Maintaining your reputation is a very wise thing to do. The image you project is part of your reputation. It's not just a wise thing, but a requirement for office of a bishop in the church: "He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap." (1 Tim 3:7).

[The fact that Paul mention's the devil also links maintaining our reputation as part of spiritual warfare.]

We work and live in a society. If we live alone, perhaps we needn't care. But in a society of humans we deal with other humans, and humans have memory. They remember. Also, they communicate.

Reputation helps us to extend our boundaries of influence. It helps us to open doors and thereby allows us to create change. (Esther 9:4)

In fact, reputation is so important that the entire industry of marketing and branding is built around the concept of reputation.

But maybe because of that, the idea of maintaining your reputation has gone into the area of sin, as-in spin and lying.

But I think that that is a corruption of something good. We should maintain our reputation but not through lying but in living a good life and as well as demonstrating love, and faithfulness towards others. (Proverbs 3:3-4).

But the "new economy" that the media portrays, one of making millions of dollars overnight isn't what it's talking about.

In Homesteading the Noosphere: the gift economy model is proposed as a better model to explain why people give away software for free rather than to try to charge for it.

The new economy is the gift-economy. In times of abundance, when people already have their basic needs met, it is the gift economy that is working.

And what are they working for? Reputation.

I've been reading the book of Proverbs recently, and one of the lessons I'm learning from the book is that reputation is very, very important. "A good name is better than fine perfume.",

It reminds me of the verse in Psalms 112:9 "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor, his righteousness endures forever; his horn will be lifted high in honor." Notwithstanding that, the word gift is mentioned 159 times in the Bible and of course, there is the tradition of Christmas.

I think that we should move on to the gift economy and recognize that that is a very good indicator that we live with an abundance mentality.

Some people criticize that gift giving is actually binding people into social obligations. That is true. The word gift may sometimes be used to mean bribes or used to curry favor. But that reminds me of another verse that says:

"And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked."

The gentiles when they "give" give with an expectation of reciprocity. But a true follower of Christ gives without expecting anything in return. Does that mean you can steal, and rob Christians by conveniently borrowing and never returning? Could you borrow a car from a Christian and not return it? I think what Jesus meant by this is not to make us chumps but for us not to be obsessed with getting something in return. It does not exclude virtues like being wise in discriminating good from evil, and in good stewardship of money. We shouldn't be chumps in lending money to people that we discern are evil or scoundrels or untrustworthy. But we should not be scrooges hoarding our money, but look forward to blessing our fellow man, not turning a blind eye to those who are in need.

I think gift giving may be a outward sign of someone having "Ubuntu" (the philosophy, not the Operating System), a recognition that we are all interconnected and part of a community of human beings.

But that is digressing the point. Ethics is not the main point of this article.

After thinking about it, I think that we should not be looking for what is fair. That we should look for what we think we should receive for what we gave, but instead at the end of our lives to look back and see that we have given of ourselves more than what others expected or deserve.

But discipline is a good word. It's a hard, it's tough, but that's the only way to train yourself to be a warrior, to be a lean mean fighting machine.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page didn't attend a course on "How to Create a World Class Search Engine". There was no textbook for them to refer to. No model answer on "What will you do to become a billionaire." Bill Gates did not attend a course on "How to write an OS for the IBM PC 101".

In fact, that wasn't their goal in the first place. What they wanted to do was to create a search engine that was better than the rest. What Gates wanted to do was to take advantage of an opportunity. They didn't plan to become a global dominant leader. They started out in pursuit of excellence.

To be an entrepreneur means that you always have to learn. It means that there is no course for you to attend. Entrepreneurship is a journey of learning and self-discovery. You discover and create solutions to problems you come across the way, some will have been encountered by other people along the way and you can learn from them, but there will be some situations which will be unique to you and that only you can solve.

Therefore I think that attitudes like being goal-focused, discipline, trusting yourself and skills like being socially aware and problem solving are more important. There is no model answer. Life isn't just a knowledge game, it is one of doing, of becoming, of overcoming.

The mentally ill believe or cling on to ideas that are unreal. Those that are committed to institutations may believe that someone may hate them, or another person is jealous about their skills, or that they are the king of world, Napoleon Bonaparte, Jesus Christ. They may believe someone loves them when they don't. They may have some grandiose dreams like creating a theme park, etc.

But the more I think about it, then perhaps all of us are in some ways mentally ill. It's just that those in mental wards believe in it too much and impose it on others to the detriment of society. For the rest of us, with our mentally ill ideas we keep secret.

And that's why we all need therapy. For those of us who are not committed (yet), we harbour our own grandiose ideas, ambitions, longings, desires, fears, paranoia. The desire to be rich, to be well liked. These goals are not wrong in themselves, and we should do our best to be creative, to excel, to change ourselves, to create in the world and in ourselves something that did not exist before.

But if reality provides feedback, then we should reconsider it with due wisdom and diligence, we should take both the "good" and "bad" as feedback and readjust our goals and effort accordingly instead of accusing the world.

"But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." (Rev 21:8)

Cowardice is something that isn't really tolerated in a child of God. Yes, the meek shall inherit the earth, but meekness doesn't mean cowardice.

It's a verse that often tells me to do the brave thing and not to let fear rule over me.

That's because if you believe that God shouldn't allow such things to happen, then the book of Revelation quite contradicts that kind of belief where we have prophecies of God allowing unimaginable amounts of destruction on the earth including allusions to meteorite impacts, devastation of 1/3 of the earth's land mass, contamination of 1/3 of the water supply, diseases that ravage 1/3 of human population, etc.

We'd like to believe in a Santa Claus god. A god who gives presents, or treats us to ice-cream or molly coddles us.

I think the book of Revelation puts that to bed. Yes, God is one who loves us so much that he gave his only son to die for us, but there are so many aspects of God that no one image can adequately describe him. To subscribe to one image is idolatry.

It's interesting that when it comes to thinking about God now, how can I pray or communicate to him without creating an image in my mind?

I couldn't help but wonder the implied implication that Cowboy Caleb equates love with sex.

Love isn't sex. If a man truly loves a woman he will honour her and NOT have sex with a woman.

If a woman cannot have sex does that mean a man can leave her because he cannot have sex and henceforth cannot love her? In fact, quite the opposite, it is the test of a man's love that he will remain with her despite not having sex.

Despair is the ultimate development of a pride so great and so stiff-necked that it selects the absolute misery of damnation rather than accept happiness from the hands of God and thereby acknowledge that he is above us and that we are not capable of fulfilling our destiny ourselves.

But a man who is truly humble cannot despair, because in a humble man there is no longer any such thing as self-pity.

Thomas Merton

But I realize that "Just Don't Do It" is an equally good motto. I know a couple of friends who will just give me "the look" if I even mildly suggest something that is off track. "The look" tells me "don't do it!"

If some activity has no benefit but plenty of pitfalls, their "just don't do it" message gets me on track. There are some things that we should just not do. Not because of being holier than thou or to be better than the fellow man or even as a programmed parent-child ego state response, but just because there is absolutely no benefit and plenty of drawbacks. That look that my friend gives is one of "don't be a stupid fool", and to tell the truth, I'm thankful for my friends for it.

The term being holy doesn't seem to be one that is common in our everyday language.

Yet that is part of the identity of a Christian. We are chosen, holy and dearly loved by God. But somehow we don't behave as if we were. Being holy means we are special in the eyes of God.

Do we believe we are special? It doesn't mean we are better than our fellow man. Its not that we are cleverer or more beautiful than others. But it's just the realization that our position is different in the eyes of God. And because of that, we should walk with our heads straight, not down.

Because of our position, we should behave in ways that befit it. How would we expect the King of England to behave? How should we expect an ambassador to behave?

Imagine a prince or emperor goes out to visit and mingle with his people. But he is in disguise. He comes out in disguise, sometimes as a beggar, sometimes as an engineer, sometimes a teacher. In this disguise, he is sometimes respected, but often times looked down and insulted. Yet does the treatment he gets while in disguise entitle him to behave unroyally? No, while he has not revealed his true identity he must maintain his dignity. No matter the situation he is put in, as long as he remembers his identity he can maintain an attitude of self-respect and servanthood.

Being holier than thou is a form of pride. But we must remember that our fellow man is also a fellow prince, the only thing is that he too may not realize it or refuses to acknowledge his identity. You may as well be proud that you are human.

But back to holiness. Realizing that we are holy allows us to even do menial things with dignity. It gives us also authority to rebuke (or overlook) insults. The more we realize our identity, the more we will change our behaviour.

It is because we are holy that we do not engage in impure behaviour, actions, thoughts or speech. It is because we are holy that we have esteem. It is because we are holy that we can do the simplest task with dignity or achieve great things with confidence.

The photo on the right is the teeny tiny earpiece we used as actors for the gag. The director would give instructions through it. It's as small as a single peanut seed. But it costs S$2000.

It was a great experience. I worked with the director Dagan for a special gag. (I won't reveal what it was, but it will certainly raise a few eyebrows).

Lessons learnt from the audition process and actual shoot:

For JFL gags, if yours is the first on that day. Don't be late. Every bit of sunlight is important to squeeze in more takes. If it's an 8:15 call time, be there at 8. I'm glad I took a cab. Filming was good to go at 8:30am.

Bring a mirror with you on shoots, its easier to see your expressions and know what the director wants. In fact, bring a mirror during rehearsals, so you'll know what he wants. It's hard to create a certain expression without seeing what you are doing right or wrong.

Wear a singlet underneath your shirt to absorb sweat. It's hot filming during the day time outdoors.

Wear something with a plain colour. Stripes may cause a shimmering effect for the camera.

If you're shooting a kissing scene, floss, mouthwash and brush your teeth before the shoot. Bring breath mints as well.

If you are bringing a partner for an audition/shoot, always have a backup in case she backs out. Always explain to the partner what the shoot entails.