Birthdays

By a 25-year-old child of God
Sharon Chan

A speaker once shared a story about a man who did not know his birthday. This was a problem because this man needed to fill out paperwork regarding a student visa. Date of birth is a typical space to be filled on application forms. In our individualistic society, the idea of birth date poses no question for most applicants. But this man could not identify his own birth date. When questioned why he did not know this, he simply answered that in his culture, it was not important to know when a person was born. A man doesn’t need to know his birth date in order to know that he is alive.

生日

陳莎侖：一個25歲的上帝的孩子 
中譯： 蔡穎

一位講員曾經讲过这样一个故事，有關一位不知道自己生日的人。不知道自己的出生日期給这人帶來一些麻煩，因為他必須填寫申請學生簽證的相關文件，而出生日期是其中必填的一欄。在我们这样崇尚個人主義的社會里，大多數人對於填寫自己的出生日期是絕對沒問題的，不像這個不知道自己生日的人。別人問他為什麼不知道自己的生日，他只说，在他的文化背景里，知道一個人什麼時候出生并不重要。一個人不需要知道自己的出生日期來證明他活著。 

Who’s Doing Who the Favour?

Pseudonymous

This is the true joy in life—being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

—George Bernard Shaw

Do you ever feel like God owes you something? Like you’re doing God a favour by going to church, by studying the Bible, or by tithing? I did. Ah, who am I kidding, I still do. But God is working that out in my heart.

是誰在幫誰的忙?

Pseudonymous | 中文翻譯：蔡穎 & Kevin Poon

這是最真實的喜樂—為自己認為重大的目的而活；像垃圾般地被丟棄之前幹得精疲力盡；做有勢力的人，而不是一團充滿神經失調和憤世嫉俗，只會埋怨著世界無法為你帶來幸福的狂熱而自私的混合物。

—蕭伯納(著名劇作家)

你是否覺得上帝虧欠了你？你去教會、讀經、十一奉獻，好像在幫上帝的忙似的。我曾經是這樣想的。我這是在騙誰啊？我依然這樣想，但祂正在我的心裡動工。