An Anonymous "Thank You" Letter

Over the years, I have received many thank you notes from my students. As I was clearing my room today, I stumbled across some of them. I was greatly encouraged as I read through the old letters and emails from appreciative students. They reminded me that my work matters. Teachers have the wonderful privilege of planting seeds in young hearts and minds. 

Below is an interesting letter I received from an anonymous student. It was a timely note as I stepped up to be Vice-Dean (Academic) of the school.

Dear Professor,

I do not know you and you do not know me. But I had heard many stories of how you tried so hard to fight for us Real Estate students. More often than not, your efforts tend to go unappreciated. So here I am expressing my gratitude for all your relentless efforts in building a strong real estate brand name in the industry and garnering more prestigious internship roles and job opportunities for all of us. I will be sure to support DRE when I make it big in future. I can literally feel your passion for DRE. Please keep your spirits and I'm sure more people will be able to feel your passion and join you in building up the brand name of RE. =)

Anonymous

June 2016

A Long, Winding & Steep Journey

I am delighted to share that I have been recently promoted to full professorship in NUS. The promotion will be backdated to July 2016. I am humbled by the many congratulatory notes and kind words from friends, colleagues, and ex-students.

How do I feel? Happy and relieved at the same time. Happy for reaching a summit in the academic profession. Relieved because the road I have traveled, from my PhD (1995-1998) to promotion and tenure (2006) and full professorship (2016), has been a long and steep one.

Florida (2015)

Looking back, I have never felt that I was ever walking alone. I am truly grateful for the love and support of my family, friends, colleagues and students, and especially my endearing (and enduring) wife who walked with me and cheered me on each step of the way. Above all, I knew God was with me all the way and His grace is sufficient for me.

I have been reflecting on the experience. It has been a long and winding journey, but an enjoyable and educational one nonetheless. A few valuable lessons learnt along the way:

• “do not allow adversity to rob me of my joy”;
• “work hard and give thanks in all circumstances”;
• “stay calm and enjoy the scenery while on a detour”;
• “it doesn’t matter how slow you go so long as you don’t stop”;
• “no journey is too long with the right company”; 
• “stay humble: do not let success go to your head”; 
• “in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of other“
• Do not judge people by their peak of excellence, but by the distance they have travelled from the point where they started” (H.W. Beecher). 

In my quiet contemplation, I am reminded of the inspiring sculpture, “Way of Life” by Jonathan Clarke in the Cathedral of Ely, England. The sculpture depicts life’s many unexpected twists and turns as we journey on the winding road from darkness to light.  Highlighting its symbolic impact, the Cathedral of Ely noted: “Like the journey of faith, its path is irregular and unpredictable; and just as the journey is sometimes hard, sometimes joyful, the surface texture and colour also vary.”

Yet, I am aware that this is not the end. No one can stay on the summit forever; the journey must continue... There are new places to travel and more peaks to conquer. I will remain faithful to my calling; be an inspiration and a light to those around me - first, burning brightly as a candle on a stand and second, reflecting Gods' radiance as a mirror. "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16).

 

Once again, thank you so much for your blessing of friendship.

 

Jonah's Confession

“And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Jonah 1:9 ESV

 

An interesting thought from the verse above is how will the world respond today to an honest confession of a Christian? Imagine the scenario of you boarding a cruise boat and introducing yourself to the captain and his sailing crew as a God fearing Christian! What impact would this have on them? How would they respond to your proclamation? In all likelihood, they will be politely disinterested.   

 

In Jonah 1:10, the sailors' response to Jonah was as follows, Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he told them (ESV). Their respond suggests that they had a spiritual awakening, i.e. they saw there is God, he is alive, he is a God of purpose, and a God of wrath. R.T. Kendal, in his exposition on Jonah, wrote that this story shows the inseparable connection between the transcendent power of God and the message of the church.
 

Can Jonah claims credit for their spiritual awakening? No, on the contrary, Jonah was not preaching the truth voluntarily or consciously. He was forced to make his confession. He was found out! RT Kendal further wrote that we are not going to see such an awakening simply because we preach who God is - there must be more! Put it another way, had Jonah made this confession without the storm at sea such confession would have been utterly meaningless; just like you introducing yourself when you boarded the cruise boat.

We must see God's timing. In other words, it is utterly folly to think that we can resurrect certain sermons or methods of the past and suppose they are going to produce results again.  We need to see that the message Jonah preached was timed in such a way that, had he made the confession earlier, it would have been meaningless. It was given at a particular moment. There was the wind; there was the casting of the lots. All these things coalesced and there is no earthly way we can make these things coalesce and bring them about. The timing has to be exactly right.

Note that Jonah did not get glory because of this awakening. What happened on the boat was despite of Jonah. There is a sense in which Jonah had nothing to do with it. Indeed, just because the sailors encountered God, this does not justify Jonah's disobedience and running away from God. The greatest lesson we have to learn from Romans 8:28 is this: merely because something is made right does not mean it was right... we tend to justify ourselves by saying that our disobedience was justified simply because we profited.

 

Source: Jonah - An Exposition by R.T Kendall