Thatched House

Be it Census, Electoral roll, or date of birth certificate; Christians are called to be truthful. Many appeals have been made to give the right figures for the census, some pointing out that it wouldn’t affect the development funds. But Christians are supposed to be committed to the truth even when others aren’t. Even when the other tribe/community/family/individual benefits more than us by stating what is not true, it is the call of Christians to be committed to the truth. A wrong, just because everyone is doing it doesn’t make it right. Census exercise is therefore in a sense, a test of our faith. Do we cry, ‘Lord’, ‘Lord’ on Sunday mornings but do not obey him, or will we try to please him in all that we do? What will it show as a Christian witness to the rest of the country and the world that a State which has over 90% of population as Christians has the most inflated census in the country?

Observe: ‘Look at the birds of the air’, ‘look at the lilies of the field’; the Bible exhorts. It pays to be observant, and it is exciting too. Just a scoop of earth on careful observation shows that there is a world in that small mass. Watching a plant grow is medicinal as we marvel at how a simple seed falling and dying germinates and grows into a giant tree. The observant photographer captures frames that we might have simply ignored and convert them into sights of great delight. A researcher carefully observes phenomena and makes connections where we saw none. Read: There are books that I have literally kissed after having read them. There are so few things that can be more enriching to the mind and soul than a good book. It is not enough to intellectually survive by feeding on newspapers and text books in the syllabus. Students need to read other good books. Book selection is very important. Some books are to be read simply to be critiqued, some to be digested and meditated u...

It’s always a relief to hear the speaker say in the beginning, “I’m not going to speak for long”. I proclaim that good news to you as I begin to speak. But in this short sharing, I want you to pay careful attention because in simple sentences, there are deeper messages embedded that I’ll be trying to get across to you. For the sake of brevity, the points are almost given in bullets and elaboration is needed. Therefore this hand out is prepared for further reflection and fleshing out of the points. It’s good to be with you. I’m thankful to be back for good after more than a decade of stay outside. I’m thankful to God for he has been with me throughout my journey of life-from Patkai, to Imphal, to Delhi, and now here back in our hometown. As we look at Nagaland today, or our town Pfutsero; we see that there are many believing Christians, but so few practising Christians. God is often on our lips, but we struggle to find any Christ-like character. We pray, ‘Lord, Lord’ but do not obey w...