards.

So what would they want for their children? A secure future. How do Asians know best to do this? Through education. Aggravating factors include parents pushing their ideals and dreams onto their children. They want their kids to have what they couldn’t have - connections, comfort, security.

So perhaps it’s necessary for the third culture kids to give way a bit, and for the parents to give way a bit too. Third culture kids are struggling under parental pressures to study, and peer pressures to conform. Rebellion is rife. Parents think they don’t understand their own children, and children can’t understand why parents do what they do.

It gets particularly counterproductive when these struggles affect ministry. When parents view a university degree above serving God by spending time ministering to his children. When parents view the HSC above Christian fellowship and encouragement. When parents ram Christianity down their children’s throats and make them (naturally) rebel, and sadly run from the truth.

Let’s pray for an increased understanding between both parents and their third culture kids. Pray that parents wouldn’t put undue pressure on their children and thus frustrate them. Pray that kids would understand their parents’ hopes and respect them, while having the growing wisdom to choose what to do with their own life.

Up in Katoomba last weekend with the youth group from church at KYCKstart, a conference aimed at high-schoolers. It was my first KYCK, and it was absolutely gobsmacking to see a couple of thousand youth and their leaders meeting in a big tin shed in the Mountains singing, learning and praying together. Apart from the main session talks, the free time we had with the youth from 180 was just so fantastic for getting to know them better and for everyone to gel.

Unfortunately no photos from me since I only took the video camera (which I subsequently got busted for since you’re apparently not meant to film anything at the conference). But I’ll steal some photos from friends and post some up - thanks Susie!

Highlights include:

• Driving up to Katoomba with Andrew, Matt, Nate and Ringo.
• Getting lost at Katoomba station, taking the wrong turn into a dead end road where a bunch of drunk homies were hanging. Nearly ran one over as he sidled in front of our car as we tried to frantically do a three-point turn to escape.
• Great meals and great times sitting around and just talking to youth.
• Challenging and refreshing talks, reminding us of the cost of following Jesus, and God’s unconditional love for us.
• Capture the flag on Saturday arvo and being stuck in jail with Simon. Our team won!
• Lightning Charades and everyone getting involved. Matt trying to act out ‘birth’ and ‘egg’ one after the other.



• Late-night poker and chilling with the leaders and youth in our house.
• The drive back, getting stuck in traffic on the Great Western Highway and running out of petrol, having to drive back to refuel. Then taking massive shortcuts along small roads parallel to the railway line, basically avoiding all traffic. Andrew being woken up by a nasty gravel road.
• MSN display names or messages from the youth after KYCK, including “Kyckstart was fabulous x100000″, “Take out the knife, make the cut” (a big idea from one of the talks, about sacrifices to follow Jesus), “KYCK was GGGreat, thanx leaders”, and “K is Y the C best K”

So, that Office 2007 Ultimate student offer was the real deal! Office 2007 is pretty cool on first impressions. This ribbon thing (the revamped toolbar) could take a bit of getting used to. I like Outlook 2007 - the ability to have multiple colour-coded calendars is great because I can plan my experiments on one calendar and my life on another, and only sync the life calendar with my phone without getting reminders to do PCRs all the time. I urge you all to go forth and buy Office 2007 for $75. Bargain!

In other news, our Canon IXUS digicam broke at 180FM after it took a tumble which surprisingly wasn’t my doing. Took the camera to Canon in North Ryde this morning, and was quoted a whopping $295 for replacement of the lens structure. And this camera is only a couple of months old. Late last year, I took our old IXUS to 180 and that broke as well, costing $220 to fix. So the lesson is either (1) don’t buy an IXUS camera because they’re really quite fragile, or (2) don’t bring things you don’t want broken to youth group. Perhaps the second, because there have been many breakages, not just of my stuff.

• Plastic water pistol: $3
• Pool noodle: $8
• IXUS 50: $220
• IXUS 800: $295+
• Various laptops: $unknown
• Seeing the youth grow in Christ: priceless

Was chatting to Matt, a friend from church, last night on MSN. He’s a fan of rock music (which I’m oblivious to) and made mention of a new song out by Good Charlotte with lyrics:

Baptized in the river
I’ve seen a vision of my life
And I wanna be delivered
In the city was a sinner
I’ve done a lot of things wrong
But I swear I’m a believer
Like the prodigal son
I was out on my own
Now I’m trying to find my way back home
Baptized in the river
I’m delivered
I’m delivered

Lately I’ve noticed quite a few ‘Christian’ ideas seeping into popular culture, especially songs (which I guess you could say reflects this pop culture well). Words like heaven, sin, and even Jesus and messiah pop up time and time again. Just do a search on any lyrics engine and you’ll find a load of songs to do with these. Of course there are heaps to do with love as well.

And then this morning, saw a blog on the SMH about Junkies, Christians and the void, in which ‘the void’ was described as:

“Growing up, I thought I was weird or depressed because so often, I’d sit back and feel like I was going to be swallowed by an aching emptiness, this void and that everyone else was just getting on with their lives and didn’t feel it as well.”

Seems teenagers may feel this void, and that it may be linked somewhat to the hardcore punk rock that has been picked up by this age group:

“Ive just turned 18 and like many teenagers have become obsessed with the void (the reason for the rise of emo-ism and basically any band that can be labelled as whinge rock). I found that I blamed this feeling of emptiness, absolute shittiness, and the desire to adopt genocide as a profession on other people.”

Or, is this an attributing factor to why people drink?

“I find that the feeling of emptiness also goes away when I drink, but it comes straight back as soon as I sober up. Drinking isn’t a very healthy way to fill the void though, so I guess I’ll just have to keep on travelling.”

Or is God just another way to fill the void as one comment suggested:

“Oh my goodness. Sam you hit the nail on the head! I went to a Catholic School and every year we had reformed drug users come and tell us about the horrible lives they used to lead and how Jesus saved them. I thought it was about replacing one addiction with another (they really REALLY seem to get into their faith, almost as if it was a substitute for their prior addiction.) Perhaps it’s about filling the void?”

Or perhaps Christianity really does shed some decent insight into this matter…

“It became clear to me that right from the very beginning of mans [sic] separation from God; he has been trying to figure out a way back, how to fill that void, without even realizing that might be what he is looking for. However, just by his very nature, every chance he gets he stuffs it up…. Each of us has our own Egypt our own wilderness and our own forms of slavery, be it drugs, sex, addictions, overeating, depression… it [God] gives me constant affirmation that I dont need to spent my life sweating the small stuff. Im not a happy clappy Christian, just a regular quiet believer who stuffs up on a regular basis.”

Food for thought.

… is truly another man’s treasure. At least at Reverse Garbage it is.

Sara, Ernie, Nuggy and I drove down to Marrickville this morning and spend a few hours walking around the dusty warehouse of the Reverse Garbage co-op. It literally is ‘garbage’ that is sold. Offcuts, potato sacks, lots of random bottles and toys and paper. Like factory left-overs or something.

Not as many things as a good 2-dollar shop in Eastwood, and the things are pretty crap. Although, you’ll find rolls and rolls of butchers paper, which is great for youth group and childrens’ ministry. That was the main point of the visit. Also got a few random bits and pieces, two hessian bags (they sell quite a few things ‘by the bag’ which means you pay by volume!), and a ‘wide load’ sign (never know when that will come in handy).

Worth a visit if you’ve got nothing else to do. But take a gas mask, or take lots of antihistamines beforehand.

The good ol’ US of A style with turkey! Apparently these start in the early afternoon; and there I was thinking it was actually like a traditional Asian ‘dinner’ which started around 7. But it was great of Michelle (from Penny’s lab) and her husband, both relatively fresh from the US, to host an early thanksgiving dinner for the associated labs today. Nice to get everyone together in an out-of-lab setting for food and chat. Only problem was that it was in Quakers Hill, which is about as far west as Prospect Reservoir. A few observations about westie roads:

• Everyone drives at the speed limit.
• Roads are very wide. A two-lane ’surburban’ road easily trumps the Pacific Highway in width.
• Pedestrian users of westie roads are scary. They come right up to your car while walking past (ever heard of the footpath???) and stare at you.
• There is an unbelievable amount of road-side parking.

So anyway, back at uni tomorrow to do some follow-up work on my project. Hopefully won’t be too long. Sara finishes tomorrow which is good. Many movies to catch up on, like Da Vinci Code, X-Men III, Bridget Jones’ Diary II (I didn’t just type that…), High School Musical… Fun!

Also, another thing about being on ‘holidays’ is that you actually don’t get much holidays because people (who are still going with exams and whatnot) pile things onto you. I’m not complaining, it’s great to be able to help; it’s just an observation. Today after church was a bit crazy - Nuggy and I were running around trying to recruit people for ministry teams next year while trying to organise the signing of Ernie’s farewell book and also trying to entice people to go to Ernie’s farewell BBQ. Not a big list so far which is disappointing.

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)

It’s not about the things we do, it’s about what we can’t do for ourselves - attaining right standing.