Blessing

by | Aug 11, 2024 | Cheryl Yap, • Timely Word •

Blessing

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust IS the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:5-8 ESV, emphasis mine).​

Recently in our SGC discussions, as well as in my personal devotion time, I have been led to consider what “blessing” is, and how we define “blessing”. The truth is, for many of us, when we think “blessing” we immediately think “comfy life, blissful relationships, no lack”. Right? ​

But when I look at these scriptures, I realized that the man described here is blessed with a spiritual security, not a physical one. He is NOT shielded by some supernatural orb; he is NOT planted in some protected garden. He faces the harsh elements just like anyone else. In fact, the verses seem to suggest that it is a certainty that the “heat WILL COME” (it is not a matter of “if”, but “when”)!​

So why then do we so easily equate “blessings” to cushy creature comforts? Has the world really warped our Christian understanding of what true blessing is, to the point where we have totally missed the point?​

Here’s where my reflections have led me to: ​

  • True blessing is… the confidence and security I have in being known by the Almighty God. Not only known, but prized and well-loved. (And yes, that IS worth pausing for a moment to give thanks over.) ​
  • True blessing is… the sweetness of that intimate journey, walking with Christ.​
  • I can face all of life’s challenges, trials and pains when I am able to internalize my standing with the Most High Lord, and my position as His adopted son/ daughter (Ephesians 1:5).​​

Actually, there IS an element of creature comforts in there. Check out the tree in Jeremiah 17:8. The tree is already planted by the water, which in my opinion is obviously far better placed than the shrub in the parched desert! It makes me think about the fact that God planted me in peaceful Singapore, rather than in some war-torn country elsewhere in the world. Or that I happen to be planted in a Christian family, and that gave me the opportunity to hear of God’s redemptive story for mankind from such a young age. There is always something to thank God for. ​​

So, while we may lament and resent the many burdens of life that we bear (and wonder where the blessing in all this lies), I challenge all of us to reframe our thinking about what blessing means to you, and how our roots can stretch all the more, deeper still, to tap into the Living Water that we all so desperately need.​​

“Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in Him!”– Psalms 34:8 NLT​

By sister Cheryl Yap​

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A merciful shake-up

by | Jul 16, 2022 | Cheryl Yap, • Timely Word •

Over the last month, I have been soaking in the words of Psalm 103, savouring the richness of its imagery, allowing its comfort to seep deep into my soul.

Psalm 103:8-13 says,

“The Lord is merciful and gracious,

Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

 He will not always chide,

Nor will he keep his anger forever.

He does not deal with us according to our sins,

Nor repay us according to our iniquities.

 

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

So great is his steadfast love toward those who

fear him,

As far as the east is from the west,

So far does he remove our transgressions from us.

 

As a father shows compassion to his children,

so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.”

I had intentionally chosen this psalm for my meditations because I had hoped to discover the secret to managing my own anger. You see, I’ve always been a “chilli padi”, a fiery individual. My husband confirms that I can go from green (peaceful and calm) to red hot in just a matter of seconds! So this quality of being “slow to anger” has always eluded me! In my efforts to conquer this weakness of mine, I started to memorise this psalm.

But through the days of meditating on it, I began to realise something else that God seemed to be revealing to me. He was showing me the depths of his great mercy and compassion for us as his children. Even when I, (a broken and sinful mother) disciplined my own child, I also often gave them one more chance to do things differently, before the disciplinary action was finally meted out.

How much more, then, would our good, good Father do for us?

I then thought about how the past few years have been a real wake-up call for me. I have shared previously how the pandemic and 2020 was a particularly dark period for me, and that I felt like I went through a time of deep testing, a journey “through the wall”. It now occurred to me that maybe, Covid is God’s merciful way of shaking us up, waking us from our slumber, preparing us for the end times. Covid was just the teaser.

In our Church 2.0 discussions, we have been asking the question: Are we post-COVID ready?

But maybe we should seriously be asking ourselves:

Are we end-times ready?

I don’t know if 2020 was as stark a wake-up call for you, as it was for me. But for all the verses in the bible that talks about how “you will not know the day or hour of [Jesus’] return” (Matt 25:13), don’t you think that God, in his divine mercy and kindness, has given us some pretty obvious signs recently, nudging us towards a keener awareness that certainly, He IS coming again, and soon?

One more chance.

So what will we do about it?

No, I haven’t started doomsday-prepping, nor am I distributing flyers at street corners. But I have started to prepare my heart and get my affairs in order.

I’ve intentionally put myself in a position where I am forced to hold on to my career and possessions more lightly, I’ve started to place a deeper emphasis on doing life-on-life with those that God has put on my path, and most importantly, I’ve created space for God to begin his deeper work within me.

Singapore can really be a place where we get so distracted and consumed by the temptation of affluence and comfort, that we may commit the sin of forgetfulness: forgetting that we are utterly dependent on His goodness and His mercies, forgetting what’s really important in this life, and forgetting our true commission as followers of Jesus.

If you accept that we are already living in the end days, would you take this time to pause, and ask yourself, what baby steps could you take, towards trimming your lamps in expectation of the Bridegroom’s arrival? (Matt 25:1-13)

By sister Cheryl Yap

Tip of The Iceberg Spirituality

by | Jul 16, 2021 | Cheryl Yap, • Timely Word •

One transformative book that has helped me greatly in my faith journey has been “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality” by Peter Scazzero. The book cover shows a picture of an iceberg, with only its tip visible, but the rest of its massive body hidden out of sight. As you might expect, the book tackles the tricky topic of recognizing “tip-of-the-iceberg spirituality” in ourselves, and learning what it means to journey deep, through the dark night of the soul, emerging on the other side without losing our faith.

I’m sure you will agree that the majority of us want to present an image of ourselves that is strong and spiritually “together”. We want to show that little iceberg tip that looks “good”.

But have you ever wondered why we pathologically do this?

Do you think it could be because we are ashamed…? Ashamed that despite receiving this amazing and priceless gift of salvation and grace from God, we still seem so human.. so easily defeated, still fighting against life’s daily hardships, still struggling (as much as anyone else) with our hidden sin, pain and insecurities, like as if the victory had not been won? Where is that transformative experience that we all wish for?

So we cover it up, bury all the unanswered questions, the emotional turmoil, and because everyone else seems like they’re doing fine, we pretend that we’ve got it all figured out too. “Let’s just fake it till we make it.” We hide behind well-rehearsed Christian platitudes. We begin to believe that we mustn’t mar Christ’s pristine image of righteousness. We the church, the body of Christ, must look good to the outside world…

In doing so, we alienate the “outsiders” who look in at us and think we are just too good to be true. Too good to be authentic. Too good to understand failure. Too good to accept people who are just different.

We also alienate our true selves – the one that deep down is still perplexed by the messiness of real life.

If we continue to behave in this way (striving to put up a good image “for Christ”) I believe that many people, young and old, will eventually fall away from the church, convinced that it is irrelevant to “real life”.

For the most part of my life, I also grew up thinking I needed to project an almost-perfect image: what we call the “GCG” (good Christian girl). But God knows I was far from it. On one hand I was active in church, learnt my Bible well, got good grades in school, dutifully played my part; on the other hand I was extremely curious about the opposite sex, attention-seeking, reckless & impulsive, arrogant and probably way too self-assured. As a result, because I couldn’t quite reconcile the “GCG” with the many ungodly desires I continued to have, I led a pretty dichotomous life for most of my growing up years.

After a particularly hard period in my life recently, what one could call a “journey through The Wall”, I’ve finally come to realize that Christian life cannot be easily explained in black and white absolutes. I still have many unanswered questions and many ungodly desires. Christ never asked me to be perfect, or to have all the answers, but instead has asked me to be vulnerable to my faith community as I work out my faith, admitting that messiness does exist on this side of eternity. His desire is for me to learn to be humble, and to trust in the slow work of the Lord. It has taken me a long time to understand this, but the despair that we feel over the brokenness that we see in our own lives, is precisely the thing that draws us deep into His presence, and opens our perspective to living a life that is truly in step and aligned with His.

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” – Philippians 1:6 ESV

Dear Lord, help us not be discouraged if our spiritual progress and transformation seems slow. Help us Lord to abide in You, trusting in Your process, and allowing Your gentle slow work to be done in us daily.

By sister Cheryl Yap

**Notes: More details on the “Journey through The Wall” can be found on this website: https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Session-4-Journey-through-the-Wall.pdf

Mothers’ Day Reflection

by | May 10, 2020 | Cheryl Yap, • Timely Word •

The mental load 

At any given moment, a quick scan of a mother’s brain will reveal a million different opposing thoughts, all pulling her in different directions.

  • How do I better position myself at the workplace?
  • Have I done enough for my child…?
  • I wish I could have controlled my emotions better.
  • If only I had more time.

Am I the only one struggling?

I have recently begun to wonder whether we pay enough attention to our mothers’ mental and spiritual well-being. Being a mother has proven to be the most challenging and emotionally draining marathon I have ever embarked on. And I am only just starting. I look around at my fellow long distance runners beside me, and my own mother comes to mind for inspiration. Everyone else seems to be coping so well. “Am I the only one that feels like I’m drowning…? I cannot get a single thing right today. I must be the most terrible mother in the whole wide world. How am I going to make it to the end of the road…?”

The marathon

It goes without saying that this marathon requires an immense amount of physical and mental resilience to keep going, particularly during this trying time of Covid and lockdown. In this new dystopian world that we suddenly find ourselves in, mothers find that we have absolutely no outlet. Previously I would have taken some time out, off for a dinner with close girl friends who are also moms and we could commiserate. And then it would be easier to try harder again tomorrow. But these days I only have my four walls, my family members and a good window to look out of. And these days I have been thinking to myself, what is the point of telling people how I feel…? What is the point of dragging someone else down with me? Anyway, how could they possibly help me now?

Well the truth is, mothers or fathers, singles or marrieds, old or young: we are ALL pilgrims on a long journey. Along the way we will experience deep joy, as well as great anguish; successes as well as failures. Every single hardship is life-shaping… IF we are humble enough to see that there is always a lesson in it for us. So if you are struggling, just like me, to find meaning in all that is happening right now, try to take a step back and think about what God is trying to teach you right now.

For me, the Lord seems to be teaching me the humbling lesson of failure, and trying again. In my life thus far I have been fortunate that I have experienced mostly successes, and very few failures. But as a (locked-down) mother, in this short span of a few weeks I have suffered daily failures, and every day I end the day tired and defeated, feeling grieved that it never quite turns out the way I hoped or envisioned. It is a daily exercise of humility and dying to self, to fall before him and say “I am nothing without You.” The verse that has been keeping me afloat has been “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23). Indeed the Lord gives me a new chance every morning to try again, to show love, to be patient and kind, to think about others before myself, to not keep a count of wrongs. And that is what being a mother is all about, isn’t it? That very special breed of sacrificial love, that you only truly understand when you are a mother yourself.

A Tribute

To all the mothers in YCKC, we salute you.

For the countless times you.. 

picked up after the rest of your family; 

you ate less because there wasn’t enough; 

you woke up earlier than everyone else;

you magically ensured a warm and liveable nest at all times; 

you forged on even when you were sick and down; 

your forsook your career and your dreams because your children needed you more; 

you tried your best but it somehow fell short; 

you juggled multiple responsibilities without complaining;

your body forever changed because you bore children.

Thank you mothers, for your many unspoken sacrifices.

♥️ Happy Mothers’ Day.

Afterword: Tips to coping when feeling down 

If you are feeling sorry for yourself that day, give yourself half an hour to wallow in it. Go for a walk and some fresh air. Then pick yourself up and try again. Always reach out to someone whom you think might need some encouragement. Because when a person is hurting, the last thing they normally feel like doing is reaching out to you to tell you that they are suffering. So be the first to make that move.

Jia you mommies! You can do it! (in His strength)

– Cheryl Yap, a Mother (YCKC Bulletin 10 May 2020)