Pastor's Corner by Larry Tong

August, 2006

A couple of weeks ago, I accompanied my wife to Washington, D.C. where she had to attend a medical related conference. I also used this trip to rest and to catch up with writing the devotional journal.

While Helen was in the conference, I spent a day visiting the Smithsonian. I even watched a 3-D movie, the Aliens of the Deep. It is amazing to see living creatures not only surviving, but thriving at the bottom of an ocean where sunlight can’t even penetrate. How can countless shrimps survive at the mouths of volcanic openings with extreme heat while the freezing ocean water is just inches away? As technologies bring us up close to a deeper ocean and higher space, the more we are amazed with the unknown. God’s creation is truly beyond our understanding. No wonder after God appeared to Job, he uttered “Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” (Job 42:3c). With human’s technologies and knowledge, we are still incapable of knowing the all-wise God. We are only capable of being in awe of the God who created all the amazing lives, some of which can only be seen with a high power microscope.

The hotel we stayed in Washington D.C. is only about four blocks from the zoo. On our last day there, we decided to walk to the famous zoo, which was in the midst of a residential area that houses the Panda from China. On our way back to the hotel, sirens, police cars, paramedics and fire trucks caught our attention. Our curiosity drove us to walk a couple of blocks to find out what happened. I asked a resident on the street who watched what happened. She told us that a water-main was broken, and that the water shot twenty-five feet up in the air for at least thirty minutes. She even showed us the “geyser” picture she took with her camera. Within minutes, the whole area was declared “unsafe” by the authority. Cars that were parked on the street had to be towed away. We didn’t stay long enough to find out whether the residents in the area had to be evacuated. I was thinking what caused the authority to determine that the area was unsafe. When we got there, the water had already been turned off, and everything seemed to be as normal as it could be. There were no visible sink-holes or cracked pavements.

I thought of life from this incidence. Things can look very “normal” from the outer appearance, but beneath the surface, there may be a big void that makes us feel empty, like a street with broken water main. It may look perfectly normal, but when too much pressure is on top, the street will crumble. It is the same with our lives. If we don’t fix the void inside our heart on time, disaster awaits us when we are under pressure. Life isn’t what it appears from the outside or what it should have been or could have been. It is what is underneath the surface. If we are strong inside, we can withhold pressures from the outside, but if we only look good from the outside, without any strength from the inside, we will be crippled when pressure comes our ways.

Before I sign off, I would like to quote what a theologian, Pascal, once said. It goes something like this: “Inside a man’s heart there is void that only God can fill.” When God fills your inside, you will develop strength from within to withstand pressure. God, in His love, came to die on the cross so that you may not only have life, but have an abundant life—a life with meaning and purpose. That’s what life is all about: thriving, not mere surviving.

Pastor Larry