The Original Life

I've just started a new site called The Original Life. The Original Life pens down my thoughts on how every single one of us can live a larger, simpler life by breaking out of norms. It is meant not only just to inspire others to take stock and do something about their lives, but also to continually convince and remind myself daily that there is so much more to life than just living according to the norms, and absolutely nothing wrong with being different. Do drop me a visit and check it out, and I'd love to hear from you there too :)

I will still post occasionally on this blog as my personal site, so don't run away!

Faith like a Mustard Seed

Having faith is incredibly hard. Even just a mustard seed of it. Because we are fallen, its hard to give up sovereignty of our own lives. When things go wrong, and times get hard, we try to wrest the steering wheel back from Jesus again.

I learnt the hard way.

A Day In Your Mobile Life

Your alarm clock on your iPhone dock blares its unwelcoming wake-up call at 5 o'clock sharp in the morning. Groaning, you lean over and turn it off with a careless swipe of your hand. Stumbling over some laundry on the floor, you turn on your computer using the remote access application on your iPhone, and head over to the bathroom for a shower.

Blast from the Past

11 February 2007

A Mess of Thoughts (Again)

It's always remarkable to see where I am standing at at any point of time, look back at what has been going on, and see how much God has provided for and sustained me.

Studying studying studying

Studying is depressing. Especially when you know you are studying not for knowledge, but for grades. That's not what studying is supposed to be, right? It's supposed be for the thirst of knowledge, furthering the expanse of your mind, all that jazz. Not just to get an alphabet and points that stare you in the face and mock you.

I'll be back.

Being Alone / Being A Community

^{Life is never as we want it to be. Simply because our lives are not our own. Still, I can't help but wonder sometimes.}

I need more time to ponder this. But first, a few thoughts: 


¹⁸ The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Libraries Aren't What They Used To Be

As I sat at a certain library studying this week, it struck me how vast the difference was between the libraries of ye olde day and currently. Perhaps this might not be applicable to all libraries in Singapore. But it annoyed me to no end that particular day.

University: Chiong or not?

There's been a lot of discussion going around lately about University in general. The bulk of them revolve around this central question:

Is it worth it to slog through University? 

Dream

I want to travel the world, and live off the land. Not to aim for some sort of economic or social security, but to go where God leads and live as the land is. To truly experience freedom on earth - freedom in Christ, in being his workmanship.

Dreams. To be fulfilled?

The Road Less Taken

Would you pursue a job as a lowly-paid photographer, for the sake of passion?

Or would you be pragmatic, as our society so greatly values, and join the other 80+% of our unhappy working population?

Sadly, most would do the latter.

Blessed

When you want to complain, remember those who aren't as fortunate.

Darkness vs. Light

Listen to this: "Darkness cannot put out the Light. It can only make God brighter". 

As an observation, I've seen how people take a turn to the dark side (everyone does, me included) and how it just serves to illuminate how much more they need God. And when they return to Him (praise the Lord!), the presence of God is so much brighter in their lives.

Thank God for that. It gives me hope for tomorrow.

Heat, oh heat, why

Singapore weather really, really leaves much to be desired. As I type this, I sweat, despite having a fan blasting moderately warm air at me from about 20cm away. No, I do not have an air-con in my room.

I need this:

Bladeless Fan - Spiffy.

Or this:

Water cooling fan - how cool is that?

Or I could simply move to a country where the climate is less erratic.

Three Things I Wanted To Be As A Boy

1) Professional Basketball Player

Those were the days of the legendary Michael Jordan: The man who could defy the very laws of gravity. I owned a small basketball hoop which I hung at a comfortable height on my door, and proceeded to re-create those vanilla dreams (together with my own commentary on my own incredible play). Sticking my tongue out, I destroyed all rival teams with ease. Of course, I played the sport outside in real life, in my school's basketball team, but it was never as fun.

2) Policeman

The cool men of the night. Running after bad boys, beating them up, throwing them into prison, telling the media about the treacherous and dangerous chase. Being the cowboy of the town. All in a day's work.

3) Professional Musician / Rock Star

Long flowing mane. Fingers that flowed freely over the fretboard. Riffs and melodies that make girls swoon and guys rock out. And finally, jumping into the crowd at the end of the show and body-surfing over the crowd of adoring fans. Signing autographs after the show. Yes, I had my own private concerts in my bedroom and bathroom, and my stuffed toys adored me.

Now? All but obscure dreams. Reality is such a bummer.

Feet Off The Path

Somewhere along the way, we wander off the path. 

Goals (that I probably will never reach, but it's always good to have some)

For this coming semester:

1) Academic - pull up my CAP

2) God - hit consistent and meaningful Quiet Time time, and journal that down

3) Writing - read up more on writing techniques (which I will do as part of NM2220, actually) to improve my writing ability, and source for more good stuff for Fever Avenue

4) People - spend more quality time with special people around me, intentionally

5) Fitness - endeavor to exercise at least 3 times a week (cardio + gym in any order)

Oh, that is such a tall order.

Lean not on my understanding

Hi all! I know I said I would do a reflective post on the camp. However, I haven't found the time to really sit down and think about it, and I feel a slipshod writeup on it wouldn't do justice to it! So... it will have to wait.

For now though, here is my recent train of thought.

I have been pondering about our motivations in life. Christians, non-Christians, actually it turns out a lot of us aren't so different after all. No matter how much Christians say they would like to 'follow God's plans', it still turns out we use our own common sense and label it as 'God'. Of course, we justify it by saying that we 'feel' it's what God wants us to do. But is it, really? I really cannot tell.

One thing I do know, however - our motivation should really be to devote ourselves entirely to Him. Often, we lean on our own understanding, but we need to really trust God with all we have and do. And when I say all, I really mean ALL. No joke - entirety. It seems an impossible feat for us, sure. But I believe that's something we should all work towards.

I beg to differ from popular belief that all we do is for ourselves to improve and be more Christ-like, or all we do is for the people around us - the needy, the poor, the lost. I believe that is more of the overflow or outcome of what we do. But it should not be our motivation. Confused? I believe unequivocally that we need to do all things only and only for Jesus alone, because of our devotion and love for Him. It is something that I have only recently learnt - we do not because we can, not because we should, but because of Him.

I hope that makes sense.

Recently, I've been meaning to quit from my current place of work. I've been having a bad experience - not much to learn, not many friends, simply a drag to work there. I even made arrangements to change job as soon as I could, if I could. Yet, today was quite a big change, after we moved office. I felt I enjoyed my work a lot more due to the change. And my misery was lifted. God did something that I never expected, with my own limited common sense.


And I hope I continue to lean on His understanding rather than my own.

Charity: Water

Guys, let me introduce you to Charity: Water.



We live a blessed life in Singapore - no worries about our three meals, transportation, let alone clean water (we can drink out of taps!). Yet a lot of us choose to complain about the non-essentials - politics, inconveniences, disturbances. Meanwhile, people in Third World countries don't even get clean water. The only liquid they can get to survive contains dirt, mud, feces, even leeches that crawl back out of their throats. Can you imagine having to feed your baby that water?

This movement is extremely inspiring to me. It just goes to show that a little thought, a little money and a little innovation can go a long way in helping not just one person's life, but entire communities. If you are interested to read more, click the banner I've put up on blog on the right side. I've always had a problem in deciding what kind of career path I want to undertake. The considerations are many, but as always, selfish: money, time, prestige, comfort. I take comfort in the fact that such endeavors are possible. I hope that I could work my way to do such programmes as my job in the future.

If anyone is interested to run a project to support this cause, email me at bluesyme@gmail.com. A little goes a long way.

Celebrations

Yesterday was Ang Jiawei's 22nd birthday! We celebrated with lots of food and merrymaking in general. The itinerary started off with a superb lunch at Prego (treated by Jiawei, thanks a lot bro!), followed by Eat Pray Love, and ending off with dinner at 15 Minutes at Laselle College of the Arts.

Large Cream of Mushroom Soup @ Prego - delicious!

Eat Pray Love was a tad draggy - most of the part I felt the lead actress, played by Julia Roberts (those who grew up with her - yes, she is basically talking about mid-life crisis in this show, time flies!), should just grow up and stop whining about her life (then I remembered, hey, that's the whole point of this movie). But as the plot developed in the later parts of the show, the message became clearer and it was rather meaningful; love, inner peace, God. I was moved by a non-centric part of the movie - when the father and the son had a tearful farewell (sorry, spoilers!) and it reminded me of the lack my own relationship had, and how I should strive to attain this type of father-son bond in the future. But enough of me. As a whole, the message at the end redeemed this show, quite barely. For 2 and a half hours of whining, I'd say... obtain this show when it comes out in a... let's say, cheaper place.