My first holiday since I finished high school 6 years ago is starting in 8 days. I will be going to HK to visit my parents who went back over 2 years ago. I haven't been back there since our family flew over together. I was 9 at the time. I will be a complete tourist over there like any other, except that I can speak reasonable Cantonese. It'll be reverse culture shock. I imagine most of my 16 days there will be spent with relos that I barely remember and eating yum cha every day. I'm gonna be sick of chinese food by the time I come back.
I do have some plans of my own however. I hope to visit some friends there and to attend a few churches as well. No thought of splurging on a massive shopping spree though (as is typical of most people who go to HK). I had many Christian friends, both young and old, who went to asians countries for holidays over the Christmas/New Year break. But sad to say, most of them left their Christianity behind in Australia. They didn't attend church, nor read the Bible or prayed, but instead spent exorbitant amounts of money in ways that they would never have here. It was disappointing to hear them rave about numerous sales and the latest fashion/craze, and never about the wonder and glory of God and the power of His gospel in other parts of the world.
We've heard plenty about the pitfalls of "Sunday Christians", and the same should apply when we're on holidays. Our Christian faith should not only be evident on a certain day of the week, or when we're with a certain group of people, and certainly not when we're in a foreign place - in fact, we should be even more careful in the way we live when we're with outsiders. We may be holidays from our regular schedules of work and study, but our faith never takes a holiday. We are Christians through and through - 24/7.
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1Peter 2:11-12)
<< Thank God that I finally have an opportunity to rest adequately, and at the same time be able to catch up with my family while re-visitng some rapidly fading memories. Pray that I may not succumb to the temptations of materialism and hedonism but to keep working at godliness and to struggle against sin. >>
To put a dampener on things, there's this SARS virus going around in south-east asia. I was not particularly worried about it, but the situation seems to be slowly esclating. I don't want to have to cancel my first real holiday, and I don't want to get sick. Definitely don't want to be quarantined and refused entry on return to Australia! I even had fleeting thoughts of death spring to mind. But after a bit of probing, I realised that wasn't afraid, much less concerned, about death. Sure, it'll be jarring pain to be away from friends and family, but that's only a matter of time. And I have no girlfriend/wife/children to worry about. My future and destination is guaranteed and secured in Christ. In the words of Esther, "If I perish, I perish."
What a fallen world we live in!
<< Pray for God's mercy on this situation and that it might be rectified soon so that less people will suffer and so that I can have a carefree and enjoyable holiday. But thank God that He has given me peace in this time and anchored me with the certainty of eternal life in our Saviour Jesus Christ. >>
8 days and counting...anything can happen in such a long time...
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