Tee Ming and I have decided to start blogging as a spiritual discipline. We will blog at least once a week for this year about our walk with God. The posts do not have to be long or deep—as long as we write something. This is simultaneously an attempt to redeem akouo from inactivity.

Due to the downed cable in Taiwan, I could not upload this earlier. So here it is now:

Reflections For The Year 2006
30/12/2006

This year I experienced loss, and unknowingly went through the five stages of response to death: denial/shock, bargaining, anger, depression and finally, acceptance. I did not see this until the final stage, when I truly accepted my aunt’s death. In all my experience of life, I find that I never really know what path I have taken until I have walked it and turn to look back. That is the wisdom of hindsight. But the only way to “take note of the highway” as we walk along it, is to take our wisdom from the Word: “Your Word is a lamp unto my path and a light unto my feet.” And the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. The end of wisdom? To live out our true selves as children of God created in His image for His glory.

I come out of this year feeling like a broken-winged butterfly in the Creator’s hands. A silly butterfly, who flew into a thicket of thorns and had to be extracted by the tender hands of the person she was flying away from. This year I did a foolish thing and trusted my judgment over God’s. I didn’t like the pain He was making me go through so I went to look for my own palliatives. A principle to remember: such an attitude results in self-inflicted pain which is the worst kind possible, I would think. Next, nobody does on purpose what they consider to be foolish. As a teacher of the Word, I already knew this (harsher judgment on teachers, yikes!) but I was living recklessly. This was the year I lapsed in every discipline, from emailing mentors, friends and prayer partners to quiet time and prayer. That is why next year will be a year of constant self-checks through weekly blogging and through accountability with mentors.

One of the things I love best about life is that it can be shared. Writing and talking is only communication. But in Christ, we have a heavenly participant in all earthly communication—every conversation is overheard in heaven and becomes a prayer. Sharing lives is not just telling others about it; it is done through caring, through prayer, through a communication that is really a communion with Christ and with the church. Happy blogging everyone! I hope akouo really takes off next year.