Friday, September 4, 2009

Life giving

This is my first post since setting up this blog in May. Much has happened over these past couple of weeks... and yes, much would have been worth posting. Yet, it has been to me a time of resting, reflecting and preparing for what is still to come - not a time of sharing, blogging and pouring out my soul. It has been a very fruitful time; transforming and molding. I believe you will experience a lot of what he has done in me during that time in what I will share in these coming months...

Tonight my soul just began to overflow and I feel the need to begin sharing thoughts and experiences of what He is doing in Hong Kong and in my life.

Heading back home from youth group our train stopped at Kowloon Tong station. The doors didn't open for a while. From the speakers we could hear messages in Chinese and as soon as doors opened people started leaving the station. A chinese lady than told us that the train will not leave; someone 'fell' in front of the train. As we headed to the bus, we saw people who had witnessed the event crying next to the train tracks.

Hong Kong is the city with the second highest suicide rate in the world -- second only to Tokyo.

What does it take for a person to see no hope in his or her life? Over the years I have spent in Hong Kong I have gotten many 'answers' to this question. I have had many youth and university students tell me why they feel life is not worth living anymore. The most common response is the immense pressure of performance. Living up to the expactations of parents, society, school, and even the church. As students fail exams, fail to get good jobs, and fail to live 'holy lives', they lose their self-worth. Disappointments in relationships often add a good part -- whether it's their own or simply watching the broken relationships of their parents that create disillusionment; it's heart breaking to see how Hong Kong students are lost in finding identity -- and how hope in life is lost when all the false identies are shattered.

I just got a link from a friend to an article in a Hong Kong newspaper. It talks about a survey conducted among Hong Kong students: "Of nearly 600 youngsters aged 12 to 20 questioned in the wealthy city of seven million, 34 percent said they would consider offering compensated dating, a euphemism for prostitution, as a full-time job. Sixty percent of those who said they would consider compensated dating said they would do it mainly to earn quick cash, while 23 percent said they would do it for their own sexual gratification."

...we live in a city full of false identities... and we live in a world full of false identities -- and they do not contain life, but rather destroy it.

Hulitt Gloer has been a professor of mine at seminary - probably the most formative professor in my seminary time. In one of my preaching classes he said: "every word you say can be life giving, or destroy life; and once a word is spoken, you can not take it back. Your words are powerful, so chose them wisely". Since than I have often thougth about his words. They have been life giving to me. They have shed new light on many passages of scripture. In John 1 it says that "in Him was life, and that life was the light of men" or that he came to bring abundance of life or that He is the way, the truth and the life... It's the simple truth that He is life - life giving.

But if He is life, and He lives in us, how can so many people lose hope in life? I think there are many reasons why our light doesn't shine anymore or why we lose our saltiness -- or why the fullness of that life is not burning brightly in us...

but I believe there is a remedy that will cure much of this hopelessness: GRACE. True grace that speaks life into people and lifts them up and frees them from the bondage of false identities... and relationships that live a life filled with grace and model His love... and how do we live this out, if we have not embraced our identity in Him, through His grace, imitating Him who laid down His life for us?

"For to me, to live -- to truly live -- is Christ"

Pray for us that we may bring true GRACE to this generation of students.
That we bring hope in lives of despair.
and that we always rely on Him to be the well of life in our lives.

as we pray that today you are aware of His grace.
That you experience His hope in your despair.
and that you will always rely on Him as the well of life in your life.

3 comments:

  1. Ein schöner, nachdenklich machender Post. Besonders gut gefällt mir der Hinweis auf die Macht des Wortes und die Regeln: gesagt ist gesagt (wie beim Schach: berührt, geführt).

    Was mir nicht so gut gefällt ist Deine Rechtschreibung: Herz-bremsend ist der lustigste Fehler. Mein Tipp: Schreib Deine Texte in Word, benutze die RS-Prüfung und kopier sie dann hier hinein, das ist professioneller.

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  2. Greetings my friend...I know the Lord is preparing you for the foundation and work that is yet to come. It is more than we can comprehend, predict, or prevent! Praise God...

    As I think about the many conversations I had with students and even co-workers while living in Hong Kong, I would agree that a large percent of the population in Hong Kong spends a too much of their lives thinking of how to end it versus how to look forward to what God has planned for their life.

    I grew up in a family structure that was centered around performance. Conditional love was unknown to me till total strangers introduced this into my life as a teenager. WOW, it was life changing, but only the beginning of a long journey to discover who I am in Christ and what He has planned for me.

    Even those in Hong Kong who receive Grace and choose to claim all that has been prepared for them by the Lord, they tend to hold themselves to a standard of perfection. I am a believer, I will not sin, I am pure. Reality check...sin is always sitting at our doorstep, waiting to creep into our lives, and in the most sneaky ways.

    Even as a child of God, we need to understand we will never reach a place of perfection. We will always have sin at the doorstep tempting us. We may even fall into sin and struggle to be free. We need to remember that GRACE has been given unto us as a child of God and that we should extend that GRACE to ourselves and to other believers.

    I am excited about what the Lord is doing in Hong Kong and how He has chosen you to be a part of this work. I continue to pray for you and entire team, including those yet to come.

    May you be blessed! Do not become discouraged as obstacles arise....Do not become frustrated when sin knocks at your door....Know that He is with you always and His GRACE is for you too.

    Much love my friend....Lisa

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  3. Maik, thank you for sharing this. The hopelessness and despair that many people in Hong Kong feel is heavy on our hearts. Please know that our family is praying for you and the team and lifting you up as you serve.

    The Stevens Family
    (friends of the Deans)

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