#86b When things fall apart(10may06)

He shall send from Heaven and save me;
He reproaches the one who would swallow me up.’
Psalm 57:3

As I completed my first lap in the swimming pool this morning, the clouds were looking ominous. As the light droplets of rain increased in tempo and intensity, prudence tells me to turn turtle and seek shelter.

Did I hear God right or was it my own stubbornness that I chose to complete my laps,
Thankfully, 10 minutes after I got out of the pool, the fireworks started with an awesome display of thunder and lightning.

Being struck by lightning is probably not the best way to avoid going to the polls, today being our Election Day for the country.

‘Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge. Until these calamities have passed by.’
Psalm 57:1

God is graceful. God is precise and prescient. Indeed, there are many things to be thankful for, and like many, the weather, unpredictable as it is, is one area where many have been blessed to see God’s grace at work.

What about days of foul weather? When things go ‘wrong’ and God seems to not just ignore us, but might seem to be the perpetrator of our woes.

Can we still be thankful??

‘How you have fallen from heaven’
Isaiah 14:12

‘…My soul is bowed down. They have dug a pit before me…’
Psalm 57:6

In the book, ‘When things fall apart,’ the fabric of Nigerian Ibo tribal society, characterized by a dominant patriach, whose hold on his tribe, rest upon a mix of brute bullying and myths, were torn asunder by natural calamities and the introduction of alternative values by the conquering British colonials.

“The Centre cannot hold, things fall apart”
(from the Book Things Fall Apart)


‘We urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain’
2 Corinthians 6:1

Adam the first man fell because of his disobedience. Since time immemorial, many more continue to fall into the abyss of sinfulness and disobedience.

Sadly, often in the glow of God’s grace and blessings, our sinful and prideful nature tends to bite the Hand that feed us.

Only those in the wilderness understand

‘A voice of one calling in the desert. Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him…’
Luke 3:4

John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way. He baptize in water, Jesus Christ baptized us all in the Holy Spirit.

For those who have been blessed to see the light, we are commanded not just to glow in the grace of God’s love, but to be the lamp upon which the light of Jesus Christ shines, to lit the pathway for many in the darkness of their lives.

‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor…’
Luke 4:18

We are not Jesus Christ, but we are asked to be Christ-like in the way we live.

For those who have had the privilege of being in the pitch darkness of the forests, where the swathes of darkness seems to encapsulate our whole being, even the normally weak flicker of the candle shines forth powerfully, to bring relief and warmth to the grasping and groping souls.

While it should not be, yet for many of us, only in the lows of our lives, when the things that form the bedrock of our painful existence caves inward, when the dark world seems to totally suffocate our very existence, only at that point could we begin to recognize that all was fleeting except the glow of God’s love for us.

God Blesses

Eng Hieang