Living a fulfilling life as a Lean Christian in a Fat World ©

Trouble, trouble, trouble, everywhere where will I find peace and hope!!!! If we are living on this earth, our life is filled with circumstances that many times make us lose hope with life. Some time ago, I know of a friend who lost her house & husband due to a big fire in her home. She survived with her son and daughter, who were not in the house. I am sure you too can relate some challenging circumstance like this? What can we do? Should we stay miserable, depressed or lose faith in God?      In Genesis 35:18 there is a story of Rachel, who has a terrible childbirth, where “As she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named her son Ben-Oni . But his father named him Benjamin. ” Rachel in her misery named her son Ben-Oni which meant “son of my trouble.” Can you guess the son’s future? If he had grown up with that name, he would feel terrible. He would always feel responsible for his mother’s death. All his friends and family would ridicule him for ...

Last week, Dr. Larry Nassar from Michigan State University (MSU) was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for sexual abuse of more than 150 athletes (including Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney, who won gold medal for USA in the Olympics). One of the 150 was one of my mentor’s daughter and listening to her testimony broke my heart. I could not come around to listen to others, since the pain was too much for me to handle.  Many of these girls/women were so broken that they had a tough time forgiving Larry for his crimes and the injustice they faced from all the authorities. As a man, I don’t think I or many others can fully comprehend the pain and suffering that these women went through or continue to struggle to find solace. All we can do is simply pray for these young women so that they can find hope and healing. Their life is ahead of them and God will bring them healing. Jesus assures us in, Matt 5:4 (ESV) “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” ...

Mark 14:71-72  Then he began to curse and swear, “I do not know this Man of whom you speak!” A second time the rooster crowed. Then Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And when he thought about it, he wept. After Jesus was arrested and taken to the Chief priests Peter, Jesus's key disciple, denies knowing his master Jesus three times, with whom he had spent the last 3 years of his life. His denial came as a fulfillment of Jesus’ words mentioned earlier, “ before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times ”. As I read these verses, I wonder why Peter did not acknowledge knowing Jesus the first time, then the second time, and finally the third time.  I presume Peter wanted to protect his own life, so betrayed his master. I believe Peter failed to recognize his selfish & sinful nature until the rooster crowed a second time. Isn't that tragic? So many times, j...

As we enter the month of December, we are motivated to ponder on the Christmas story. In Luke 2 we see a decree for census being made from Caesar Augustus, a Roman Emperor. This forces Joseph and Mary to travel a difficult journey from Northern Israel town of Nazareth to the Southern Israel town of Bethlehem. The Christmas story unfolds with the birth of Jesus followed by angels pronouncing the birth of Jesus and shepherds rejoicing at the good news. In Luke 2:22 we see Jesus being presented at the temple to the Lord, where Simeon and Anna come to worship Jesus. This appears to be a nice story. However, if we look at its details, we will be amazed at how a Master Plan is being unveiled. The distance from Nazareth to Jerusalem, as the crow flies, is about 63 miles. Now having walked through the rugged terrain of Israel, I can fully comprehend that the walking distance is much more than 63 miles. This journey for Joseph and Mary must have a taken at least 4-5 days, espec...

The other day I was reading a Business Week article about the list of the world’s most successful immigrants.  They ranged from Google’s co-founder to Warren Buffet’s blue eyed boy from India. Their success seemed to inspire me. As I continued reading, I thought to myself who does not want to be successful? Everybody wants to win! Coming to America or to a new country is not easy. On top of that making a success in the new country as an immigrant is another dimension. As an immigrant to USA for twenty one years, I can totally relate to the struggles that an immigrant faces in a new country. I am sure that these successful immigrants worked hard against all odds.  These guys must be smart, intelligent and most importantly had key opportunities knock on their career doors at the right time.  Unfortunately for many immigrants or even local natives, such career success is like a distant star in the sky. However, have you considered the challenges for the land tha...

We have all seen how electrical equipment’s get their power to operate, that is, when they are connected to the power socket through an electric cable. Let’s take the example of a laptop.  When the laptop operates only on its battery then with time and use its life will start deteriorating. However, when the laptop is connected to the electric outlet on the wall through an electric cable, then the laptop’s productivity is always at 100%.  As long as the cable is connected between the laptop and the electric outlet, the laptop receives full power and it is able fully open up all its different programs, without fail. Otherwise, we will keep seeing a pop up sign that keeps telling us how much longer we can stay connected or stop working.    Our life on earth is just like the laptop. Inevitably, we always seem to be trying to operate as if we are only on battery power.  We try to do things with our own intellect, logic, understanding and worldly concerns, but...

Tom Hanks in the movie Forest Gump says “ Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get .” Life’s challenges begin from the time we are little. At elementary school, many of us are forced to compete for good grades. As we grow older we practice hard to make into sports, robotics and debate teams and some of us even work harder to get a date for a school dance. In this struggle, we go through cycles of success & failure, joy & sadness, excitement & disappointment.  After we graduate we become happy with the assumption that there are no more grades, but we soon realize that competition has just increased two or three fold. Two month vacations are a thing of the past – the hard reality of life kicks in.  In Jeremiah 18 we see God taking the prophet Jeremiah to a potter’s house. He sees the potter taking the clay that was “marred” or broken and making it into another vessel that seemed best to him. The prophet understands that our li...