Righteousness in the heart

Attended the Asia Pacific Family Dialogue from 11 to 13 October with D and Ethan, as participants and rapporteurs. Met people from all over the country and the world, and heard all kinds of interesting facts and figures, comments, queries, anecdotes, from all sorts of speakers, some good, others who have apparently not taken any public speaking courses in their life.

One unforgettable lady was a 30 or 40 something year old gynaecologist from Afghanistan, by the name of Fakhriah Haseem. She had come to learn from all of us and not so much as to share with us how they do things in her country, she said in her halting English. "We are just rebuilding our country now. There is so much to do." The elections for their president were going on while she was preparing to come over here, so she had missed casting her vote. But hey, she's here, and going back to work with the government, the ministry of health, to rebuild her poor war-torn country. I felt really excited to meet her because I had recently finished a book My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban, a Young Woman's Story by Latifa (a pseudonym) and had got a glimpse of what it had been like, living under the oppressive regime of the fundamentalist Muslims, especially as a female. It was worse than prison, it was femicide. And now there's freedom to come out of the house, even of the country, freedom to work and freedom to breathe and live.

Another lady was an old varsity mate whom I hadn't seen in over 20 years. She could recognise me and I her, and we were telling each other how we haven't changed. I guess it means that we don't really change physically through the years, though I hope we grow wiser and not duller. She had done an Arts course and became a teacher in the small town of Mentakab for many years. And now, to my surprise, she had taken up law and is practising in a firm in PJ. She's still single, and the session we were attending was on the subject of the rising number of singles, so we got to talking and realizing that many of our contemporaries have remained single. But they're living full and busy lives as pastors, real estate agents, teachers, lawyers, etc., and looking good.

One thing I took back from the Conference was a little bookmark they gave us with our bags and folders containing this Chinese proverb:

"If there is righteousness in the heart,
there will be beauty in character.
If there is beauty in character,
there will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
there will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
there will be peace in the world."

How true! Lord, grant that we may hunger and thirst more and more for righteousness, for then we will be filled, and satisfied and have peace within and without.