hello everyone,
My name is Andrew Feng and I am a questionaholic. From the moment I wake up to the moment I close my eyes, I’m asking myself questions the entire day. It’s hard for me to keep track of which questions I’ve asked myself and which ones I have answered. Sometimes I tell myself well it’s a 50% chance I’ll get it right. The other day, I read an article that estimated the human mind is processes 50,000-70,000 thoughts a day. That’s like a thought a second…per day! When I think of some of the questions I ask…
Why should I go to my work, why should I listen to my parents, why should I feed the homeless, why should I go to church, read the bible and the list can go on and on…
Some of the questions are important and some not so much. But I started to notice that all of the questions started with “Why should I…?” I began to realize my heart is so enamored with the idea of making myself the center of the universe and everything and everyone should revolve around me. Just in one week, I can easily recall a couple of scenarios:
- When I am on the scooter…“Move out of the way, can’t you see I am in a hurry”
- While I am sitting in the subway… “Do you not understand the meaning of personal space”
- Sitting during worship… “Does anyone else hear that AV feedback/echo, I can’t worship like this”
I was in a small group discussion and one of the guys said the culture today promotes a “Me! Me! Generation.” Everything is “me” first, and everyone else second. I couldn’t agree with that more. Maybe that’s why the iPhones are so popular. But then I am reminded of a few verses from the bible:
- Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. (Phil 2:3-4)
- All the others care only for themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ. (Phil 2:21)
- You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you…Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others. (1 Cori 10:24)
These verses spoke to me deeply, what, die to self and live for others? I started to ask questions that started with “WHAT IF…” What would it look like if I listened to my parents, fed the homeless, and did what the bible commanded me to do? I started to love others more than myself and began to apply 2Corinthians 10:5 to my life: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. Instead of saying I can’t, I began to say I could and that was all three years ago…
My wife Jeanette and I left a comfortable life that I spent 30 years building in Los Angeles and relocated to the other side of the world to explore our calling…Here in the rainy/humid city of Shanghai, it’s busy, hectic, tiring, but oh so crazy beautiful. What a special place we have learned to call home. We’ve learned that God doesn’t called the quipped, He equips the called.
Come join us at the Encounter 2014 retreat and learn more about the life that’s worthy of His calling!
“I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light”
– Andrew