The Focus of Life

　　The first paragraph of The Purpose Driven Life says, “The focus of life must not be you!”

　　I have been a Christian for more than 20 years. My faith reminds me: The focus of life must not be on personal achievement or money, but always on God’s will. I need to make myself available to God, so that He can use me to carry out His purpose for my life. God has a specific will and plan for every believer. Therefore all believers should seriously seek God’s will and seek earnestly to discover God’s plan for their lives. This is not something we receive at a certain moment in life, but it is a process we continue to follow throughout our lives. We have to undergo careful reflection and interpretation in order to realize God’s perfect will.

　　What follows is the various stages of my own life in retrospect.

　　I became a Christian while I was still young. My academic life was by no means smooth. I could only complete my post-secondary education after a long, hard struggle. Having been enlightened by sociology, I became very interested in social values, philosophy and in-depth thinking. After graduation, I continued to study philosophy and politics in order to lay a solid foundation for critical and analytical thinking. I also began to study issues upon issues such as ethics and loss of social values. At that time, it did not occur to me whether or not my training was related to my faith. I only felt confident that faith and philosophy ought to be related.

　　Later, I had the opportunity to teach in a post-secondary institution. I taught the subject of “Hong Kong Society” from the sociological and historical perspectives. I had learnt much from my teaching. In those two years, I had a deeper understanding of the characteristics of the social structure, history and culture of Hong Kong. Though I liked teaching, God led me to go to work in a wonderful Christian organization, “Breakthrough.” In 1997, I began my nine years of research on the society and young people.

　　While I was working at “Breakthrough”, God allowed me to put to good use what I had learnt and what I was good at. From social research perspective and focusing on young people in current culture context, I could exercise my sensibility to life and society and give suggestions to my organization as to what issues and directions it should be concerned with. To help do my job better, I studied journalism which gave me a better understanding of the operation of mass media, especially how the Hong Kong media manipulate and affect the public. Since then, I had started to focus on studying the impact of media on young people’s culture and lives, especially on the study of network media.

　　For a minister of today to render effective ministry, a theological training is mandatory for enabling us to set our agenda and direction in life with solid convictions. Through God’s leading, I took an external course on theology. Dr. Andres Tang led me to understand that theological training could help me bring order to what I had already studied so that I could serve God more effectively. In 2003, I started to take elective courses at Hong Kong Baptist Theological Seminary. In the course of my study, I had a more comprehensive understanding about faith and the mission of theology. In particular, the Vice President, Dr. Joshua Cho’s two books on Christianity’s theory on human nature, general ethics and narrative theology inspired me to further my study in theology.

　　However, though I very much wanted to further my studies, I could not help but ask: Is this my idea or God’s idea? Since God had granted me so much grace and training opportunities, it was time for me to think about His will in my life and how He would use me. I am much indebted to Dr. Poling Sun (my church’s former advisory pastor). He carefully listened to my struggles and helped me affirm the evidence of God’s calling in the relation to my life’s journey. It then began to be clear to me that God could use my past training and work experience to integrate theology and social research. Dr. Sun helped me see clearly that God loves and honors my offering. Even though my many years of research had begun bearing fruit, I finally had the courage to lay it all aside and embark on the journey of theological study.

　　When I shared my calling with my supervisor and our organization’s chief executive, they both gave me their full support, allowing me to leave my post after a smooth handing over of my duties. This was a further affirmation of God’s will in my life. Throughout the process of thinking and planning, my wife had given me her full support. She was even willing to shoulder the responsibility of supporting the family and providing for the financial needs of our two daughters. This is really a great manifestation of God’s grace. The whole family supports my service and I can now concentrate myself fully on my study. Moreover, my church also greatly supports my decision and tries its best to help me financially.

　　I am convinced that whether I will serve in the field of theological education, in the church or in some Christian organization, God will definitely lead me to a place where I can be used by Him to serve Him for the advancement of His kingdom.