Once upon a time

Once upon a time, we wanted to outgrow our jeans. Now, we want our jeans to outgrow us.

Once upon a time, we wished we could help Mummy clean. Now, cleaning becomes a chore.

Once upon a time, we looked forward to our next birthday. Now, we wish that it creeps up as slowly as possible.

Once upon a time, we wanted to be just like Mummy or Daddy. Now, being likened to our parents is an offence.

Once upon a time, we looked forward to each new day. Now, each new day is just another set of routine.

I wonder if anything had changed, or are we just being carried away by the tide of time?

The Power of Love

"To love, is to entrust someone with the power to hurt you."

the Thing with feathers that perches in the soul

Life is a series of promotions from one set of routine to another. Remember the time when our routine comprised of only nap time, playtime, and mealtime? Then it included school time and break time, then gradually work time.

And we wonder why we spend a lifetime going through the motions, like the goods in a factory going through the conveyor belts. The outcome is generic. Every prince and every pauper is mere flesh and bone rotting six feet under.

Yet, deep within every heart and every soul, there is a longing for something more to this life. Because if our ultimate destination is death and no further, why does it matter what we do and how we live?

We silently and subconsciously cling on to the only thing that keeps us going: hope, like a spark of light at the end of the tunnel. A hope that the significance of our years spent on earth -may it be one or one hundred- ceases not with our last gasp for oxygen.

But such hope can only come from one who has himself conquered death, and thus can secure a promise of life after death. Only Jesus alone has conquered death, and only Jesus provides an answer to the hope of every heart. And all who believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Hope is not mere wishful thinking. Hope is not the flicker of a candle in the dark, quivering in the embrace of the lightest breeze, never knowing if it will withstand the wind.

Hope is closing your eyes on the world for one last time, knowing full well that you will open them in paradise.

And to raise a generation of hope is for the hopefuls to take this message to the hopeless - a message that gives the world a reason to live.

Because the things that we do today matter in the life to come.

The quest for Perfection

is a lonely jog along a never-ending road.

Moving forward, but never arriving at the destination.

Leaving no room for companionship.

Ever accelerating to stay ahead of the pack.

Exhausting, but never fatal.

Then I turn around, only to find that I have been running on a treadmill. With 15 pounds of weight heaped upon my shoulders.

random facts about the Other

Let's just say that I have quite an "interesting" job. One that many are dying for. Or not. So as my team is winding down from the peak season of intensive classes, I spend more time doing, well, nothing. To elaborate a little more, that translates into me spending more time just looking at people eating.

Anyway, the past week had been a guy's week, with mostly, if not all, male students. And I observed some fun facts about this other creation of God.

1. Guys put everything (did I say EVERYTHING?) in their pockets. Even a whole bottle of water! Wow! How does one do that? It's a miracle!

2. Be it 4 or 40, guys like tugging at pigtails! So I saw this middle-age man tugging at his female classmate's ponytail. Ah, good old days... Just like back in kindergarten.

3. Guys love candies! So we serve Mountain Trail Mix (a mixture of all kinds of nuts, raisins, and M'n'Ms) at our hospitality room. And at the end of everyday for the past week, all that was left, or rather all that was missing from the Trail Mix bowl was M'n'Ms! Hmm... I wonder what happened...

God sure had a sense of humour when He created these fascinatingly queer (or queerly fascinating) creatures!

You Are God Alone

You are not a god created by human hands
You are not a god dependant on any mortal man
You are not a god in need of anything we can give
By Your plan, that's just the way it is

You are God alone from before time began
You were on Your throne, You are God alone
And right now, in the good times and bad
You are on Your throne, You are God alone

You're the only God whose power none can contend
You're the only God whose name and praise will never end
You're the only God who's worthy of everything we can give
You are God, and that's just the way it is

Unchangeable
Unshakable
Unstoppable
That's what You are

Storm in the Silence

There was silence. That awkward silence that I had dreaded. It somehow seemed like the silence had stripped me naked and exposed all that I had been trying so hard to masquerade. Then she'll hear my anxious gasps for air and the deep pounding of my heart, like a hammer on hollow wood. She'll read my mind like an open book- the very thing that I hhad been trying anxiously to hide. Because it was screaming "Get me outta here!" I was sure she heard that scream, because the silence, like a megaphone, had amplified it a thousandfold.

So I desperately operated my innate search engine to locate the right words to say. Wheels were turning and pages were flipping in search of those words that had never existed. And never will. I heard myself said, "I am sure the LORD let things happen for a reason. I am sure He has a better plan in store." That was a lie. That was just the default response for a situation like this. It is not that He does not have a better plan, but it's just that, right at that very moment, I was not so sure about it.

A million questions popped up in my mind. Like the game in which you whack the bobbing heads with a club, I tried to strike each of these questions down, and confine them to the dungeon of my mind. But they were raving to get out, pushing and stampeding their way out. In the process, hurting me from the inside out. And the pain that was caused translated into tears that flowed freely down my cheeks.

"The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;

may the name of the LORD be praised."

Job 1:21b

Been thinking...

How effortlessly we point our fingers at those who nailed Jesus to the cross! The Romans who had to do what was politically correct then, and the Jews who had no room for the message of grace.

But what if Jesus comes now? Will our generation nail him to the cross just as they did? How will we respond to Him?

I can imagine those of us who will oppose His politically incorrect ways. I can imagine the skeptics in our midst who will sneer and jeer at the incomprehensible concept of grace. We have already crucified Him in our own ways. Like Bethlehem, we are too occupied to make room for the King.

What happens if Jesus comes today? I don't know. I don't wanna know. I am glad He came when he did, because it's always easier to look from the outside.

The Power of Love

As I read Luke 19 again, the scene of Zacchaeus climbing up onto the sycamore tree unfolded itself before me once more.

Jesus was in town, and everyone would give anything to steal a glance at this controversial prophet. Buried in the sea of faces was that of Zacchaeus's. A small man in physique and a small man in the judgemental eyes of his fellow countryman, Zacchaeus was forced to climb a tree in order to steal a look at his Saviour. Jesus, of course, had a heart big enough for a small man like Zacchaeus and He offered to go to Zacchaeus's house for the day.

Despite my familiarity with the story, I was suddenly struck with awe as I read Zacchaeus's response:

"Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." (Luke 19:8)

Jesus did not rebuke Zacchaeus for his sin. Jesus did not condemn his acts of dishonesty towards his fellow countryman. Jesus did not tell him to make right his wrong before coming to the Messiah. Jesus merely extended his invitation of love to Zacchaeus just as he was. With arms opened wide.

And yet, this undeserving love did what no amount of condemnation or rebuke could do. It melted a man's heart. It walked a sinner through the gates of grace.

And a precious child of God was eternally altered.

That's the power of love. Undeserving love.