1) words

"the six inch tongue can kill a six foot man"

the internet has allowed us to express our feelings and thoughts in ways that were never possible in the past. words that were spoken in the past, only fell upon the ears of those that heard it. word of mouth may spread it, but it loses its credibilty and effectiveness as the chain goes on. however, with the internet, we can just type away, post it somewhere, and the impact of that "spoken" word is huge. think i might have wrote some "not very good stuff" today. but this is the power of the internet. you can write something bad about someone, people reading it are getting first hand info from you.

not just that, in front of a computer, we just vent our fustrations and type non-stop. not thinking if we really mean what we are typing. this is a call to myself to not just be slow to speak and anger .. but to be slow to type. but while i try to speak encouraging words instead, i begin to receive not so encouraging words. i think internet lingo has caused some of us to lose our tact in our conversations with people. personally, i think CMI - cannot make it, when used on someone is very degrading, and has the power to tear a person down. but hey, i've used it on other people too. i guess we might never really know the full extent of the lingo, until someone else has used it on us.

2) loneliness and solitude

someone defined loneliness to be one where a person finds no inner fulfillment, whereas solitude is getting away from the crowd, or distancing oneself from the crowd. often ask myself while walking in a large crowd, if i'm lonely or i'm in solitude.

3) acceptance

i think deep inside everyone, they are crying out for acceptance. acceptance regardless of who they are, what they wear, what they do, and where they live. sometimes i think, people do the things they do, for the sake of acceptance. one simple example, why do models diet so hard? just because they want to find acceptance for the next job, and the acceptance of the people around her. why do smu students mug so hard? so that they can find a company that will accept them, and that they can find acceptance by their friends as someone who is diligent or hardworking. perhaps i'm over-generalizing; do forgive me on this.

but as i contemplated about the role of the church in today's context, are we called as a church to accept people who are hurting? did a search, and i did not find much on the topic of acceptance in the bible. however, the verse of the day stood out:

"[Love one another] This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another."- 1 John 3:11

the word love in this verse is not of agape love, but rather a phileo love; a brotherly love. i believe that this is the second most important thing that the church should be doing today. loving people both inside and outside of the church. however, i think singaporean culture today has turned to be more inward looking. yes, we still love others by giving them money, but when asked to spend our precious time to love someone else, we run away. but loving someone is not defined by any specific action. it takes a true investment of our heart into that person's life.

this leads me to my first point once again. being called to love each other, both within the church body, and outside the church body, we should watch our tongues and not let unwholesome talk come out from our mouth. for love builds up; it never tears down a person.

acceptance is superficial; love takes action and effort.