Feb 10th, 2021: The Year of the



It is anticlimactic to think about Lunar New Year in a sub -30c° climate. This Thursday is New Year's Eve if we follow the Lunar calendar. It is the Year of the Ox. No firecracker 🧨, no family gathering, no dragon and lion dance in Chinatown. I might go for a Chinese dinner with my wife. That is the extent of my Lunar New Year Celebration this year. 


Some people asked me what does the year of Ox means? Three words come to my mind: diligence, dependability, and strength. It is an animal that played a very important role in our farming business. They were not fancy and flashy. But they can be counted on anytime we put them to work on a rice patty. When Jesus said: "my yoke is easy, and my burden is light," the image that comes to my mind is one of two oxen connected by a yoke plowing a field together. I am the younger ox, and Jesus is the more mature and wise one. God connects with us via that yoke. Diligence, strength, and dependability will be who we are as we learn how to allow Him to take the lead in our life.

What would we learn from that exercise then? The answer came from the same passage: gentleness and humility. We have not seen much of these two characteristics lately. Our leaders are not keen on taking the lead from God. They take advice from special interest groups. They don't know what it means to work with God. What we have seen is intense anger, a self-serving attitude, condemnation, and division. When that happens, the rice patty becomes a very challenging one to work on.

Proverbs 13: 10
"The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied."


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