Rumours

On the surface, the book cover looks like something out of a sci-fi movie or something Asimov would write but nope... all wrong. "Rumours of Another World" by Philip Yancey, who wrote the acclaimed "The Jesus I Never Knew", is quite a funny read to me. Why?

Well, it didn't catch my attention in the first place but as I explore further and further into the book and the contents Yancey was trying to express, it really is a fascinating book! Some people might see it as their least favourite Yancey book, but I think it's good as it did opened up my ears and eyes to listen to and see the "rumours of another world" that we often put in a box and pushed it aside somewhere in the store room full of cobwebs.

We always missed out hearing things from the other side of the world. I mean, we even miss out on what out friends have got to say sometimes! The "other" side simply means what God and His kingdom has got to say to us! The loud and noisy world we're living in today has drown out the sound and messages from God and often, we go about our daily activities without getting Him involved or shoving aside His opinions, simply because we fail to hear or see God.

Another thing that really caught my attention in the book is sex (haha...people always get caught up with sex...don't they?) But it's not about the abstinence...bla bla bla thing that turns most people off but it's about why we are so drawn to sex and we never think twice on getting ourselves involved in outside-marriage affairs.

Why? Well, Yancey put it this way.

Sex is about getting closer and intimate with a person. And in a way, we yearn to have sex to cover up our insecurities and loneliness that we have inside. We, humans, yearn to be near God, even if it be unconscious. We'll find all sorts of way to get that feeling or "euphoria" and sex is the nearest outlet. But having sex, something so intimate with a stranger won't give us that. In order to know someone better, we need to communicate, understand and learn about him/her and sex just won't give us that. It'll just be another random physical act of fleeting pleasure, just like how people are addicted to drugs. They just want the "high", to draw closer to something that we just can't reach in reality.

And it can get dangerous.

Go read the book. I recommend it. It may be dry in the beginning. Just like how "Prayer" was for me, but it gets deeper and interesting as you read on. You might discover a lot of new things by reading it too! I've discovered a great deal of American history and balck slavery in this book. How slaves used to sing songs about being free because Christ set them free... and they meant every single word of it!

How do we sing our songs today? Of being suicidal, broken hearted because you're being jilted, killing and cursing... haha! I'm remembering what Joel Osteen said. "You're speaking all these things into being! You're actually cursing yourselves by saying it out loud!". Bill Cosby in Oprah also said something like that and instead of wasting so much time and energy of these rubbish, might as well channel those energy into good use and into positive-vibes!

Yup!! The world does need a lot of positive-vibes now!