I learnt today that not all things that seems to be 'spiritually sounding' came necessarily from God. Not all good things means good at the wrong time.
Take for example, my boss just gave birth to a baby boy after being married for 10 years...
A lot of people were overjoyed! A lot of people showered them with happiness and blessings..
I then thought about what if there is a 17-year old girl, not married and is heavily pregnant, where the man is still schooling or just entered the work-force and is not able to take care of the baby.
In contrast, both events are actually happy events. Where a new life is born, and having a baby is a happy thing. However, timing and circumstances simply doesn't show that it's that 'happy' or 'blessed' or 'wonderful'.
I learnt in church today that the sheep will always be able to identify when the Sheperd calls. The voice is un-mistakeably clear, and sheeps, no matter how 'dumb' they may-be, still recognizes that voice. The same parallel was drawn between us, Human, the sheep, and God (the Sheperd). Still, I wonder, will the sheperd ask the sheep to do something 'sounding-right' yet leads to a wrong?
Now then, if the sheperd has a family member and tries to mimic the voice of the sheperd, and make the sheep do something foolish (like over-eat or over-run/walk to someone else's field...) that's possible isn't it?
Therefore, lesson learnt today:
I realize many at times, hearing God is simply this: submitting to God's will in areas where I know I have to let God take control, and trusting that in such situations, I need not fret, worry or be in-charge.
So, in view of going overseas to plant a church:
- it's not whether to go or not to go which determines God's will. It's how I think about it, how I analyze the situation, how I work towards finding a conclusion, what's my thought process in prioritizing what's important at this point... I guess that's what God's will and hearing God really-really mean.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Man needs to be Bold and Something Worthwhile Doing
I recently learnt that as a man, we ought to be bold in the things we do.
Not to be rash or irrational, however, sometimes its a thin line that we may cross over which may hurt others around us. Nevertheless, I realized the drive in which men have or is designed with, requires a certain level of boldness to activate it.
I have a friend who naturally has a soft personality. Everything he does is done gently and slowly. And there seems to be a problem. He's trying to lose weight, but he simply can't lose anymore even though he exercised or changed his diet. My conclusion, there is not enough drive in his life to burn the excess 'fats' or food in his body.
Therefore, if you are a man, and you would like to lose weight, you ought to learn to be bolder in the things you do, in the decisions you make.
p.s. I am making an assumption here. No theories what-so-ever. But in my life and some other people's lives, I do see ourselves eat much more than our 'diet-brothers', and yet, we maintain a more stable weight/size ratio than them.
===================================================================================
Since I have not written for a while, I thought sharing 2 lessons will be appropriate...
I went out to hang-out late night on a Friday evening. I Stay in the western part of the island while most of my friends stay either in the north, north-east and eastern part of the land. Considering the cost of the hang-out, I felt that it wasn't at all appealing. even my way back using taxi costs more than my drinks and food combined!
As I Was going home on a taxi, I couldn't stop thinking about what made me do what I did and whether it was worthwhile.
My conclusion, simple: It was worth every while of it because I am not doing it for myself, but for the benefit of the unity in the group of friends. Plus, it was once in a long while hang-out which, it may be a good opportunity to bond and grow closer in our relationship with one another.
p.s. I drank Pina Colada last night. Interesting drink, and I slept very well after that!
Definition:
A tropically flavored alcoholic beverage made with coconut cream, pineapple juice, and rum. The coconut-pineapple flavor has also become popular ...
The earliest reference to a drink called a piña colada containing rum, coconut cream and pineapple juice, occurred in the April 16, 1950, edition of the New York Times:
Drinks in the West Indies range from Martinique's famous rum punch to Cuba's pina colada (rum, pineapple chunks and coconut milk). Key West has a variety of lime swizzles and punches, and Granadians use nutmeg in their rum drinks.
Not to be rash or irrational, however, sometimes its a thin line that we may cross over which may hurt others around us. Nevertheless, I realized the drive in which men have or is designed with, requires a certain level of boldness to activate it.
I have a friend who naturally has a soft personality. Everything he does is done gently and slowly. And there seems to be a problem. He's trying to lose weight, but he simply can't lose anymore even though he exercised or changed his diet. My conclusion, there is not enough drive in his life to burn the excess 'fats' or food in his body.
Therefore, if you are a man, and you would like to lose weight, you ought to learn to be bolder in the things you do, in the decisions you make.
p.s. I am making an assumption here. No theories what-so-ever. But in my life and some other people's lives, I do see ourselves eat much more than our 'diet-brothers', and yet, we maintain a more stable weight/size ratio than them.
===================================================================================
Since I have not written for a while, I thought sharing 2 lessons will be appropriate...
I went out to hang-out late night on a Friday evening. I Stay in the western part of the island while most of my friends stay either in the north, north-east and eastern part of the land. Considering the cost of the hang-out, I felt that it wasn't at all appealing. even my way back using taxi costs more than my drinks and food combined!
As I Was going home on a taxi, I couldn't stop thinking about what made me do what I did and whether it was worthwhile.
My conclusion, simple: It was worth every while of it because I am not doing it for myself, but for the benefit of the unity in the group of friends. Plus, it was once in a long while hang-out which, it may be a good opportunity to bond and grow closer in our relationship with one another.
p.s. I drank Pina Colada last night. Interesting drink, and I slept very well after that!
Definition:
A tropically flavored alcoholic beverage made with coconut cream, pineapple juice, and rum. The coconut-pineapple flavor has also become popular ...
The earliest reference to a drink called a piña colada containing rum, coconut cream and pineapple juice, occurred in the April 16, 1950, edition of the New York Times:
Drinks in the West Indies range from Martinique's famous rum punch to Cuba's pina colada (rum, pineapple chunks and coconut milk). Key West has a variety of lime swizzles and punches, and Granadians use nutmeg in their rum drinks.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Something about Love and Our Soul
I learnt something from the movie Wall-E this evening.
Well actually, the movie shed some truths about man-kind for me. But before I get into the abstracts of the different things that was brought up, I just want to share something closer to home.
Lesson 01: Our Soul is what gives us hope, faith and ability to Love
I realized that no amount of system, no amount of programming, no amount of procedures can replace human beings capability to feel. Our minds and strengths are inter-twined with our capability to hope, have faith and extend it to love, which allows us to be far more superior than machines.
we may live a life of routine, but in every single chore we carry out, there is an element of hope (if it turns out bad, it can be better), faith (i know i don't see it now, but i know i will see it later), and love (what definition does this characteristics need?)
I liked the part in Wall-E where robots are just robots with a set of instructions to follow. However, even when everything is 'fried' (just like human, when we're really-really sick), our ability to feel, to have hope and faith, is simply beyond any medical marvel (organ transplant, tissues regeneration, cure for cancer)...
Bottom-line, we may feel useless sometimes, in-competent, non-beneficial to the society, useless, of no benefit to people around, or burden... Put these negative characteristics aside, simply being human, is able to inspire, persevere, love, hope, believe.... Isn't it wonderful to be a human!
Lesson 02: Love is so strong, that even when Robots sees us, they get impacted!
One thing I realized from the show is that we as humans may invent things, give instructions, create machines, computers, robots as tools to help us do the chores that we've set them to do. But, we never program, tried programming, or make them to inspire, persevere, hope, have faith, love!
And the most amazing thing is, even while we did not configure them to do these or inhibit these qualities in them, by simply watching and observing, even a 'machine' understood and was able to identify, pick up, learn and apply into its artificial intelligence.
The best part, it comes without teaching nor instructing. One has to simply watch, and learn!
Bottom-line, if machines are able to watch and learn to love (or the lack of it), then what more our kids, our children, the little ones around us... They are watching your (my) every move in the way I exhibit these wonderful qualities...
Hope these 2 lessons I learnt today can be a blessing to you!
Well actually, the movie shed some truths about man-kind for me. But before I get into the abstracts of the different things that was brought up, I just want to share something closer to home.
Lesson 01: Our Soul is what gives us hope, faith and ability to Love
I realized that no amount of system, no amount of programming, no amount of procedures can replace human beings capability to feel. Our minds and strengths are inter-twined with our capability to hope, have faith and extend it to love, which allows us to be far more superior than machines.
we may live a life of routine, but in every single chore we carry out, there is an element of hope (if it turns out bad, it can be better), faith (i know i don't see it now, but i know i will see it later), and love (what definition does this characteristics need?)
I liked the part in Wall-E where robots are just robots with a set of instructions to follow. However, even when everything is 'fried' (just like human, when we're really-really sick), our ability to feel, to have hope and faith, is simply beyond any medical marvel (organ transplant, tissues regeneration, cure for cancer)...
Bottom-line, we may feel useless sometimes, in-competent, non-beneficial to the society, useless, of no benefit to people around, or burden... Put these negative characteristics aside, simply being human, is able to inspire, persevere, love, hope, believe.... Isn't it wonderful to be a human!
Lesson 02: Love is so strong, that even when Robots sees us, they get impacted!
One thing I realized from the show is that we as humans may invent things, give instructions, create machines, computers, robots as tools to help us do the chores that we've set them to do. But, we never program, tried programming, or make them to inspire, persevere, hope, have faith, love!
And the most amazing thing is, even while we did not configure them to do these or inhibit these qualities in them, by simply watching and observing, even a 'machine' understood and was able to identify, pick up, learn and apply into its artificial intelligence.
The best part, it comes without teaching nor instructing. One has to simply watch, and learn!
Bottom-line, if machines are able to watch and learn to love (or the lack of it), then what more our kids, our children, the little ones around us... They are watching your (my) every move in the way I exhibit these wonderful qualities...
Hope these 2 lessons I learnt today can be a blessing to you!
Powered by ScribeFire.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
To Quit or Not to Quit
How do you define a moment whether or not we are to stop trying and quit, or persevere and hold on?
In the perspective of a Christian, I believe it's determined by God in the way He engineers situations and problems/issues. Question is, do we have then enough faith to believe and persevere?
What about any normal person who has no faith in a superior being in control of their lives? What would they base upon whether or not to quit or persevere?
After 1 minute of thoughts, I realized that it could be through:
1) Whether or not I am happy (Feelings)
2) Whether it benefits me anymore or not (Logic)
3) Whether it does any harm towards me (Self-beneficial, Health)
4) Whether it has any prospect (Self-beneficial, Dreams and goals)
Question is:
as a Christian, me in this case, should the reason I stick with staying or quitting be determined by these factors, or should these factors be over-ruled because of my faith?
In the perspective of a Christian, I believe it's determined by God in the way He engineers situations and problems/issues. Question is, do we have then enough faith to believe and persevere?
What about any normal person who has no faith in a superior being in control of their lives? What would they base upon whether or not to quit or persevere?
After 1 minute of thoughts, I realized that it could be through:
1) Whether or not I am happy (Feelings)
2) Whether it benefits me anymore or not (Logic)
3) Whether it does any harm towards me (Self-beneficial, Health)
4) Whether it has any prospect (Self-beneficial, Dreams and goals)
Question is:
as a Christian, me in this case, should the reason I stick with staying or quitting be determined by these factors, or should these factors be over-ruled because of my faith?
Powered by ScribeFire.
Monday, August 25, 2008
My Bucket List
My Bucket List (The List of things I want to do before I die!)
1) View something very maginificent
- Everest Base Camp
2) Write a book
3) Go through a pilgrimage route (hike for 14-days)
That's all for now I guess...
But I think what will make this very significant is to do it with the 2-Gs in my life. By then I hope one becomes a W.
Lesson Learnt: It's the moment, not the experience, which makes one event significant in our lives.
1) View something very maginificent
- Everest Base Camp
2) Write a book
3) Go through a pilgrimage route (hike for 14-days)
That's all for now I guess...
But I think what will make this very significant is to do it with the 2-Gs in my life. By then I hope one becomes a W.
Lesson Learnt: It's the moment, not the experience, which makes one event significant in our lives.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Focusedness in Life
I learnt something while watching handball olympics competition between Denmark and Korea this afternoon.
If I were appointed by the president/king to introduce handball in Singapore, to form a team to compete in the Olympics in 2020, how and where would I start?
Perhaps I would look at the primary school students, those who are in their early ages of pre-teen-hood and slightly over-teen-hood, otherwise, I would take MRT several times a day just to spot on a few people who might have been a suitable candidate for such a team. Challenge is, what kind of a player would I require to build this team?
Cut long story short, I may get him from people who plays rugby, or street-soccer, or hockey, perhaps even a goal keeper... They will be multi-talented and multi-skilled, and able to be versatile in their games... Most importantly, I must enable the team to function and live as a team, in their imperfect selves!
My point is not to build a team for Singapore to play hand-ball. But its about me. I realized that one can never be the expert for everything. One can never have enough time to accomplish so much 'perfection'! I look at my church leader/brother, who at 35, runs marathons, working on finishing a tri-athlon and so on. And in doing so, he channels what he wants to be good at, competitively and leisurely at that. I thought, what a fulfillment that will be, by being focused and content at the focus!
Conclusion: Lessons that I learnt today is I need to work on getting my focus. I am so oft battered by the 'wants' in life in terms of knowledge, that I miss out in what God has blessed / given me! Unless I am needed to play handball because there are simply no other players available, otherwise, I should work on what I do best, to continue in being the best in what I do!
So I decide to list down this list in the areas I want to do well, maintain consistency, but not to be the best, simply know how, so that I can enjoy:
1) Arts
- Learn to dance
- Learn to draw caricature
2) Music
- Learn how to play guitar
- Learn how to play harmonica better
- Learn how to sing properly
- Learn how to conduct
3) Engineering
- Learn assembly programming
- Learn PHP
- Learn Dot.Net
- Learn Ruby
- Learn digital processing
4) IT
- Be the best IT Geek around
- Get my MCSE
- Get my MCT
- Be an MVP
5) Sports
- Run a marathon
- Learn to swim free-style
6) Life skills
- Get my driving license
- Learn to teach better
- Learn how to present better
I Hope thats all....
If I were appointed by the president/king to introduce handball in Singapore, to form a team to compete in the Olympics in 2020, how and where would I start?
Perhaps I would look at the primary school students, those who are in their early ages of pre-teen-hood and slightly over-teen-hood, otherwise, I would take MRT several times a day just to spot on a few people who might have been a suitable candidate for such a team. Challenge is, what kind of a player would I require to build this team?
Cut long story short, I may get him from people who plays rugby, or street-soccer, or hockey, perhaps even a goal keeper... They will be multi-talented and multi-skilled, and able to be versatile in their games... Most importantly, I must enable the team to function and live as a team, in their imperfect selves!
My point is not to build a team for Singapore to play hand-ball. But its about me. I realized that one can never be the expert for everything. One can never have enough time to accomplish so much 'perfection'! I look at my church leader/brother, who at 35, runs marathons, working on finishing a tri-athlon and so on. And in doing so, he channels what he wants to be good at, competitively and leisurely at that. I thought, what a fulfillment that will be, by being focused and content at the focus!
Conclusion: Lessons that I learnt today is I need to work on getting my focus. I am so oft battered by the 'wants' in life in terms of knowledge, that I miss out in what God has blessed / given me! Unless I am needed to play handball because there are simply no other players available, otherwise, I should work on what I do best, to continue in being the best in what I do!
So I decide to list down this list in the areas I want to do well, maintain consistency, but not to be the best, simply know how, so that I can enjoy:
1) Arts
- Learn to dance
- Learn to draw caricature
2) Music
- Learn how to play guitar
- Learn how to play harmonica better
- Learn how to sing properly
- Learn how to conduct
3) Engineering
- Learn assembly programming
- Learn PHP
- Learn Dot.Net
- Learn Ruby
- Learn digital processing
4) IT
- Be the best IT Geek around
- Get my MCSE
- Get my MCT
- Be an MVP
5) Sports
- Run a marathon
- Learn to swim free-style
6) Life skills
- Get my driving license
- Learn to teach better
- Learn how to present better
I Hope thats all....
Monday, August 18, 2008
Lessons I learnt when I was seventeen - Part 3
One Man can change a nation!
One day can change a year!
One moment, can change a lifetime!
Thank God I had these moments:
- I accepted an invitation to church
- I got baptized to Christ
- I returned a call to help BIS
- I asked April to be my GF
Why Study..
Maths!
God gave us brain, and He gave us things. He gave us Maths as a tool so that with the things He provided, we can maximize and replicate, thus revering Him.
Science!
Its so that we may understand why God made things in a certain way, so that we can be grateful and appreciate of what's been given to us.
One day can change a year!
One moment, can change a lifetime!
Thank God I had these moments:
- I accepted an invitation to church
- I got baptized to Christ
- I returned a call to help BIS
- I asked April to be my GF
Why Study..
Maths!
God gave us brain, and He gave us things. He gave us Maths as a tool so that with the things He provided, we can maximize and replicate, thus revering Him.
Science!
Its so that we may understand why God made things in a certain way, so that we can be grateful and appreciate of what's been given to us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)