the "broken" cup

As I sat in a funeral  service many years ago, the sister of the deceased said "Grief is never easy and we are never prepared enough to meet it." These words became much truer for me a few years ago; grief is indeed never easy and irrespective of the many fore-warnings we may have had, when the moment comes it unleashes its pain and all emotions are let loose. But I suppose this is the natural way for us to deal and cope with grief for I can only imagine what will happen in the absence of the ability to respond as such. This pandemic has been a season of grief as people we know either succumbed to COVID19 or passed on in their appointed time to the next life. However the pandemic has made the sad event of death doubly painful as most are either not able to pay their last respects or say their goodbye in person. While we have been hearing about deaths around us it was not too close and so the news came as a shock. My wife's paternal grandfather and the father o...

Some many months ago I saw a question about what one could do about their flaws. It made me curious and I gave a response that I thought was fair. Not a good move when you do not know the backstory, but I guess the I-want-to-give-you-my-advice-anyway-syndrome kicked in. I still do not know the finer details of the backstory but then a small conversation ensued and stories flowed. Well, months later here we are, revisiting that question, not exactly as it was posed but in a more general and broader sense. But still at the centre of this thought is this question: "what do we do with our flaws?" In one of the many bygone years, my colleagues and I were asked to take a personal examination exercise in which we were to discover our strengths. I did the test and was pleasantly surprised by the result that was given to me. But then a senior spoke up and burst the happy bubble I was in. He said some thing like this, "It is good to know our strengths, but what about o...

When it comes to prayer, I am not much of an expert on the subject, more of a pilgrim who is still making the journey to grow deeper. I am blessed as I listened to sincere prayers offered in the worship services or the prayer times. I am blessed listening to the manner in which the prayer is crafted and prayed, and while we might say it is also an art, the deep beauty lies in the sincerity and the conviction with which the prayer is said. There are five images that come to my mind when I think of prayer. The first is a song that I sang as a kid in Sunday School: "Read your Bible pray everyday, you will grow, grow, grow." This simple chorus goes on to say "leave your Bible forget to pray, you will shrink, shrink, shrink." I must say I have sung this song full-throatedly but have not practiced this full-heartedly. When it comes to prayer, there is a mismatch between what I know to be good and what I practice. It is not that I do not understand that prayer is a good sp...