Remember God's Grace

I picture the Christian life as a race along a straight highway ala the AutoBahn over in Germany, with countless numbers of awesome breathtaking sights and scenes on both sides.

As we run, we encounter and discover all the amazing things that God is only too happy to show to us. Beautiful mountain trails with clouds swooping down every now then, rows and rows of trees blooming to the colours of the Photoshop paint palette and waterfalls that gush with the roar of a mighty earthquake.

But the thing is, I figure most people would find it boring at one point or another to be going in only one direction. Hence when we see the overhead billboard that says 'Rest and Relaxation 10KM -->' the curious in us steers us in that direction and off we go on a nice short detour. Who doesn't like a break from that long stretch of highway?

So it was the same with me, just a few days ago I took a detour and went off to another town to 'rest and relax'. Enjoyed myself there, and boy it sure was a nice break from all that endless tarmac grinding. Stayed overnight even, since the luxuries and entertainments offered were so alluring, so desirable. Come morning however, I knew I took the wrong turn the previous night. The town was desolate, and around me only withering trees could be seen. It's not the first time unfortunately, and I'm never short of amazed at my own stupidity at times.

Finding my way back to the highway is always the hardest. Especially for someone as direction-blind as me. I just don't know if I'm heading in the right direction, or if I'm just going towards another one of those R&R places, or if I'm actually going anywhere at all.

And there's nothing that I can do, except to pray along the way that God would show the way again, that He would send a signboard or two to at least let me know where I am. I kind of get the feeling that after detouring for so many times, God might very well just get tired and put up a giant flashing neon billboard that says 'Good luck, you're on your own from this point onwards'. I mean, I would.



For all my worries though, I found something to rest on.

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in his mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:3-5

I remembered His grace, and how He had never stopped coming back after me. A God who chases after our hearts, how stoned and foolish my conscience must have been to just walk away from the majesty that He constantly invites us into, and swim in the mud with the pigs instead. After all the gifts, all the blessings, all the joy, I find still myself in the wrong places at the wrong times doing anything but the right things to do.

Thanks for showing me the way again Lord :)

What's In A Name

What or who do you associate with a name, if I may ask?

When it comes to English names, some of us are born with one, some gave themselves one, some were given one, and still some others couldn't care less if they had one. I fall somewhere in between all of the above, I suppose. It's a relief that I have the luxury to settle for a name so easily and not have to grind my gray matter coming up with one of those odd-sounding names like Crimson or Race or whatever.

I tend to have very strong visual imageries for any and every kind of common English name that you can throw at me. An example: (meant to be non-offensive)

Nathan - Indian doctor
Charles - Blonde European
Bartholomew - Big guy with a soft character
Russel - Rascal
Andre - Rich kid, mixed-parentage or European
Roger - Short guy, 3 feet tops
John - Average Chinese person, but has an unusual personality
Simon - Has curly hair :D

So it was asked of me that.... if I had the chance to slap an actual English name (since my current name's given at birth) in front of my full name, what would it be?

In a return to having interactive posts, I've decided (I hope this doesn't end up being embarassing) to ask you guys this: what would you name me, and what kind of imagery do you normally associate with that name? Fire away at the comments (^.^)

Dial-a-number

The post about uni would have to wait, don't think I have enough time to blog about it today...

But on another note, out of the blue while surfing the net I suddenly decided to play around with my iTalk credit on the computer, and just randomly called up some of the people on my phonebook that I've not seen or heard from for a while. Here's a summary of the calls that I made:

1st call - cannot reach
2nd call - in a meeting
3rd call - chatted for 10 minutes
4th call - cannot reach
5th call - chatted for 7 minutes
6th call - chatted for 20 minutes

And there goes my homework for tonight....

It's sad how some friends just seem to 'fall out of fashion' with me over time. Not meaning to say that they're no longer fashionable, I guess it's kinda inevitable that some friends just come and go as we move on with our lives. Everytime I hit a crossroad in my life, I lost contact with some of my old friends but at the same time I also made new ones. Nothing new here I suppose.

For the most part I've always preferred chatting on the phone compared to texting, e-mailing or using MSN. Can't quite say why, but perhaps I'm a more aurally-attuned person, I talk a whole lot more on the phone than you would ever catch me doing in person. It's nice when the other person sounds genuinely and pleasantly surprised to get a call from you :D

That said, there are also a lot of friends that I don't feel like calling up, friends that I seem to have lost the connection with. So many. Too many, in fact. Something must've gone wrong, but I've no idea what or where. Or maybe it's just me being selfish and actually taking to 'choosing' who I want to be friends with and who I don't....



Now I can join the ranks of those who moan about school/college/work. Tomorrow got uni!! >.<

The Longest Post

So this is it, Sunway. Orientation. Gosh...

TQ Posmen

There is a longing, only You can fill...
A raging tempest, only You can still...
My soul is thirsty LORD, to know You as I am known...
Drink from the river, that flows before Your throne...

Thanks, Hilda Hew Mun Foong :)

Scrape

I wonder who was luckier, the one sitting in the shining BMW 5-series who was behind me just 15 minutes ago at the sloping car park exit or plain ol' me in my red Proton.

I happened to have had just scraped through the 'bukit' at Summit's secondary exit without having to empty my bank account to an executive who drives a fancy German import. And it was a really close call. I think. No idea how close I was, but from the blaring honk I figured the person in the Benz must've been sweating his pants off.

It's inexperience of my part of course, since in the one second it takes to shift my big foot from the brake pedal to the accelerator my car tumbled back a good mile.

*Handbrakehandbrakehandbrake*

Uni's gonna start in less than a week, and honestly speaking I'm still not confident enough to drive all the way to Sunway yet. Never mind that I won't be able to find my way there in the first place...but all that aside, I really thank God that we (my sis and see huang were in the car) scraped through today. And with that, I've got another close-call to add to my driving credentials :)

The People We Don't See

The last update had been more than a week ago, but not without reason of course. I had sent my Adeline (my lappy) off to get her battery changed last Thursday and I only just got it back around yesterday. Minus the battery, since they say they'd need to contact the HQ in Taiwan... I don't quite like using the desktop at home to update so I had to wait till I could get my grubby hands on the lappy again. So here's a post that's LONG WAY LONG overdue :D


First and foremost, thank God for the journey mercies during our awesome trip to Bethany Home in Teluk Intan :)

It was like a whirlwind, what had been going on for the last few weeks. I thought I had all the time in the world to bum around, and the whole of June and July to slowly burn my way through. Instead, without so much as to realise it right now I only have roughly one month left to play around with....scary.

Where to begin, where to begin....hurm, actually I can't quite remember in detail what took place over past couple of weeks, but somehow someway the days went by and all I could recall was that I did a lot of things. Oh well.

The highlight though, was definitely the visit to Bethany Home. Bethany Home is simply, 'A School and Training Centre for disabled children and adults', to quote from their website. As far as I know, Bethany Home is the best of its kind in the country and I was really genuinely impressed when Mr. Jayasingh the director said that their aim is to provide a place for the disabled 'from cradle to grave' which, if you ask me, is no small task. If you had read Sim's blog then you'd know that me, him, See Huang and David decided to visit there for 3 days. We had to brave a series near-misses on our way there, narrowly avoiding having to go back home prematurely.

Our stay there was short to say the least, since the other two volunteers we met there signed on for way longer. We reached the centre at around 6 in the evening and the place was dead quiet with nary a soul around, and it was already too late to do anything other than to clean up and go for dinner. That night we ended up watching CSI on the Astro there xD The next morning was much more eventful, fortunately and we had the chance to get a closer look at the machineries behind this huge centre that they call Bethany Home.

It never occurred to me how life is like for those the society likes to label as 'istimewa'. When I really mulled about it, I was left with nothing more than an endless series of question marks. What do they do from day to day? How are they going to grow up and work for their own living? How do they live alone without their parents? What does the future hold for them?

Mr. Jayasingh had this to say: "God doesn't create 'rejects'. Each and every one of these people here might be disabled in terms of their physical condition and state of mind, but inside them their souls are no different from ours."

And a whole lot of sense that makes, I would say.