Goodbye TO, Hello Van – Part 1 January 6, 2009
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Change is tough, change is good
Yesterday, I got on a plane for the first time in 9 years. I left Toronto around midnight (the flight was delayed several hours). I arrived in Vancouver around 2:30am PST. It’s been bittersweet leaving Toronto and starting a new beginning in Vancouver. I’m not sure where God’s taking me but I pray I will be bold and follow Him wherever he wants me to go.
Since EVERYONE who knows me personally asked if I cried while saying my goodbyes, I have to confess I did not. BUT, I did tear up at two weird moments during this whole ordeal.
The first time was my last night of packing…. while watching A.I. (the movie) on tv. The ending of the movie had the (spoiler) robot kid able to bring back his dead mother for only one day. He then chose to do normal mundane things with her throughout the day – playing games, drawing pictures, etc. The movie ends with him falling asleep beside her forever and he was finally able to dream good dreams. The music (Where Dreams are Born by John Williams) was especially moving, and I connected that scene and music score to my life and specifically how I will be leaving my family and friends. I guess that moment esp made me think about the missed opportunities to say the things that need to be said.
The second time I teared up was sitting at the terminal waiting to board my plane. I was just remembering saying goodbye to my family at the gates, and while I walked through the gate, I looked back and saw my mom jumping up and down and waving goodbye. Even though I would see my parents in a few days, that image evoked something deep within me – making me realize just how loved I am.
Well, I will be actively blogging again, so will start this new year by posting out my reflections about the changes in my life.
The Salvific Aspect of the Act of Walking September 30, 2008
Posted by yuling in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
I’ve been taking a break from blogging this month in order to do spend some time investigating my faith and what it has to do with creation care.
To start, here’s the article written by Pier Giorgio DiCicco (Poet Laureate Toronto) from Spacing Magazine. In part, the article was one of the things that inspired me to walk home from church.
After the many seductions, logical and visionary, have been played – I shall make a plea for the salvific aspect of the act of walking. Yes, salvific. Not just to save the environment, but to save ourselves, and not just by regarding the environment. We will not save the environment until we have found a reason for living together. Until we discover civic care in each other, until we restore the city to its definition as a place of unexpected intimacies, not just as a place of amenities, convenience, business, and entertainment, we will not have sustainability. For sustainability is about replacing an ethic of entitlement with an ethic of sufficiency. And sufficiency is what we find in each other. In an era that glorifies independence and even inter-dependence we are shy of admitting the awful truth: that is, we are dependent on each other, not by connectedness, but because we are one body breathing the same air. It is no cars that are the enemy of the pedestrian. The enemy is the absence of civic communion, the lack of empathic citizenship, our inability to see cohabitation as that place where we enjoy ourselves, by enjoying others. All human traffic is under siege, because it is becoming increasingly purposed, guarded, and negotiated. The body is not just a means of locomotion. It is our chief means of restoring a city to its raison d’etre, its purpose. And that purpose is civil encounter.
But civic trudt has been corroded. Our cities are becoming disinhabited, even when the streets are safe and landscaped, gentrified neighbourhoods are no more interactive than the brownfields and cloverleafs they replaced. The problem is not, fundamentally, to get people to slow down, or to move without being toxic to their environment. The problem is to make people aware that anonymity is as toxic to the ecology of heart as hydrocarbons are toxic to the atmosphere. The problem is how to restore intimacy, curiosity, trust, and play into the happenstance encounter of citizens, in an era when the happenstance and the unpredictable are a threat.
When all the cars will have been taxed or tolled on their way to the cities, when bike paths and parks will have reconfigured our neighbourhoods, when safe and cleaner transportation has cut emissions, a fundamental question will remain. Is the safe city, the sanitized city, the sustainable city, the same as the livable city? If all we want is clean and well-designed cities, it will likely come to pass. But i the long run, to save the environment means that we will want to save the environment not just for ourselves, but for each other. And to reverence each other means that we will have to discover each other.
Walking Home… from Church September 1, 2008
Posted by yuling in Journey.8 comments
On thursday, Aug 28, 2008 – I decided that I wanted to walk home from my church.
I’m certain this is quite common for many people, but for me this was quite the adventure. Why, you may ask? Cause I attend a church in downtown Toronto, and I live in Markham.
Basically, I put a lot of thought before doing this walk. I remember back in high school, I got into a HUGE FIGHT with my dad (still don’t remember the topic, but remember I was right) and my mom took me to see Reverend Wong (first time that ever happened). He offered some sagely advice, but I don’t remember anything specific, just a vague impression. I do, however, remember that him and his daughter walked all the way home… from church! This gave me the first inkling to do something similar.
Also, I’ve been preparing a sermon series entitled ‘God is Green’ (thanks Rob Bell and Mars Hill family), and I’ve been trying to think of ways to practice what I preach. So in light of my research and studying, I thought it would be a great time to go down to church and walk home.
This is how it happened. I had scheduled to meet up with Tanya re: the sermon series on thurs morning. I was wearing shorts, modrobes, and a tshirt. Also, had a backpack with 2 books (GreenTOpia, Serve God Save the Planet), 1 magazine (spacing), 1 map of GTA (in case I get lost), journal, digital camera, waterbottle, umbrella, two granola bars, empty tupperware container, and my good ol’ UofWaterloo windbreaker.
I got to church around 10:30, and we spoke until 12:30. Tanya was preparing a TACO PARTY for the youth, and I skipped because I didn’t want tacos to weigh me down (or cause unnecessary bathroom breaks). So, as I stepped out of my church, armed with my journal in one hand and my camera in the other, I took a nice long walk back to my home.
MY WALKING ROUTE
The following link shows my approximate route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2215470
I SUGGEST opening a new window with this link, and see where I walked as you read the rest of the blog.
MY JOURNAL REFLECTIONS & (some) PICTURES WHILE WALKING
- 12:26 last spoke to Tanya, left my church, Toronto Chinese Baptist Church
(from Wikipedia)- 12:36 ate at subway, ordered footlong turkey, saved half for journey (put into tupperware)
- 12:52 checked out “scrambled” intersection at Yonge/Dundas
- 12:59 cut across Ryerson campus, passed by Oakham House, where Ryerson CCF usually meets
(from wikipedia)- 1:05 passed Jarvis St. Baptist
- 1:07 cut through Allen Gardens. Beautiful park and refuge for the homeless
- 1:25 I’m now sitting on a bench in Riverdale Park. Taking my first break. W/ a sip of water, I’m enjoying the scenario after nearly an hour of walking at a leisurely pace. This really is soothing for the soul.
saw this on a house in cabbagetown on my way to Riverdale park
- 1:39 looked over DVP on bridge for 1st time
- 2:01 came face-to-face w/ Toronto Parks&Rec car driving towards me on Lower Don Rec Trail
- 2:08 hit first uphill, reminded about uphill battle in life
- 2:26 It’s been raining and yet only a light drizzle. I love i. Found another spot to rest. With info about Beechwood Wetland/Education Project
- 3:01 finally at the Teeth
- 3:37 three hours now, my legs are numb, but no longer any sharp pain. I’m at end of E.T. Seton park. I passed by an archery range and Science Centre without knowing
- 3:58 on a park bench, finish second half of sub, about to start on Thomas Bata Trail
- 4:25 in Edward Gardens. Legs are sluggish. Had a tough time walking up a steep hill. Great thing about this place is the greenery. And they even have a horticultural trade pre-apprenticeship program for at-risk youth.
- 4:43 cutting up the Donway West.
- 5:06 I took Chipping Road off Don Mills (2 lights north of Lawrence) and it leads to Footbridge rd which cuts across Donalda Golf Course. You can see a lil’ of the course off DVP close to Lawrence. I’m now resting on a sidewalk (just like the good ol’ days) on Three Valleys Dr.
- 5:19 ran out of water, refilled at fountain at Three Valley Park
- 5:28 crossed the DVP (underneath), now resting on Brookbank.
- 5:56 I’m slowing WAY down now, I’m sitting in front of 1300 York Mills Garden and I just took a tylenol that I purchased from Parkwoods Village Centre. Will rest 10 min then walk past 401. While sitting here, I read quotes from the Saints of Christianity re: creation care.
- 6:20 just crossed Hwy 401
- 6:50 I walked up Vic Park and cut at Huntingwood. Then I took fairglen ave and cut across the back of Sir John A. MacDonald. I am now resting my legs, drinking water, and eating a granola bar.
- 7:17 I’m now sitting in the lower food court at Bridlewood Mall. This place brings back memories of riding kiddy cars, seeing dad donate blood, and having cheap high school dates. I also read ch. 1 of ‘Serve God, Save the Planet’.
- 8:14 finally back home! Legs are dead
POST WALK REFLECTIONS
Total time took approx. 8 hours for 30 km.
Now that I have rested for two full days, I find that my right foot and behind-my-knees still hurts. And yet, I’m glad I walked back home. I loved the experience, and I think the pain just enhanced my trip back home. I have other things brewing in my head, but I’ll save it for my sermon series.
Next time I’ll blog an article by Pier Giorgio DiCicco (Poet Laureate of Toronto, and a hero of mine). It has to do with the salvific aspect of walking.
A Whole New Mind August 13, 2008
Posted by yuling in Reading.add a comment
I finished reading A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink as part of my July Reading Challenge. Unfortunately, I got sucked into watching the pre-olympics coverage, and now the actual olympics, so I haven’t blogged since July. Anyways, back to the book.
From the back of the book:
Gone is the age of “left-brain” dominance. The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers – creative and emphatic “right-brain” thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn’t.
Dan Pink is quite the creative guy, and now he outlines the reasons for ‘why right-brainers will rule the future’. In one chapter, he challenges you to think about 3 factors: Abundance, Asia, and Automation. Abundance has caused us to value the ‘aesthetic imperative’, to put a premium on beauty, spirituality, and emotion. We are people who are “liberated by prosperity but not fulfilled by it – are resolving the paradox by searching for meaning” (p. 35). Asia is a powerhouse for the working world and outsourcing is becoming a regular business practice. And of course, robots are doing all the work for us. There are even computer programs that can create new code to program new programs. Insane. No wonder we feel the need to move beyond logic-only work. The future of left-brained dominance sounds like a dead end.
If the last age was the industrial age (with factory workers), and we are currently in the information age (with knowledge based workers), then we are certainly transitioning to a conceptual age (main characters are creators and empathizers). This is fleshed out in what Pink describes as the 6 senses of R-Directed aptitues (this is to complement our current L-Directed reasoning).
Here they are (p. 65-67):
- Not just function but also DESIGN. It’s no longer sufficient to create a produce, a service, an experience, or a lifestyle that’s merely functional. Today it’s economically crucial and personally rewarding to create something that is also beautiful, whimsical, or emotionally engaging.
- Not just argument but also STORY. When our lives are brimming with information and data, it’s not enough to marshal an effective argument. Someone somewhere will inevitably track down a counterpoint to rebut your point. The essence of persuasion, communication, and self-understanding has become the ability also to fashion a compelling narrative.
- Not just focus but also SYMPHONY. Much of the Industrial and Information Ages required focus and specialization. But as white-collar work gets routed to Asia and reduced to software, there’s a new premium on the opposite aptitude: putting the pieces together, or what I call Symphony. What’s in greatest demand today isn’t analysis but synthesis – seeing the big picture, crossing boundaries, and being able to combine disparate pieces into an arresting new whole.
- Not just logic but also EMPATHY. The capacity for logical thought is one of the things that makes us human. But in a world of ubiquitous information and advanced analytic tools, logic alone won’t do. What will distinguish those who thrive will be their ability to understand what makes their fellow women or man tick, to forge relationships, and to care for others.
- Not just seriousness but also PLAY. Ample evidence points to the enormous health and professional benefits of laughter, lightheartedness, games, and humor. There is a time to be serious, of course. But too much sobriety can be bad for your career and worse for your general well-being. In this Conceptual Age, in work and in life, we all need play.
- Not just accumulation but also MEANING. We live in a world of breathtaking material plenty. That has freed hundreds of millions of people from day-to-day struggles and liberated us to pursue more significant desires: purpose, transcendence, and spiritual fulfillment.
Pink tackles each area and offers some pretty good suggestions. I found this book a fun and quick read.
I Once Was Lost July 24, 2008
Posted by yuling in Journey, Reading.2 comments
I Once Was Lost is one of the best books out there right now explaining the coming-to-faith narrative.
This book was an absolute delight to read and I would recommend it to anyone who wishes to help someone along their faith journey. I hesitate to use the word ‘evangelism’, and the authors – Don Everts and Doug Schaupp – have rightly moved beyond this terminology. They help us see and listen more holistically so that we can mix our faith story alongside others, seen in the grand story of God.
The crux of this book are the 5 Thresholds along the Postmodern Path to Faith. As we have seen in the past, evangelism tools have often been appropriate for another time (ie. 4 spiritual laws, evangelism explosion, etc.). However, in this complex day and age, many of these tools are simplistic and offend the complex humanity of the typical westernized-secular-person.
Everts and Schaupp propose that the 5 thresholds are key watershed moments/conversations/ideas that may help grow our simplistic evangelism models to help us better travel alongside our friends. Let’s look at each threshold
Threshold 1 – Trusting a Christian
In this era of distrust, Christians are often seen as the first barrier towards someone’s faith journey. For SOME, the knee jerk reaction is to pour on ‘the gospel’ in the form of bible verses, if-you-die-where-will-you-go type of conversations. But perhaps the best evangelistic (and Christ honoring/imitating) thing we can do when our friends are at this stage is to shake hands and genuinely befriend them. We need to build trust.
Threshold 2 – Becoming Curious
A friend may learn to trust you as a Christian, however, that doesn’t mean said person is interested in your faith. Perhaps curiosity has different levels of intensity – awareness, engagement, and exchange. If we can encourage them to start asking questions about life and our faith, if we dare to LIVE CURIOUSLY and invite them to participate in our lives, maybe they in turn will start becoming curious about Jesus.
Threshold 3 – Opening Up to Change
This may be the most difficult threshold for anyone. It is easy to stay curious about anything. It is more difficult to genuinely be open to change in your life. People need a mixture of gentle affirmation, nonjudgmental truthfulness, and challenging moments. Perhaps at this stage, we can help them interpret and connect the dots of God’s movement in their lives.
Threshold 4 – Seeking after God
This may be similar to the last threshold, however, now this person is ‘leaning into the journey’ and purposefully seek final answers. Perhaps a way to tell whether a person is still in threshold 2-3 or 4 is whether their posture has a sense of urgency. If this person wants answers to their questions, dares to live like Jesus, pray and talk with others to help them resolve the issues… these are great indications of being in this area.
Threshold 5 – Entering the Kingdom
This is the moment of great joy and great cost, where the person decides to give it all up to follow Jesus. Among the five thresholds, this may resemble the most ‘traditional’ method of evangelism (whether it’s a decision making encounter through 4 spiritual laws, Teen’s Conference, etc.). The authors urge appropriate urgency for this threshold as it is quite difficult to be a true seeker forever. You can’t maintain such a posture for long, until you have to make a decision for or against. Perhaps in all the 5 thresholds, this is most appropriate to use a concise model/summary of what Jesus and his kingdom are all about. The authors warn about falling into two extremes: one, to oversimplify things that are happening. Two, to say the process of trusting/walking with Jesus is too complex to describe and we refuse to be clear – then the person creates their own categories and conclusions about Jesus.
Some things to Consider
We must see this journey not so much as a line moving from threshold 1 to 5 but rather it looks more cyclical. People will move back and forth, maybe even jumping thresholds. How would this impact the way we walk alongside someone on their faith journey?
In reality, this is just THE BEGINNING – to have a good crossing of all thresholds means that we have more work of mentoring this person for the purposes of authentic transformation. Some would say that only a ‘true beginning’ in their faith journey will lead to authentic transformation.
Now, in regards to our typical evangelism strategies of coffeehouses, Teen’s conferences, friendship evangelism, random evangelism, I wonder how this new understanding will help our efforts?
The Courage to Teach July 15, 2008
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Second book review of the week, The Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer.
This was a difficult book to read. It’s one of those nouwen-ish books where you have to read slowly, think slowly, and respond slowly. My difficulty in reading this kind of book right now is that I can’t slow down enough to really appreciate the inner landscape of the teacher’s life. At it’s best, Palmer was introducing a self-examined approach to teaching – daring to ask ‘who is it that teaches’. On a more challenging side, sometimes it felt like he was meandering through many points.
I appreciate the tone of the book, to purposefully take pause and reflect on who are we as teachers. He spoke a lot about the ideas of holistic teaching, valuing the entirety of the student as well as the teacher. I enjoyed when he offered real-life examples of how to implement teaching.
For instance, about GRADING:
We can invent ways of using grades that emphasize learning rather than judging and collaboration rather than competition, thus enhancing the contributions grades can make to community. For example, I offer students the chance to rewrite a term paper as often as they like before the course ends. I grade each version, commenting on its strengths and weaknesses. When I give a final grade, it is not an average but the grade given for the last version. In this way, I hope to show students that the intent of evaluation is to offer guidelines for learning rather than terminal judgments.
Another practice coming out of his whole approach is focus on the teacher:
This would involve having you as a teacher invite 4-5 colleagues, and become a focus person in the process. The group meets with you for 2-3 uninterrupted hours and basically listens to you as you become “the heart of this small version of the community of truth, the sacred subject, worthy of respect. Guidelines would include members forbidden to speak to the focus person in any way except to ask that person an honest, open question. Its not about fixing the person’s problems, no advice, no overidentification. This leads to the following
Over a 2-hour period, this cycle of question and response can have remarkable cumulative effect. As the focus person speaks his or her truth, the layers of interference between that person and the inner teacher are slowly stripped away, allowing the person to hear more clearly the guidance that comes from within.
Maybe I’ll read this book later when I’m in a place where I can slow down and reflect more slowly and deeply.
Jesus for President July 6, 2008
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I’m starting off my July Reading Challenge with the new book by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, Jesus for President.
I loved Shane’s first book, Irresistable Revolution – his story is just wonderful. I also loved the brief coffee time I and a group of IVCF staff workers had with him at Urbana06. From hearing him speak and reading his articles on sojourners. I respect his humble way of living the Way of Jesus, and loving his relevant/radical nonconformist attitude. Yet, in spite of the many touchpoints of encountering Shane, I never knew he thought so deeply about theology.
This second book, from the outset is different. He shared with a few of us at Urbana that he would no longer do single book projects but wanted to involve his community and give voice to others who have something great to say. So in this book, he co-authored with Chris Haw – a wonderful artist and theologian. Every page is just beautiful to look at – and in our age of visual literacy, I think it makes a ton of sense to write books in this fashion: telling a narrative in both word and image.
Last week, on monday June 30 (when I started to read the book), Shane and Chris made their only Canadian stop for the Jesus for President book tour. It was very fun to see so many Christians pack out a small church in a glam corner of Toronto. Shane and Chris were joined by the psalters and they did this multi-sensory presentation that they called ‘circus preaching’, or something to that affect. It was quite nice, they read excerpts from their book with a keynote presentation in the background highlighting images and icons that provoked are imagination. Meanwhile, the talks were interspersed with musical segments by the psalters. It was quite the night, and quite a book. I would love to recommend it to you.
Here’s a clip of Shane explaining the premise of the book.
Studying in Vancouver… in January 2009 June 27, 2008
Posted by yuling in Journey.4 comments
Today, I’m happy to announce that I will be studying at Regent College, in the city of Vancouver, starting in January 2009.
A few months ago, I started actively thinking/praying about my post-Tyndale life. I ultimately decided to apply to Regent because of the quality of their professors and their great reputation for academic excellence. I just received my official letter today, stating that I am formally admitted into the ThM (Masters of Theology) program, with a concentration on Christianity and Culture.
The following is my thesis proposal:
As a campus staff worker on universities across southern Ontario, I am deeply interested in the spiritual development of students. Increasingly in my ministry, I have witnessed students being shaped and formed by the digital revolution. This phenomenon known as Web 2.0 culture, social networking, or virtual community has become a dominant cultural force in the lives of university students. Through the use of online community tools such as blogging, facebook, and youtube, students are now part of a global network where everyone has a sense of belonging. At the same time, immediate access to information and instant gratification for entertainment has created new cultural values. In light of these changing times, I propose to exegete the digital culture by means of ethnographic research with university students.
From a theological perspective, I hope to build on the thinking of Lesslie Newbigin, David Bosch, and H. Richard Niebuhr. I wish to understand this virtual world with theological clarity and offer a biblical engagement with the many issues involved in the virtual culture. I recognize that this cultural context has also shaped the theological understand and praxis of university students. I will explore the impact of the virtual world in their knowledge and practice of faith.
From a cultural perspective, the ethnographic research method is instrumental in exploring the impact of digital technology on Christian faith and Christian faith on digital technology. This research method requires significant fieldwork on the university campus and will generate qualitative research based on regular interaction with students. Interactions would include participatory observation, interviews, and the use of simple survey instruments.
Ultimately, this ethnographic research aims to read this people group, their context, and the social and theological issues involved. I believe it is possible to live in this unique culture while maintaining faithful integrity to the ways of Jesus. I hope this research project will offer concrete application for Christians who struggle with the digital revolution.
I’m greatly anticipating moving to Vancouver. In fact, I have to start looking for a place to live – so if you have any friends who are renting a place or a room (I don’t mind living like a student again), please let me know.
In the meantime, I’m still around for the next 6 MONTHS so if you want to get together, let me know.
July Reading Challenge: One Book a Week June 25, 2008
Posted by yuling in Reading.4 comments
I’m a natural reader – novels, non-fiction, theology, or comics – of all books (that I find interesting).
So when I saw the following challenge at put things off, I just had to set it as a goal for the month of July.
(picture taken from put things off)
My goal is to do this for one month, and if I finish well, then add a few more months. According to put things off, the GOAL “is to flip-start a healthy reading habit together.” So if you want to join me, please let me know.
Here’s one tip to get this thing going, all you have to do is read 50 pages a day, so each week you read 350 pages (more than most books). You’ll be done in no time.
Hopefully you can join me in this endeavor.
