Resolution: Incarnation

eucharist, originally uploaded by mincaye.

(I took this photo at the Cable Car, during the family dinner. It was good to be reminded of the Eucharist on New Year's Eve. For the record, the montage of the Cable Car dinner was the 200th picture I uploaded onto Flickr).


When Balian meets the Leper King in Kingdom of Heaven, the King says,

"When you stand before God, you cannot say 'But I was told by others to do thus,' or 'That virtue was not convenient at the time.'"


We are responsible for our actions, for the consequences of our decisions. I've started using the Poetry Speaks Calendar, and today's poem by Rafael Campo, addresses this;

On New Year's Day

If hopefulness resides in what we can
resolve to change, then let us give up sweets,
nail-biting, cigarettes, the habits of
our weak humanity--we can succeed

if only we try hard enough, resist
potato chips and shed ten pounds, return
whatever book we have that's overdue,
forgive inequities and do what's just--

because today is anything, it is
our natural color, it is when we
begin to save, it is the better spouse
we'll be, it is beginning to be free.


It is as Joshua challenged Israel when the covenant was renewed at Shechem after they had taken possession of the Promised Land;

"But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."


I love C.S. Lewis' poem,

What the Bird Said Early in the Year

I heard in Addison's Walk a bird sing clear
'This year the summer will come true. This year. This year.

'Winds will not strip the blossom from the apple trees
This year, nor want of rain destroy the peas.

'This year time's nature will no more defeat you,
Not all the promised moments in their passing cheat you.

'This time they will not lead you round and back
To Autumn, one year older, by the well-worn track.

'This year, this year, as all these flowers foretell,
We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.

'Often deceived, yet open once again your heart,
Quick, quick, quick, quick! -- the gates are drawn apart.'


Today at church, Pastor Vincent mentioned six principles when it comes to making choices:

Ideal: is it in harmony with the Word of God?

Integrity: will I want others to know what I am doing?

Improvement: will I be a better Christian?

Independence: could I become addicted or 'governed' by the decision I make?

Influence: will it harm others?

Investment: is it the best use of my life and resources?


One area of my life which has been rather stagnant for quite some time now, is Quiet Time. By the grace of God, I am helped here in two ways this year.

Firstly, I am the Editor-in-Chief of my school's editorial board. That means I have access to the Editor's Room, which can be a 'prayer room' early in the morning before school starts each day.

Secondly, TMsquared 2006 seems geared to assist quiet time, considering the stuff we are going to be exploring this time around: Spiritual Disciplines--Classic & Contemporary Works, and Basic New Testament Greek.

For the month of January, my Bible study focus is on the book of Romans; I did Jonah in the week after Christmas. This resembles Bishop Dr Hwa Yung's method of prayer, in which he prays as items come to his mind.

Likewise, as a theme (or themes) of a book suggests itself to a situation I'm facing, I will read through and reflect on that book. I've never done this before, so it'll be something new and challenging, but also flexible and 'unforced,' heheh...


As I looked through some of the odds and ends I stuffed into my d'NA Stage 1 file, I found something Nigel wrote for the National SCF Leaders' Camp in 2003 (de Kopitiam Connection), entitled 'The Journey of a Leader -- A Meditation.'

The first part, in particular, pierced me like a sword;

"When God first called us to be leaders... He did not give us a whole detailed plan did He? All He did was just to call us... as we go along our journey, God will slowly reveal more and more of His plan."

As I stand upon the threshold of Upper Six, i.e. the very end of Secondary School and my last year as a teenager, I am filled with all kinds of fears, ranging from worries about the STPM and the editorial board, to matters concerning relationships with friends and my own identity.

Only one assurance do I carry with me: that God called me into Form 6. Again and again I have thought of giving up; dropping subjects left, right and centre; quitting the editorial board; taking a one-year sabbatical; working somewhere for awhile.

The only reason why I'm staying where I am at the moment, is that somehow I am convinced that God deliberately called me into Form 6, not unlike the manner in which he called Moses to return to Egypt or Jonah to go to Nineveh.

Though my fears outweigh my hopes, I pray for the strength and grace to carry on. Already God is sending me these in the form of my friends who walk this journey with me, and I am grateful for that.


And so, what is my New Year resolution? It is simply that this year may be one of Incarnation and Intercession.

Incarnation, because it is birth and death. As Eliot wrote in 'Journey of the Magi,' the birth of Christ also implied the death of the old way of things. In every decision I make, part of me lives while another dies; may it be a year of many right choices.

There is no way any of us can make it through the year if we do not uphold one another in love. Intercession is not mere prayer; it is approaching the Throne of Grace on behalf of our brothers and sisters, it is coming before God as a community of faith.

And they are complementary: when we intercede for one another, Christ is in some mysterious way made incarnate in us. Someone once wrote that the Holy Spirit makes each of us an 'after-Christ,' reflecting the image of the One who is.

Our constant reminder is the Eucharist. For in the manner that God was made incarnate as one of us, and so interceded on our behalf before the Father; in that same manner I believe we are called to conduct our lives.

Amen.