Category Archives: faith

Good or bad, hard to say…

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One of those forwarded emails which I’ve received numerous times and always go “Ah…..” at the end of the read.

Once upon a time, there was a king. The king liked one of his followers very much because he was very wise and always gave very useful advice. Therefore the king took him along wherever he went.

One day, the king was bitten by a dog, his finger was injured and the wound was getting worse. He asked the
follower if that was a bad sign. The follower said, ‘Good or bad, hard to say’.

In the end, the king’s finger got so bad it had to be amputated.

The king asked the follower again, if that was a bad sign.

Again, the follower gave the same answer, ‘Good or bad, hard to say’.

The king became very angry and sent the follower to prison.

One day, the king went hunting in the jungle. He got excited chasing a deer and deeper and deeper into the jungle he went. In the end he found himself lost and to make things worse, he got caught by the natives living in the jungle.

They wanted to sacrifice him to their God but when they noticed that the king was short of a finger, they released him immediately as he wasn’t a perfect specimen of a man and was therefore not a suitable sacrifice.

The king managed to get back to his palace and he finally understood the follower’s wise
quote : ‘Good or bad, hard to say’ – If he hadn’t lost one finger, he would have lost his life to the natives.

He immediately ordered the release of his follower, and apologized to him.

But to the king’s amazement, the follower wasn’t mad at him at all. Instead he said,

‘It wasn’t a bad thing that you locked me up. Why? Because if you hadn’t, you would have brought me along to the jungle. If the natives found you unsuitable to be a sacrifice, they would’ve used me.”

Again, the quote ‘Good or bad, hard to say’ stands.

The moral of the story is that everything happens for a reason in this world. There is no absolute good or bad. Sometimes good things turn out to be bad things eventually, while bad things become a gain.

Whatever good that happens to you, enjoy it but don’t hold on too tight to it. Treat it as a surprise in your life.

Whatever bad that happens to you, don’t have to feel too sad or despair – in the end, it may not be a total bad
thing.

If one can understand this, he or she will find life much easier.

PS: Actually after reading this again, I think that the life of a believer is easier - If it’s good, I believe it is in His plans. When things seem bad, (ie: I do not get what I want), I believe it is because He has something better planned for me. So either way, I’m still a happy camper at the end of the day =)

Guard Your Heart

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I remember a time when I was carefree and happy everyday. In fact, my daily joy was so apparent a friend asked me what has changed. While I’m sure she noticed NOT because I used to be dour and unhappy, it made me oddly proud that she saw a difference. And I knew Exactly when the change started-when Pastor Prince(New Creation Church) was sharing this verse one Sunday:

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)

Guarding my heart against feelings like discontentment, anger, jealousy, and the plethora of negative feelings that sometimes sneak into my life when I have PMS through everyday living isn’t that easy. The damage of such thoughts persists beyond letting them into your heart- they can steal minutes of your life if you dwell on them. These minutes grow into hours, even days if the thoughts grow and turn the black pinhole it started as, into a gaping abyss.

However, it also really isn’t that hard if I can put all the negativity in the hands of God.

So daily, I started the practice of guarding my heart. If there was anything at all that annoyed me, I’d send it His way via a prayer, or sometimes, a rolled eye. A small example :

I used to be quite particular about which route we took from point A to point B. If I told Dan to go a certain way and he took another(longer way), I’d be fretting about the time wasted during travelling. He’d say it’s more time spent together in the car and I’d be rolling my eyes at his lame backpedalling. But now, I roll my eyes in a “God, I’ll leave this errant man in your hands” way and enjoy the car ride.

Maybe it’s a little thing, but add all the little things in life and you get a big result. 

So technically, I should be living happily ever after, yes? 

No. Because I am human and I am forgetful. 

I forgot this lesson in the wake of a new life with Renee. I started fretting little and big things. I started worrying about the safety of Renee(she had a little outdoor accident), and about the gadzillion what ifs that could happen to her. Things were going in a downward spiral and I was wondering if I should stop bringing her out to minimise the odds of something ‘bad’ happening to her. It isn’t how I wanna live – in fear. But I didn’t know how to get out of being scared.

Then a friend smsed me this “Remember to guard your heart.”.

Thank you for the reminder.

I Will leave the uncertain (and easy to worry about) future in Your hands. One day at a time. *deep breath*

Something to think about

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This came in my email yesterday under the subject “Stress Management” :

A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked ‘How heavy is this glass of water?’

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied, ‘The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it.

If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem.
If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm.
If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance.

In each case, it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. That’s the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won’t be able to carry on.’

As with the glass of water, you have to put it down your burdens for a while and rest before holding it again. When you’re refreshed, you can carry on.’

So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down! Don’t carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you’re carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don’t pick it up again until after you’ve rested a while.

I thought this a very good analogy. People get stressed about work, about relationships and honestly, many itty bitty petty things. Best to put them down(or give them to God if you believe in Him). Don’t pick everything up after you’ve rested. Maybe you’ll realise after putting it down, that it’s not worth carrying.

The Nations Hope

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If you have a sibling(s), you’ll know the power of their influence.

Beginning of the year, my sister started volunteering at The Nations Hope when they relocated their headqurters to Singapore. She mentioned that they needed help with their website and asked if I could help out. Since I wasn’t working (which by the way, is the best excuse to get out of anything), I said I would.

When I realised the extent of work required, I kicked myself mentally for agreeing not just because it would require quite a bit of time, but because I wasn’t sure I’d be up to the task.

After hours of googling, copying and customising code, I’m proud to announce that the website is now ‘live’ : http://www.nationshope.org  – Please take a look and see what the good people at The Nations Hope are doing!

On hindsight, I’m so glad that my sister pushed pointed me in this direction for the simple sense of pride in being able to contribute to spreading His Word/works.

It has also given me a new outlook on upcoming tasks : He has a reason for every season and I do not have to worry about my inadequacies be it laziness or the lack of know how. I just need to go through with it and whatever I need will turn up.

Another nugget on outlooks: if I one is not predisposed to giving, He will plant people around them who will help them be that.

In short, you can’t run.

FireProof

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This dvd landed in our hands with high recommendations from my sister. So a few nights ago, we dutifully sat in front of the tv and popped it in the player.

The beginning was a tad shaky but it quickly got better as the plot unfolded. We laughed some, learnt some and teared some at the end of it. We started holding hands too from halfway through – all together now, “awwww…” – it is that sort of a movie. Simple, moving, funny, genuinely heartfelt and you walk away from it with a lesson for life.

Throughout it, I consciously asked myself if I would enjoy this movie as much if I wasn’t a christian, if I would be ‘turned off’ by the references to scripture. I have to say that although the message of Christ was obvious, it didn’t come across as unbelievable or ‘crazy’. All credit of course, to its creators, brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick (who are ministers at the Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia) who made this film on a budget, with most of the cast and crew made up from members of their congregation. It opened at #4 and is a multi million dollar box office hit!

I’m passing the dvd on :)

The moral of the story is…

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I wrote this entry sometime last year and would like to share it here because a good read should be shared (i’m referring to the book mentioned in the entry)  :

 Sometimes when a friend goes on and on about a story with seemingly no purpose, we’d rudely interrupt with “and the moral of the story is?” – mostly inspired by silly and rude “the a**hole is the boss” sort of anecdotes.

I was reading The Grand Weaver by Ravi Zacharias last week and this particular chapter evoked such strong emotions in me that i just had to share the ‘moral’ of that story.

The author related the story told to him by a young woman. My shorter version, is that her beautiful mother entered into an arranged marriage with her paranoid, petty and jealous father who resented her mother’s beauty. He flung acid on her face to prevent other men from luring her away and then fled from the house leaving his wife to bring up his children for the next twenty years. The kicker is this – after twenty years of abandonment, her mother heard from this man who was suffering from cancer and living alone. He wondered if she would take him back and care for him in the last stage of his illness.

*gasp* What audacity! The nerve of the man! I built myself up into a good fit of righteousness for the poor lady who’s had to suffer her entire life because of the actions of this man.

The author then continued to say that the mother who’s a devout Christian, pleaded with her children to let her take him back and care for him as he prepared to die.

My little mind thought she must have lost her marbles. Or maybe she’s still in love with the man. So maybe the moral of the story is about how true love prevails.

And then i read this paragraph(p. 88):

In this story, we see all the elements of the human fall and the power of a redeemed heart.
Morality alone would dictate that he gets what he deserves. A redeemed heart says, “Let me bind his wounds because what needs attention is his soul.”
Morality alone says, “There is nothing reasonable in the man’s request.” The redeemed heart says, “The reason by which we live is the heart of mercy that does not keep a ledger.”
Morality says, “It’s all about whether you think it’s right or not.” The redeemed heart says What would God have me do in this situation?”
Morality says, “Make your own judgements.” The redeemed heart says, “Don’t make a judgement unless you are willing to be judged by the same standard.”
In short, morality is a double-edged sword. It cuts the very one who wields it, even as it seeks to mangle the other.”

It IS about love. It is about love of the sort described in 1 Corinthians 13:4. It is about love in the redeemed heart which is patient and kind, does not brag or boast or envy or has pride. ALL of those.

So the moral of the story, is how little morality has to do with it.

That blew me away.