This is an email that I sent to the people who helped out in the GB/KPC camp one way or another, and which Ps KY asked me to put up on FF blog, so here goes... :)

First of all, I want to thank God for His love and guidance throughout this camp. He has been my constant source of encouragement and strength for the past week or so. To Him goes all glory and praise for the turnout of the camp!

My personal thanks goes to all of you:

1. Glenn, for being my second brain, voice and body during the camp. Helping Aaron with the games. Giving much needed advice to the still rather inexperienced chairman. Haha.

2. Aaron, for organising and running the programmes for the campers. Also for taking on the whole overseeing of the programmes yourself.

3. Angeline, for organising the programmes for the campers. Although you weren't there, your input was crucial for the camp as well.

4. Elizabeth (Eliz), for helping out in the icebreakers, here, there and in anything that needed help. Until now I still don't know what your exact role was. :S Lol.

5. Rebecca, for doing the camp booklet and helping out with the admin stuff during the camp. For you, too, I don't know what your exact role was, since you helped out in so many areas.

6. Seanster, for settling the strong-man work for the camp. Your help in getting the stuff needed and helping Aaron out in the games and all was very important as well.

7. Cheryl, for being enthusiastic and infecting the children along the way. Also for your other help like scouting for a toilet from which to fill the water bombs with today.

8. Desiree (Jie Jie), for helping out with the activities and taking some photos of the camp. These are invaluable, like Le En trying to do the twist sign in front of the camera (soooo cute!!!).

9. Evangelin (Evan), for befriending the campers and helping out in the programmes too. You were so effective that some campers were asking where you went the next day. Cooooolll.

10. Melissa, for being there to lend a hand to (the maybe over-burdened???) Aaron during the activities. I'm sure he appreciates your help alot as well.

11. Samuel, for making people laugh just by your presence, and also for the amusement you gave the kids by being taupoked. Now Tze-E has learnt a new skill he may try out while swimming. :O oh no.

12. Ming Jun, for getting your group together. (I can't think of anything else, but really thanks)

13. Tabitha, for getting your group together. (I still can't think of anything else, but also really thanks)

14. Li Sen, for getting your group together. (I really can't seem to think of anything else, but also really thanks)

15. Ps Kuo Yung, for giving me the chance to run the camp in the first place. Also for your guidance and help in getting the other stuff that were missed out during the initial purchases.

16. Yao Qi, for giving the wrap-up and explaining clearly to the children the parallels between Narnia and the Gospel, and basically presenting the Good News to them in a fun way.

All of you have contributed so much to the camp, to ensure that the campers enjoy themselves and take back something meaningful. Once again, thanks soooooooooooooooooooooo muchhhhh everyone! =)=)=)

Dear Campers,
I know you are eager to get your photoes! But will take a while to upload all photoes. Please be patient. You can get the photoes from http://www.kpchurch.org.sg/events/photos.aspx.
Enjoy!

For lack of a better name, here're the details of the above mentioned event:

What: Highlights include the Pre-Camp Briefing, Icebreakers, Beach Games, Dinner
When: 1400 to 1900 hours, Saturday, 1 December 2007
Where: National Service Resort & Country Club (NSRCC), 10 Changi Coast Walk, Singapore 499739 (Transport will leave from Eunos MRT Station at 1400 hours and will depart from NSRCC at 1900 hours)
Who: All youths! All friends of youths coming for the Synod Youth Camp! Primary 6s (Incoming Sec 1s 2008)!

Why this event the weekend right after the BB/GB Camp and the weekend just before the BIG event?

Well, in true KPC Youth style, there'll be many newcomers coming to the Synod Youth Camp, and we'd really like to get to know, interact and bond with the friends of our youths before we actually start the camp proper. It's called friendship evangelism. =)

Also, since all our incoming Secondary 1s (2008) won't be able to join us for Plug' In, this event is to officially usher them into the ministry, so they've been invited too. Let's all welcome them with open arms shall we?

And last but not least, it's the school holidays! The O and A Levels are over (poor uni students)! Since we've managed to get such a nice place (for free! If I might add) over the weekend, why not make use of it? It'll be a refreshing change yes? We've got the beach nearby and full resort facilities. So why not? =D

Stay tuned for more details during the event briefing tomorrow during Faith Factor! In the meantime...

If your parents're picking you up...

Schematic map.

From TWLOHA's website. http://twloha.com/the_story.php

TO WRITE LOVE ON HER ARMS by Jamie Tworkowski

Pedro the Lion is loud in the speakers, and the city waits just outside our open windows. She sits and sings, legs crossed in the passenger seat, her pretty voice hiding in the volume. Music is a safe place and Pedro is her favorite. It hits me that she won't see this skyline for several weeks, and we will be without her. I lean forward, knowing this will be written, and I ask what she'd say if her story had an audience. She smiles. "Tell them to look up. Tell them to remember the stars."

I would rather write her a song, because songs don't wait to resolve, and because songs mean so much to her. Stories wait for endings, but songs are brave things bold enough to sing when all they know is darkness. These words, like most words, will be written next to midnight, between hurricane and harbor, as both claim to save her.

Renee is 19. When I meet her, cocaine is fresh in her system. She hasn't slept in 36 hours and she won't for another 24. It is a familiar blur of coke, pot, pills and alcohol. She has agreed to meet us, to listen and to let us pray. We ask Renee to come with us, to leave this broken night. She says she'll go to rehab tomorrow, but she isn't ready now. It is too great a change. We pray and say goodbye and it is hard to leave without her.

She has known such great pain; haunted dreams as a child, the near-constant presence of evil ever since. She has felt the touch of awful naked men, battled depression and addiction, and attempted suicide. Her arms remember razor blades, fifty scars that speak of self-inflicted wounds. Six hours after I meet her, she is feeling trapped, two groups of "friends" offering opposite ideas. Everyone is asleep. The sun is rising. She drinks long from a bottle of liquor, takes a razor blade from the table and locks herself in the bathroom. She cuts herself, using the blade to write "FUCK UP" large across her left forearm.

The nurse at the treatment center finds the wound several hours later. The center has no detox, names her too great a risk, and does not accept her. For the next five days, she is ours to love. We become her hospital and the possibility of healing fills our living room with life. It is unspoken and there are only a few of us, but we will be her church, the body of Christ coming alive to meet her needs, to write love on her arms.

She is full of contrast, more alive and closer to death than anyone I've known, like a Johnny Cash song or some theatre star. She owns attitude and humor beyond her 19 years, and when she tells me her story, she is humble and quiet and kind, shaped by the pain of a hundred lifetimes. I sit privileged but breaking as she shares. Her life has been so dark yet there is some soft hope in her words, and on consecutive evenings, I watch the prettiest girls in the room tell her that she's beautiful. I think it's God reminding her.

I've never walked this road, but I decide that if we're going to run a five-day rehab, it is going to be the coolest in the country. It is going to be rock and roll. We start with the basics; lots of fun, too much Starbucks and way too many cigarettes.

Thursday night she is in the balcony for Band Marino, Orlando's finest. They are indie-folk-fabulous, a movement disguised as a circus. She loves them and she smiles when I point out the A&R man from Atlantic Europe, in town from London just to catch this show. She is in good seats when the Magic beat the Sonics the next night, screaming like a lifelong fan with every Dwight Howard dunk. On the way home, we stop for more coffee and books, Blue Like Jazz and (Anne Lamott's) Travelling Mercies.

On Saturday, the Taste of Chaos tour is in town and I'm not even sure we can get in, but doors do open and minutes after parking, we are on stage for Thrice, one of her favorite bands. She stands ten feet from the drummer, smiling constantly. It is a bright moment there in the music, as light and rain collide above the stage. It feels like healing. It is certainly hope.

Sunday night is church and many gather after the service to pray for Renee, this her last night before entering rehab. Some are strangers but all are friends tonight. The prayers move from broken to bold, all encouraging. We're talking to God but I think as much, we're talking to her, telling her she's loved, saying she does not go alone. One among us knows her best. Ryan sits in the corner strumming an acoustic guitar, singing songs she's inspired.

After church our house fills with friends, there for a few more moments before goodbye. Everyone has some gift for her, some note or hug or piece of encouragement. She pulls me aside and tells me she would like to give me something. I smile surprised, wondering what it could be. We walk through the crowded living room, to the garage and her stuff.

She hands me her last razor blade, tells me it is the one she used to cut her arm and her last lines of cocaine five nights before. She's had it with her ever since, shares that tonight will be the hardest night and she shouldn't have it. I hold it carefully, thank her and know instantly that this moment, this gift, will stay with me. It hits me to wonder if this great feeling is what Christ knows when we surrender our broken hearts, when we trade death for life.

As we arrive at the treatment center, she finishes: "The stars are always there but we miss them in the dirt and clouds. We miss them in the storms. Tell them to remember hope. We have hope."

I have watched life come back to her, and it has been a privilege. When our time with her began, someone suggested shifts but that is the language of business. Love is something better. I have been challenged and changed, reminded that love is that simple answer to so many of our hardest questions. Don Miller says we're called to hold our hands against the wounds of a broken world, to stop the bleeding. I agree so greatly.

We often ask God to show up. We pray prayers of rescue. Perhaps God would ask us to be that rescue, to be His body, to move for things that matter. He is not invisible when we come alive. I might be simple but more and more, I believe God works in love, speaks in love, is revealed in our love. I have seen that this week and honestly, it has been simple: Take a broken girl, treat her like a famous princess, give her the best seats in the house. Buy her coffee and cigarettes for the coming down, books and bathroom things for the days ahead. Tell her something true when all she's known are lies. Tell her God loves her. Tell her about forgiveness, the possibility of freedom, tell her she was made to dance in white dresses. All these things are true.

We are only asked to love, to offer hope to the many hopeless. We don't get to choose all the endings, but we are asked to play the rescuers. We won't solve all mysteries and our hearts will certainly break in such a vulnerable life, but it is the best way. We were made to be lovers bold in broken places, pouring ourselves out again and again until we're called home.

I have learned so much in one week with one brave girl. She is alive now, in the patience and safety of rehab, covered in marks of madness but choosing to believe that God makes things new, that He meant hope and healing in the stars. She would ask you to remember.

The Blockbuster of the Summer staring Benny, Desire-E and Matthias. Sorry for the delay but it's worth the while.



hohoho, just for those who are clueless to the pain, anguish and trauma our 3 lead actors have been put through; they were forced to drink a Concoction of Love made of various syrups, pepper and other disgusting unmentionable substances at their bitrhday dinner.

WE LOVE YOU 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =)




The Synod Youth Camp Committee will be conducting their Games Dry Run this coming weekend! Here're the details:

When: 0830 to 1700 hours, Saturday, 17 November 2007
Venue: Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Schools
Attire: Sports Casual

As you can see, it'll be a whole day affair (lunch provided), with three major games - Human Board Games, War Games (I like the sound of this one. Haha.) & Station Games being played throughout the day. No transport will be provided, but you can always arrange to meet with your Faith Factor group or your friends at Bishan MRT or somewhere convenient to come together. =)

Since most of your exams're over (that includes many of the O and A Level students too!), and since we've just finished the last lesson in the series Talk a Walk with Jesus, it's time for a well-deserved break. =) Hence the inclusion of the Games Dry Run as the next big thing on our calendar (before the BB/GB camp and the Synod Youth Camp of course!)

Take this Dry Run as a good time to bond and interact within your classes and Youth Group, as well as getting to know some of the Synod Youth Camp committee members who'll be there too. It's also a chance for those who can't go for the camp for whatever reason, a sneak preview of what they'll be missing. Sad, but true. And as Pastor Kuo Yung said, playing the games first before anyone else does, might just give us an advantage to win during the actual games in camp. Haha. But on a more serious note, you can also use this opportunity to bring your friends to Faith Factor too. Hmmm. Not a bad idea at all.

Okay I've said enough, so I'll see you guys @ KCPPS on Saturday! =)

P.S Would appreciate if all Group Leaders to remind their group members about this event. Encourage them to turn out in full force too! Except those still taking exams of course. Thanks!

Calling all youths!

If you've got pictures and/or photographs or hilarious video clips of our KPC youths and their friends in action, during major events such as the Synod Youth Games or Youth Sunday, do send it to me via MSN or email (both of which can be found on my blogsite).

If you don't, fret not. The upcoming GB/BB Camp @ Tao Nan and the Synod Youth Camp will provide you with many opportunities for all you budding photographers and camerapeople out there! All you need is a working digital camera or a camera handphone with a decent resolution to start snapping away!

We'll appreciate all these photographs for our annual, much anticipated, end-of-the-year Youth Thanksgiving Dinner Event, which will be publicised to you guys very soon. In the meantime, stay tuned for any updates, and keep those photographs coming in!

Thirteen Paradigm Shifts we encountered doing Christian ministry in a pagan environment…

1. Other People Exist: Simply coming to the understanding that the world does not revolve around "me" but that everybody is having an experience, created by God, loved by God, and that we needed to repent of showing partiality…

2. Nobody will listen to you unless they know you like them: We began to understand that people, subconsciously, merit a religious or philosophical idea not on logical conclusions, but on whether or not the idea creates a "good person"…the definition of a good person being whether or not a person is kind to them, tolerant and understanding, able to listen without arguing and so on.

3. Nobody will listen to God unless they know God loves them: We came to believe there was usually a hidden pain behind hostility, that many people have been hurt by the church, or people or perspectives they believed to represent God. Many times its as simple as an interview they saw on CNN, but an apology and kindness went a long way in helping people understand God was loving.

4. Other people have morality and values: We came to understand that Christians do not own morality, that everybody lives by a moral code, not always informed by an ancient text, and yet it is there. Calling people or even thinking of them as immoral was, then, inappropriate. In fact, we often found that people who did not know Christ lived a morality close to his heart in many areas we had ignored, ie; community, tolerance, social justice, fairness and equality, freedom, beauty and so on and so on.

5. Find common ground: Often the morality of others overlapped Christian morality, and we came to understand that in these cases, we would focus on the overlapping issues. We came to see this as kindness, just as though we were on a date or making friends, we did not focus on what we didn’t have in common, but rather on mutual feelings about life. We would not say or do anything to combat people unless they knew we loved them, and this takes a great deal of time.

6. Define terms in their language: We were careful about Christian sayings and phrases that might be offensive: Crusade, sin, immorality….we came to understand that concepts were more sacred than terms…

7. Telling somebody about the gospel is about them, not us: We were careful not to try to "build our organization" and respected peoples freedom and space. Sharing the gospel became an exercise in friendship, rather than an attempt to grow a machine. Often, people feel used if they feel they are being recruited. The gospel, we learned, is really about them, their feelings about God and truth, about sin, about life

8. Don’t let spreading the gospel feel any different than telling somebody about a love in your life, about your children or a great memory: We realized that in telling somebody about Jesus, we were telling them about somebody we have come to love and need, and about something that had happened to us, an encounter. This keeps us from sounding preachy, and allows us to share part of ourselves in a friendship.

9. Include lost People in Your Community: Our organization was not exclusive. We invited non-believers into the community if they wanted to be invited. We were careful not to not be ourselves with them, but they were certainly invited and enjoyed being a part of the group. We explained terms that we used, what we believed, but other than that, continued as normal.

10. Apologize for what you represent: We discovered that many people have been offended or hurt by what they perceive Christianity to be. We allowed ourselves to stand in the place of "Christianity" and apologize whenever necessary.

11. Be authentic: We discovered the need to be as honest about our lives as possible. We did not feel the need to sale Jesus, as much as share what He has done in our broken lives. We had no problem sharing our doubts and fears about faith, along with our commitment and appreciation for what God had done.

12. Pray for the Salvation of others: We discovered the need to pray for others. This would insure God was working in peoples lives, as we asked Him to. We discovered the work of evangelism is something God lets us watch, but very little of it is what we manipulate. We repented of not believing evangelism was a spiritual exchange between a lost person and God, rather than believing it was a series of ideas we were supposed to convince others of.

13. Ask people if they would like to know Christ: We decided to initiate, whenever the relationship called for it. We were not afraid to ask people if they would like to know God.


from DonaldMillerWords.com



We should support this movement! A number of our own youth are struggling with this problem, and there might be even more cases that we don't know about within our midst. So check this out, and maybe we could make a donation one day.

Sometimes I feel the church is stuck in its own little bubble with us all going about our own holy business, not responding enough to the suffering out there.

Casting Crowns, "Every man"
I'm the man with all I've wanted
All the toys and playing games
I am the one who pours your coffee
Corner booth each Saturday
I am your daughter's favorite teacher
I'm the leader of the band
I sit behind you in the bleachers
I am every man

I'm the coach of every winning team
And still a loser in my mind
I am the soldier in the airport
Facing giants one more time
I am the woman shamed and haunted
By the cry of unborn life
I am every broken man
Nervous child, lonely wife

Is there hope for every man?
A solid place where we can stand
In this dry and weary land
Is there hope for every man?
Is there love that never dies
Is there peace in troubled times
Someone help me understand
Is there hope for every man?

It seems there's just so many roads to travel
It's hard to tell where they will lead
My life is scarred, my dreams unravelled
Now I am scared to take the lead
If I could find someone to follow
Who knows my pain and feels the way
The uncertainty of my tomorrow
The guilt and pain of yesterday

Is there hope for every man?
A solid place where we can stand
In this dry and weary land
Is there hope for every man?
Is there love that never dies
Is there peace in troubled times
Someone help me understand
Is there hope for every man?

There is hope for every man
A solid place where we can stand
In this dry and weary land
There is hope for every man
There is love that never dies
There is peace in troubled times
Will we help them understand?
Jesus is hope for every man

I'm the failure, I'm everyone's fool
And I'm losing my cool at the end
I'm the loser, my number's come up
I've been hung up with thoughts of revenge
Revenge, revenge

I watched you from my terminal view
As you struggled to rise to your end
I laughed hard at the insults we threw
As the weight of the world found revenge
Revenge, revenge

Have hatred and gravity won?

The world hung upside down
I drew first blood, I drew first blood
With my hate for a crown
I drew first blood, I drew first blood, revenge

I watched heaven dying today
And I'm gonna die here tonight
I'm a villain, I deserve to be dead
I've been hung up for wrecking my life
Revenge, revenge

So I stopped for a moment
To look at the sun (or Son)
Die in the day
That's when the irony hit me
This was revenge
That love had decended
And stolen our pain away

We consumed heaven's Son
And I drew first blood, I drew first blood
And my hate was undone
I drew first blood, I drew first blood, revenge

Here's a story
How a thief had been robbed
How a murder had stolen my rage
Think of me, Lord, I'm a few breaths away
As my lungs finally rip from the cage
Revenge


The analysis. From Switchfeed.com. By Philemon Thomas. Longest entry ever to be made on this blog. You have been warned.

Introduction: The New Revenge
Why does it bother us so greatly when someone who doesn't deserve to be wronged is wronged anyway? When he slaps you on your face, why is your basic impulse to turn his cheek a bright red in return? I think when Christ instructed his followers to show the other cheek, what’s more relevant than whether or not he actually expects us to do that, is that he was hinting at a great truth. I believe He was teaching us a higher form of revenge that He later epitomized with His death at the cross: a revenge that absorbs. A revenge that steals away rage. A godly revenge: where, by absorbing sin, and thereby nullifying it, you are exacting revenge not against the guy who slapped you, but against the hate in him which made him do it in the first place. You kill that evil (true revenge), rather than multiply it with a slap of your own (foolish revenge). “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” That instruction from Christ was a brief look into the deep-impact psychology of the Kingdom of God, that is baffling at times in how it characteristically turns common sense upside-down (“How can someone’s death on a cross save me?!”), yet amazing in its genius when you pause to think about it.

Coming back to the question at hand, why do we feel the urge to have that daughter’s rapist condemned to death, to have that wrongdoer brought to justice? When bad things happen to good people, why does that discrepancy bother us? I believe it’s because, deep inside, we feel an innate need for justice to be met, and when we rarely see that happening, or when our pride is hurt, we become short-sighted and are pushed to take matters into our own hands; and, in the process, while we may achieve an earthly standard (mostly an illusion) of justice, we understandably fail at achieving the higher, pure, complete justice (or ‘revenge’)—Kingdom justice, if you might—on our own strength. If we’d succeeded at forgiveness, mercy, grace, humility and such, our world would be a much better place, but the tit-for-tat justice-system of this world we instead resort to, instead of alleviating our problems, often multiplies them. Which is why I believe we need help. Someone Else who can accomplish a perfect, permanent revenge for us, someone who can settle the scores for us, on our behalf—for the wrongs we’ve committed and for those committed unto us—on a path to redemption.

A case for morality and retribution
Our aforementioned desire for justice reflects an innate sense of right and wrong, of good and bad. This urge for revenge, I believe, is proof against the postmodern contention that ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are merely ideas created by society: you don't seek revenge except because you think justice is good, or because it makes you feel good—just like no one seeks injustice or wrong purely because they delight in the idea of badness in and of itself, but because they have something they think is good to gain from it, whether it’s the pleasure or the loot. This reveals an inbuilt, involuntary ability to decide between ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’—even if only through our subjective understanding (or lack thereof) of them—making a compelling case for such value judgments.

When there's ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, it only follows that there be a reward system, as incentive to seek right over wrong. For 6 billion free wills to coexist in harmony, screw-ups need to be paid for. So, a perfectly just God's (if He may not seem so right now, look at His justice as a process that will one day be completed and revealed to all) universe was created with the principle that we are responsible for our actions – that goodness would be rewarded, and the opposite should have consequences. Keeping with His just character, He wisely decided retribution would be necessary (unless we were all perfect beings).

The weight of a world seeking revenge
Now, we may originally have been perfect, as beings created by a perfect God (in His own image), but something went wrong somewhere. According to the Bible, it was Adam & Eve’s disobedience because of which we exist as imperfect beings in an imperfect world, where we enter the world bringing pain—that of childbirth—and leave it with the same, i.e. suffering and death: all terrible things that Adam and Eve would never have had to endure, had they obeyed God’s instructions to not eat of the Tree of Knowledge. Their disobedience brought death, labor pain, AIDS and all kinds of entropy into the world as consequence, when they could have lived forever in a perfect world with each other and God. For some of us, all that is myth—fair enough—while some others view it as fact, but there’s one thing we can all testify to: that the world is in a fallen state, crying out for redemption, for a savior. That not everything is hunky dory—the very reason why most people question the existence of a perfect-by-definition God. As Dan Haseltine laments, “If the world was how it should be, maybe I could get some sleep. / While I lay, I'd dream we're better, scales were gone and faces lighter, / [But] when we wake we hate our brother, we still move to hurt each other…” Can all this wrongness be avenged, and the world be brought back to perfection again? St. Paul once said, taking our tsunamis and natural disasters into consideration as well, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves … groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Can this groan-filled period of perennial “revenge” (curse and consequence avenging sin) end? Can it be paid for, once and for all? Can we have a new world order?

Witnessed by those who later recorded the event, God’s selfless genius set out to answer those questions, through this ‘higher form of revenge’ I’d mentioned above: if His instruction to turn the other cheek was a footnote, then this would be the book; if that the trailer, then this the movie; that a hint, this everything He ever hinted at. Allow me to elaborate, using Jon Foreman’s (lead singer of Switchfoot) song “Revenge”, which I believe masterfully tells the story of how this ‘godly revenge’ was executed, through a murder. A story that he or his bandmates didn’t feel like putting a price tag on. Maybe they felt the story was priceless. Maybe because it’s a story about the greatest free gift ever. “About a specific murder,” said Jon once, while introducing the song.

The Song: identifying the speakers, and a pattern
As I set out to dissect the lyrics of this song, to understand it (that experience inspired this essay, hence my academic focus on it), it was difficult to identify the speaker in the song. I think it’s pretty obvious, if you read the lyrics, that they indisputably refer to Christ’s crucifixion. Sometimes it seemed like it was from the perspective of the thief hung on the cross next to Christ (to whom He said “today you will be with me in paradise”), at other times I wondered if it was Jon’s voice, while some lines, though it seemed a stretch, sounded like it could be Christ’s. As I chewed the cud some more, I found holes in each of those arguments, and stopped looking for one voice, realizing that it needn’t have just one speaker, but may be a cocktail of multiple voices. Like in a movie, where the director captures the subject through different lenses—the subject in this case being the image of Christ hung up on the cross. But to be reasonably sure that this was the effect Jon was trying to achieve, I needed to find a pattern, some kind of structure in the song. And find a pattern I did: with a new character in the fray – the Roman soldier whose conversion experience at the foot of the cross brings to mind the line “that’s when the irony hit me, [that] this was revenge”. All three voices in the song—the thief, the soldier, Jon—were hearts that were forever changed by the experience of witnessing Him hanging on the cross. The first two were the only ones in the Bible who experienced such revelation through being physically present at the crucifixion of Christ (pattern, anyone?), while Jon, admittedly a believer, represents everyone that can bring themselves to visualizing and appreciating the magnitude of what was taking place on that hillock some 2000 years ago. The speakers of the first six stanzas of the song also revealed a looping pattern: thief-soldier-Jon-thief-soldier-Jon. The last stanza, while somewhat continuing the pattern by leaning towards the thief’s voice (the words “Think of me, Lord” allude to the thief's plea, “Remember me, Lord”, in the biblical account of the crucifixion), seemed to blend all the voices, for a fitting conclusion that voices the cry of many hearts, not just the thief's. Over the next three sub-headings, I will attempt to substantiate my claim that the aforementioned speakers are the main voices in this impressive work of poetry.

The Song: the “thief” stanzas
I'm the failure, I'm everyone's fool
And I'm losing my cool at the end
I'm the loser, my number's come up
I've been hung up with thoughts of revenge
Revenge, revenge
(stanza 1)

I watched heaven dying today
And I'm gonna die here tonight
I'm a villain, I deserve to be dead
I've been hung up for wrecking my life
Revenge, revenge
(stanza 4)

The first stanza opens the song with clever subtlety, by making it hard to distinguish whether it’s Jon’s voice or the speaker is someone else—which helps artfully ease us into the story. It seems like it could be the voice of humanity: we, “the church of … the failures and the fools”, the soldiers who hung Him up, the thieves who made His death necessary. But, on a closer look at the song’s structure, and the lines “my number’s come up / I’ve been hung up with thoughts of revenge”, I felt I could safely assume the speaker is the thief, more than anyone else – the more repentant of the two thieves hung on crosses next to Christ’s for their crimes, the one who swallowed his pride, admitting that it was he who screwed up, aware that he was “losing [his] cool at the end”, rather than just losing it without pause and taking his bitterness out on the innocent Jesus who was hanging next to him, like the other thief did. In the fourth stanza (quoted above, which I’ve also identified as the thief’s voice), the lines “I’m a villain, I deserve to be dead / I’ve been hung up for wrecking my life”, seem to paraphrase the repentant thief’s words in the gospel account, “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man (Jesus) has done nothing wrong.”

The Song: the “soldier” stanzas
I watched you from my terminal view
As you struggled to rise to your end
I laughed hard at the insults we threw
As the weight of the world found revenge
Revenge, revenge
(stanza 2)

So I stopped for a moment
To look at the sun (or Son)
Die in the day
That's when the irony hit me
This was revenge
That love had descended
And stolen our pain away
(stanza 5)

The Roman soldier watched Christ being persecuted and led to his death, from his “terminal” view, i.e. his limited view – his point of view that lacked understanding of what was going on, or of who Christ was. As the soldier watched Christ “struggle to rise to [his] end” (after falling down when trying to carry the heavy cross amidst flogging, I would imagine), and as he “laughed hard at the insults [they] threw”, “the weight of the world found revenge.” You see, the weight of a world made heavy by its sins, was seeking revenge. All the bad deeds ever done were crying out for justice, the wrongs were crying to be righted. The voice of a murdered Abel's blood was “screaming to [God] from the ground.” But Abel's (and every other victimized person’s) vengeance was met in the most unexpected yet effective way – through someone else who led Himself to the slaughterhouse, to take upon Himself the punishment that was due to the murderers.

But, at the foot of the cross, as the spear that pierced Christ's belly brought forth gushing water, the soldier “stopped for a moment”. The gospel accounts say, when the Son (of God) breathed his last breath, the sun darkened at noon, and an earthquake broke open tombs, bringing many dead people back to life– nature revolted while observing the brutal murder of its Maker, and the power of death was loosened, as if to hint at Christ's resurrection which was soon to come. The irony of it all may have struck the Roman soldier when he looked at the darkened sun, or when he looked at the Son, or both—Jon seems to intentionally play with these homophones—as he exclaimed, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” But wait a minute; what’s the irony in any of this? [We would be in a better position to approach the answer to this question, the heart of this essay, after exploring the “Jon” stanzas below.]

The Song: the “Jon” stanzas
The world hung upside down
I drew first blood, I drew first blood
With my hate for a crown
I drew first blood, I drew first blood, revenge
(stanza 3)

We consumed heaven's Son
And I drew first blood, I drew first blood
And my hate was undone
I drew first blood, I drew first blood, revenge
(stanza 6)

In the above confessional stanzas, Jon points the finger at himself, rather than the Romans or the Jews or at thieves and soldiers who have killed way more people than Jon would ever as much as touch to harm. When I think of “the world hung upside down”, I can’t help but be reminded of that scene in the Passion of the Christ, where, after being cruelly flogged, Jesus was dragged along the ground by his arms, his body frontside-up and his head hanging upside-down, with the camera capturing the giddy, bloody-eyed view through Christ’s eyes. His world hung upside-down, and I drew first blood. With my hate for His crown (mine and humankind’s rebellion against God), I was necessitating His crucifixion. I necessitate His death, and metaphorically nail Him to that cross every day, because I’m not a good person. A far cry from His perfection, as I still live in my fallen flesh, in a fallen world. (Although we’re redeemed by faith, a complete, physical redemption of things is yet to come.) None of us are holy enough to have a relationship with a perfectly holy God, and we cannot achieve that holiness by our own strength, thanks to the corrupted bodies we're born with, and the corrupted world we're born into. But by His grace, and through His death, which wipes out my wrongs, God counts me as if I were good. Not only did Christ take up our sins so He was seen as if He were a sinner, but through His sacrifice, we can now take up Christ's holiness so we're seen as if we're as holy as Him. It's like we wear “Christ-masks”, because of which we can now have a relationship with a holy God even when we lead less-than-holy lives. “My hate was undone,” and gets undone still, when all the s*** in me was nailed to that cross, and gets nailed to it still. “We consumed heaven’s son”, while He let Himself be consumed – a once-and-for-all sacrifice for all sins.

The Beautiful Irony…
Here's a story
How a thief had been robbed
How a murder had stolen my rage
Think of me, Lord, I'm a few breaths away
As my lungs finally rip from the cage
Revenge
(stanza 7)

The reason for his brutal death wasn’t, as straightforward thinking (and the previous paragraph) might suggest, merely mankind’s “hate for a crown” (hate for authority/God), or merely some innate thirst for blood to atone for what we had no idea about, but it was God exacting His revenge on the sins of the world, ironically, by sacrificing Himself. In a way, we weren’t really the vengeful ones in the picture; instead, we were the ones who “drew first blood”, who caused the offence in the first place – and God was the one taking revenge, by shedding His own blood to pay for our act of drawing first blood – by paying for original sin (Adam & Eve’s), as well as all the sins mankind ever committed or will commit. He took revenge by hurting Himself, not us (the ones who actually deserved it). And this is the amazing irony, in how it was an act of revenge, yet, at the same time, an act of selfless love. Never have revenge or justice met in such perfect harmony with mercy, love or grace, as at the Cross. His “love had descended and stolen our pain away” – it wasn’t His pain, it was ours, but He stole it. He “tricked” or outsmarted the mathematical (one for one, tit for tat) system that justice is, to defeat it’s power over us: by cleverly stealing away the punishment that was due to us, while at the same time meeting the requirements of this justice-system, by taking the punishment upon Himself. His “murder had stolen my rage”. This was a story of “how a thief [on the cross] had been robbed.” By God.

Jon has said the theme of their album “Oh! Gravity.” is the rarely-asked question “why do good things happen to bad people?” (not the oft-asked “why do bad things happen to good people?”)—a question they have also raised in explicit relation to the idea of grace, when discussing the previous album “Nothing Is Sound”. Evidently, he was pondering this mystery: how could such grace, such goodness, such love and selflessness from our Maker, be meted out to undeserving, “bad” people like us? In another Switchfoot song, Jon wonders, “Is this fiction, or divine comedy? Hope has given Himself to the worst … Where the last of the last finish first.” This ‘amazing grace’, this unmerited favor, is the very heart of the Christian faith.

Conclusion: Have hatred and gravity won?
In conclusion, I think it’s fitting to consider the only line in the song “Revenge” that doesn’t fit into the stanza structure laid out above: “have hatred and gravity won?” Since the line is made to stand out in the song’s structure (and it’s not the bridge, but between stanzas 2 and 3), Jon might have intended the line to have extra importance. Interestingly, when explaining their song “Oh! Gravity.”, Jon referred to gravity as the force that binds everything, and said he was asking gravity why we couldn’t keep our relationships—our social world—together, like it kept our physical world together. In this sense, “hatred” and “gravity” are opposite ideas – one pulls apart, while the other binds. So, in light of the “Revenge” story, where other similarly opposing ideas like justice, mercy, revenge and love meet, I think Jon might be asking, “have hatred and gravity both won?” At the cross, in a way, they both did win, but briefly. The haters spat and killed and split the spoils, and love still descended. Love didn't take the hatred away, but absorbed it, paid for it, and then overlooked it because it was paid for – it was no longer messing up the equation. Just like even though we're sinners (i.e. hatred's victory), God now looks upon us as if we're holy, only because He paid for it (i.e. gravity's victory or essence now taken beyond just the physical world, through His death.) Though hatred and gravity seemed to have “won” temporarily at the cross, it was, in the end, gravity's (or God’s) victory, because Christ rose from the dead and thereby undid the work of hate, besides defeating death. The importance of this may have been best captured by Jaroslav Pelikan, right before he died, when he uttered the powerful sentiment, “If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen – nothing else matters.” That question, “have hatred and gravity won?”, and it's answer, I believe, summarizes this story, in a nutshell. The mystery of it, in a line.

Celebrating the risen Christ who overcame death and sin, many Christians sing Dr. Watts' old hymn on Sunday mornings:

Blood has a voice to pierce the skies:
'Revenge!' the blood of Abel cries;
But the dear stream when Christ was slain
Speaks peace as loud from ev'ry vein.

Though the blood of Christ speaks peace from every vein, it is only because it afforded that peace by accomplishing the greatest act of revenge ever – the very revenge that Abel’s murdered blood cried for. The very revenge that you and I cry for when we’re wronged. When He died, His last words weren’t “I am finished”, but “it is finished”. “It” was a mission, the very reason He stripped Himself of His right to remain in His comforts as God, and came down to earth to be one among us, to save us vermins who, in our ignorance, spat on our Maker and cruelly put Him to death. But He was in control all the while, executing a selfless masterplan, becoming The Way by which we may be saved from what we truly deserve. And His name is Love.

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