Support

When I'm young, it seems like support from others are so plentiful. It's a matter of whether I want to rely on people as support or not. Maybe I have very little expectations of what I want.

As I grow older, it is getting harder and harder for me to find support. Support that I have established in the past may crumble down, or disappear, due to unforseen circumstances. And as I grow older, I become a support for others, while still seeking my own support. Ironically, some of the people that I am supporting will in turn be the people I rely on for support. But these support seem weak compared to what I expect.

And as more and more support is removed from my life, I begin to find support in the most unlikely places. Ad hoc supports through chance meetings or random occasions.

Maybe as one grows older, the form of support changes until one can truly rely on our Lord, the Rock of Ages.

Gratitude

A friend borrowed a fairly large amount of money from me a few years ago, when he was in desperate need. I didn't know him that well, but he is a brother from another church who is a trustworthy person, so I borrowed him the amount. I have never asked him for the money back (nor expected to receive it back), but he met up with me today and repay a greater amount than the amount I lent him. He told me to keep the extra and consider it a blessing from God.

Its a good feeling to be able to help someone and being appreciated.

Mobile phone numbers

Have you ever gone through your contact list in your mobile phone. What do you notice? A long list of contacts, alot of whom you havn't contacted in years and that you have no intention of contacting them again in the near future? But you will never delete them just in case you wish to contact them one day.

Maybe we keep those contacts as they bring back memories. People you used to be friends with. Your ex girlfriends. Your ex collegues. It is so weird for us to ring someone we haven't seen in a while. What do we say? Maybe theres nothing we want to say to these people anymore.

Ironically, maybe half of those contacts are no longer here or have changed their numbers.

I tried one of those numbers tonight and the number seem to have changed.

Loving your enemies

As I blogged before, I basically dislike the new boss, with his bad attitde, lack of sensativity for others and his demanding nature.

The other day I was in his room. He had a invitation postcard from Ecom with an invitation to a talk about the Christian perspective on the Da Vinci Code. He said to me "Oh are you interested. If you are then I will go with you as I don't want to go myself".

I am now in a conflict. I loathe being with him, let alone to after work. I would be content to go to the presentation by myself. However, I don't think he is a Christian and so for the sake of him knowing Christ, I should tell him I am going and encourage him to go. I think this is a good practical application of "loving our neighbours". Who am I to judge when God freely gave his grace for me without judging me. I should at least give him the opportunity to receive this grace from God. Who knows. God may change him!

Global Corporate Challenge

I joined the Global Corpoarte Challenge with six other people from my group at work. Our firm has several teams participating in this event this year. It starts at the end of May.

The purpose of the Global Corporate Challenge is for each person in the team to walk at least 10,000 steps a day for four months. The steps are calculated using a pedometer. If a group achieves this, this would be equivalent to the group having walked around the whole world.

I actually thought it would be quite easy until I did a practice trial yesterday. I actually walked for an hour in the morning and the rest of the day I did what I usually do on Saturday and went out at night. When I came home, my pedometer read 10,500 steps. If I am to clock up 10,000 steps a day, I would need to walk an hour every day in the morning. I would really rather sleep that extra hour.

Maybe I can find ways of achieving that target through other means, like pacing while standing on the train. LOL


Global Corporate Challenge Link

Out of the church comfort zone

Churches tend to focus on things that happen inside the building. Relationships. Music. Equipments. Programs.

How much focus do we place on the people who are outside the church building. How much emphasis do we place on evangelism or cross culture missions? Most people tend to frown upon the idea of going out to the public. They come up with excuses of not being equipped enough. Do they remember what the Great Commission is?

When we are focused on the work of God, we would not be too concerned of what is going on inside the building. Yes, relationships and programs are important, but when we are out in the fields, we would not have time to be concerned about ourselves or how we could make things more comfortable in our church, as our priority is to win people for God. Our whole focus changes. We will be focused on God's word as we know His word is the source of our faith, and all programs or music will just be a means to understanding His word, not replacing His word. Relationships will then be built up with people who are like-minded, having the same focus.

God has provided me with alot of random people over the past few years which I am thankful about. These are the people I can share my ministry concerns with and who spurs me on and encourages me. They may not know me as well as some of my brothers and sisters at church, but they can support me in a different way. Because of the nature of such relationships, my association with them may be only be of an ultra short duration, but at least they provided support for me at a critical moment.

God is blessing...

Helpless 3

Just an update. My collegue's sister died yesterday. A card was passed around at work today. I didn't know what to write as words just can't comfort a person when their loved ones passed away. I also sent him an encouragement SMS tonight.

I feel even more helpless when you see someone walking away from their faith. When someone chooses the wisdom of this world over the wisdom of God, thinking that they have made the better choice. When someone can just ignore what God has done for them in the past and choose to keep God away from their lives, only to blame God when things go wrong. How can they make such a decision when they realise how much God loves them, and that our bodies no longer belong to ourselves since we have been bought by the blood of Christ? Shouldn't we be thankful to Him and learn to live a life that is pleasing to Him, not pleasing to ourselves, since we now belong to Him? When will they understand?

What can you do when someone who has been seeking God tells you that they have decided not to believe in God?

We are so helpless....

Crash

I walked home from the station and saw a young woman crossing the road at a zebra crossing. A car didn't see her, and crashed right into her. She was hit in the hips and bounced off the car and onto the road. I was so shocked that I yelled loudly "Fuck!!". The woman's father ran out (as he was on the other side) and the woman, to my surpised, picked herself up.

I just stood with them and told her to see a doctor as soon as possible. I left her my contact details just in case she needed me as a witness. Luckily the driver of the car was shocked too, and didn't leave the scene.

I saw other people just walked on by, even though they saw the whole accident. The sad thing was most of them that walked past without offering any help were Asians.

Helpless 2

Your collegue. You work with him everyday. You have lunch with him. You go to drinks with him. You go to social activities with him.

How do you react when you find out that his sister is dying and has only days to live? And you find out from his boss, not from him, as he only told his boss since he was taking leave.

All I could do was sent a SMS to him to tell him that I would be praying for him and his family.

He turned up at the office today, and he was in his room the whole day. When I left the office I went to his room, and talked to him. I didn't know what to say when he described to me what his sister was going through. All I could say was that he should spend more time with her and stop worrying about work, since someone else could do his work. I advised him to do what he felt was best so to avoid any regrets afterwards.

He then told me he wished he was religious so that he could feel better. I told him that being religious wouldn't necessary help in situations like this, knowing in my mind that it would be worse if a Christian sees his loved one, who is not a Christian, dying.

I thought of evangelising but felt that it wasn't the right situation to do so.

We are so helpless.

Friday blues

Friday afternoon - 5.30pm. He asked me to his office. He has just reviewed the fee proposal and structures paper that I drafted earlier in the day for the client. He wanted changes to be done straight away as he promised the client that we'll get back to him on Friday night. He said he will wait for it to be completed before he goes.

Friday afternoon - 6.00pm. Came out of his office, and asked the word processor on my floor to make those amendments, hoping that she can complete it in half an hour or so.

Friday afternoon - 6.30pm. Went to check on her, but she was surfing the net and told me she hasn't started. Stressed again that the work was urgent, and she started typing.

Friday night - 7pm. Was told that Word crashed, and that she lost two schedules from the paper. She promised that she will get another word processor from another floor to help her out.

Friday night - 7.05pm. Told him about the crash. He said nothing.

Friday night - 8pm. Everything is completed. All work checked and I went to give it to him. But he has already left. Started swearing. Why did he f*cking leave and not tell me and asked me to wait? What should I do now? If he said the work was urgent and that the client was waiting for it, shouldn't he wait around for it too?

Friday night - 8.05pm. Didn't give a f*ck and sent it as draft to him. Left office with collegues to drinks. More bitching about him.

Note: This is not the first time he did something like this. Makes me mad!