Spring is here

Hong Kong's spring brings with it warmer weather and a lot of rain! We will continue to have rainstorms throughout the summer, so while the skies are a lot cleaner in the spring and summer, it can also be difficult to plan outdoor events. I hope to go on at least one junk boat trip this summer! I found myself on two boat trips the past two summers, and I thought I was really lucky to be on so many! Fingers crossed for at least one trip this year.

The past few weeks have been difficult for various reasons. And reading the news certainly does not help. My heart breaks for parents of young children, both boys and girls. The world is such a crazy and dangerous place, and it is still especially hard for girls and women. The parents of little boys have their work cut out for them if they want their boys to grow up to be godly men.

Getting a shot of dopamine either from being on court, or from a gym workout helps me feel grounded, but one of my colleagues from pharmacology joked that I may have an addiction to exercise. Well, as far as addictions go, I like mine a lot, and I don't think I'm overdoing it; I don't have time to over-exercise!

What else has been going on? Nothing that I can put on a blog for public consumption. Oh, sweet Jesus, come again, oh, come again.

found a new singer on a chinese radio channel

mortality

I received a message a few days ago notifying me that a good friend from college has passed away unexpectedly from unknown causes. All of us are in shock because she has seemed happy and healthy.

Unexpected deaths are difficult to process. I also learned that a friend is fighting cancer, and another friend has a brain tumor that luckily seems to be benign.

This has been a tough week.

Christian faculty retreat

We had a short Christian faculty retreat at HKU--no sleeping overnight, just sessions scheduled on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning--and it was fantastic. John Stackhouse and Ian Provan spoke, and they are both very gifted teachers who offered a holistic perspective on what it means to be Christian academics. They both begin with the premise that God made us to be human beings first, not "Christians," and therefore, our primary calling is to be human, not Christian. We will be able to live happy and full lives as academics if we live fully as human beings. Here are my brief summaries of what I learned in the sessions. I didn't write everything down, so what I have here is very selective. Their lectures were more humorous and well-designed then my simple renditions make them out to be.

"Our vocation is not more, or less, important than others."

From Ian Provan's sessions, I learned that the story of the Bible is the story of creation, the fall, and Christ's redemption. In all these threads, God has designed us to steward and care for the earth for the common good. God's mission in the redemption actually goes further than in his creation because we are to participate in the story of redemption. Fundamentally, the university is a part of that work because universities pursue truth and virtue, and the excellent pursuit of truth and virtue is a pursuit of the common good! Ian Provan demonstrated through his readings of scripture, especially in the Old Testament, that not only is there a design to God's story, but also that it is a beautiful one. He has a forthcoming book called "Seriously Dangerous Religion" and I would love to get it when it comes out!

"Being faithful to Jesus Christ means doing almost nothing for Him."

Making disciples is not hard, it is impossible. As teachers, we understand how tough it is to change our own students' minds, and that's when we're in a relationship where we are seen as teachers! The work of discipleship is the work that God does through us. We just have to keep in mind that the point of being a Christian is to be a "proper" human being, that is, to live as God designed us to live. The work of the university is to train people to be good citizens and free persons. This is the project of the liberal arts, and it is not in conflict with what God calls us to do. God will not let us fail in what He has called us to do. We may fail to do what we want to do, however! The university is a broken and flawed system, and anyone who works in a university knows that. However, God does not call us to fight everything, or correct everything. He calls us to do certain things in certain seasons, so we need to be attuned to what He wants us to do for that particular moment, day, or seasons, and to trust that He will give us the resources to do it.

I learned so much from these sessions, and was so relieved to hear about the struggles my other Christian colleagues go through because I can now see that these problems are not just mine alone. Both speakers affirmed that our vocation is a valuable one, and to hear it from other Christian academics was life-giving. I am also now convicted to attend the Christian faculty fellowship more regularly this semester.

woohoo!

My XD and WD teams are through the preliminary rounds! I am making a lot of mistakes during our matches and our WD team was lucky to win our match last weekend as all of us were making a lot of mistakes. This is pretty interesting! We were all very tired the day after though, especially since me and one other girl played our XD match the night before as well. The other girls are on the Grade D XD team while we're playing in Grade E.

Next week is reading week, and I can't wait for a bit of a break from lecture prep!