Don't stop dreaming, but don't stop there.

I love dreaming. I think I am an anointed dreamer. Not just the dreams you have when you're asleep, but the dreams you have for the future, the "God-dreams", the future yet-to-be, the essence of things not yet seen.

And because I love to dream of the future, I am passionate about having people do that too. I believe too that God created us with the ability to dream of a future unseen. I believe the Bible teaches again and again that it is important for us to always have dreams and a vision for the future. Having a vision for the future restrains us from destruction, self or otherwise, as it gives us hope and a reason to keep living such that we see our dreams fulfilled.

As a pastor, especially while I was a youth pastor, I taught, urged and exhorted people to dare to dream, to have dreams and to move towards their dreams. Especially young people - for that is the prime time for them to dream about their future. I get minutely frustrated when I meet people without dreams, and constantly push them to explore the reasons they are afraid to dream, and to deal with those reasons so they have wings to fly towards their future.

And this is the problem I have.

After spending the past 15 years or so constantly inspiring people to dream, I have come to a seeming screeching halt. I have moved fast and constant in the past few years, passionate about having people think beyond the present, but I must admit that as I have moved swiftly along this road, the sights along the way are beginning to worry me. At first, I noticed just one or two, but over time, the recurrences are now giving me reason to think again if what I had been doing and saying is indeed helping.

The worrying sign along the way is this - there are too many dreamers and not enough doers.

I guess this would have taken me time to discover, for to bring people to a point where they would actually be able to have dreams would take time. But the nagging thought I have is, how many of these people are actually even doing something about what's on their hearts and spirits? I see a growing number becoming experts at dreaming, and stopping there. They love to wax lyrical about their lofty visions and ideas, but that's about all. They put on an appearance of being future-minded and noble, but show no signs of ever actually being willing to make the sacrifices necessary for their dreams to come true.

Now I must qualify that I'm not saying we are the ones who do it all - God ultimately provides all that's necessary for His dreams to come true. What I'm talking about is the inability and unwillingness, and even arrogance to think that dreaming in itself is the lofty end.

I'm decreasing my speed and taking time to look deeper at the signs around me. Young people who once impressed me greatly with their brave dreams are now reduced to theoretical dreamers. 10, 15 years down the road, I see little signs of them growing beyond the hypothetical. Sadly, more and more who started as great dreamers, stopped there.

I have some inkling of why this is so, but I'm not convinced I know the exact reasons. I just know that while I'm taking stock of my life at this juncture, these observations will help me to recalibrate my message for the next 40 years of my life.

And hopefully by the end of the next 40 years, I will see great dreamers building great realities.
 

Movements

Someone asked me "What is a movement?" Here are my thoughts:

What does a movement look like? It’s not something you can build, in some sense. A movement is what it is in the sense of the word – something must be moving. Something must happen. I don’t think we can ever say, let’s build a movement, and we give ourselves a timeline and a movement happens. I think movements are extremely organic, unpredictable and highly infectious. Organisations are birthed out of movements, not the other way round.

Why are movements so compelling? Is it a buzz word for our generation? I think a few things about movements appeal to the Gen X and Ys. Firstly, the sense of being unstructured or deconstructed appeals to the post-modern generation. The sense of being flexible, fluid and unrestrained. Secondly the fact that every person can own and be part of a movement without any formal strings attached. Thirdly the appeal also lies in how people gather around a common cause. The power of the ground swell.

Movements are important in all cultures and society. It can shape mindsets and shift paradigms. It causes things to be shaken from their status quo. A movement is powerful because it can influence and involve someone without even the person knowing.

Movements for the betterment of our world will require, in my opinion, 2 main things. A compelling vision, and a committed mechanism. Of course, a vision of the future, a vision of change, is always the starting point of any great movement. But a committed mechanism, something that people can engage in in a consistent manner, will determine the longevity of a movement.

I dream of a "Life Movement" in Asia. A movement, ground-up, proclaiming and contending for life. Where every life is so valuable that abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide, would be things of the past. What would it look like if every person in Asia began to have a vision for life? Is it possible? I believe it is.

Letter from my Father

Just came across this article I wrote for The Saviour's Times in January 2009 and it encouraged me... strangely... here it is.

the last sunday

Dear COOS Youth, I will always always love you. XOXO

a time for everything

tonight i prayed for peter at youth service, and publicly declared my handover of authority to him. i was glad that i was able to do that. while there were flashes of grief thinking of why i even had to be doing this, i was nonetheless happy that this also meant a change of season in this ministry.

the past few months have been so intense in every sense of the word. very high highs and very low lows. there were days i felt invincible, but there were moments i thought i was going to die from the pain. But in the words of that ancient prose, there is, truly, "A Time for Everything".

¹ There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

grateful

John and I with Rev Dr Patrick Lau, Senior Pastor of Calvary Assembly of God. My first pastor. His ceiling is my floor.

i sat at the 50th anniversary dinner of Calvary Assembly of God tonight holding back tears that welled up at least 4 times throughout the evening. i celebrated not just God's faithfulness in seeing this church through 50 years but what that meant to me too. as i watched the laugh-inducing musical put up by the friends of my youth, a strange mix of bittersweetness welled up in me. then I heard God say to me, you're coming back to the beginning, where it all started. 20 years ago, you believed in me here. 20 years later, you're seeing things from a different perspective. as you embark on the next season of your life, i want you to see where you've come from and how far you've gone, and how far more i'm going to take you.

in this season, i've learnt to appreciate the life and ministry of my spiritual fathers and mothers so much more. tonight i met again so many of the men and women who had sown into my life, often thanklessly. i was so glad i made them proud. and i'm so glad that God got all the glory because they know as well as i do, that it could only have been God that i can be living the life i'm having now.

being around the people of calvary a/g always gives me a sense of home. i love this church. it was here that i first experienced youth group, spoke in tongues, sang, played keyboard, played drums, performed in a musical, fell under the power of the Spirit, captured a vision for the nations, fell in love, fell out of love, and made friends that will last for a long long long time. i experienced family out of a family. i learnt to give, to serve, to pray, to worship. i learnt that God's the Healer, the Provider, the Deliverer. God and this church remained faithful even when i was faithless and gave my heart to another. but when i decided to turn back, they were always always there. this is truly a place for the prodigal son (and daughter, as was my case).

thank you God for this church, for this pastor, for these many men and women who had reached out to me over the years. i ask for Your blessings to be upon them, that they would enjoy the reward of their labour and service to You. that they would experience the fruit of their ministry and continue to have their strength renewed. i ask you for success and favour in all they do, that they would always be in more-than-enough mode. i ask for your grace, tenderness and peace to dwell in their households. thank you God.

Psalm 78:4-7

⁴ We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,
his power, and the wonders he has done.

⁵ He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our forefathers
to teach their children,

⁶ so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.

⁷ Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.

wonder

Psalm 48:9-10
Within your temple, O God,
we meditate on your unfailing love.
Like your name, O God,
your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;
your right hand is filled with righteousness.

My heart is stirred and captured by my God. Reading these verses and the Psalms in the wee hours of the night is unspeakably magical. Especially after a difficult day like today.

God, you are my song in the night. You are the reason I'm able to dream and be moved by beauty and remain full of wonder in life. There is so much of you to behold I couldn't possibly ever grow tired of you. You fill my heart with such... I don't even know the word for it. Stature? "Rightness"? It is as though my feeble heart that melts as it meets your love is able to be held together at the same time. Am I making sense God? I'm sure you know what I mean. You make me weak in the knees and yet strong all at the same time. I want to cry and laugh when I'm near you. You're the only being who can do that to me.Your beauty is too much for me to behold and yet that's all I want to behold. May I never lose the wonder of knowing you.