Harijam's BLOG

My blog today focuses on forgiveness. This is an important issue to think about because when you open yourself to another person, it is not just “enjoying life or enjoying their company” as some people tend to think.  When you open yourself to someone there is always a possibility that you may get hurt or that you will hurt someone.  When there is love or relationship there is bound to be hurt and pain.  This is a difficult issue for many of us because human nature does not naturally forgive. We tend to think that it is not fair for a person who has hurt us to go scot-free without being punished.  And “not forgiving” is usually our form of punishment for people who have offended us.  Thus many people are still governed by that old law - “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” and live with unforgiving spirits.

In our way of relationship, the offender is often expected to come to the offended person and apologize.  In......

I recently came across this nice story that someone has written. I don’t know if it is a true story, or just an illustration.  I want to share with you because it is almost related to the blog that I wrote “To be saved, we need to let go and trust”.  It goes like this:  

A 5 year old little girl named Jenny was with her mother at the checkout stand, when she saw a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box.
"Oh please, Mommy. Can I have them? Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl’s upturned face. "A dollar ninety-five: that’s almost $2.00.  If you really want them, I’ll think of some extra chores for you, and in no time you can save enough money to buy them for yourself. Your birthday’s only a week away and you might get another crisp dollar bill from Grandma."
As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her penny......

In one of my previous blogs I touched on the issue of leadership.  Perhaps one of the casualties of leadership is friendship.  Leaders, despite their popularity and community-wide or nationwide recognition, are often lonely people.  In fact two of the worst casualties of their frantic, mobile existence are their families and their friends.  Leaders need friends - good ones.  But what we often see surrounding leaders today are cronies who are hoping to reap financial or positional benefits that such friendship brings.  Thus we sometimes see an ineffective leader or tyrant being propped up in his position by his so-called friends and supporters. They want him to stay in that leadership position because they know that if he is no longer in power, they too will lose their privileges.  So the thing that can gives beauty to human relationships becomes something that perpetrate or even perpetuate evil in human society.  

As a pastor, I want to speak about......

 I am been re-thinking about this blog this morning, and I don't think the title that I have put earlier is appropriate.  I was surprised and even flattered that many people are reading these blogs that I have put in this page.  But these blogs are not about me, or even my ideas. They are the result of some inner searches for meaning and purpose in life.   The real reason that I blog is because there is One who is higher, that my purpose in life is to give him the glory. So I am giving this blog a new title.

This paragraph stays, as well as most of the rest.  I am a priest, a Malaysian by nationality, and was assigned to this small but peaceful country of Brunei Darussalam more than half a year ago.  Right now I am pastoring a small Anglican church, composed of locals and expatriates.  I have served in a few Parishes in Sarawak, Malaysia during the last 25 years or so. 

I started blogging after having read many blogs written by various people,......