Joy to the World, the Saviour Reigns
To be very honest, I've never really cared about Christmas. Everyone else always seems so excited about it -- if you're from Singapore, like me, you'll know that around November, the lamp posts in town are draped with slightly gaudy Christmas lights, safely secular Santa figurines and banners that advertise a dozen Christmas sales. Since my family doesn't celebrate Christmas (be it the religious or capitalist bits of it), it's never been particularly special to me. Maybe I lo
Insecurities and Our Identity in Christ
The title to this piece is filled with eye-catching buzzwords that seem to pop up in the occasional deep conversation, but what do these ideas really mean to us? Everyone faces insecurities. I definitely do and it's a form of fear -- it's symptomatic of a significant lack of self-confidence, or a powerful fear of others' disapproval or rejection, or a chronic sense of inferiority.
But why do we feel this way? This leads to questions about identity, what we believe in and l
The Delicate Game of Balance
Over the course of the past 5 weeks of term, I have been challenged on several occasions about the idea of balance – holding two seemingly different elements of life in equal proportions and importance. What do I mean by this? The Bible contains lots of counter-intuitive truths. I think the first time I was made aware of this was when we went through the story of Jesus healing the lame beggar (John 5:1-15) in Risky Living at HT. We are called to trust in Jesus, and to step ou
Speaking of faith...
Some days ago, I was at dinner with a friend who was on exchange in France, and had returned to visit Cambridge for a few days. Said friend – whom I'll call Ben (not his real name) – was quite passionately Catholic, but we had never had a deep discussion about faith before. During the evening, however, the conversation turned towards the topic of religion. This really animated Ben. He began to explain different aspects of Catholic teaching and faith, and so another friend and