I finally came around to cleaning up my room. I have finally decided to steel my heart and start throwing away all the things that I have not been able to bring myself to throw away for the past 21 years.
As with every spring cleaning, I always take more than 3 days and Day 1 just passed yesterday. Today wasn't counted as Day 2 because I didn't do anything.
So I was cleaning out my drawers, and I found this file where I kept a bunch of things from my overseas trip w my school when I was in Pri 6. I found the itinerary, Do's and Don'ts of the trip, To-Bring List, a journal of the trip (I forget if we were told to write it or I brought that book along to write because that book is simply too ugly for me to have bought it), and some other miscellaneous things. What really amused me was of course the journal. I was seriously amused by my thoughts when I was that age. And I do remember some of the things that happened, though I really cannot remember what I did wrong that got me a scolding from Mrs Samuel.
That trip rocked though. School trips are the best way to travel. OK, sometimes. Not all the time. AARRRRR I want to go back to pri sch!!
And I think I made friends rather easily back then unlike now. I was really close to this girl who was like in a class that was the opposite end of mine, both geographically and "level-ly" during the trip. I'm quite sad that I didn't continue e friendship but then again, I didn't even continue w those in my class. :/
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
一辈子不离开祢
Your love is king,
crown You in my heart.
Your love is king.
You're the ruler of my heart.
- Your Love is King by Sade
crown You in my heart.
Your love is king.
You're the ruler of my heart.
- Your Love is King by Sade
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church in California , gave the invocation at the Presidential inauguration last night. His insights about life are remarkable, especially now that his wife has cancer and he has garnered tremendous wealth from sales of his book.
When interviewed by Paul Bradshaw, these are the things Rick said:
People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.
God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is ※my problem, my issues, my pain.§ But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.
It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings , not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD .
Painful moments, TRUST GOD .
Every moment, THANK GOD.
When interviewed by Paul Bradshaw, these are the things Rick said:
People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.
God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is ※my problem, my issues, my pain.§ But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.
It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings , not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD .
Painful moments, TRUST GOD .
Every moment, THANK GOD.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Of Bad Moods and Happenings
Last Sunday started bad. I think my tiredness contributed a lot to my bad mood, but seriously, I was not in that mood while on my way to church. My brain was still half asleep then.
I know I shouldn't have spoken so brash and rudely, but really.
Saturday was good though. Highlight of my week. Or month if you come to think about it. Not that I have much happening in my life now, you understand.
I think both Jane and Eileen are also quite satisfied with our V-day outing w each other because.... we finally managed to play court! Yes! Usually when we go down to Sentosa, we don't play in the beach volleyball courts because there are so few in Siloso. Last Sat we decided to head to Tanjong beach because we anticipated a huge crowd in Siloso. I don't really like Tanjong beach because of the extremely coarse sand there as opposed to Siloso's finer sand, but it turned out to be a great decision because, maybe due to the smaller crowd and thus bigger space, there are a lot of courts around the area and we managed to play in one for a while! Yay!
I'm so happy we finally got to play court and I really really miss the feeling of playing as a team and all that. BUT, I also found out that I have really lost my touch in playing in court. I couldn't receive the balls properly. Nvm, we shall practice lots!! We just have to find the people to do so. :/
This almost compensates for the tan I get for every time we play. Almost.
Oh, and we had a super.... exciting V-day dinner. We totally underestimated the V-day crowd and spent around 30mins walking around Vivocity looking for a place to eat. In e end, we were too hungry and decided to get sushi from Cold Storage and eat them by the sea. How romantic.
I know I shouldn't have spoken so brash and rudely, but really.
Saturday was good though. Highlight of my week. Or month if you come to think about it. Not that I have much happening in my life now, you understand.
I think both Jane and Eileen are also quite satisfied with our V-day outing w each other because.... we finally managed to play court! Yes! Usually when we go down to Sentosa, we don't play in the beach volleyball courts because there are so few in Siloso. Last Sat we decided to head to Tanjong beach because we anticipated a huge crowd in Siloso. I don't really like Tanjong beach because of the extremely coarse sand there as opposed to Siloso's finer sand, but it turned out to be a great decision because, maybe due to the smaller crowd and thus bigger space, there are a lot of courts around the area and we managed to play in one for a while! Yay!
I'm so happy we finally got to play court and I really really miss the feeling of playing as a team and all that. BUT, I also found out that I have really lost my touch in playing in court. I couldn't receive the balls properly. Nvm, we shall practice lots!! We just have to find the people to do so. :/
This almost compensates for the tan I get for every time we play. Almost.
Oh, and we had a super.... exciting V-day dinner. We totally underestimated the V-day crowd and spent around 30mins walking around Vivocity looking for a place to eat. In e end, we were too hungry and decided to get sushi from Cold Storage and eat them by the sea. How romantic.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Life's a Beautiful Mess
As always, I have TONS of things to blog about. So many that I am too lazy to sort them out. I'll list them out in case I forget them: Christmas, looking back and looking forward, YA Camp, random stuffs.
But let's go one at a time in case I get confusing.
First things first, Christmas. Or rather, life after TMX.
I managed to get through the final 2 weeks of 2008 not without some struggle. I finished the data entry in 3 days with about 9hrs of slp throughout that 3 days. After that, I had gatherings every other day. Admittedly, I slacked some hours away in front of the computer and my books, but time was spent on preparing for the gatherings as well! Especially with the potlucks.
My greatest regret this Christmas is not sending out Christmas cards especially to my Pri sch friends. I do it every year, and I think they were expecting it. But I disappointed them! I feel quite sad even now as I type this. :(
Never mind. What's done is done. Or rather, what was not done has to be left undone.
I promise I'll send cards out this Christmas!!
Anyways, I wanna post photos!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The above was typed more than a month ago. See how great a procrastinator I am? Anyways, below are the photos that I wanted to post:
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