Losing my password

I've been thinking of something missing in my life and I know that it's writing blog. Today I try to write something in my blog but I face a problem: I forget my password! O gosh, after that the search engine in my brain works so hard to collect "hidden files" in my neurons. After some time, I am able to collect all the necessary data and I can recover my password.

Well, human brains have many similarities with computer memory and hard disk. I sometimes used both of them as analogy to explain each other.

Mm, today I got a rare opportunity to help the North Sumatera TOFI committee to conduct the physics olympiad for North Sumatera SMP and SMA in Del Poly. It will be over tomorrow soI think it will be better for me not to write about it today in order to give you the complete result.

Anyway, at least I learn something: physics is beautiful.

Learning from Joseph's life

This was my message to about fifties high school students last Saturday in a service. I told them that they (and I too) can learn many things from Joseph's life.

From my observation, Joseph's life in the Book of Genesis can be divided into four phases. The four phases are:

• Joseph in his father's home
• Joseph in Potiphar's house
• Joseph in the prison
• Joseph in Pharaoh's palace

In each phase, we can pull similar threads about Joseph's outstanding characters. I see eight of them.

• Joseph feared God. It seems that he fully realized the omnipresence of the LORD. This was apparent from his definite stand agains the daily seduction of Potiphar's wife. I know it must be very hard to bear for a normal man. She was very likely a beautiful woman since Potiphar was a high official.
• Joseph was a man very faithful and dedicated to every responsibility given to him. Potiphar must be a crazy man in trusting nearly all his possessions to a man who can not be trusted with small things. Joseph must had been successful in doing jobs from his master, starting from daily small ones up to those with higher level of trust. Joseph a trusted man can be found in every phase of his life and the Bible give us the key to it: the presence and blessing of the LORD in everything he did.
• It can be predicted that Joseph was a man who loves to tell the truth. Telling lies must not be found in his dictionary.
• Joseph took great cares to people he served. See how he treated the two Pharaoh's official in the prison. He asked what their problem was and he was insterested to know so that perhaps he could help them. He was generous in offering help.
• Joseph was a forgiving person. Prejudice is far from him. See how he showed no doubt in doing his father's order to see his brother eventhough he must know that they hated him so much. Spending years in palace did not change Joseph. Notice how he treated his brothers when they came to Egypt for foods.
• Joseph was a clever person too. He not only used opportunities, but he also created them. He asked the official to remember him after telling the meaning of his good dream. Anyway, Joseph was still a normal guy. Who likes to be in prison all time, eh? And see when the Pharaoh asked him only to interpret the dreams, Joseph also gave additional advices that paved the way for him to be raised from rags to riches and fame! He walked another mile by giving more than expected.
• Joseph was a man of remarkable persistence and endurance. He spent a long 13 years in Egypt before hailed as king. It was not found in the Bible that he grumbled. Instead, it seems that Joseph just received the unfortunate conditions and worked the best he could do for his masters who eventually loved him.
• Joseph was a man who achieved true meaning of success in life. He finally became a great blessing for so many people, not only the Israelites and the Egyptians, but also people of all nations which future was determined by the stock of food in Egyptian barns built by Joseph. He fulfilled God's amazing masterplan designed for him before the earth was created.

Is it possible to be a 21th century Joseph?

Again, about effective meeting

In the last three weeks, our faculty meetings were better and more effective than before. I learn more about conducting effective meetings as follows:

• Two key people in a meeting are the chairman and the secretary. The chair leads the meeting and moderates discussions. The two roles should not be give to one person only.
• Important data to get from a matter: define what it is: a problem, an announcement, an order, a command or a joke? If it is a problem, then what is the real problem? What re the alternative solutions? What is the final decision? What is the action to be taken? When must it be accomplish? Give specific deadline? Who will do it? Give specific names. Never move to new topic without clear anwers to those questions. The minutes must document these impotant data.
• The chairman must have enough courage to terminate misleading discussions or interrupt someone who's talking too much and too broad than the focus, even the one is someone with authority. Of course, tactfulness and wisdom are crucial here. The chairman must make sure that the focus is maintained.
• The chairman is the time reminder. The chairman must strive to stick to the agreed time when the meeting must finish. Meeting is important. But too many unfruitful meetings make people crazy.

Have a nice meeting!

About trusting people

I met new people this week and we shared a lot about starting a movement for the good of our regency. But I still fell uneasy about something. It seems so hard for me to believe in people I just know. I need time and proofs that they are worth my trust. For me, my trust is very valuable and therefore I don't give it to anyone as easily as giving candy. Whenever I trust someone, then s/he should understand that it is a responsibility. So, when anyone I trust and then let me down, I don't think that I will trust him/her anymore.

What about me? I learn that I myself should take other people's trust to me very seriously just like what I hope from them to my trust. Anyway, perharps I should learn to give chances, even second chances just like what my Lord Jesus did to Peter and also me, the greatest sinner on earth.

That crazy teleconference

I read a report about the remarkable cost this republic had to pay for the teleconference service so that the president could lead meetings with his ministers in only one week. It is said that it was much more than the fund prepared to subsidize hundred thousands poor people living in thousands poor villages. Why should we pay so much money for a technology used only for hours rather than for feeding our own unfortunate families for months? I really don't know what's in their minds...

Why was teleconference chosen for just leading a meeting in Jakarta from the US? Isn't there any much cheaper technology yet effective and reliable? Why don't they use VoIP for example? What is the real importance that they should see each other? Don't they know that the voice is much more important as long as it is the president himself speaking? Do the president not have pretty good telecommunication experts who still have common sense and courage to speak and give the best option?

I don't know and I'm getting more and more apathetic. I think I am getting more unsure that SBY's administration fully cares and loves their people and their country....

Energized again

I feel in high spirit now. Why? I do because...

• Tomorrow is the first day of the new academic semester. I'll start teaching again and teaching students is one of my favourite activities, of course, with good preparation.
• This is the first time I am appointed as advisor for 25 students of the new inducted class. I am glad. They are like members of my new small (no, big) group. I want them to perform better than other students.
• I get a new computer set: a brand new PC with better specification than my old one and a TFT monitor! Wow, it's much clearer that the CRT one.
• I've finished washing all my dumped dirty clothes for days.
• The job training, final project, inauguration and commencement were over. Anyway, a new start always raise new hope in me to start better, just like every new morning.

O God, please help me by the power of your Holy Spirit.

Working in team

I worked last night finishing some materials for graduation ceremony which is held today. I worried I wouldn't make it because I started to work quite late, at 5 PM. Somehow, some of my colleagues showed up and they helped me. We had a big trouble with the laser printer. Had it not worked properly, we would have worked until the sun shows up in the morning! After spending about two hours trying to keep on working with the troublesome printer, at last my friend could find the solution. After that the printer became our best friend. If it could talk, it would cry out since there were so many pages to be printed. While we worked, someone came and made statements to us that demoralized us. I knew the message was good but the way it was said was not wise and well-thought. Well, we still could control ourselves and continue to work. Finally we finished all of the tiresome job at 1 AM, finding each of us still in one piece.

What did I learn from it? Here are they.

• Never get ashamed to ask for help from your friends and colleagues. If they truly are, they will try to help you. Do the same also to your fellow friends. That's teamwork. Working in team will maintain the spirit of the members tougher against all kinds of troubles.
  
• One person will never be a team. Egoism and individualism are sometimes good tools to kill yourself, especially when the work to do is so big and complex.
• In job with many phases, get used to starting and doing each phase as well as you can. Although it may seem foolish, you'll reap the benefit of it later. Committed to excellence means committed to take care of details perfectly.
• I learn that a good leader should acquire the skill of keeping the spirit of his men as high as possible. A good team leader must be a master of motivating his team members. The means of it are numerous. Be creative to find or create them.
  
• One amazing tool to boost the motivation of people is to express a healthy level of appreciation. Anyway, there are times when critics should be given but always make sure to precede them with appreciations.
• I learn that in everything two things should be noticed carefully: the message and the way the it is communicated. Fos us as Christians, sincere message is a must. But many times the biggest problem is the incorrect and unwise way to communicate it. Passing good intentions and messages in a nice and friendly way needs a lot of practice. But you'll never know the good it will bring you.
• The nice way to do a boring and repetitious job is to do it together and in FUN.
• There is no advantage of grumbling. It won't solve the problem. Not only you'll waste time, you'll perform worse and finish later.
• I learn the benefit of making good documentation of the process in doing things, especially software. The help file of the printer driver software was very helpful. I also learned again the true usefulness of RTFM (Read The F*cking Manual).
  

Envy can be good or bad

Envy, in a healthy dose, can be a good friend to boost our spirit to perform better. But if it exceeds the healthy limit, it can be a devil. Sometimes I envy my colleagues and friends (or younger ones) who can perform better than I do, live more productive and healthy life, or have things I am looking forward to having. But the question arised is why should I envy them?

I learn some important lessons about this.

• You've gotta be focused on your own priority. It is so easy to follow people doing things which are enjoyable to do but not essential. Remember. You have a very short life. Just focus on your own mission, focus on your own strengths. But be glad to the achievements of others. They deserve your appreciation.
  
• Sometimes this principle is found useful: MYOB, Mind Your Own Business. You can expand it to almost all aspects. It can be MYOL (Mind Your Own Life),MYOP (Mind Your Own Project), MYOC (Mind Your Own Course), MYOF (Mind Your Own Family), MYOH (Mind Your Own Health), MYOx (x can be anything).
• Instead of being envy, its more healthy to be happy. Yeah, to be happy with good progress made by our own friends. Laugh and smile as long as you are not taxed for that. But please always remember to be yourself.
• Ask yourself: what happen with me? why can't I perform like them? Do I give my best or am I undermine my own potentials to grow?
  
• Accept that each person is created unique. There is no one who is same like you. The key to happiness is to be able to happily accept ourselves with all the potentials and weaknesses, to be able to happily pay respect and to maintain good relationship with others, and to live with God-pleasing contentment.
• The most important thing for me to do on earth is the works God wants me to do and finish. If I want to find approval and honor, seek it not from men. You'll sin by then. But seek it only from God. Your job is not to make people envy you, but to make them glorify the LORD.

Oh, boring administrative tasks...

I've spent several days to produce something which includes creative design and also boring data entry and editing. I have been doing it by myself because I love the design part but I hate the menial administrative stuffs. Tonight I was told by someone a great idea which I have been so foolish not to even think about it: GETTING SOMEBODY ELSE TO DO IT! In this case, I can empower my idle students who can be made interested to the job I'm doing.

I wonder how such a simple but brilliant idea was not even thought of by my neurons. From this moment on, I learn something very important. I HAVE LIMITED TIME AND ENERGY YET SO MANY IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO. I HAVE TO MAKE SURE THAT I WORK ON THINGS WHICH ARE CHALLENGING, SUITABLE TO MY CAPACITY AND GREAT FOR IMPROVING MYSELF. WHENEVER I COME TO BORING ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS WHICH UNDERVALUE MY VALUABLE RESOURCES, THEN I GOTTA FIND OTHER PEOPLE TO DO THEM. IF NOT, PAY THEM. I'D BETTER LOSE MONEY TO BUY TIME AND HIGHER ACHIEVEMENTS. MY BRAIN AND BODY ARE WORTH MATTERS OF HIGHER IMPORTANCE AND VALUE.

THE KEYWORD HERE IS DELEGATION.

My reflections on Mandala Tragedy

On the morning of September 5, 2005, a plane of Mandala Airlines carrying about 120 passengers including the Governor of North Sumatera failed to take off, fell to the highway of Jamin Ginting Padang Bulan Medan and exploded. At that hour, I was taking a shower in the bathroom.

Here are some of my reflections on the tragedy.

• Anyone who says that our future is absolutely in our own hands is absolutely wrong. It is God who holds our future. Planning without praying has little meaning.
  
• I will die someday, sooner or later, even tomorrow and an hour to come. Not only me. Everyone is. The question is how this fact affects how I live my life.
  
• It is not important how long you live. The most important is how you live and what you live for.
• It is not important how and when you die. The most important is what you die for and where you go after you die.
  

KNA: Lessons from Dr. Isabelo Magalit's Sermons

Opening Service (Matthew 5:13-16)

• What is the perfect role of Christians in the world? To be salt and light of the world.
• The Greek word for "blessed" in the Beatitudes is makarios. Its best meaning is "to be the object of God's favor."
• How the characters in the Beatitudes influence the society for good is explained by the two metaphors, salt and light.
• Salt referred here is salt taken from the Dead Sea which is different than that produced from the ocean. It is gravels and limestones with NaCl. When it is watered, the NaCl will dissolve into water and leave only the gravels and limestones. The form before and after the NaCl has gone are the same, but it is not salty anymore. That's why it's used for filler in the roads to be trampled.
• Christians can be like the salt. Their physical forms do not change but their "saltiness" has gone.
• Mr Bel prefers the role of preservative of salt to flavor. That's the most common use of salt at the time of Jesus, especially to preserve fish.
• Three qualities of salt as preservative: 3P
  
• PECULIAR: the salt is different from the fish. The salt must be different than the fist to be able to preserve it.
• PURE: a little pure salt is much better than much unpure salt. It describes the role of 24/7 Christians.
  
• PENETRATING: the salt should be distributed not only on the surface of the fish, but also everywhere inside it.
  
• Like the pure salt with great preserving effect, Christians do not have to be majority. What Christians should become is an OVERWHELMING minority.
• Christians should be everywhere. An ubiquitous Christian.
• Three D's of light:
• DIFFERENT: we serve the world best when we are different that it is.
• DISPLAY: light must display deliberately!
• DEEDS OF GOODNESS: why can night clubs be found in dark places? Because what people do there is evil.
  
• The challenge is to be human as anyone else yet a different one.
• Christian life is not difficult. It is IMPOSSIBLE without the power of God. (Griffith Thomas)
  
• What are the good deeds? All kinds of good works, especially which man can see clearly so that the glorify the LORD.
• If the population of Sodom and Gomorrah was 50,000 then all it took to save the city was only ten believers, a 0.02% of the total population. Roughly, about 6% of220 millions Indonesians are born-again Christians. It's much more than 0.02%.
  
• The question: why is it not influential enough?
  

First Exposition on Nehemiah (Topic:Who is Nehemiah?)

• Who was Nehemiah
• He is a cupbearer of the king
• He is a patriot / nationalist
• He is a man who knew Yahweh his God as the God of heaven and earth, the God of Covenant, and the God of history
• He is a man of prayer. Prayer, not planning and strategy, was always his first response to problems and troubles.
• He is a practical visionary. He was not a dreamer. He worked his dream. But dreaming is important. If you don't dream, how will you make your dream come true?
• He is a biblical reformer
• He is devoted to duty. He is perseverent.
• The question: WHO AM I?
  

Second Exposition on Nehemiah (Topic:Who is Yahweh?)

• Sinful nature is no good enough reason for rationalizing disobedience. Sinful nature is like earth gravity while the power of the Holy Spirit is like the power of a space shuttle rocket.
• Who is the perfect mediator between the Arabs and the Israelites? A diplomat whose father is an Arab and mother an Israelite. Who is the perfect mediator between God and sinful men? God in human flesh, Jesus Christ.
  

Third Exposition on David's Fall

• Idleness is the devil's workshop.
• Temptation may seem innocently enough when it comes.
• Any sin, especially adultery, leads to hipocrisy.
• Everyone is temptable and everyone has their own price (maximum resistance to sin). Yet there is no irresistible temptation.
  

Kamp Nasional Alumni 2005 (KNA 2005)

I thanked God for allowing me to participate in Kamp Nasional Alumni (Alumni National Camp) 2005 which is a national program of Perkantas. It was held from 1st to 5th September 2005 at Toledo Hotel, Tuktuk, Samosir Island of North Sumatera. There were about 250 participants from nearly all provinces and islands in Indonesia. This was a grace of God for me in which I was resfreshed and reminded on the roles and vision God has planned for me to take part in the building of my nation Indonesia. Through the sessions especially the plenary ones, led by the renowned Dr. Isabelo Magalit and Rev. Mangapul Sagala, God teached me many important things so that I may live my life as an alumnus to bear much fruit for the glory of God.

I'll write a series of blogs on what I learned from KNA. Each of them will be under the topic KNA2005.

Tuktuk: A nother side on Christianity in Toba Hinterland

I was told this story by Pdt. Bonar Lumbantobing, a professor at STT HKBP Siantar. It is interesting to see how the Holy Spirit has been working for Batak people. This another side of the story was not likely known by many of us. So here is the story.

Long years ago, Toba hinterland was a secret paradise. A map of Sumatera made in 1805 by the British pictured the Sumatera we know today except one thing: there was no Toba Lake there! At that time, the surrounding tribes like the people of Aceh, Melayu and Minangkabau have been adherents of Islam but no people have introduced any religion to the pagan Bataknese. It seemed that the Toba hinterland was absolutely isolated and the people who lived there loved the fact.

The Batak people really admired their living place and did good efforts to kept it unknown from outsiders. Anyway, Junghun, a Dutch adventurous anthropologist was one of the first foreigners who found the way to enter the paradise. He studied Batak cultures, including the traditional letters. He documented his research and got out of the area.

We move to Minangkabau. Imam Bonjol was a strong ruler at the time. He had a mission to islamize all Sumatera and he planned to bring his indomitable troops to conquer the beautiful land of Batak which has been known since Junghun. He did it ruthlessly. Many people were killed and many women were raped by the Bonjol soldiers. They built Sigumpar as the center of prostitution, Sipoholon as the center of weapon logistics, and Pearaja Tarutung as the place for keeping salt. The three formed the power of Bonjol: women, weapons and salt. Not long they suffered from cholera and many Bonjol men died of it. This made them resigned to Sibolga. It was said that they abused Batak women to carry their materials by running to Sibolga in Eve's costume! After the retreat of the Bonjols, the kings of Batak, led by Sisingamangaraja, gathered and made and oath to kill anyone trying to enter their land to preach any kind of religion. They closed themselves from the outside world. People at Sibolga heard about this and they were afraid.

Now we move to USA. A Baptist church in the United States searched maps for places in the world whose people have never heard the Gospel. They found out a newly disclosed territory in a map produced by Junghun where Batak people lived. They sent two young missionaries, namely Munson and Lyman to go there. Apparently they arrived not in Sibolga, but in Barus, an old port city in the west coast of Sumatera. No people in Barus was aware of the political changes in the land of Batak. So, both young agents of God directly marched to enter Toba hinterland. Had both of them landed in Sibolga, they must have been warned about the great danger they were to face. Munson and Lyman came to a village called Lobupining. Knowing their mission and the oath, the villagers then catched and brought them to an open village fair. The two young men were killed. It was said that the villagers bite (not eat) their flesh as a lethal reminder to anyone who thought of trying the same thing the missionaries did.

The terrible news was finally heard by the church who sent them. They cried on hearing the story, especially the two mothers of the young martyrs. One of them prayed, "O God, if I had another son, I would sent him again to the Batak land." The prayer was heard by God and not long after the tragedy, a son was born, but not in the USA. He was born for a Christian family in Germany and he was named Ingwer Ludwig Nommensen.

The next story about Nommensen can be read in books about him and his ministry among the Bataknese.

Mother Teresa on Faith

'Why these people and not me? That person picked up from the drain, why is he here, why not me? That is the mystery. Nobody can give that answer. But it is not for us to decide; only God can decide life and death. The healthy person may be closer to dying or even more dead than the person who is dying. They might be spiritually dead, only it doesn't show. Who are we to decide?'

'That is why abortion is such a terrible sin. You are not only killing life, but putting self before God; yet people decide who has to live and who has to die. They want to make themselves almighty God. They want to take the power of God in their hands. They want to say, "I can do without God. I can decide." That is the most devilish thing a human hand can do. That is why we are paying with such terrible things happening in the world. It is a punishment, it is the cry of those children continually coming before God. It is such a contradiction of even ordinary common sense and reason: we spend millions to prolong life of an old person who is more or less dead. And yet there is this young life for the future... I cannot understand. There is no way to express it. We are fighting abortion by adoption. In the same way, I cannot understand capital punishment.'

'Where there is mystery, there must be faith. Faith, you cannot change no matter how you look at it. Either you have it, or you don't. For us, it is very simple because our feet are on the ground. We have more of the living reality. There was a time when the Church had to show majesty and greatness. But today, people have found that it does not pay. They have found the emptiness of all that pomp so they are coming down more to the ground, and in coming down there is the danger that they are not finding their proper place.'

'God has created all things. All the butterflies, the animals - the whole of nature He has created for us. To them He has not given the will power to choose. They have only an instinct. Animals can be very lovable and love very beautifully, but that is out of instinct. But the human being can choose. That is the one thing God does not take from us. The will power, the power to will. I want to go to heaven and I will, with the grace of God. If I choose to commit sin and go to hell, that is my choice. God cannot force me to do otherwise. That's why when we become religious we give up that will power. That is the sacrifice is so great: the vow of obedience is very difficult. Because in making that vow you surrender the only thing that is you own - your will power. Otherwise my health, my body, my eyes, my everything are all His and He can take them. I can fall, I can break, but my will power doesn't go like this. I must choose to give it and that is beautiful.'

'Our expanding knowledge does not dim our faith, it only shows the size of God's creation. Often we cannot understand. I don't know if you have read St Augustine's life: it is a beautiful example. St Augustine was struggling to understand God, to understand the Trinity,to understand the magnitude of God's creation. His human mind could not grasp it. He was searching here and there when he came upon a small boy, who was trying to fill water into a hole in the ground. St Augustine asked him what he was doing and the boy said, "I'm trying to fill this hole with water." And St Augustine said it was impossible. Then the child, who, in truth, was an angel, said, "It is still easier to put the ocean into this hole than for you to understand the mystery of God." And it is true.'

Source:
Mother Teresa: Her People and Her Work
by Desmond Doig
Harper & Row, Publishers, San Fransisco, 1976
ISBN 0-06-061941-4
(pp. 162, 164)

Mother Teresa on Belief

'What we allow God to use us for, that is important. What He is doign through us, that is important. Because we are religious and our vocation is not to work for the lepers or the dying, our vocation is to belong to Jesus. Because I belong to Him, the work is a means for me to put my love for Him into action. So it is not an end, it is a means. Because my vocation is to belong to God properly, love Him with undivided love and chastity, I take the vows.'

'I see Christ in every person I touch because He has said, "I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was naked, I was sick, I was suffering, I was homeless and you took me..." It is as simple as that. Every time I give a piece of bread, I give it to Him. That is why we must find a hungry one, and a naked one. That is why we are totally bound to the poor.'

'The vows we take make our religious life. Our vow of chastity is nothing but our undivided love for Christ in chastity, then we proceed to the freedom of poverty - poverty is nothing but freedom. And that total surrender is obedience. If I belong to God, if I belong to Christ, then He must be able to use me. That is obedience. Then we give whole-hearted service to the poor. That is service. They complete each other. That is our life.'

'If you really belong to the work that has been entrusted to you, then you must do it with your whole heart. And you can bring salvation only by being honest and by really working with God. It is not how much we are doing but ho much love, how much honesty, how much faith, is put into doing it. It makes no difference what we are doing. What you are doing, I cannot do, and what I am doing, you cannot do. But all of us are doing what God has given us to do. Only sometimes we forget and we spend more time looking at somebody else and wishing we were doing something else.'

'We waste out time thinking of tomorrow and today we let the day pass and yesterday is gone.'

Source:
Mother Teresa: Her People and Her Work
by Desmond Doig
Harper & Row, Publishers, San Fransisco, 1976
ISBN 0-06-061941-4
(pp. 158-159)

Mother Teresa on Prayer

'You should spend at least half an hour in the morning, and an hour at night in prayer. You can pray while you work. Work doesn't stop prayer, and prayer doesn't stop work. It requires only that small raising of mind to Him. "I love you, God, I trust you, I believe in you, I need you now." Small things like that. They are wonderful prayers.'

Source:
Mother Teresa: Her People and Her Work
by Desmond Doig
Harper & Row, Publishers, San Fransisco, 1976
ISBN 0-06-061941-4
(p. 167)

Mother Teresa on Death

"Death is going home, yet people are afraid of what will come so they do not want to die. If we do, there is no mystery, we will not be afraid. There is also a question of conscience- "I could have done better." Very oftern as we live, so we die. Death is nothing but a continuation of life, the completion of life. The surrendering of the human body. But the heart and the soul live for ever. They do not die. Every religion has got eternity - another life; this life is not the end; people who believe it is, fear death. If it was properly explained that death was nothing but going home to God, then there would be no fear."

Source:
Mother Teresa: Her People and Her Work
by Desmond Doig
Harper & Row, Publishers, San Fransisco, 1976
ISBN 0-06-061941-4
(pp. 161)

Mother Teresa on Love

"The poor must know that we love them, that they are wanted. They themselves have nothing to give but love. We are concerned with how to get this message of love and compassion across. We are trying to bring peace to the world through our work. But the work is the gift of God, eh?"

"People today are hungry for love, for understanding love which is much greater and which is the only answer to loneliness and great poverty. That is why we are able to go to countries like England and America and Australia where there is no hunger for bread. But there, people are suffering from terrible loneliness, terrible despair, terrible hatred, feeling unwanted, feeling helpless, feeling hopeless. They have forgotten how to smile, they have forgotten the beauty of human touch. They are forgetting what is human love. They need someone who will understand and respect them."

"The poor are not respected. People do not think that the poor can be treated as people who are lovable, as people like you and I."

"You know, the young are beginning to understand. They want to serve with their hands, and to love with their hearts. To the full, not superficially."

"Love can be misused for selfish motives. I love you, but at the same time I want to take as much as I can, even the things that are not for me to take. Then there is no true love anymore. True love hurts. It always has to hurt. It must be painful to love someone, painful to leave them, you might have to die for them. When people marry they have to give up everything to love each other. The mother who gives birth to her child suffers much. It is the same for us in religious life. To belong fully to God we have to give up everything. Only then can we truly love. The word 'love' is so misunderstood and so misused."

"A young American couple told me once, "You know a lot about love; you must be married." And I said, "Yes, but sometimes I find it difficult to smile at Him.""

Source:
Mother Teresa: Her People and Her Work
by Desmond Doig
Harper & Row, Publishers, San Fransisco, 1976
ISBN 0-06-061941-4
(pp. 159)

Tuktuk trip: a conversation with one of my students

In our trip on the boat to Tuktuk, I was involved in a conversation with a student of mine. The main topic of our talk was the life after graduation. What I sensed from him was that he faced it with pessimism rather than optimism. Negative words were common in his answers and statements. I seemed to me that he lacked the courage and self-confidence to enter the next thrilling phase of his life.

I developed empathy for him and I wanted to help him. I explained to him that I too had similar feelings and anxiety when I was graduated. I told him that such feelings are normal for they who are to start a new part of their life. It's common because there's no one who knows what lies ahead in the future. But what should not happen is that we became overwhelmed by them. I told him that it's the time to raise our own confidence, courage, optimism and faith. Without them, life ahead will be much more difficult and tougher to live. There is no easy way in a competitive life. It is good so that we'll have good reason to always learn and improve ourselves. Comparing ourselves to others in such a competitive atmosphere is a good way to wisely measure our own quality. But it should not also demoralize ourselves. I told him that a good dose of egoism is healthly in a competition. In such condition where demands are so high while supply of good jobs are hard to find, it's not bad to give much care to our own preparation rather than being worried about other competitors. Why cares about them? I'll care about them after I win. At this point, I share to him some of my experiences in having interviews, psychological tests and other harsh competitions where I succeeded and also failed.

In the end of the conversation, I didn't see great improvements to his initial condition. He still gave me excuses and unnecessay worries. Finally I stressed to him that if he kept that pessimistic point of view in life, I was sure that he was in the verge of becoming a loser. I told him not to quit before trying. Never quit. The principle is just to give your best and let God do the rest. I knew that it might sound a cliche but what can I say more than that? That's the truth, baby. To the extreme, even God cannot do anything to help them who do not want to help themselves.

I wish you good luck, my dear student. Welcome to the alumni club.

Tuktuk trip: e-commerce of traditional Batak handicrafts

Yesterday morning, my friends and I took a two-hour walk around Tuktuk. In the journey, we passed some galleries that displayed the traditional Batak handicrafts. I take a chance to talk with a man who owned a gallery. He said that after 1997 the number of the foreign tourists coming to Tuk-tuk suffered an unfortunate decline. It directly affected their sales and income. The condition seemed not yet fully recovered to the condition before the crisis. The golden era has gone for years and the people looked like almost losing hope.

Is it still possible to change the sad situation? I think it's not impossible as long as all of the people and the government officials are willing to pay the price. Now I come to the most practical question. What can I do to help them with the IT knowledge and skills? I quickly remembered one word: e-commerce. I need to find out whether professional e-commerce websites for these traditional Batak handicrafts have been created and operated. If not, then I see this as a good opportunity to create a professional e-commerce website to promote and sell the unique and exotic hand-made Batak products to the world. It's not easy to build it from scratch but it's also not impossible. What I need is time, a bunch of money for research and gathering data, a good dose of persistence, dedication, and patience as well as help from my students to be my coworkers. Or maybe I can assign this as a project for the course of second year project. But I think it's too long because it will take place next year. So?

Tuktuk trip: This is my Father's world

During my trip, I remember several times I mumbled or sang in my heart or loudly a beautiful song I knew, "This is my Father's world." The beautiful scenery, the mountains, the fresh air, the vast lake made me thankful that God has so kindly blessed Indonesia, particularly Batak people such a wonderful blessing. The song taught me that God created the world and God is always in control. Actually the teaching from the song will be far more inspirative when it's sung in a seemingly chaotic world, a harsh world where people may hardly find the sovereign God at work and still invincibly holding the full control.

I think with wise care taken to the rich resources, together actually Batak people should be able build their life toward a prosperious one. But why Batak people in the Batak hinterland are still considered poor people? This is a question that may become a research topic for master or doctorate thesis. But based on a surface observation, one of the answer is the failure of the people and the local governments to realize and utilize all the potentials with which they have been richly blessed for the goodness of the community. Then this answer can lead to another question? Why do they fail to do that? I don't know the sure reason but I think a leader with a pure heart, vision and ambition to work hard to bring his people to higher level of life quality should be able to see what others can not see. Armed with deep knowledge, experiences, wise advisors, and guidance from God, I'll bet he can do it. Now another question arises. Do Batak people have leaders like that? I assume all of you know the answer.

This is my Father's world
And to my list'ning ears
All nature sings and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas
His hand the wonders wrought

Lyrics: Malbie D. Babcock
Music: Franklin L. Sheppard

Trip to Tuktuk Samosir

This afternoon I've just come back from my trip to Tuktuk Samosir with my students and some colleagues. We spent three days and two nights in the very beautiful place. I enjoyed the time and the view very much. But not only that. Such moments of solitude in a worldly heaven has helped me refreshed my mind and body. I also come home with many ideas and reflections to be written in my weblog. After this, all blogs from my Tuktuk trip will be published under the introductory title "Tuktuk trip."

Eureka (again)

I've tried to commit myself to write a research paper every month. Last month I produced a paper on how we can learn to plan and build a quality school from Stanford, MIT and Caltech. Now after thinking for days, at last a good idea for this month's paper came into my mind last night. I'll tell you after I've finished it. Oh my, I haven't shared to you important points from my small research last month. I will.

How to hold effective meeting?

There is something about which my position is crystal clear. I hate long, floating and boring meetings. I really hate them so much. In every meeting in which I am involved, I always dream of making it highly efficient. There are some things to do to make future meetings efficient.

• As a chairman, always prepare beforehand the agenda and the objectives of the meeting. State clearly what the desired output of the meeting is.
• Besides those things, you'd better prepare the alternative feasible solutions to the problems to discuss. It will help you succeed in ending the meeting faster and more smoothly. But never share them to the audience in thebeginning of the meeting. They will see that a new dictator has come to power and he is now speaking to them.
• The next thing is to stick persistently to your agenda and objectives during the meeting. Tell them in clear and brief statementsto all participants, no more than five minutes, so that they have a clear direction and guidance why and what they meet for.
• After the five minutes are over, give a limited longer time to the floor to express their ideas. Be a good moderator and meeting manager during the process. Lead the conversations and the brainstorming. How to do it? All I know is the more you practice, the better meeting chairman you'll be. There's no other way I think, except you are a god. Sometimes playing as a little stern dictator in a meeting is a good thing.
  
• If other issues outside the plan are arised during the meeting, write them down but never discuss them in the meeting you are now having. Focus on your mission.
• If you have come to the limit of discussion time, urge all the people to come to a conclusion. This is one of the best time to lay your cards open and share the alternative solutions you havepreviously prepared. Always remind yourself about the decisions you want to achieve from the meeting.
• In the nearly closing time, check whether you have all your goals fulfilled. If yes, it's time to give all the participants your wide smile and dismiss the meeting.

Preparing and chairing a highly effective meeting is an important skill. It can be learned only by continual practices. And I think if you succeed, you'll become one of the leaders of the majority party: the republic of uneffective meeting haters.

Smallville

I spent some of my time in the last couple of days to enjoy watching several episodes of Smallville, the renowned TV program on Superman. There were some things of the program that really made impressed.

• I am sure that the production team must have planned the story for a long-term production. Each episodes I watched was cleverly linked and as a viewer, I could always see the linking thread. More nicely, they successfully created the episodes to follow an increasing level of tension to reach the climax. And they did it so creatively. Hey Indonesian sinetron producers, I think it's very good for you to take a stint at Smallville high school :)
• What I loved most is the script. Yeah, it's so great. The statements are so perfectly designed that may make Smallville episodes an excellent instrument in learning how to communicate, negotiate, intimidate and to win friends. I learned so much from it especially on how to express my feelings and thoughts wisely to the girls. Thanks Lana, Chloe, Lex and Clark! You are great actors.
• The real and daily relationships between people are finely portrayed in the episodes by the casts. I learn more on the relationships of parents and child, husband and wife, employer and employee, friend to friend, a person to his/her couple, and so on. It's far from what is pathetically performed by Indonesian sinetron artists in their sinetron episodes nowadays.
• I'm impressed and touched by Lana. O boy, she is a complete girl. Or have I been in love with her? Phew. If yes, then I must compete with Superman. Mm, I'll call Gatotkaca and Jaka Tingkir to help me :) the Indonesian heroes against USA's...
• Five for Fighting is absolutely right with their song. It's not easy to be a Superman.
  

Independent yet without freedom

Today is the independence day of Indonesia and I'm thankful for that. We are now an independent nation but I'm not sure if we have enjoy the true freedom. In fact, many people of Indonesia still don't live their lives as free people. It happens not only to those who come from low level of economy but also to that of high places.

So, what is the characteristics of a person of freedom? Here are some, according to my simple thoughts.

• He has no fear of telling or acting based on the truth. Truth is a safe haven.
  
• He enjoys the confidence and dignity as a citizen of his nation. He shows no signs of inferiority in front of foreigners. He is proud of his nation eventhough it's not flawless.
• He believes that what he does and says always affect other people's life, little or much.
• He is fully responsible for his deeds and speeches. Blaming others is not his style.
• He values honesty and integrity as the most important qualities one needs to acquire.
• His desire is to give more and more, not to gather and collect as much as he can for himself. Greedy is not found in his dictionary of life.
• He is open to critics and appreciates corrections. He hates yes-men but he loves friends who rebuke with love. Nevertheless, he can respond wisely to insults.
• He clings to the principle that his destiny is in his hand by the will of God. If possible, he won't let anyone makes a decision for him.
• He pays respect to others but it doesn't mean he always agree with them. He is not hesitant to present his thoughts from his point of view.
• His belief is that he can do nearly anything if only he wants to do it badly enough. He is not a friend of timidity and is not easily intimidated.
• He believes to the potential of himself and his fellow people.
  

That's all for now. Am I a free person now? That's where I'm heading to, for sure.

There is no other way to become a truly free person than by becoming a true servant of God everyday.

I'm back

It's been 12 days that I've spent without writing any single blog. During the time I experienced good times and also bad times. I also met and contacted with a number of interesting people. Now what I need to create is the momentum and drive for writing again.

The problem is not that I CAN NOT do it, but that I DO NOT WANT to do it.

Am I a good final project advisor?

Mmm, I don't really know, but I think I am not. This is the first time for me to be a final project advisor and I learn a lot. I'll tell you what I've learned next week.

Adolf Hitler: His Family, Childhood and Youth

One of my biggest questions is what made Adolf Hitler to be a monster, killing 6 million Jews? One day I visited the campus library and found two books on Hitler, a thick one and a thin one. I remembered the question and I picked up the thin book.

These are what the book told me about Adolf Hitler.

• Seeing the photograph of his infancy, Adolf Hitler was a sweet baby. If you were able to go back to the past and meet him as a toddler, I don't think you'll have enough courage to slaughter and kill the tiny future-beast in cold blood.
  
• As a child, he never felt the true love of his father, Alois. He used to get harsh treatment from the father.
• He loved his mother, Klara. She always find ways to protect her children from the anger of his husband.
• He was a brilliant student in primary school and junior school. But he performed very poorly in senior high school.
• He was a quiet boy and a loner, but he loved to play Americans and Indians with his peers. A preparation for becoming a Fuehrer? Mmm, I dunno.
  
• He was a dreamer, an acute one. He aspired to be an architect but failed to enter the Academy in architecht because he was considered not having enough aptitute for the discipline. He prentended that he were an architect student, spending his time drawing and wandering in Vienna.
  
• He hated the city planning of Vienna. He wanted to destroy it all one day and rebuild it according to his own design. He truly had that chance when he came to power.
• He was very lazy, so lazy that he always wake up late in the morning all his life.
• He lost his savings due to poor financial management and he lived as a tramp for quite a time. There were many mornings when he went the five or six clocks to beg for a soup from a convent which situated only a few doors from the apartment where he resided as a young gentlemen two years before.
• Another charachteristic of the later Hitler already discernible in childhood and youth was his difficulty in making long-range decisions. As a boy he was unable to accept the fact thata series of small decisions, made or postponed, ultimately amounted to a major decision. (p. 155)
• He was highly influenced by a cheap racist magazine called Ostara.
• None of his teachers posed very strong influence on him.

Apparently my question above has not found its sufficient answer from the book. Maybe I should borrow and read the thick one. But what I learn quiet a lot from the book, two are as as follow.

• Never underestimate anyone, be he/she your student, your pupil, your maid servant, your driver, anything. You'll never know what he/she will become and you'll never know what he/she will do to you when you are already old and they are in their peak performance.
• Don't underestimate the potential of influence your actions and speeches have to others. They may be better or worse individuals. Make sure you choose the right one.

Source:
Adolf Hitler: His Family, Childhood and Youth
Bradley F. Smith
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace
Stanford University
1967

Be part of the solution

In the mailing lists in which I am member, I find an interesting habit. It is not rare to get emails that share only the negative sides of something, full of critics. For example, they complain about the corruption, the lack of teachers, the increasing number of children with malnutrition, and the scarcity of gas. But when I look for any practical solutions they may offer, I seldom find them. I am not sure whether this is a typical characteristic of Indonesian people, but I guess we won't make significant progress if all of us are used to sharing problems only, without smart solutions.

Instead I offer alternative habits as follow.

1. Get used to stating on your opinion that something is not good and must be changed. Many people might have taken it for granted and see it normal.
2. Don't just stop only pointing errors. Get used to presenting solutions which can be easily applied. Give samples of the phenomena you desire. Provide corrections to fix the errors.
3. In giving solutions, for Indonesian context, make it a habit to focus on our own circle of influence. For example, putting our hopes on the government may instead make us lose hope. We'd better think of practical things that we can do with our own hands.
4. Be part of the solution. Giving solutions is good, but the best thing is we contribute something practical to the solutions. For example, a clever child from a very poor family can not continue his study to high school. What we do on hearing this is that we propose a movement to raise funds to help the boy. Not only that, we give ourselves as part of the solution by giving some of our money to initiate the movement.

That's the solutions I suggest to the problem of being problem-oriented, not solution-oriented. It's up to you whether you wanna take it or not.

Talk does not cook rice.
-Chinese Proverb

Weekly Digest (310705)

What differences have I made last week than the last two weeks?

• I think I've made better improvements on how I performed. I almost always have stayed at office at 17-20 PM, usually for writing emails and blogs, or having discussions with students.
  
• I have not been able to catch up with the sunrise. I should do better.
• I asked more questions, many times on things that I observe everyday. The result was that I gained more ideas than before.
• I have got more victories than losses in the daily spiritual battefields last week. But reducing the number of losses should always be on top of my list.
• My student groups under my supervision are doing a good job on their final projects. Of course there were still corrections but overall, they are good, I think.
• I think I have spent more time for uproductive chats, especially when others come to me and start the conversation. I need to find decent ways to excuse myself from the conversation without getting somebody pissed off.
  

What lessons have I learned this week?

• I learnt that it's important to always see the positive sides of every persons I met. They may behave in ways which are unusual for me and they have reasons for that. The point is stop making assumptions on people without directly ask them the reasons they are doing that. But it'salso important that you retain the right to disagree or agree with them, with what they say.
• I learned the skill of delegation. In order to be more efficient, delegating tasks which are not on my top-priority list to others will give me extra time to do more important jobs.
• I learned how to motivate others. I come to the computer labs to meet my student groups on the spot, seeing how they made progress. I also learned how to create fun and enjoyable athmosphere for them doing their final projects.
• I learned that optimism can be infused and spread to others through daily interactions. Unfortunately, the same thing applies also to pessimism. But in my opinion, being realistic doesn't automatically mean pessimistic.

How should I live the next seven days?

• Wake up earlier to be much luckier. This is your main mission for the next seven days. Many people in Jakarta wake up at 5 AM only to spend three hours doing nothing but driving their car or sitting in bus, rushing to their offices and doing exacly the same in the afternoon. In this case, you are luckier.
  
• Keep on writing. You've already had some topics to write about next month.
• Read last week's weekly digest and see where you have not been successful.
• Be fun and be an agent of optimism. The reward is guaranteed.
• Be mindful of your weight, but don't torture yourself.
  

An Interview with John Perkins

This is a free-of-charge transcript from http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/09/1526251
I copy to my blog for your convenience.

--

We speak with John Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking community. In his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man he describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then take over their economies.

John Perkins describes himself as a former economic hit man - a highly paid professional who cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars.

20 years ago Perkins began writing a book with the working title, "Conscience of an Economic Hit Men."

Perkins writes, "The book was to be dedicated to the presidents of two countries, men who had been his clients whom I respected and thought of as kindred spirits - Jaime Roldós, president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos, president of Panama. Both had just died in fiery crashes. Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal is global empire. We Economic Hit Men failed to bring Roldós and Torrijos around, and the other type of hit men, the CIA-sanctioned jackals who were always right behind us, stepped in.

John Perkins goes on to write: "I was persuaded to stop writing that book. I started it four more times during the next twenty years. On each occasion, my decision to begin again was influenced by current world events: the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1980, the first Gulf War, Somalia, and the rise of Osama bin Laden. However, threats or bribes always convinced me to stop."

But now Perkins has finally published his story. The book is titled Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. John Perkins joins us now in our Firehouse studios.

AMY GOODMAN: John Perkins joins us now in our firehouse studio. Welcome to Democracy Now!

JOHN PERKINS: Thank you, Amy. It’s great to be here.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Okay, explain this term, “economic hit man,” e.h.m., as you call it.

JOHN PERKINS: Basically what we were trained to do and what our job is to do is to build up the American empire. To bring -- to create situations where as many resources as possible flow into this country, to our corporations, and our government, and in fact we’ve been very successful. We’ve built the largest empire in the history of the world. It's been done over the last 50 years since World War II with very little military might, actually. It's only in rare instances like Iraq where the military comes in as a last resort. This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic hit men. I was very much a part of that.

AMY GOODMAN: How did you become one? Who did you work for?

JOHN PERKINS: Well, I was initially recruited while I was in business school back in the late sixties by the National Security Agency, the nation's largest and least understood spy organization; but ultimately I worked for private corporations. The first real economic hit man was back in the early 1950's, Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of Teddy, who overthrew of government of Iran, a democratically elected government, Mossadegh’s government who was Time's magazine person of the year; and he was so successful at doing this without any bloodshed -- well, there was a little bloodshed, but no military intervention, just spending millions of dollars and replaced Mossadegh with the Shah of Iran. At that point, we understood that this idea of economic hit man was an extremely good one. We didn't have to worry about the threat of war with Russia when we did it this way. The problem with that was that Roosevelt was a C.I.A. agent. He was a government employee. Had he been caught, we would have been in a lot of trouble. It would have been very embarrassing. So, at that point, the decision was made to use organizations like the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. to recruit potential economic hit men like me and then send us to work for private consulting companies, engineering firms, construction companies, so that if we were caught, there would be no connection with the government.

AMY GOODMAN: Okay. Explain the company you worked for.

JOHN PERKINS: Well, the company I worked for was a company named Chas. T. Main in Boston, Massachusetts. We were about 2,000 employees, and I became its chief economist. I ended up having fifty people working for me. But my real job was deal-making. It was giving loans to other countries, huge loans, much bigger than they could possibly repay. One of the conditions of the loan–let's say a $1 billion to a country like Indonesia or Ecuador–and this country would then have to give ninety percent of that loan back to a U.S. company, or U.S. companies, to build the infrastructure–a Halliburton or a Bechtel. These were big ones. Those companies would then go in and build an electrical system or ports or highways, and these would basically serve just a few of the very wealthiest families in those countries. The poor people in those countries would be stuck ultimately with this amazing debt that they couldn’t possibly repay. A country today like Ecuador owes over fifty percent of its national budget just to pay down its debt. And it really can’t do it. So, we literally have them over a barrel. So, when we want more oil, we go to Ecuador and say, “Look, you're not able to repay your debts, therefore give our oil companies your Amazon rain forest, which are filled with oil.” And today we're going in and destroying Amazonian rain forests, forcing Ecuador to give them to us because they’ve accumulated all this debt. So we make this big loan, most of it comes back to the United States, the country is left with the debt plus lots of interest, and they basically become our servants, our slaves. It's an empire. There's no two ways about it. It’s a huge empire. It's been extremely successful.

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. You say because of bribes and other reason you didn't write this book for a long time. What do you mean? Who tried to bribe you, or who -- what are the bribes you accepted?

JOHN PERKINS: Well, I accepted a half a million dollar bribe in the nineties not to write the book.

AMY GOODMAN: From?

JOHN PERKINS: From a major construction engineering company.

AMY GOODMAN: Which one?

JOHN PERKINS: Legally speaking, it wasn't -- Stoner-Webster. Legally speaking it wasn't a bribe, it was -- I was being paid as a consultant. This is all very legal. But I essentially did nothing. It was a very understood, as I explained in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, that it was -- I was -- it was understood when I accepted this money as a consultant to them I wouldn't have to do much work, but I mustn't write any books about the subject, which they were aware that I was in the process of writing this book, which at the time I called “Conscience of an Economic Hit Man.” And I have to tell you, Amy, that, you know, it’s an extraordinary story from the standpoint of -- It's almost James Bondish, truly, and I mean--

AMY GOODMAN: Well that's certainly how the book reads.

JOHN PERKINS: Yeah, and it was, you know? And when the National Security Agency recruited me, they put me through a day of lie detector tests. They found out all my weaknesses and immediately seduced me. They used the strongest drugs in our culture, sex, power and money, to win me over. I come from a very old New England family, Calvinist, steeped in amazingly strong moral values. I think I, you know, I’m a good person overall, and I think my story really shows how this system and these powerful drugs of sex, money and power can seduce people, because I certainly was seduced. And if I hadn't lived this life as an economic hit man, I think I’d have a hard time believing that anybody does these things. And that's why I wrote the book, because our country really needs to understand, if people in this nation understood what our foreign policy is really about, what foreign aid is about, how our corporations work, where our tax money goes, I know we will demand change.

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to John Perkins. In your book, you talk about how you helped to implement a secret scheme that funneled billions of dollars of Saudi Arabian petrol dollars back into the U.S. economy, and that further cemented the intimate relationship between the House of Saud and successive U.S. administrations. Explain.

JOHN PERKINS: Yes, it was a fascinating time. I remember well, you're probably too young to remember, but I remember well in the early seventies how OPEC exercised this power it had, and cut back on oil supplies. We had cars lined up at gas stations. The country was afraid that it was facing another 1929-type of crash–depression; and this was unacceptable. So, they -- the Treasury Department hired me and a few other economic hit men. We went to Saudi Arabia. We --

AMY GOODMAN: You're actually called economic hit men --e.h.m.’s?

JOHN PERKINS: Yeah, it was a tongue-in-cheek term that we called ourselves. Officially, I was a chief economist. We called ourselves e.h.m.'s. It was tongue-in-cheek. It was like, nobody will believe us if we say this, you know? And, so, we went to Saudi Arabia in the early seventies. We knew Saudi Arabia was the key to dropping our dependency, or to controlling the situation. And we worked out this deal whereby the Royal House of Saud agreed to send most of their petro-dollars back to the United States and invest them in U.S. government securities. The Treasury Department would use the interest from these securities to hire U.S. companies to build Saudi Arabia–new cities, new infrastructure–which we’ve done. And the House of Saud would agree to maintain the price of oil within acceptable limits to us, which they’ve done all of these years, and we would agree to keep the House of Saud in power as long as they did this, which we’ve done, which is one of the reasons we went to war with Iraq in the first place. And in Iraq we tried to implement the same policy that was so successful in Saudi Arabia, but Saddam Hussein didn't buy. When the economic hit men fail in this scenario, the next step is what we call the jackals. Jackals are C.I.A.-sanctioned people that come in and try to foment a coup or revolution. If that doesn't work, they perform assassinations. or try to. In the case of Iraq, they weren't able to get through to Saddam Hussein. He had -- His bodyguards were too good. He had doubles. They couldn’t get through to him. So the third line of defense, if the economic hit men and the jackals fail, the next line of defense is our young men and women, who are sent in to die and kill, which is what we’ve obviously done in Iraq.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain how Torrijos died?

JOHN PERKINS: Omar Torrijos, the President of Panama. Omar Torrijos had signed the Canal Treaty with Carter much -- and, you know, it passed our congress by only one vote. It was a highly contended issue. And Torrijos then also went ahead and negotiated with the Japanese to build a sea-level canal. The Japanese wanted to finance and construct a sea-level canal in Panama. Torrijos talked to them about this which very much upset Bechtel Corporation, whose president was George Schultz and senior council was Casper Weinberger. When Carter was thrown out (and that’s an interesting story–how that actually happened), when he lost the election, and Reagan came in and Schultz came in as Secretary of State from Bechtel, and Weinberger came from Bechtel to be Secretary of Defense, they were extremely angry at Torrijos -- tried to get him to renegotiate the Canal Treaty and not to talk to the Japanese. He adamantly refused. He was a very principled man. He had his problem, but he was a very principled man. He was an amazing man, Torrijos. And so, he died in a fiery airplane crash, which was connected to a tape recorder with explosives in it, which -- I was there. I had been working with him. I knew that we economic hit men had failed. I knew the jackals were closing in on him, and the next thing, his plane exploded with a tape recorder with a bomb in it. There's no question in my mind that it was C.I.A. sanctioned, and most -- many Latin American investigators have come to the same conclusion. Of course, we never heard about that in our country.

AMY GOODMAN: So, where -- when did your change your heart happen?

JOHN PERKINS: I felt guilty throughout the whole time, but I was seduced. The power of these drugs, sex, power, and money, was extremely strong for me. And, of course, I was doing things I was being patted on the back for. I was chief economist. I was doing things that Robert McNamara liked and so on.

AMY GOODMAN: How closely did you work with the World Bank?

JOHN PERKINS: Very, very closely with the World Bank. The World Bank provides most of the money that’s used by economic hit men, it and the I.M.F. But when 9/11 struck, I had a change of heart. I knew the story had to be told because what happened at 9/11 is a direct result of what the economic hit men are doing. And the only way that we're going to feel secure in this country again and that we're going to feel good about ourselves is if we use these systems we’ve put into place to create positive change around the world. I really believe we can do that. I believe the World Bank and other institutions can be turned around and do what they were originally intended to do, which is help reconstruct devastated parts of the world. Help -- genuinely help poor people. There are twenty-four thousand people starving to death every day. We can change that.

AMY GOODMAN: John Perkins, I want to thank you very much for being with us. John Perkins' book is called, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.

Insights from Inside (040705)Jesus and the People (1)

Read: Matthew 1 - 11

How did Jesus deal with various kinds of people? It will be a pattern for us to deal with people we meet. Of course, we've got to consider the context. Below is only from the Book of Matthew. I'll continue with the other books of Gospel, each in a blog.

1. Satan: "It is written... It is also written... Away from from me, Satan!..." (4:1-11)
2. Simon, Andrew, James and John: "Come, follow me... and I will make you fishers of men." (4:18-22)
3. The sick, demon-possessed, and the paralyzed: He healed them (4:23-25)
4. The crowd: He gave them the Sermon on the Mount (5-7)
5. The leper, asking to be healed: He reached out his hand and touched the man. Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. Jesus gave him warning and what's next to do. (8:1-4)
6. A centurion (a non-Jew), asking for help: Jesus healed his servant remotely. He gave praise for the man's great faith. (8:5-13)
7. Peter's mother-in-law, lying with a fever: He touched her hand and she was healed. (8:14-15)
8. The demon-possessed and the sick: He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. (8:16-17)
9. A teacher of the law and a disciple, who said they want to follow Jesus: He told the cost of following him to the teacher but he challenged the disciple. (8:18-22)
10. The Twelve, in the boat in the storm: "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" (8:23-27)
11. The Gadarenes, the demon-possessed: He drove out the demons and sent them into the herd of pigs. (8:28-34)
12. A paralytic: "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven... Get up, take your mat and go home." (9:1-8)
13. Some of the teachers of the law who said to themselves that Jesus was blaspeming when they heard Jesus saying, "your sins are forgiven": Jesus rebuked them. (9:3-6)
14. Matthew, the tax collector: Jesus told him, "Follow me," and he had dinner at Matthew's house, together with his disciples, many tax collectors and "sinners." (9:9-10)
15. The Pharisees, grumbling when saw Jesus ate with Matthew and "sinners": He rebuked them by saying, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick... I desire mercy, not sacrifice... For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (9:11-13)
16. The Twelve, asking Jesus about fasting: He taught them on fasting using parables. (9:14-17)
17. A ruler, asking Jesus to raise his daughter from death: Jesus took the girl by the hand and she got up. (9:18-19, 23-26)
18. A bleeding woman, touching the edge of Jesus' cloth from behind: Jesus turned and saw her. He said, "Take heart, daughter, your faith has healed you." And she was healed at the moment. (9:20-22)
19. The flute players and the mourners at the ruler's house: "Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep."But they laughed at him. (9:23-24)
20. Two blind men, believing that Jesus could restore their sight: Jesus touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you" and their sight was restored. But Jesus gave them stern warning. (9:27-31)
21. A man, demon-possessed and therefore could not talk: Jesus drove out the demons and he spoke. (9:32-33)
22. The crowds whom Jesus saw: He saw them and had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (9:35-36)
23. The Twelve, after Jesus saw the crowds: He taught them that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. He told them to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field. (9:37-38)
24. The Twelve: He sent them out with detailed instructions and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. (10:1-42)
25. John's disciples, questioning him whether he was the one who was to come: He answered them implicitly that He is the Messiah. (11:1-6)
26. The crowd, after John's disciples gone: Jesus taught them about John the Baptist. (11:7-19)
27. The cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent: He denounce them. (11:20-24)
    
28. His Father: He praised him. (11:25-26)

(to be continued)

--

Jesus is socially very active. His main business was people. He spent almost all of his life with people. He spent almost no time only for himself. He knew his time was very short and the best and God-pleasing way of living his short life was to live among his people whom he created.

He show the same patterns of response to the "sinners", the sick, the demon-possessed, the Twelve, the crowds, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. But his responses are radical and counter culture.

His main activities were wandering from places to places, teaching, preaching, socializing with people, healing the sick and the demon-possessed.

Christians should also be like their Master in dealing with people: active and counter culture.

Insights from Inside (300705)I am not alone

Read: 1 Kings 19:1-18

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.... "I have enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors... I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."

The LORD said to him, "...Yet I reserve SEVEN THOUSAND in Israel - all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him."

Read: 1 Samuel 17:45-47

David said to the Philistine, "You came against me with sword and spear and javelin but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by the sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's and he will give all of into our hands."

--

If I am alone, I should know that it's wrong. I have many brothers out there and I am not alone.

But if I am really alone and nobody is left but me, I should know that it's also wrong. If I am on God's side, I know God is with me and, again, I am not alone.

With God, I'll never be alone and therefore there should be no reason for me to be afraid.

One of the greatest losses on earth

Have you ever thought how much wisdom, knowledge, and creative ideas someone can have during one's life on earth? Of course they depend on the person oneself. But even for an average person like most of us, they are uncountable, good or bad. Now, what will happen to them if the person die? It's certainly gone, gone like the wind if they are not passed to any living human being or documented in oral or written forms. And it happens every minute under the sun. Someone out there is dying now, I am sure.

The message is that there will be a great loss in the history of mankind if distinguished individuals who are rich and deep in wisdom, knowledge and brilliant ideas do not take a small fraction of their lifetime to make records of them in audio or, preferrably written forms, like books, pictures, photographs, notes, videos, or tapes. Records from people's memories are OK too, but they may be not authentic and original anymore, due to the subjectivity of the living witnesses and the volatility of man's memory.

Writing your principles, wisdom, knowledge, ideas and hard lessons of life (everyday) may become your greatest contribution to the world. Who knows that you know something that some day will determine the future of man?

How bad do you want it?

Have you ever come to make a commitment only to find out that you broke it in the next few days? I have, a lot of time. Have you ever come to a condition when you really need to do something and you are ready to sacrifice anything only to make it happen? I have.

What is my point in writing these? My thesis is that the level of enthusiasm and energy in accomplishing something is proportionally related to the level of its importance, meaning and value to us.

For example, if my beloved mother suddenly suffers from a terrible heart attack and gets hospitalized, dying while I am 250 kilometers away from home, what will I do? An easy question. I will at the moment contact my boss and share the condition and I tell him that I'll go to Medan for seeing my mother, maybe for the last time, with or without his permission. I'll leave without any single thought about anything except my dear mother. No doubt.

I think this can be a good tool for fighing against idleness and laziness. Before doing something, you'd better take time first to define what's the importance of doing it for you. What is the meaning of it for you? What benefit can you and others can get from it? Why do you want to do it? How bad do you want it done? This will be complete if the Scripture is the foundation.

I think this will give us a clear way out when falling into any of these two categories of nearly all problems in decision making.

• NOT DOING what you really like and want to do, yet bad and harmful for you.
  
• DOING what you don't like or want to do, yet good and necessary for you.

That's the theory class. Now comes the hardest yet most enjoyable part: the laboratory session of life. Practices make perfect, eh?

At last it works

This morning I received an email from a friend of mine. He is doing his graduate study in one of the northest countries in the world. He told me that he has been reading my blogs from quite a time ago and he said that through them he felt blessed. My heart was filled with great joy because at last what I have been tryin' of doing has come to its main purpose: to be a blessing for the visitors and readers. Thank you bro! I see this as a strong signal from God that I've got to try harder to practice writing, digging the potential God has given me which has been lying dormant in me for so many years.

From this, I become more convinced on the powerful impact that (written) media may create. I've finished reading a book about someone "great" that you must have known. See, his life was changed because of the influence of a cheap magazine. I'll write another blog on this, I promise you.

Besides that, I also learn how the Internet is key in modern human life. As a technology, it can be used for good or bad purposes. For God's Church, it's a golden opportunity now to use it as media to spread the Good News very effectively. It can reach so many people at the same time, unlimited by nearly any thinkable borders, and in a relatively low cost. I think the Internet, and also wireless communication technology, is a clear sign that Jesus will come soon since without it, I guess, it will take much more years for the Good News to be heard by all people and races of the world (Mark 13:10).

This is a huge movement that paints the history of the world and I'm now a small part of it by writing blogs.

How about you?

An Inspiring Conversation with Mother Teresa

I have been reading a book about Mother Teresa, her people and her work in the last couple of days and I read this extremely inspiring conversation between Mother Teresa and the author, Desmond Doig. It's blessed me so much that I want it does the same to you too by writing it in my blog. Hope that my time for writing all these will not be in vain...

--

...When they ended their prayer, the young Sister began reading the Bible and Mother a well-thumbed copy of Seeds of the Desert by Charles de Foucauld.

'It's a very beautiful book. He was a very holy person.'

Mother explained when I asked her. She passed me the book and the paragraph I read had to do with the need to submerge completely the ego in the service of God. It was the moment I had been waiting for. Was it true, I asked her, that it was on a train journey like this that God had revealed to her His wish that she should serve Him amongst life's derelicts?

She nodded, but I knew from experience that she was loathe to talk about herself. Yet here I was sitting next to someone to whom God had personally spoken, and I wanted to know about the awesome majesty of such an experience.

So I persisted. 'Mother, how did you know? Were you not for a second in doubt? After all, Christ himself had moments of doubt. In Gethsemane.'

'No. There was no doubt. It was only for a moment that He felt unsure. That was as a human being. That was natural. The moment you accept, the moment you surrender yourself, that's the conviction. But it may death to you, eh? The conviction comes the moment you surrender yourself. Then there is no doubt. The moment Jesus said, "Father, I am at your disposal, Thy will be done", He had accepted. That was His agony. He felt all the things you and I would feel as human beings. That's why He was like unto us in all things, except sin.'

But what if uncertainty remains?

'That's the time to go on your knees, eh?'

And I wondered whether on that train journey to Darjeeling twenty-seven years ago this indomitable woman had sunk on her knees in prayer. For a while the powerful vision obliterated the race of fields and trees and piled clouds outside the windows. If God had spoken to us then I wonder if I would have been amazed.

'In that prayer,' she said, 'God cannot deceive you because that prayer comes from within you. That is the time you want Him most. Once you have got God within you, that's for life. There is no doubt. You can have other doubts, eh? But that particular one will never come again. No,' she said looking pensively out of the window so that I hardly caught the words, 'I have never had doubt.'

And then turning to me she said with intensity, 'But I am convinced that it is He and not I. That it is His work, and not my work. I am only at His disposal. Without Him I can do nothing. But even God could do nothing for someone already full. You have you be completely empty to let Him in to do what He will. That's the most beautiful part of God, eh? Being almighty, and yet forcing Himself on anyone.'

'But Mother, you surely have to use your initiative?'

'Of course. You have to do it as if everything depends on you - but leave the rest to God.'

'Mother, do you feel that everything is directed by God? Right and wrong?'

'There may be mistakes, many mistakes. We may make mistakes. But He cannot make mistakes. He will draw the good out of you. That's the beautiful part of God, eh? That He can stoop down and make you feel that He depends on you. The same thing with Our Lady?, no? When the angel was sent to her and said, 'You are to be the Mother of Jesus,' Our Lady emptied Herself and said, 'Do unto me according to Thy will. I am the handmaid of the Lord.' Until and unless She had surrendered, Christ would not have come into the world. There would have been no Christ, no Jesus, born. Because She was so humble, so empty, She became full of grace. At the moment She received Jesus, Her first thought was to give Him to others. She went in haste to John's house. And what did She do there? She did the servant's work. That's the most beautiful part of the goodness of God and the greatness of God's love for the world. God loved the world by giving Christ to the world, and Christ loved the world by giving His life for the world. Always giving,' she said, laughingly, 'constantly giving.'

--

Source:
Mother Teresa: Her People and Her Work
by Desmond Doig
Harper & Row, Publishers, San Fransisco, 1976
ISBN 0-06-061941-4
(pp. 23-24)

About vision statement and mission statement

Some people may get confused on the differences of the vision statement and mission statement. Here is a helpful explanation from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_statement

Organizations sometimes summarize goals and objectives into a mission statement or a vision statement:

• A vision statement describes in graphic terms where the goal-setters want to position themselves in the future. It may describe how they see events unfolding over 10 or 20 years if everything goes exactly as hoped.
• A mission statement resembles a vision statement, but has a more immediate focus. It details what one will do today to attain one's goal, purpose, or mission. Ford's brief but powerful slogan, "Quality is Job 1" could count as a mission statement. However, most mission statements involve more detail, often describing who will do what, for whom, how, and why. For example: "Our mission consists of meeting or exceeding the demands of business-computer users by offering a level of service that surpasses anything available in the Tritown area while providing our employees with a stimulating environment in which to grow and providing our shareholders with a return above the industry-average."

Vision statements often appear more graphic and more abstract than mission statements, which tend more to the concrete and the proscriptive. A vision statement "paints a picture" of ideal future outcomes. Whereas the mission statement provides immediate guidance; a vision statement inspires. An athlete might have a vision of walking up the steps to a podium where she accepts a gold medal. Her vision statement might describe this event.

In the 1980s, Bill Gates had a simple vision: "A personal computer on every desk, and every computer running Microsoft software." Variations of this vision have allegedly inspired and guided him throughout his career (anti-monopoly law suits notwithstanding).

Features of an effective vision statement may include:

• clarity and lack of ambiguity
• painting a vivid picture
• describing a future
• memorable and engaging expression
• realistic aspirations
• alignment with organizational values and culture
• subjection to customer needs (in the case of a vision statement for a business organization)
  

In order to become really effective, an organizational vision statement must (the theory states) become assimilated into the organization's culture. Leaders have the responsibility of communicating the vision regularly, creating narratives that illustrate the vision, acting as role-models by embodying the vision, creating short-term objectives compatible with the vision, and encouraging others to craft their own personal vision compatible with the organization's overall vision.

I did it!

I am finally successful in completing my research paper for this month. It's a research on the first years of three most leading US schools in science and technology to find out the answer to this question: how to build a university in science and technology from scratch and make it a stable and sustainable leading university in teaching and research?

It's true that writing our own ideas and original concepts is the most difficult language skill to master. But most difficult does not mean impossible, eh? Yet it's the one of the greatest influences a man can leave to the world.

Mm, I'm now thinking of the topic for my next month's paper. Challenging yet doable... Any ideas?

Insights from Inside (260705)From eternity to eternity

Read: The first and last chapter of the Bible

God does exist.

Man is eternal being.

God's presence in the world creates heaven-like world.

Weekly Digest (240705)

I am trying a new style of evaluating this week. First, I'll compare how I have performed this week with Weekly Digest I wrote last week. Second, I'll write some lessons I learnt in previous seven days. Third, I'll put a new section in which I proposed important practical things to do next month. Let's start.

What differences have I made last week than the last two weeks?

• I have done better I think in how I worked as a Christian employee. Yet I know I could have done much better.
• I have tried more to consult my eight faithful advisors every day and I got some good ideas for research. One of them willbe the topic or my private paper writing project for this month. I am still working on it.
  
• I have been successful in pushing myself to write at least a blog every day.
• Productivity means how many important things I have finished doing in how much time and what level of quality. I have not been a good performer in productivity, I think. I need to be more focused and have that important finish-it-best-ASAP mentality, though I am not too fond of doing the tasks.
• I enjoy my quiet time with God better than before. I think I need more time especially in morning prayer time.

What lessons have I learned this week?

• Again, I need to be more focused and concentrated on doing my top-priority responsibilites as well as I can.
  
• I learn about vocation this week. I learn that having a clear persobal profesionnal calling from God is very prominent in helping me how I live and work every day. I need to take more time to find it for myself tonight, before starting this week.
• I learn that there are some times that will put me in temptations more than other. First is still browsing while I'm dropping with fatigue. The best thing I have to do in low-battery condition is taking a good sleep. Second, being alone. There is Holy Spiritthat will remind me when I'm actually in these dangerous moments.
• When doing some research on my paper, I learn that how I (and all my colleagues) perform as a lecturer is a main factor that really determines the quality of the school and its graduates later. I realize how big is a responsibility on my shoulders in this profession.
  

How should I live the next seven days?

• To be more effective with my eight hours at office, I'd better in read mode at 8 to 12 and in write mode at 13 to 17.
• To be more effective in using the Internet, I should wake up earlier to use Internet at 5 to 7 and start browsing at 17 to 19.45. It means having dinner at 20.
• Try to make it a habit to strive finishing all your jobs in office hours and in five working days so that you are free to live the other hours to develop yourself. This many times means doing things which are not relevant to your main responsibilies as lecturer.
  
• My ideal daily schedule:
• 5-7 Internet@home
  
• 8-12 read/practice@office
  
• 13-17 write/practice@office (never read on these hours!)
  
• 17-20 Internet@office/home
• 22-23 read/learn@home

So? Just do it, lah....

Insights from Inside (240705)Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord

O Lord, I know you are there and you know me better than I do myself. You know all my struggles and you are the holder of the future. I believe there is no other better life I can have than that you have prepared and planned for me before the beginning of the universe. Teach me thy way, O Lord.

--

Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord

B. Mansell Ramsey

Teach me Thy way, O Lord, teach me Thy way
Thy guiding grace afford, teach me Thy way
Help me to walk aright more by faith, less by sight
Lead me with heav'nly light, teach me Thy way

When I am sad at heart, teach me Thy way
When earthly joys depart, teach me Thy way
In hours of loneliness, in times of dire distress
In failure or success, teach me Thy way

When doubts and fears arise, teach me Thy way
When storms o'er spread the skies, teach me Thy way
Shine thro' the cloud and rain, thro' sorrow, toil and pain
Make Thou my pathway plain, teach me Thy way

Long as my life shall be lost, teach me Thy way
Where'er my lost be cast, teach me Thy way
Until the race is run, until the journey's done
Until the crown is won, teach me Thy way

--

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here I am. Send me!"
- Isaiah 6:8

The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

"Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."

But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everywhere I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.
- Jeremiah 1:4-8

The LORD said, "...So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt."
...But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."
Then the LORD's anger burned against Moses....
- Exodus 3:7,10; 4:13-14a

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name."
- Jesus Christ, John 15:16

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."
- Jesus Christ, Matthew 7:13-14

Could you have gotten into MIT in 1869 and 1876?

Could you have gotten into MIT in 1869 and 1876? Try your hand at the Entrance Exams in these links below.

http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/exam/index.html
http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/exam-entrance1876/index.html

No multiple choice, right? I think, the business of Bimbingan Belajar will come to an end if SPMB is like this.

Insights from Inside (230705)The Unity of Love and Obedience

Read: John 14:15-15:17

"If you love me [Jesus], you will obey what I command." (v. 14:15)

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." (v. 14:22)

"If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." (v. 14:23)

"He who does not love me will not obey my teaching." (v. 14:24)

"...I love the Father and ... I do exactly what my Father has commanded me." (v. 14:31)

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love." (v. 15:9)

"If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love." (v. 15:10)

"I have told you this so that my joy will be in you and that your joy may be complete." (v. 15:11)

"MY COMMAND IS THIS: LOVE EACH OTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU." (v. 15:12)

--

Obedience to God's command is the only product and prove of one's love to God.

No other highest reasons in obeying God's commands than to love God.

Everyone who loves Jesus must obey his command which is to love each other as Jesus has loved him/her.

True full joy will be in the lives of those who love others as the result of their love to God.