YThe Way Things Are
The following is a speech made by my classmate, Alissa, in English class. We're supposed to do a speech a present it to the class. Alissa presented hers the Tuesday I came back from my rest period after the op. I'd had a Monday to ease myself into the system, and as I listened to her speech I was reminded about how, in just one day, I had already allowed my life to become hectic and restless. The main message, about how despite being free we still cling on to the ways of the world, is something I believe God has been gently trying to teach me.
Take what you will from it.
The Way Things Are
Fellow students, we are victims of circumstance. The education system of today makes us run in circles for our As. There is more: we may, after that, find our precious certificates as valuable as banana money. It is no wonder that many better people whom I have known, have turned bitter.
All this is part of an evil plot designed solely to constrain, to control and, yes, to manipulate us. Rattle your chains with me, prisoners, and agree that we are shackled in the iron grip of the education system, a system which defines our choices for us, then grades them according to the status quo (that is, the world system of today). Our choices are, simply and effectively, tailor-made for us according to the measure of our talent. This commandeering of our freewill by a human institution is archetypal of The Way Things Are.
What exactly is the way things are? In one word: things are imperfect. Being human, we interminably attempt to improve ourselves, thinking we can evolve into higher-minded, civilised human beings, one day gaining that perfection which now seems ever so elusive. Oh, yes, progress has brought us very far from the barbaric, pagan, human-sacrificing age of yesteryear. Parents of today will have nothing to do with the sacrificing of children on mountaintops or in the fire--it's to difficult and non-profitable, a waste of resources. We've realised that much. Instead, today sees the more practical, systemised sacrificing of children in classrooms--to the gods of examinations, term papers, and the most coveted A1.
Do not be fooled. These lesser gods use such sacrifices to appease their own higher-ups--the gods of good jobs and stable economy.
The fact is, the way things are has not changed since the beginning of time, and it will continue to not change. History is a broken record, a looped song of war after war after war, of bloody revolutions which, ironically, stemmed from trying to fix the way things are. A more practical example, to return to our archetype: say you hate the education system; you want to revamp it. Do it then! Only your children, and their children after them will hate it too, for some fallibility in the system you helped put in place. Corrective measures do nothing to change the way things are, they only replace the wrong with another one. In our world, two wrongs don't make a right, but a right, makes two wrongs.
What then, shall we do? There are two typical reactions. We may accept the fact, (not as fatalists but as pragmatists) and work with it, making the best of an education and a good job; we may find ourselves actually enjoying the wealthy benefits of being a sacrifice, like a cow destined for slaughter contentedly chewing its final cud--or, I suspect that most of us here will struggle to overcome such odds, in a last stand against the inhumanity of our human-made gods.
Such is our dilemma. We are in the bullring, wishing we could simply swish off the pokes and prods of pride, of envy, greed and malice--but they draw blood, and so goaded, we are at once ready to fight, even knowing that it is foolishness, because no one can fight forever. The bull eventually dies of sheer exhaustion. We know we shall succumb.
But there is one way that we had never thought of. From outside the death trap, someone opens the door. Not only does he open it, but he comes in and demands that we be set free. MGS, we know how this analogy ends. The anguished bulls are set free, but the bullring still demands its sport, for none can leave until the bull dies. Did we ever guess that it is Jesus' death which sets us free from the way things are?
My friends, we are freedmen who do not realise that we are free; we do not live like we are free. Today you have the choice of escaping this bullfight; everyday you have the choice of re-entering the arena of the way things are. Each day spent without conscious submission to the God Who Saves is a day spent ignoring the only voice which truthfully says, "I have come to proclaim freedom..."
Let us in wisdom heed that call; let us run from the blissful ignorance of doing what the bullring expects of us; let us swallow our pride and run from the false glory of self-martyrdom; run from the wreaths people will throw over our graves; run to the only One who can, who has already, escaped the way things are, not through a fight to the death but through obedience to life. And the Resurrection is our life.
Will you stay and fight and die, or will you run, and live to see another day?
Postscript:
This excerpt* I add as an additional source to my speech; it reminded me that my speech is lacking in the full treatment of the way things are. Due to the restriction in presentation time (3 minutes, which I had already exceeded), I chose not to include the fact that we are still a part of the system, though free from its values. Thus the call to be 'salt and light to the earth', and yet strangers to the world. My aim, instead, was to knock "Sunday Christians" off their seats and onto their knees. Hopefully they'd go on from there.
Alissa
16/3/2004
*The excerpt I chose not to post here. But if you want to read it, feel free to email me for it. --Jac
jac was here with you
3/20/2004 06:45:00 pm
YZzz...
So sleepy. It's raining again.
I spent half the day in Ngee Ann Poly learning about electronics and oscilloscopes and when I came back I just crashed. I was supposed to be studying and all that but I was so tired.
March holidays officially start next Monday and there are so many things going on, so many things I have to do. What do I really want to do?
I want to sleep the year away.
jac was here with you
3/13/2004 08:07:00 pm
YA n B?
It's so funny and interesting...this whole people thing. Is it like this with other people?
As I look around me I realise that people's lives are very much like venn diagrams--countless circles interlocking at certain points (not one specific point because they can't unless there are only two of them); no two sets are subsets of each other in my theory. There's always someone you know that your friend doesn't know and vice versa; something you have in common with someone else and something you don't.
And then where does this friend business come in? Is it only in the areas that you have in common with others? Are there no friends in disjoint sets? What happens when the two sets drift away, then, to occupy completely different spheres? What happens to the friendship then?
What if--what if you know that area of set A that is common with the other set B (A n B) diminishes? Is the strength of the friendship directly proportional to A n B?
I can think of a few examples that disprove this theory. I neglect to take into consideration the fact that humans are as irrational as humans go. Set theory and theories of probability can't be applied to humans in this way.
jac was here with you
3/11/2004 06:17:00 pm
YRest Period
It turns out I am staying at home for the most part of 3 weeks. Went to school on Monday and Tuesday and realised that I'm not behind at all. So I decided to stay at home...
I'm not sure if I'm just doing it to escape. And is that a bad thing, anyway? I mean...
It's so nice being at home, though. I do my work, but there's also so much more time to do other things. Life is not just about studying.
It's so hard, though, to not get caught up with it. To not think about yourself and think about what God wants instead. You forget, and then you come back, and...I know it doesn't have to be a neverending cycle. I know all I have to do is surrender...and make a commitment to surrender it every day. Father, please show me.
jac was here with you
3/10/2004 10:30:00 pm
YWalls
Feeling rather...dreamy...
I got back home on Monday and I actually have an MC till the 12th of March, which is, like, last day of term! So if I wanted I could stay at home for 3 weeks, but I really don't think that's possible. "You could, you know," Mum told me.
"You're not supposed to be teaching me this," I laughed.
Had a pretty nice morning. I got my stitches taken out today and then I went to Carrefour with Mum to buy groceries. Mama's been bugging us about buying fish because according to her, it's good for someone to eat fish after something like this. Mum and I hate fish. (Most fish. But we love unagi and fish & chips.)
I'm going back to school on Friday, I think. So today's the second last day of my holiday. I sort of like staying at home and not doing anything. I don't feel like studying today. I feel so lazy, and it's such a sunshiney, blustery day (like in Winnie The Pooh)... And, oh my gosh, I've been online for 2 hours so I must make this quick.
I didn't think I had much to say but once I started writing things popped into my head.
I have slowly gotten myself caught up in this O'Levels pressure-cooker thingie. I didn't realise it until I was talking on the phone last night. I don't think the conversation had anything to do with it, but we were talking about JCs and O's and stuff and suddenly something in my head just clicked and I recalled a post a few months back about studying for God and giving Him the glory and I realised that in these past weeks/months, with everything just rushing at me and me running around like a headless chicken (I've been using that phrase a lot), I've completely lost the plot when it comes to studies!
I want my 6 points. Duh, I want my 6 points. And it's time to surrender that to God and let Him work. I'm so scared He'll pull a trick on me but like Dan said, God won't pull a trick on us because He loves us. At that time it may seem like He's pulling a trick on us but He really wants the best for us.
It's more my attitude that I need to surrender. I think I need to sit down and thrash it out with God.
Second point is just a side point, something that came out of talking to Chang today. About emotions, and about how I don't display my emotions very often (all right, Zhen, you can laugh at me but you know it's true when I'm in uncomfortable situations).
I remember being in a really bad mood one morning and walking out to the concourse to stand with Gerry and the rest and being all ice-maiden-ish. And the thing was, I sort of liked it, being cold and pretending that I was this scary sec 4 (okay, probably no one noticed except me, lah), but it's really not very good because it scares people away. And that's not nice. It's something I have to change, putting up this wall of no emotion (or this bad-mood-thingie).
"Why don't you tear down the wall?" Chang asked me.
I guess it takes time. I remember the first time I came down to help out during worship practice as 2 i/c. I was out of my comfort zone, and so I got really depressed and bitchy and I was so horrible to Dan when he tried to talk to me! (He told me I owned him then, but I guess that's not the point)
Compare this to Clare's first worship practice. When she walked in we thought she was lost or something. But after she introduced herself we started talking to her and she smiled and was so nice even though she was probably feeling a little lost and unfamiliar with the people, too.
But she's an extrovert, and I'm an introvert.
It takes time, and effort on my part, I suppose. I'm still sort of scared of expressing myself and my opinions in front of unfamiliar people but it's something I'm going to have to get used to, I suppose. This wall is slowly being torn down as I ease myself into the various communities.
jac was here with you
3/03/2004 02:54:00 pm