About Christianity

1 kid touch the other kid, either by accident or on purpose. the other kid touch him back. then the first kid touch the second kid back. it goes on. then one of them got impatient and started to use a bit more strength to 'touch' the other kid. and then it goes on, until they used all their strength, or maybe most of it. one of the kids would always lose. in every fight, there has to be someone who lose. but before that, they would hit each other really hard. why? because both of them wanted to be the last one who touch the other. both wanted to get the last touch.

is it applicable to adults? yes, at least that is what i think. i think, adults do that too. of course we don't touch other people and beat people up. well, at least most of us don't. one fine example. in the office. maybe this guy backstab another. then the victim got angry and backstab the unfriendly staff. this goes on. or maybe one woman gossip bad stuffs about another woman. she got angry and in turn do the same. this goes on.

of course, if you notice it, there are similarities between adults and children. both wanted to win and be the last to deal the final blow, be it just a touch, a knife in the back or others. the difference is, kids usually don't deal out blows that are so... heavy? and that after a while, they go back as friends. for adults, because the stakes are sometimes high, the ego and pride, and of course the seriousness of the situation, sometimes the whole relationship, be it friendship or not, is spoilt. adults do remember offences, unlike kids.

of course, if we get disturbed for no apparent reason, and because of it we are greatly affected, we have the tendency to strike back. that is the natural thing to do. maybe we lost something. maybe we suffer because of it. so we also strike back. and then it goes on. maybe i have no right to say this, but again, i am a hypocrite who don't do what i say, so just let me say. you decide on what you want to do.

i think, if we look at it another way, things might be better.

for example (i am going to use a simple analogy), A and B are both selling apples. suppose B want to sell more apples, and he spread a rumor that A sells bad apples. so customers go to B to buy apples. because of that A lost quite a fair bit of customers. so A spread a bad rumor about B too. B is now affected and he too spread an even badder (is this even correct english?) rumor about A. this goes on. both gets lesser and lesser customers. why? because both do not give good impressions.

this is what the normal case is. what if A do not strike back and decide to do something constructive?

supposed B already spread rumors and A gets lesser customers. instead of spreading another rumor about B, A works hard to convince customers that he sells good apples. he used the time to prove to others he too has good apples. through time, people will know A sells good apples and it was B who was doing something bad. A's business go up.

of course, if we compare this 2, the second choice is a better one. of course, A lose customers at first. he don't feel happy. who would? but instead of taking revenge, he did something constructive. first, compared to the first case, A in the second case did not end up losing more and more customers. secondly, compared to the first case, A might get back his old customers or even more.

of course, this is just a simple illustration. replace A with you and B with whoever is doing that to you. naturally, no human is insane enough to be happy when the other 'touch me first'. but, if we hit back, do we benefit. will the exchange be escalated to a point of no return and end up with both suffering heavy losses. if we don't hit back and do something to salvage our situation, although we might not be able to get back what we used to have. but at least, maybe we can stop our losses.

this is not to say we let person B go and do what he wants. in my opinion, if he is going to do harm to others, we should of course warn his 'victims' first. but we are not supposed to take revenge. God would know what to do to him. it would be not christian-like to take revenge. wrath might lead to hate, hate might lead to death. of course this is the extreme, but it is not to say it would not happen. constant conflict will lead us to not be able to forgive and love each other, and if we don't forgive and love each other, how can we say we are christians? how can we say we will get to heaven?

like i say, this is what i think. and i don't do what i say. sometimes i try, sometimes i don't. there is no need to flame me. i admit i am not as holy as i might look. see what i say if it makes sense and try it out. this is hard, but you have a God whom you can depend on, right? if He determines you need those apples which was taken from you, would He not provide you with them? if He determines the apples you had are harmful for you, maybe B is a man sent by God to save you. who knows? who can say?

but if the apples are maybe your spouse, your career, your family, your wealth, your health, then they might be a bit too much to handle. i have not experienced something that big before. i cannot say anything much, because to those who lose these things and more, i could not understand the suffering. all i can say is still to trust the Lord. because everything is under His control.

this is all i can say. trust God. and if people touch you, don't touch them back. it is not to say you obediently let B touch you again. you take measures against B, just don't take revenge. do i make sense?

as usual, if my blog post contradicts the Bible, email me.

chinese teacher left behind students and ran away on his own during the sichuan earthquake. what do you think of this statement which was in the news? what is the first impression you have?

let me see..... he don't deserve to live. he is heartless. he is a coward. he ought to die. he is not fit to live. a rotten man. are these the thoughts that came into your mind? if it is, see, you made another mistake. because, who are you to condemn him?

let me say first, i read the headlines, and not the article. but what i am saying is not related to that. that is not important, because, i am going to address the issue of humans judging one another too quickly. no, i am not defending him. i am not judging him.

so he ran, leaving behind his students and leaving them to die. he got slammed, he got flamed and he got condemned. maybe you think he deserved it, because if he just stayed, he might have saved some lives. some of you more noble people may have sacrificed your lives to save that few kids, or as many as you can. afterall, they are children with a bright future. fair? it seemed so.

how about we look from another perspective? his perspective.

what if his parents had not yet died? what if he has a family to support? here, i am assuming his parents are still around and he has a family to take care of. please note, in china, the women do not work, or seldom work after they got married. traditional thinking. the man brings in the bread. in china, you only have a kid. his parents most likely only have him as the only child.

now... the situation in front of you. an earthquake. someone got to die. you either save the kids and risk dying, or you leave them to die and get a higher chance of survival. obviously, he chose the second one. are you condemning him again? think about it again. if he die, who is going to take care of his parents? if he die, who is going to take care of his family? would you save a few kids and let your family suffer, or risk getting condemned and slammed and insulted and flamed but able to live on for the sake of your family? so what if your name got written down in the newspaper as a crisis hero who died but your living family suffered? if you die, that's the end of you.

no, i am not saying the reason why he ran is because of that. he might have other reasons. or he might just like you say, a coward who care for nothing else but for his survival. what i want to say, people do things for different reasons. who are we to judge him? if i have a family, i would rather get condemn and live, than to die a crisis hero. planning to slam me? you better not do it on my website.

same for other things. sometimes people do things that are 'evil' or 'bad'. we are quick to judge. we hear one side of the story and we jump to conclusions. always being full of ourselves, always think other people are no good. but what if, we are in the same situation as them, what would we do? 'i would definately save the children.' is that what you think? no. unless you go through the whole thing yourself, you are not fit to comment on anything. yes. not fit. because no one can talk about what they do not understand. it makes us an even worse hypocrites than we are right now. we may think we will save the kids, but when the real thing came, what would you do? what would you do?

i am not saying you are also another coward who will run away. who knows? you might be a hero. you might be a coward. you might stay. you might run. whatever you do, who are others to judge? everyone has different purposes in life. who are we to judge others?

so, the next time something like that happens, big or small, in war or peace, in any kind of situation, do not judge. of course, i am saying this as a person who has not undergo any tragedies in life. maybe, if something bad happen to me, like someone come and kill off my loved ones, i would condemn him too. because we always talk about things we don't understand. always.

but there is this statement (from memory) from a character in a game (True Tears) i played, which is translated as :

it is true i cannot understand you. but it is because i cannot understand the pain, that i can give you support. it is because i don't know the suffering, that i can encourage you. if i truely know and truely understand, then, maybe i could not even utter a single word.

what i want to say is, encourage people, and not judge them. i am saying this from the point of a person who never experienced a single tragedy in life, which is why i am able to say it. this post is kind of contradicting, eh?