It has been 2 weeks since i wrote.
A lovely weekend spent in Redang with Bryan and Lionel.
A refreshing weekend spent at YAM retreat.

Lately, I've been pretty stretched out during work.
I lost my cool on one of the user, i realize i was very frustrated and was talking in quite a rude manner. On hindsight, i think i should have kept my cool and solve it more amicably. It is quite frustrating to have a small matter of printing alignment to be blown out of proportion as compared to other pressing problems user face which does not allow them to work. It is really tempting to say "idiot".

Amos told me an ancient saying "No good deeds goes unpunished". I guess he is trying to tell me that with good intentions saying that i may want to be less good. However, i am sticking with the motto of "My Utmost for the Most High" in serving each user and in doing each task. I am sure that frustration from technology will snowball and affect a person's life and how the person react. This would lead to unnecessary unpleasantness, bitter feelings and angst. We should prevent it shouldn't we?

That aside.
YAM Retreat was talking about living purposeful lives.
The verse was Amos 7:8b.
"Then the Lord said, "Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer."

I remembered using a plumb line what i was setting up directors for the artillery guns.
What is the significance of the plumb line?
It is a means to determine the centre of gravity and it is also a means to give alignments to building structures in the past.
The significance of the verse was the Lord to say, "I am setting a standard for my people, there will no longer be any excuses"

There are some thoughts that i think should be dispelled.
First of all, it does not mean that since everyone is doing it, it is acceptable and correct. It does not mean that since everyone is watching pornography, it is acceptable and correct. It does not mean that since we are advancing into the era of materialism we would need to tailor the gospel to suit the congregation that God will always bless you with money and health without taking any of it away. Do not insult God, God won't be fooled, we are here to serve God and not to be served solely. He already did his part.

Second, the measurement of success may not be understood so simply. The passionate and bright William Borden did not see his life as a failure when he wrote in his Bible: "No Reserve, No Retreat, No Regrets" at his deathbed when he was passed away before reaching China.(He prepared his whole life to preach in china but died) The same goes for the inspirational Jim Elliot who inspired his wife Elizabeth Elliot to continue what he could not.(He tried to reach out to the Auca tribe but got murdered by them instead. Elizabeth continued to preach and converted the tribe)

Thirdly, we must look at life towards eternity and not just currently. I've heard many testimonies of people living for God in the workplace and still making it out in marketplace. Of course it does not happen like that all the time but remember, who are you serving? Money and fame or for the favour of God to preach love? Johann Gothe once said "You are shaped and fashioned by what you love". I believe he is right.

This theme that has been plaguing me for the past 2 weeks.
"Whose standard do you adhere to?
I am trying to adhere to God's standard.
What about you?
Do you see the plumb line?

This entry is specially dedicated to the people i work with at my company.
The good news i hear about Rey and also the good news i hear in a brother, Ho Lie(Hearing the word 'holy is never the same again when i got to know you. haha!). It warms my heart to know share a laugh during working hours and to hear some pieces of your life you share with me. It is my honour and privilege to have people reading things i write and also to be part of your life. Let us continue to grow and discover life lessons along the way as we pray and protect one another from our users and from the evil forces. And also, i must not forget those who reads my blog and enjoys it, it is my great honor and great joy to know that you do.

This is the last installment i have taken from C.S Lewis' Mere Christianity and i regret not extracting more essence to share it with you all. It is, however, a good ending to the series of sharing from the book and i pray that it shed some meaning in this era to challenge the post modern mindset even when it has been around for quite some time.

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10. The Practical Conclusion

“A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself. In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble – because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat(in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out.

That is why the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one or if they think there is not- at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christians think any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.”

“Here is another thing that used to puzzle me. Is it not frightfully unfair that this new life should be confined to people who have heard of Christ and been able to believe in Him? But the truth is God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him. But in the meantime, if you are worried about the people outside, the most unreasonable thing you can do is to remain outside yourself. Christians are Christ’s body, the organism through which He works. Every addition to that body enables Him to do more. If you want to help those outside you must add your town little cell to the body of Christ who alone can help them. Cutting off a man’s fingers would be an odd way of getting him to do more work.”

“But i wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realise what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right; but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else- something it never entered your head to conceive comes crashing in ; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not. Now , today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.”

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I always believe that the world's judgment day may not come in our lifetime, yet however, our personal judgment day may come anytime. In saying our personal judgment day, i am referring it to the day that we pass away. Surely, that is the day that may be too late to make a decision. Surely, that is the day that may be too late to live a life that is far more meaningful, far more joyful than a life of ordinary; an ordinary life is a life that goes past day by day not knowing where we are heading, not knowing what we are doing, not knowing why we are living.

Yesterday's sermon was titled "a life abiding in Christ"
I thought, initially, that it is going to be one of those cliche things that the pastor will be talking about. Where they say things in Christian jargon that even most Christians does not have a slightest clue of. Personally, i took it as it is that abiding in him is just being 'in Christ' of which is another Christian Jargon which doesn't really mean anything if it just stays as something Christians say. So let us explore and understand what the pastor was talking about.

The sharing was from John 15:
¹"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. ³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

 ⁵"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. ⁸This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

 ⁹"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
John 5:1-12

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¹"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. John 5:1-2
Statement 1.
Jesus is the true vine. The Father is the gardener.

Implication 1.
It is god who puts us in Christ and it is also God that put us out of Christ.
The Song of the Vineyard 
¹ I will sing for the one I love
       a song about his vineyard:
       My loved one had a vineyard
       on a fertile hillside.

 ² He dug it up and cleared it of stones
       and planted it with the choicest vines.
       He built a watchtower in it
       and cut out a winepress as well.
       Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
       but it yielded only bad fruit.

 ³ "Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,
       judge between me and my vineyard.

 ⁴ What more could have been done for my vineyard
       than I have done for it?
       When I looked for good grapes,
       why did it yield only bad?

 ⁵ Now I will tell you
       what I am going to do to my vineyard:
       I will take away its hedge,
       and it will be destroyed;
       I will break down its wall,
       and it will be trampled.

 ⁶ I will make it a wasteland,
       neither pruned nor cultivated,
       and briers and thorns will grow there.
       I will command the clouds
       not to rain on it."

 ⁷ The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
       is the house of Israel,
       and the men of Judah
       are the garden of his delight.
       And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
       for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
Isaiah 5:1-7

 The vineyard that was spoken in this context was Israel for this instance. As for John 15, the vineyard for that instance would be Jesus and that Jesus is the perfect Israel, the true Israel of God.

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³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

Statement 2.
Reveal spiritual condition of disciples:
1.They received his word 
2.They are now cleansed.
3.Now they are to continue with him.

Implication 2.
we are to abide in Christ and Christ is to abide in us.
Abide is to dwell continuously. It is to have a vital relationship between us and Christ and Christ and us. Please also note that this is mentioned in an active voice of which means an action is required.
What is the meaning of bearing fruits?
Referring to the reference used earlier, in Isaiah 5:7
The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
       is the house of Israel,
       and the men of Judah
       are the garden of his delight.
       And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
       for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
We can see that the fruits refers to Holiness and Christlike Character.

It is to be in a relationship that grows and deepens overtime, the more they abide in each other in the relationship, the more characteristics from each other rubs off one another. In this case, Christ-likeness will be rubbed off on you and you will be more deeply loved by Christ.

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 ⁵"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

Statement 3.
A repetition of the statement that : "Christ is the vine we are the branches." accompanied with 2 warnings.
1.Without Christ we can do nothing.
2.If anyone who does not abide in Christ he/she will be cut off.

Implication 3.
1 - the need of mutual indwelling.
2. If we are not fruitful we will be cut off from the vine.
What is the vine in this context?
An honest reading from the previous verses will say that the Vine refers to Jesus Christ.
So what that means is that if you are not fruitful, you will be cut off from the Lord Jesus Christ.
So does that vine refer to true believers?
Yes, those branches in context meant true believers since they are in Christ in verse 2.
What about Assurance of Salvation?
In John 10:27-29
²⁷My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
There is double security for the believer isn't it? Yet, however, we still have to look to John 15 and that there is a command for perseverance, a command to abide in Christ
(John15) But perseverance is a command.. We need to abide in Christ! A further reference of the book of Jude to further elaborate on the condition of keeping ourselves in the Love of God[v21] before God keeping us[24-25]

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⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. ⁸This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.  ⁹"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Statement 4.
1. Ask whatever you wish and it would be given to you because whatever we ask will be in the will of God.
2. not to remain in just the word but also to remain in the Love of Christ.

Implication 4.
When we don't remain in Christ, our prayer life will be anemic.
We need to listen and be obedient of God's word.
We have to understand that we will need to grow and keep in the word of God as God's love for us increases. We are to abide in word, love and his joy.

Pastor then ended off the time with saying that
When we keep the word of God there is always a price to pay.
However, when you obey the Lord, the love of God increases and fills you up immensely.

He then shared this
"In good times, the compromising Christian will be of a lot of company because they feel good with him.
However, In a time of Crisis, when it matters most, it is the genuine Christian is the one they look for."

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My reflections
At the back of my head, i always thought that 'fruitfulness' refers to the converts that you have evangelized. However, it does make sense that they may not be the only indicator or the biggest indicator.
I was also taken aback with the idea that Salvation can be lost if we do not abide in God's love. Like every relationship, it requires two hands to clap and we cannot expect God to only be working from his side.
I've definitely got a lot more to learn.

I've just finished this book - Every Man's Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a time. The biggest takeaway was probably the verse from the book of Job. "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl" Job 31:1.

I thought i was wasting my time by going for the enrollment function.
However, the message the chaplain shared took me by surprise.

This was what he shared:
A challenging Vision - Micah 7:1-4
"¹ What misery is mine!
       I am like one who gathers summer fruit
       at the gleaning of the vineyard;
       there is no cluster of grapes to eat,
       none of the early figs that I crave.

 ² The godly have been swept from the land;
       not one upright man remains.
       All men lie in wait to shed blood;
       each hunts his brother with a net.

 ³ Both hands are skilled in doing evil;
       the ruler demands gifts,
       the judge accepts bribes,
       the powerful dictate what they desire—
       they all conspire together.

 ⁴ The best of them is like a brier,
       the most upright worse than a thorn hedge.
       The day of your watchmen has come,
       the day God visits you.
       Now is the time of their confusion."

He explained that it was a scenario of the development of a fruitless society
which led to the extinction of the righteous.
The outcome will be the presence of moral chaos, wickedness and absence of safety.
Danger will be inevitable, judgment will definitely come.
The situation is not one that we would want to live in, neither is it one that we would have our loved ones living in.

He further explains that there are 4 considerations:
1- Never lose sight of the challenge. Evangelize or perish.
2- The Great commission is both geographical and generational
3 - Justification and Sanctification cannot be separated. Justification always lead to santification!
4- Redemption is both personal and social in scope. We shouldn't just focus solely on 'soul saving' but we have to widen our scope in defeating any moral plagues in the community. We must know that when there's salvation, there will be transformation!

How do we fit in?
1. We are to be committed to be a witness and testimony to the reality and claims of Christ.
2. We are to be committed to the grooming of the next generation.
3. We are to be committed to do our part in moral conditioning.
4. We are to be committed to the challenge of always being socially relevant.

Am honored to play a part of this.
That i may have a chance to be a friend to the friendless
That i may have a chance to be a brother to the brotherless
That i may have a chance to be a father to the fatherless
That i may have a chance to be a messenger of good news.

No, i am not saying that i am better than you in anyway.
Rather, i think i may be worst than you in all ways.
What I am just saying is that i may know of some news that you may be interested to know.

9. The Perfect Penitent

“The perfect submission, the perfect suffering, the perfect death were not only easier to Jesus because He was God, but were possible only because He was God. But surely that is a very off reason for not accepting them? ... ... If i am drowning in a rapid river, a man who still has one foot on the bank may give me a hand which saves my life. Ought i to shout back (between my gasps) ‘No, it’s not fair! You have an advantage! You’re keeping one foot on the bank’? that advantage – call it ‘unfair’ if you like – is the only reason why he can be of any use to me. To what will you look for help if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself?

Such is my own way of looking at what Christians call the Atonement. But remember this is only one more picture. Do not mistake it for the thing itself: and if it does not help you, drop it.”

Life has been quite a blur for the past month..
It is amazing how time has passed.

I once thought that mastering the concept of "Let go and Let God" is a one-off lesson.
The last 3 months has proven to me that it is an ongoing lesson that may never be perfected.
I dare not answer the question Jesus asked the rich ruler.

A friend had to message me over MSN and tell me : "Life is suppose to be simple isn't it? We do not need to fear the future but rather we need to let go, trust God and pray incessantly."
It was a simple sentence yet a big lesson to swallow.

I tested his theory the next 2 days and behold, he was right.
There is only so much that we can do and we still have to leave it to the mysterious force of the world to complement or upset the entire work.
Can you guess what that mysterious force is?
None other than what we call 'fate' or 'coincidence'.
Some call it the will of God.

I am trying to hold dear to what Denise shared with me some weeks ago.
She shared about a sharing she had with her fellowship group regarding the topic of
"What would you do if you know Judgment day is tomorrow?"
(I gave her a frivolous answer, I told her i wanted to get married and make babies. Haha )

She then shared with me an answer that was shared by an elderly woman which struck her first and then later struck me too.
The elderly woman said "I wouldn't change how i live in any way from how i am living now".

Wow.

Why wait for it to be urgent if you can live without regrets right now?

Don't wait, do what you need to do.

8.The shocking alternative

“Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going  wrong; i cannot. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is that has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata- of creatures that worked like machines – would hardly be worth creating. ... ...”

“Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk. Perhaps we feel inclined to disagree with Him. But there is a difficulty about disagreeing with God. He is the source from which all your reasoning power comes: you could not be right and He wrong anymore than a stream can rise higher than its own source.... ...”

 

“That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit on Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Time flies.
I am glad that things are looking better
But that doesn't mean it can't get better.

Cheers, to a beautiful life.

I want to continue to make things right.
You want to continue to make me right..
I want to want to let you make me right.

I wonder for the future.
The future wonders for me.
I wonder whether you wonder for our future.
I wonder if you ever wonder about it.
I wonder if you are wondering whether you are whom i am talking about.

But the crux for me is this.
Theres one life, enjoy it.
How do i enjoy it?
I delight, i play and i smile.

Delight in hope.
Play with hope.
Smile at hope.

I don't like tv.
Fairy tales that does not usually materialize.
Reality that tries to follow fairy tales.
Ideas to make us coveteous.

7.The invasion

“But i freely admit that real Christianity goes much nearer to Dualism than people think. One of the things that surprised me when i first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universes – a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin. The difference is that Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. Christianity agrees with Dualism that the universe is at war. But it does not think this is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel.”

I like this picture very much. =)

It is really hot in Singapore.
Snowy is feeling the heat and has taken measures to counter the heat.
This is his solution :

Looking all pitiful...

Basically, he took my fan. Cute huh!

This is my Cell group picture.

I Love them to bits.
Today, was a good day =)

Part 2

6.The Rival Conceptions of God

“If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. When i was an atheist i had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when i became a Christian i was able to take a more liberal view. But , of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong. As in arithmetic – there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong;  but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others.”

“My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had i got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was i comparing this universe with when i called it unjust?.... ... Of course i could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing  but a private idea of my own. But if i did that, then ,my argument against God collapsed too – for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies. Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist- in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless – i found i was forced to assume that one part of reality – namely my idea of justice – was full of sense. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning.”

I wrote something about Corporate Leadership this morning and wanted to post it on facebook.

These are some of the lessons i learned while working.

To employees, there are 3 main things they look for in their corporate leader.
One, job security.
Two, the resources to work.
Three, the welfare of the employees.

Don't go back on your word, it spoils the morale of the employee.
Give a clear vision. Give specific and realistic goals to meet.
Don't be afraid to say "I don't know". It's better than leaving your 
workers unanswered. You may even get a solution from them.

Genuinely love and care for people.
You can be sure they will remember it and will love you for that.
If you show that you are fighting for your employee what is duly theirs, you can be sure that your employees will fight for you for the results you require.

When people asks you a question.
Give a proper answer, assure them.
Don't leave them hanging.
Propose a solution if there are any.
If you do not have a proper solution, find out and give a timeline.

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5. We have cause to be uneasy

“We have two bits of evidence about the Somebody. One is the universe He has made. To conclude that He was a great artist(for the universe is a very beautiful place), but also that he is quite merciless and no friend to man (for the universe is a very dangerous and terrifying place). The other bit of evidence is that Moral Law which He has put into our minds. And this is a better bit of evidence than the other, because it is inside information. You find out more about God from the Moral Law than from the universe in a general just as you find out more about a man by listening to his conversation than by looking at a house he has built.... Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger- according to the way you react to it. And we have reacted the wrong way. ”

“Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing(as far as i know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness. It is after you have realized that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that Power – it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk. When you know you are sick, you will listen to the doctor. When you have realised that our being is nearly as desperate you will begin to understand what the Christians are talking about... ... ... All i am doing is to ask people to face the facts – to understand the questions which Christianity claims to answer. And they are very terrifying facts. I wish it was possible to say something more agreeable. But i must say what i think true. Of course i agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not being in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay. In religion war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you can get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth – only soft soap and wishful thinking to bring with and, in the end, despair. Most of us have got over the pre-war wishful thinking about international politics. It is time we did the same about religion.”

Would you?
I don't think i would like me if i met me.
hmmm.

4.What lies behind the law

“The only packet i am allowed to open is Man. When i do, especially when i open that particular man called Myself, i find that i do not exist on my own, that i am under a law; that somebody or something wants me to behave in a certain way. I do not , of course, think that if i could get inside a stone or a tree i should find exactly the same thing, just as i do not think all the other people in the street get the same letters as i do. I should expect, for instance, to find that the stone had to obey the law of gravity- that whereas the sender of the letters merely tells me to obey the law of my human nature, he compels the stone to obey the laws of its stoney nature. But i should expect to find that there was, so to speak, a sender of letters in both cases, a Power behind the facts, a Director, a Guide.”

Though the bed isn't that desirable, Snowy isn't appreciative! =(

REALLY BAD DOG!
He is adorable anyway.

3.The Reality of the Law

“Consequently, this Rule of Right and Wrong, or Law of Human Nature, or whatever you call it, must somehow or other be a real thing – a thing that is really there, not made up by ourselves. And yet it is not a fact in the ordinary sense, in the same way as our actual behaviour is a fact, it begins to look as if we shall have to admit that there is more than one kind of reality that, in this particular case, there is something above and beyond the ordinary facts of men’s behaviour, and yet quite definitely real- a real law, which none of us made, but which we find pressing on us.”