PDL day #2 - i am no accident..

there's always that joke about how horrifying if you find out that you were born because of an unfortunate accident, that your parents didnt plan for you. this certainly happened to one of the acquaintance i met during uni. the wife was pregnant almost immediately after they got married, and the general knowledge was that they werent planning to start a family just yet then.

one of the definition of accident as taken from dictionary.com is "chance; fortune; luck". it is something beyond human's control. if we look at it this way, then all birth, planned or unplanned are accidents. people can increase their chances but ultimately, they have no control over whether one will get a baby or not. but the truth is we are not the result of astronomical random chance in the universe. God, our Creator, planned for us even before we were born. He chose who our parents are, what are race will be, where we will be born. We are alive because God wants us to be, he customed made us for a reason, for His purpose.

now as i think about all these, it means that everything about me was carefully planned for. how i look, my personality, my background, my family, everything. He place me in such a position for a reason. sometimes, just sometimes, dont you just wish you were born to a different family, with different looks, in a different country? i can say whenever we have such thoughts, it is almost always because of our selfish desires, what we wish to have in life. we can have everything we want in life, but if we cannot fill up the emptiness of a missing purpose in life, then we will never ever by satisfied with whatever we have.....

here's one of my all time favourite song (always have a soft spot for ballards), it's a pity we dont sing it much, except for christmas..

PDL day #1 - it is not about me!

so yesterday, i was pondering about the purpose in life. so i decided to dig out the book which i last read 4 years ago and decided to read it again and embark on this 40 days journey once again..

there are many many self help books out there, books to help one become successful, to attain life's goals, to plan your career, what to do with your life. it is almost always about "me", the individual and what to achieve for "myself" in life. that's why they are called self-help books as they are meant to benefit the self. many of these books become bestsellers, and really help many people achieve something in life, but all these are just goals you set for yourself, they are not your purpose.

purpose. what did our monkeys ancestors in mind when they evolve into humans? its funny how all the things we can achieve in life, the cash, the house, the cars, the children and grandchildren, the empire, all these things will go to past. when our life here is up, we cant bring them away.

so all these things doesnt make sense..... and it wont until you know why you are created and what the creator's purpose for you is. You were made by God and for God - and until you understand that, life will never make sense. you wont know how to use a new invention until the inventor tells you thr purpose of the invention, likewise, you wont know your purpose until the Person who created you tell you why you were created.. so it's really about what the Creator's purpose is and not our's............

what is my purpose in life?

so another pretty routine sunday past by, church service, cell didnt happen, jam a little, went to get food, frisbee not happening. so i spent the afternoon learning to play another song, a song we sang in the morning (as well as to finally start on final fantasy xiii).

making a difference
won't You Lord, take a look at our hands. everything we have, use it for Your plans
won't You Lord, take a look at our hearts. mould it, refine it as You set us apart

we want to run to the altar, and catch the fire, to stand in the gap between the living and the dead
give us a heart of compassion, for a world without vision, we will make a difference, bringing hope to our land.

i think about my life, a life that has been a fixed routine for who knows how long. i wake up, go to work, look forward to the weekends. weekends come, waste the days away and soon find myself dreading mondays once again. surely, life does not revolves around this. a life of no meaning and no purpose.

so what on earth am I here for? the darwinites believe that we are the tail-less, non hunch back evolved version of some form of monkeys. others believe we came from some seeding from outer space. there are others who are clueless and couldnt care more about it. i would say that the answer lies in a compilation of books that was written thousand of years ago.

Col 1:16 - For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him.

all these got me thinking of this other book that i read years ago. i remembered the last time i read it, i didnt take away too much from it, but i have decided to re-read the purpose driven life and im sure this time round, it will mean more to me...

welcome 2013!

the most cliche of cliches, the end of the year / start of the next year usually brings a list, a list of resolutions, a list of things people hope to achieve in the upcoming year.

i dont remember having many resolutions over the span of my 29+ years, but this year, i somehow decided to come up with two.

#1 to exercise at least once a week
so ever since i stopped training with chuckies (2 years ago) and sunday frisbee became irregular, i havent been exercising reguarly and i let myself get away with it. i always hated jogging but i decided enough is enough, and if im not going to play frisbee that week, i better catch up with some running. and to kick off things in style, i went  for a jog today! i know 14mins for 2.4km is nothing to shout about, but for someone who hasnt run in ages, i was quite satisfied with it! hopefully ill be able to keep this up

#2 to cook more
well, for this to happen, i need people to eat my food! anyone wants to be lab rats?

thanks to 2012

at the end of every year, my church will have a thanksgiving service, a service whereby the floor is open for anyone to share their thanksgiving for the year. normally, i get away with having to share because i was manning the sound system. this year, i got a break from having to do sound as i was playing the piano instead (how it went is a story for another time! haha)..

so this year, i decided to share. and rather than having the awkward wait for the first few volunteers, i decided to step up straight away. i always reckon the least i can do is to volunteer and encourage others to follow suit too.

so i shared 3 thanksgiving...

#1 UK trip
thank God for giving me the opportunity to take a semi-solo trip to the UK. stepping out of the comfort zone alone, i cant depend on anyone, not even myself since i dunno anything about the UK. it's really a time when i just depend on God to guide me, to ensure that i dont get lost, i dont get myself into trouble. it was really a good trip, with nothing bad happened at all. not even when i forgot to bring along my room key when i head to the shower. when i remembered that i left my keys on the bed as i prepare my shower stuff, i stood outside the room door and dread having to go down to the counter and get someone to open the door for me. but in a very interesting turn of event, it turned out that the properly function self shutting door didnt close properly, and it just swung open as i push the door to try my luck.

#2 keyboard
thank God for giving me the opportunity to learn how to play the keyboard. more than just to serve in the worship team, i think knowing how to play the basic allows me to spend more time with God. rather than spending time watching tv or on the net, i spent more time with God just playing and singing along.

#3 what people perceived as bad things happening
so... usually, people always thank God for the good, and somehow, the bad is often forgotten. of course i wont lie, if i had a choice, i would hope that my life will all be good. but "bad" things happen for a reason. there's always some form of lesson behind it. the only difference is how soon you see what you are suppose to learn out of it. sometimes hours later. sometimes weeks. and i bet there are some things that when your time on this earth is up, you might not figure out why God allows it to happen. (if you are interested to find out why God allows bad things to happen, contact me separately and ill be happy to share!) anyway, for me, this year had been a year of ups and downs, a year whereby i reflect on my life and see what God is trying to teach me, and the good thing is i took away quite a few things and hopefully, i can work on them.

who says school isnt fun?

for no reason, i suddenly wondered what did i do during uni.. and randomly came across a group chat with amy and dawn..

with friends like this, who says schooling isnt fun??

signs of old age #1

if i have something about myself that im proud about, i take pride in my ability to organize my time and plans with little help needed from organizers or technology. i am always someone who was able to see and remember the details, right down to the minor ones. im also someone who knows exactly what's engagements i have and at my prime, i was even able to remember those closer to me.

however, it seems like recently, i been losing this part of me. on the not so good days, i would only remember my engagement at the last minute, or realized too late that i got the details wrong.

just this month, i have various weddings and christmas related gatherings to attend. and you think that with a smartphone, it should be a breeze getting things organized. no.. i kept getting the start time of the weddings wrong which resulted in me having to rush off from one for another engagement, and not attending another one cause i kinda end up double booking the time.

it was so bad that my friend thought i double booked another day and i actually believed that i did even though i didnt..