“So here’s what I want to tell you, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. “
第二节:Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
第三节:I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
这个并不是我最想和大家分享的,我最想和大家分享的是第二句。本来我想将这句圣经用作今年开学礼的演词,不过后来觉得太敏感,结果我改了题目。这句经文说:“不要效法这个世界,要心意更新而变化,叫你们察验何为上帝的善良,纯存可喜悦的旨意。”英文翻译得很精彩:"Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture of this world",今天的culture(文化)是甚么呢?我们今天生活在香港,今天香港的文化是甚么呢?今天香港的culture我觉得有几样事情是十分明显的。
这种指责的风气,使我们成为一个互相敌对、互相不饶恕的社会环境。有人说如果你不住在香港,你只要看看香港的报纸,你就会觉得这里是地狱。但如果你住在香港而不看香港的报纸,你就觉得这里是天堂。最糟糕的是,我们住在这里又看这里的报纸,心里就忐忑不安。我们每天就是充满互相批评、互相指责。“不要跟着这潮流 (do not fit yourself too well into this culture)”不要跟着这潮流“even without thinking it”,连想也没想过就跟着去,这就不是一个成熟的人。
我知道在座当中,有四十、五十、六十岁,不知有没有七十岁的,你未必都是一个成熟的人,在上帝的眼里都不是。如果我们只随波逐流,我们只做刚才我们所讲的,这个社会大家都一同自拍Selfie,大家都一同指责别人,大家都一同自我中心。even without thinking it(连想也没有想过就跟着去做),你在上帝眼里,仍然未是一个成熟的人。
不要跟随这世界,不要效法这世界,因为当我们看到一些事时,我们会渐渐开始去学会。其实我们真的不要只看facebook上写过的每一句话,要多点深入思考。我们不要只听某一种人讲某一种话,我们要从多个角度去看一件事。我们不要只因为一件事情就立即判断是与非。眼光要放长一点──think deeper, think longer, think from different angles──然后再经过自己的思考,找出你觉得这个是“是”还是“非”,找出你自己应该站的位置。我相信这就是圣经讲的,所谓成熟的一个重要因素。
Fix your attention on God.Focus on God.You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and respond to it. God brings the best out of you, and you will have well-formed maturity in you.
“不可自视过高。”不要觉得自己才是世界的中心──这是我在这句经文中所领受的话。不要misinterpret yourself(误解自己),the only accurate way唯一一个准确的方法:understand ourselves──去明白自己是甚么,就是看上帝在我身上作了些甚么、看衪赐给了我甚么…。而不是反过来看,我有甚么成就、我配得甚么…。
第二次当我感到完全无助的时候,就是在我上任校长前接受师生校友的咨询。当时我坐在烽火台上,旁边是professor Daniel 、学生事务处主任及学生会会长。台下有好几百位同学和旧生,他们后面有十多二十个电视台及很多记者拿着长镜头拍照,有线电视的直播新闻台都在现场。往后的三个小时,就像在考场一样,有人询问我对于学校整体的发展有甚么看法…。最高峰的时候,就有一位同学预备了一个东西放在烽火台上,用一块红布盖着,然后他说:“我们对于上一任校长非常的不满,所以我们现在有一个钟放在这里,倒数他余下的日子,请你为我们揭开这个钟。”