20-22 Covid-19 Daily Reflections

  A young man told his girlfriend before he broke up with her that he will drive his truck as fast as he could and hit something if they are no longer together. He broke up with her soon after and got involved in a terrifying vehicle accident. He is now in ICU, and the young lady has no idea to discern how she feels or should feel. Victor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist, therapist, and Holocaust survivor wrote about the triad of life: pain, guilt, and death. This young lady has experienced all of them. Pain: she was in love with him, and she was surprised by the breakup. It happened just a few days before her high school graduation. They were supposed to spend time together on that day. She hardly had the time to deal with it before she had to encounter the tragic news of his accident. She feels pain because she cares for him deeply and does not know what to do. It is the dilemma one has to deal with rejection from someone and the desire to be compassionate toward that ...

The life of every child needs to be cherished and protected. I have heard many ideas about what happened to aboriginal children during the time of Residential Schools. I have also learned about what is happening to aboriginal children today. Whether the abuse towards these children being done by the church in the past or their tribal leaders today, we should not just stand by and do nothing. We need to confront the atrocity of the past as well as the abusive behaviors of the present towards children with the same vigor, regardless of who is the culprit. When we want to look at the history of the treatment of aboriginal children, we might consider Bishop Lesslie Newbegin's comment about the meaning of history. It is "an ongoing conversation between the past and the present regarding the future." There is no hopeful future without honesty about the past and the present. As we grieve over the deaths of many children who were taken from their families to Residenti...

It was a hot weekend, but people did not seem to mind being outside with their families. It has been a long time since the last time we had the freedom to gather. The walk along the Bow River was crowded and full of life. Freedom is something we treasure and yet take for granted often. When the shutdown was in full measure, it was not easy for many of us. We realized that we had lost something. We didn't want our movements to be restricted. We hated the thought that we had to wait in line to get into a store. We were struggling not to be able to travel to see families during holidays. Suddenly, we felt as if we had no right to be who we are and to do what we like. It was an uncomfortable feeling. The question then: "Are we truly free? What freedom do we have when we are constantly in need of things, relationships, and acceptance from others?". Having the freedom to do whatever we want to do might not be true freedom in the end if we are motivated and controlle...

  It is interesting to see how marketing strategy has changed with time. It was not too long ago, consumers would learn about what is in the products they bought. Nowadays, sellers tell us what is not in them when considering the options. Consumers' needs and perceptions of good products have changed indeed.  Somehow I have the feeling that politicians have used the same approach. Many of them have been very happy to tell people what they are not about and not very clear on what they stand for. For example, we have no idea how the American Government wants to deal with illegal migrant issues. In Canada, the message about the development and the use of our natural resources is unclear more than ever before. The Christian church, in general, is not doing any better. Many denominations have joined the mainline culture in the fight against racism, injustice, poverty, and sexual inequality. When talking about the authority of the Bible, things are not as clear for some ...

The heatwave is on its way. We are preparing for one of the highest temperatures we have ever experienced in Alberta. More AC units are on sale both in-store and online. The temperature could reach 38°C or 100°F next Wednesday. When I was in Vietnam, the temperature could go even higher than that, plus humidity. We rode our bikes to school in that heat, and sometimes we needed to find refuge in a tree shade. The temperature was a bit cooler and more comfortable. The weather is not the only thing that is heating up. It appears as if our society has reached a boiling point on many fronts: a good number of resignations from various police forces in the US, the increase in violence and hostility in different school board meetings concerning Critical Race Theory, the great distrust toward health authority and experts, the indifference towards vaccination, the increase in the number of young people suffer from mental illness and more. How can we be like a tree that provides refug...

A friend sent me this picture of a plant in her dining room. It is a  plant that has only a single leaf. It is pleasant, strong, and beautiful in many ways. There is absolutely nothing sophisticate about it. The leaf is healthy and full of life. It needs nothing, and it has no excuses for its expression. Maybe that is what simplicity means. It is beautiful and enriching. It expresses life and growth. It is about having the confidence to be alone when nothing else is there. Life with simplicity is one with steady and stable growth. It knows its meaning and purpose. When we decide to live our lives with a singular purpose, it is more beneficial to make simplicity be the focus of our lives. Otherwise, we have to entertain so many other distractions. Life tends to get complicated when we are wandering away from what God has intended for us. Simplicity is overtaken by the complexity of our brokenness. Simplicity brings us the tranquility of our hearts, the peacefulness of ou...

Have you ever got caught in a place where you know that what you hear is not true and yet you want it to be true so badly? Many abused people can identify with this experience. They begin to think that it is their fault when things are not well. They hear voices of accusations in their heads, and they can hardly hear God. Abuse and deception tend to go together. Many abusers are clever in the ways they manipulate their victims. I met a murderer described by people who knew him as a nice fellow. Abuse is power, and its process is deception. Sometimes we might be uncomfortable encountering these people, but we find it hard to describe what we are feeling and seeing. The outcome for abused people is usually shame. They blame themselves for being stupid and dump. Sometimes these folks say something like this: "If only I can be more _____, he would not do that to me." That is the biggest lie that many abused victims have to face daily. Shame is the destination for them...

  It is hard to know what is true and what is not when we are surfing the internet. It is even more challenging to discern what we see and hear from the news. The availability of 'information' might have misinformed many of us. We have either become indifferent or distrust towards what we can access online. We have created a new form of tribalism in recent years. It is 'Social Media Tribalism'. Our views of what is going in the world have become narrower every day. We are being monitored by algorithms of various social media platforms. We only receive news and information that fit our viewpoints. In this new tribalism, we are divided by our own perceptions of one another via the internet. The nature of tribalism is the existence of divisions and divisiveness. Tribes would kill one another in the past to gain power and domination. We can see that today as well. We don't need to use weapons to destroy others these days. Social media has bec...

  I have too many questions in my mind, so it might be good that I share them with you. Is it OK to be angry at things that hurt the heart of God and to be politically incorrect? Is it right to address real issues concerning abortion and to be called names by those who believe that they have the right to decide when a human being begins? Is it cowardice to hide behind the struggles of racism to advance our personal gains and our political influence? Is it detestable to think that we have the right to destroy others people's property because we believe that our lives matter? Is it possible to believe that we can erase racism and racial inequality without the transformation of our hearts? Is it plausible to believe that life is getting better because everything is good and acceptable? or because we say so. Is it meaningful to be confused between education and indoctrination? Is it true that we are dealing with a new cultural revolution that intends to eradicate history? I...

  We have been having some better successes with planting our shrubs and flowers. We live in a very harsh winter climate, so not everything we grew made it. Some did last for more than three seasons. It was somewhat discouraging for a while. We decide to follow specific instruction materials from a group of growers. What I have learned about gardening can also be applied to how I understand other aspects of life. Knowing your landscape (zones): we need to understand the culture of our time, so we learn how to relate and communicate directly to people. The cultural landscape of our time detests celebration. Some schools in the US and Canada have decided to take off names of all holidays. Have you realized that even Father's Day Celebration is not the same anymore? It is just too gender-specific for contemporary culture. Some cities in Canada have either canceled or scaled down their Canada Day Celebrations due to the recent revelation of the abuses of the Residential Sch...

  Many employers have learned how to cope with the fact many of their young employees are fatherless. Supervisors realize that they are now quasi-dads to some of the people they supervise. It is a challenging job for many of them. I have a conversation with an employee of a client on Thursday. He is never late for work. He tried very hard to get the job. He never had a job before applying to work for my client. He is not the fastest fellow I know. He shows no initiative during the first five weeks of employment. During our conversation with him, we discovered that his relationship with his dad is non-existent. His life skills are underdeveloped. He is hungry for someone to teach him things. The sad fact is he is not alone. Fathers play many crucial roles in the development of their children: spiritual awareness, intellectual pursuit, and emotional safety. Young people do feel the pain of fatherlessness. Some will venture into other available commodities in life to numb ...

    Taking a walk in a park can be helpful for me when I have to think through crazy things that I have witnessed. Covid-19 might stop a lot of things, but it doesn't stop human selfishness and ignorance. It might increase it. Sometimes I want to have answers for why people do what they do. However, the answers might be just too much to ask. Why can people be so inconsiderate to their neighbors while knowing very well that many have to work from home? A friend of mine lives in the inner city and has to be content with loud music all day long. It is not that the neighbor doesn't know he plays his music beyond his need for decibels. He is just ignorant and unkind to those who need quietness to work. Why can people be so unkind by not putting shopping carts back to where they belong? These carts can move on a windy day and damage other cars around them. Stores provide them for shoppers' comfort. We decide to use what brings comfort to us to create discomfort in oth...

  I am not anti-vaccination, but I am a bit confused by health officials in this country. It seems to us that they constantly change the vaccination plan. The idea of mixing different drugs between the two shots is somewhat perplexing. I am not a scientist, so I am not going to say that it won't work. However, we are often told by doctors that we should not mix our medications. We treat vaccination shots like to way we create "fusion food". Many people in the US and Canada have become indifferent toward the messages given by medical experts because they perceive them as being unreliable. Communication has to be trustworthy. It will be ignored and dismissed, otherwise. Maybe this is the first time we see how unhelpful things can be when we mix our politics and our action plan to deal with a severe health crisis. Let us hope that our politicians and health officials learn this lesson. We cannot mobilize our nations to deal with a common thread by starting with t...

  This past year has been one of many challenges for many couples. Working from home and being in an enclosed space together have proven to be an eye-opening experience for many of them emotionally. One of the main discoveries is to understand the dynamic of emotional abuse in relationships. Some are reluctant to use words like emotional abuse, gaslighting, and mental abuse to describe what they are experiencing. There are various expressions of these behaviors.  Verbal assaults: this happens more than people think. It is not uncommon for me to witness it. Men and women can be so angry at one another that their languages become foul. There is no more kindness. Threats: this tends to be more subtle than we think. It is not loud but deep. It damages the hearts of those who hear. It is hurtful when it comes from those who are supposed to love, protect and support us.  Rejection: This behavior can damage people's self-esteem. Their sense of emotional safety is also disappeare...

  The percentage of Christians in the US is getting smaller, according to research published by Pew Research Institute in 2015. More and more adults don't want to be involved or associated with any organized religions. The decline impacts all races, educational backgrounds, and ages. We can be depressed by reading all of that news. It is not pleasant to be viewed as irrelevant and hypocritical. We can complain and get angry. That might be why many Christians voted for a president who seemed to defend their religious views while violating many aspects of their moral conviction. How can we understand this? We are caught in the same trap the Pharisees did during the time of Jesus. They were anticipating a different Messiah. They wanted to have their earthy power back. The need to have our faith seen as a powerful force of our society has lead us astray. Jesus prayed that He would fulfill the will of God by dying, not conquering. That is how He overcomes sin. The Gospel is ...

  I went to a BBQ on Sunday to celebrate a young fellow who graduated from high school. He is a smart and serious young man. Much of his childhood has been affected by the event of his father's suicide. His dad was a physician. No one really knows the real reason why he took his own life. I am content with the thought that we will never know. As I thought about him, I grateful for how God has cared for him in a personal tragedy. The love of his mother: he is one of the twins, and his sister is autistic. His mom has worked very hard to provide the needed care for her kids. As much as he is annoyed by his mom sometimes, he loves her deep down. Her life has been revolving around him and his sister. She basically lives for her kids since the passing of her late husband. The support of his teacher and the school staff: he was not easy to be around because he was struggling with the passing of his father. His teacher and the principal worked hard to provide him the support he...

  More than 600 Chinese immigrants died while building the railroad in Canada. Some might venture to say that it is about 4000. When they finished building the railroad, none was visible in the picture with Sir John A MacDonald. You understand what I am trying to convey. Chinese Canadians have also suffered a great deal from racism from the beginning of the history of Canada. But racism didn't stop them from trying harder to define their place in Canada. They have done that by running their business, investing in the education of their kids, getting involved in society, and having a contribution to where they live. They did that without sacrificing their own heritage and culture. I can still remember what the late Norman Kwong told me during a dinner I had with him and Wally Buono in Calgary Chinatown: "It is amazing how things can change. My father was not allowed to vote when he first came to Canada. Here I am now, the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta." There ...

  Have you ever gone on a hike that takes you through a stretch between a steep hill on one side and a sharp cliff on the other? The passage is getting narrower as you push on. There is so much rock on the pathway, and you begin to feel as if you no longer have a stable footing. You slow down and try to control your breathing. One mistake can be problematic. Help is nowhere close if you get into trouble. Dealing with Covid-19 is like that. The challenging hill is our fight against many human reactions concerning Covid-19: Some are fearful. Others are cynical. Some even go further to call it " a farce". The steep hill for governments in Canada and the US is to reach the 70% vaccination rate. Vaccination has been considered by some people as an attempt to attack and control the core well-being of humanity. If we don't do what we need to do to protect ourselves, we might have to face that sharp cliff on the other side. Some health professionals have been warning ...

  I took this picture while walking through the flood-damaged area in 2014 in Bragg Creek. Trees were fallen due to soil corrosion. It was a beautiful walk by the Creek, but the impact of the flood is evident. It helps that I can listen to the relaxing and soothing sound of the water. Water corrosion is much like a cultural one. It floods healthy living trees with an incredible force of water. It lifts their roots, and they start to stumble. Water can clear many trees in flooding. They are left lifeless and exposed. Many beautiful things in our culture have been affected by the wave of cultural and political correctness. It has obliterated the foundation of free speech. We are programmed to say things that we have no idea what they mean. We are exposed to the absurdity of our use of languages. When we remove God from our consciousness, we cannot deal with sin. We condemn sinners as if we are perfect. We have no humility to look at ourselves and acknowledge that we are n...

Someone I know shared with me about how he began to dream about having his own trucking business. It started with a visit from an uncle when he was about 6 or 7. His uncle showed him pictures of his own trucking business. That was the beginning of his dream. It is incredible to see how a simple interaction we have with someone we trust can begin something amazingly wonderful in our life. Jesus called the early disciples to follow him and became fishers of men. That was the beginning of the Christian Church. Lydia and the women who came to pray together changed their plan drastically after their meeting with Paul. That was how the Church in Philippi started. I got a call from someone yesterday who would like to share her desire to be a chaplain for seniors with me. She got the sense of being called when she went up North in Alberta to care for her father, who had suffered from a severe heart attack. She received the revelation during the time she spent in the hospital. She j...

  Curb Site" pick up has become a common phrase among many businesses. It has been part of the adaptation of the business world to the challenges of Covid-19. It was kind of funny to learn how many people in our neighborhood don't cook. Some days we could see waves of Skip the Dishes, Door Dash, Uber delivery vehicles, and more. And here I am, BBQ my own 🍔. Businesses that have been able to make such an adjustment seem to perform pretty well. They also provide a much-needed service for many people who have apprehensive about being outside. It didn't stop there. I stopped and listened to a Curb Side Concert in a community next to mine last week. It was a country music performer, and folks were very excited to gather around. We are close to the time of the Annual Calgary Stampede when this city turns western for ten days. We didn't have it last year, so many people are waiting for it this year. His selection of music was both joyful and healing. That was wha...