OTHERS

In line with all that has been said, let me share something that is really on my heart....and it starts with a story.

This story begins in 1914, when a ship called the Empress of Ireland sank. It hit a Norwegian coal freighter and sank in 14 minutes. It seems like just another ordinary crash but there was more. What makes it special is that on this boat there were 120 Christians, Salvation Army youths who decided they would not live for themselves but for others. They had managed to grab hold of life vests when the boat was sinking, but they realised that not everyone had a life vest and people were going to die. So spontaneously, without discussion, they took off their life vests and threw it to other people around them in order to save them. One of the people who got such a vest was a 30 year old man, fit and in the prime of his life. He got a vest from a girl half his age. His pride refused to take it and he threw it back at her and said "Save yourself! You're only a girl half my age" There and then, she turns to him in the freezing cold water, looks him in the eye and says these words he would never forget: "Take it. I will die better than you." Because she knew where she was going, she was saved, but she did not know if he was. And he took it and swam away. And all over around that boat in the freezing waters, many of these Salvation Army youths were giving their live vests away, knowing they would die without it. And that night, all 120 of them died.

But what made them do it? What made all these young people, with destinies to fulfill in God, with lives to live and families, schools, jobs all ahead of them, decide to sacrifice themselves? Well it starts with a man called William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. Every year he wrote a letter to all the Salvation Army people, sharing his heart and vision for the year. And as he grew older, ill and weak, his letters were progressively shorter. And in 1912, the year he died, the last letter he ever wrote to them consisted of 1 word. It said, 'Others'.

Others. Living for a life for others. Not just about me, my school, my career, my family, my future, my boyfriend/girlfriend. But others. The people around me. In my family. In school. At work. At the table across you at Macdonald's. In the bus beside you. Others. Others. Others.

At this point many people ask get scared. They are unsure. Sure it sounds like a nice idea. But hey, you don't know my life. I've got so many things to worry about you know. Wait, I need to settle myself first then I'll live for others. Or, I'm scared to. I don't know how to. What if the person I'm nice to, rejects me? How can I live for others?

But it's really simple. You don't need to do some heroic sacrifice, don't need to run into a burning building to save someone, don't need to give your life vest away. It's about what Liane and Joyce Chua wrote about. It is really just LOVE. The 15 Revolution. It's about loving other people, caring about other people, being interested in their lives. If you want it even simpler, I can break it down for you in 2 steps. It's just:
1. See the need.
2. Meet the need.
It doesn't require millions of dollars donated to charity, but it begins with the smallest things in the world - buying someone chocolate to say "hey, I just thought of you". Or saying something encouraging/giving them a compliment. Or seeing someone who seems down and going up to the person, daring to put yourself on the line and say "hey I noticed you seem a bit down. Are you okay?"

And maybe you will not be appreciated. Maybe the person will think you are weird. Maybe they will just stare at you and walk away. But you never know till you try. Maybe you would have impacted them but they were afraid of being vulnerable so they didn't tell you. But when they are down, they will know that there was this person who was nice to them and in future, when they are really in need they will come to you. And more likely than not, they will reach right back to you if you reach out to them. Maybe you will find out something about someone and you can build a relationship with that person and through it bring that person to Christ. Everyone has needs, we just need to see it and meet it. It's about not living for yourself but for others. Yes we have the solution in Jesus. But people don’t care how much we know, until they know how much we care.

And if you are worried that you are too busy, it's too difficult to, I have so many problems - well, it's just a small step to love someone, to open up your eyes to see a need and meet it. And as you keep doing it, as you start to live for others, you realise that despite having problems, they don't seem so big, not so overwhelming anymore. You realise that hey, compared to this other person, I have a pretty good life. And my problems are nothing compared to that other person. And I don't have time to be sad and emo over my small issues when I have lives to change and hearts to love, and God to bring into their lives.

And also, when you love and live for others, God helps you with your life. Things move supernaturally. The power of God comes. Just trust God that as you start to build the dreams of others, God will build your dreams and make them come to pass. Pst How and Pst Lia never set out to build a big church and preach overseas. They started the church when they saw a need and met it. Today's youth ministry came when Pst Lia realised that there were 9 youths who didn't fit into CCH. She saw the need and met it. Today, the youth church is over 900 strong. Back then Pst How and Pst Lia gave up good careers, and good businesses in order to give God and others their best. Today, their dreams are coming to pass - there is a generation of people who are giving the best years of their lives to God the same way they did. I cannot explain it. But you will experience it.

Simple isn't it? It is simple. Jesus gives us 2 commandments - Love God and love others. But if Christians know it and strive to be more and more Christ-like why are we not changing the world?

There is a very simple answer. And before I get to that answer there is a question I want to ask. What is the opposite of love?

And many people will say, hate. And it seems so. But the truth is that love and hate are on the same side. If I love animals I will hate animal abusers. If I love God I hate the devil. They are together.

No, the real difference is APATHY. INDIFFERENCE. It's the attitude of Cain, when God asks him where is his brother Abel (who he had just murdered), he tells God "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:9).

And it's such a big problem in the world today. 2 years ago, I accompanied Pst How to preach in another church's youth camp. They were children of successful businessmen, prominent people, powerful ministers, lawyers, doctors, bankers. They were, and are going to grow up to be the future leaders, movers and shakers of Singapore society. But it was so strange. When Pst How preached to them about loving others, shared that same Princess of Ireland story that I just did, they didn't get it. When Pst How shared with them that loving others means standing up for a boy in class who gets bullied for being effeminate, they giggled. When Pst How said how loving others means sitting down and listening to a crying classmate confess that her family is going through a divorce, they tittered. This is the generation of Christians today...who are going to be successful with no soul, with no heart for people. They will be affluent and have influence but are cold and clinical, heartless and do not care about others.

The reason why Christians today are ineffective is because they are either super spiritual and thus irrelevant, or religious, regressive and backward, or they are influential but indifferent. That is why AI is so important. We want to be affluent to have influence. To do well WHILE doing good. To use our influence to change our worlds, help those who cannot help themselves. The God I know, a tower of refuge; the church I know, strengthens the weak.

So after this long post, what am I trying to say? I'm trying to say - Live for others. And to do that you need to care enough, to see the need. Then meet it. It's not longer about us but about others. And if you don't have it yet, get a revelation of it. It's not just words, not just hype and emotions that you feel when you read this or hear a sermon about this, but it is a conviction that must last you your whole life. So, ask God for His heart. We call ourselves Heart of God church, we want to have the heart of God. And the heart of God is ALWAYS, ALWAYS about OTHERS.

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks Yours
Everything I am for Your kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity