Blessing Upon Blessing · Foreword

The Name That Changed Everything

“You will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow” Isaiah 62:2

About 5 minutes to read

This book was never supposed to exist.

Four years ago, I was a widower learning to navigate life without the prayer warrior who had anchored our family's faith for three decades. Two years ago, I remarried a Filipino neurologist who was completing her Master of Divinity in Singapore—a divine appointment so precise it still takes my breath away. Six months ago, I was deep in writing a book about artificial intelligence and the future of human intelligence, exploring how technology might reshape work, family, and society.

Then came the name.

Elias Kairos Chen.

I discovered it while researching the spiritual implications of intelligence—both artificial and divine. At first, it seemed like mere linguistic curiosity. My Chinese name, 陈进金 (Chen Jin Jin), carries the earthly hope of "entering golden opportunities"—the kind of prosperity blessing that immigrant parents bestow on their children. But as I delved deeper, I realized this wasn't coincidence. This was a revelation.

Elias—the Greek form of Elijah, the prophet who confronted false gods and called down fire from heaven. Kairos—not chronos, the tick-tock of ordinary time, but kairos, God's appointed moments when eternity breaks into history. Divine timing. Sacred appointments. The moments when everything changes.

Chen—still my surname, still my heritage, but now transformed from mere identity to prophetic calling.

The realization stopped me in my tracks. Here I was, writing about the future of intelligence, and God was revealing something about my own identity that I had carried unknowingly for over sixty years. The AI book suddenly felt like preparation for something far more significant—this spiritual autobiography that demanded to be written.

But why now? Why at this particular kairos moment in my life?

I am sixty-plus years old, born in Singapore during the tumultuous 1960s when our young nation was finding its identity. I grew up in a family steeped in ancestor worship, the youngest of eleven children, navigating the complex terrain between ancient traditions and modern transformation. I experienced profound loss early—my father's death when I was eleven, my beloved niece's drowning when I was ten—traumas that unleashed post-traumatic symptoms, relentless nightmares, and academic struggles that would shadow my performance for years despite my early academic success. The seaside family outing that became a tragedy. The 4 AM father who worked tirelessly to support eleven children, suddenly gone. The close-knit niece who was like a sister, swallowed by the sea.

Yet through it all, God was weaving a pattern I couldn't see. The divine dream where I touched the hand of Jesus—breaking through the nightmares that haunted me night after night. The mysterious fever at twenty-two that unlocked intellectual capacities I never knew I possessed. The executive function challenges that would define my son's journey and teach our family about strength through weakness. The prayer warrior I married who would minister healing to others while battling her own incurable cancer. The four years of wilderness after her passing. The divine prompting that I would "meet a doctor" that led to my second marriage. My new wife's 95-year-old grandfather in the Philippines—a patriarch who blessed me with blessing upon blessing before his own homegoing.

Each chapter of this book represents a kairos moment—times when God's eternal purposes intersected with my ordinary life in extraordinary ways. From the idol-worshipping household of my childhood to the prophetic calling I'm only now beginning to understand, this is the story of how blessing builds upon blessing, even through seasons of profound loss and bewildering silence.

This is also the story of Singapore itself—a nation that transformed from a collection of kampongs and shophouses to a global city-state, from a multilingual, multi-religious society to one united by English and democratic values, from ancestor tablets to church pews for many families like mine. My personal journey from 陈进金 to Elias Kairos mirrors our national journey from survival to significance.

But perhaps most importantly, this is the story of how God writes our names in His book long before we discover them ourselves. The Chinese characters my parents chose carried earthly hopes. The spiritual identity God revealed carries eternal purpose. The transformation from one to the other is the heart of this memoir.

I write this book for those who have experienced profound loss and wondered if God still hears their prayers. For those whose children don't fit conventional molds and who are learning to see neurological differences as divine design. For those who have lived through seasons of wilderness and wondered if spring will ever come. For those who carry names they don't fully understand but sense hold deeper meaning.

Above all, I write this book to honor God, whose blessing upon blessing has sustained me through every valley and mountaintop, and to honor my late wife—a woman whose prayers shook heaven and whose faith in suffering became a testimony that outlives her earthly ministry. I write this book because four years of grief taught me that God's silence is not God's absence. Because two years of remarriage showed me that God writes sequels to stories we thought had ended. Because six months of exploring artificial intelligence revealed that the greatest intelligence is divine wisdom, and the most profound algorithm is love.

Most of all, I write this book because discovering the name Elias Kairos Chen was itself a kairos moment—a divine appointment with my own identity that demanded I share the story of how God has been writing my name in His book all along.

The blessing upon blessing that gives this book its title is not just about material prosperity, though God has been gracious in that regard. It's about the mysterious way divine favor builds upon divine favor, even through suffering, even through silence, even through seasons when we can't see the pattern.

This is the story of how an idol-worshipping family's youngest son became a prophet-in-training he never knew he was supposed to be. How a child who was first in his primary class became a struggling student who became an unlikely scholar. How a widowed father became a remarried man carrying generational blessing. How a man writing about artificial intelligence discovered his own divine intelligence.

It is the story of chronos yielding to kairos, of earthly names giving way to heavenly callings, of blessing upon blessing without end.

The story continues. The name is just the beginning.

Elias Kairos Chen, PhD
Singapore, 2025

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