Lost in Bus

It was a strange coincidence yesterday when after reading a book on a lost wallet, i picked up a dropped phone half an hour later.
I have to say i enjoyed the short story very much. If you have 15 minutes to spare and can find 'Auggie Wren's Christmas Story' by Paul Auster, i highly recommend you read it. Basically, this highly subversive yuletide tale involves a shopkeeper who returns a wallet dropped by a boy who shoplifts his store. Upon reaching the address detailed in the wallet, he only finds a blind, lonely old woman that is the boy's grandmother. Feeling symphatetic, he follows up by buying christmas dinner for this lady, all the while pretending to be her grandson. A highly interesting story where Auster asks "Whats the 'truth' in Christmas" in a dark humour sort of way by juxtaposing lying and giving upside down. Its a kind of unsentimental, charming story that has another twist at the end. However, i do not feel like revealing that here.
Which thus brings me to the point of this Nokia phone i picked up. Being as techno-savvy as a chessplayer can be, i concluded it was the model with a camera. So i checked the phone book hoping to find someone close enough to tie me back to the owner. It was at this moment i felt a sharp pang of temptation.
Oh come on, do you really think i wanted to keep the phone? Seriously, i have slightly more integrity than that. And probably much more years in primary school studying "Hao Gong Ming" (Good Citizen). Furthermore i can scarcely operate a calculator function in my existing mobile, let alone upgrade to one that takes high resolution pictures.
What i was tempted to do was call this person in the phonebook named affectionately as "e love of my life". This no doubt gave me a huge roar of laughter. But in the end i thought better of it -- just in case the owner of the phone happened to be a secret admirer. Nonetheless, i believe the careless guy had to feel some pinch if he was going to learn from his mistake. Maybe changing the love of his life to 'the first reason to end my life' was a little too harsh. In the end i settled upon him having to see my ugly face when he next uses his sophisticated phone camera. Which is the reason why poor Kelvin now has five blurry images of my dining table stored in his phone.

Poor man, Rich God

I am sure everyone has come across the financial planning book 'Poor Dad, Rich Dad', or something to that effect. I am quite certain that there is now one called 'Poor Kid, Rich Kid' as well. I wonder if there is a principle in the book telling one to get 'rich' by milking a profitable idea? Before you know it, there will probably be a title in the same series called 'Poor Social Elite, Rich Social Elite' and possibly 'Poor Beggar, Rich Beggar'. Now then, the books are great, i hope they help tonnes of people manage their personal finances better. Problem is, its not for skeptical people like me.
Therefore, i need God to quell my skepticism. During my very recent trip back to Singapore, my mum and I helped Louise take certain of her things back. As Louise was returning to Singapore for good, she needed us to carry 2 boxes for her while she struggled with another 2 suitcases on another flight. On my flight, my mum was allowed a maximum weight of 20kg but I, being a student, was permitted 30kg. We managed to stuff one of Louise's boxes into my mum's luggage which amounted to 26kg during check in. Mine wieghed 19kg, and the solitary box came up to 14kg. As we had to weigh them one at a time in front of the counter, a quick calculation by me (yes, i am able to do the multiples of 7), made my heart even quicker than my counting. Which by all counts was not exactly very fast.
The fact was, after minimal trial and error of mathematical summation, we were around 11kg overweight. My mum always admits to being fat, but she is definitely not that much over the scale. It was at this point of me trying to calculate the amount of overweight load that we had to pay that the counter staff said cheerfully, 'You just made it'.
Which brought an equally bright smile from my mum who replied 'thanks', but only a wry smile from me because the distractions had wrecked my multiplication tables.
This episode taught me 3 precious lessons. Firstly, its a wonderful thing when God answers prayers in this way. All along for a couple of days, the 3 of us had been praying for a smooth check-in. I was more worried for Louise however, cos i thought that with the help of my mum, my check-in would be less of a hassle. My second pointer is never to trust my hand weighing method again. I need some financial planning to save up for a proper weighing scale.
I joyously believe that God made the man temporarily inattentive to wrongly conclude that my mum also had 30kg for her luggage. Louise also had 10kg too heavy luggage bags but managed to sneak past despite some grudging counter workers. Whatever the case, we would all have been much poorer man and women if not for a very 'rich' God.

Reckless Abandonment

I have never been a very trusting person. It comes with the good looks. After a while, you never really know whether people want to be your friend to get popular or because they really bother about you.
HAHAHA. What nonsense. But i do admit that i do not trust and rely on others very much. Sometimes its the self-reliant, blaze your own trail world view that prevents me from trusting in God as well. I still believe that sometimes God gave you a brain and friends around you to help you through tough times, but i am also becoming more confident that putting your trust fully in God's hands is just as reliable.
This comes after i read a few books and realised that as long as people are in tune with God's plans, their prayers and requests will be answered positively. So often, people decide to become more practical instead of more trusting in God because we think 'God helps those who helps themselves'. We erroneously take that to mean that we must go do everything in our power first and then when all our efforts fail, God will see that we have tried and then deliver us.
However, i think we should 'help ourselves' by putting our faith in God first before doing anything, however big or insignificant. As we walk closer to him, we will soon realise his plans for the world, others and ourselves. Only then will we develop the confidence to put our faith totally in Him. We will also no doubt find that when our lives are in sync with God, our petitions will be confirmed and helped out. This is because we are using God's highway and no longer bashing around aimlessly with our pitiful human endeavours. This in turn allows us to continue trusting in God more.
Which is why i think i should post something like this. It probably will not win any blogger awards (Singapore has been going on endlessly about the blogger convention) because its not about social dysfunction. Anyone who knows me well will probably concede that i am hardly the person to be inspirational and enlightening but i do trust that God will help you understand His truths in His own way.

Michelle's Climb

The Pendulum works the way it sounds: As high above as you can climb, you fasten a loop with a metal nut and slide the rope through the loop. Then you climb down a few feet, dangle on the end of the rope, and try to swing across the sheer section. It takes nerve. You must lean out against the rope into empty space and, with a well-timed push, vault across the face of the cliff. If your lunge toward a safer spot fails, you swing helplessly back and try again.
After your entire party has swung the pendulum, you pull the rope all the way through the loop. From then on, there is no turning back. You have crossed a section of the cliff that requires a rope to swing on and a loop to attach it to. The loop is now out of your reach, and the rope coiled at your feet. There is only one way to go: up.

The above excerpt is taken from the Student Bible (Yancey, P. & Stafford T.) As a commentary to the book of Hebrews, they liken the decision of the Jews to follow Christ to rock-climbing. This decision was not only “can’t-turn back” for them. It was a risk, for to follow Christ was to give up Rome’s official protection and traditions that goes back thousands of years. The book of Hebrews seems designed to push such people toward a decisive commitment, or the other. Point by point, the author shows how Christ improved on the traditional way. Hebrews is a no-holds argument on why Christianity is better (a key word in Hebrews) than old-covenant Judaism. The new faith is worth any risk.

The tug of the old and the fear of the new is still a prevalent thing for us today as we struggle daily to surrender and commit. It is the promise of Salvation and that Jesus has called us his brothers that keeps us going! Read Hebrews to find out more!

On a lighter note, this entry is actually dedicated to Michelle for being such a wonderful friend and sister and great rock-climber (duh). And to so many others of you who have impacted greatly my stay here in Perth, Thank you!

-Louise Tay

Craze: Anime and People

Seeing how posting photos is more fun and allows more leeway to be strange, we decided to do our own Anime fight scenes. Hope you like it.
This is in no way an insult to certain peoples' passion. It is just that we prefer to read books. Who qualifies as a sadder bunch is open to debate which would in any case end up as a problem regarding the generation gap.

It all starts with a staring incident 

Hatred boils between 2 rival factions 

The pugilists taunt each other 

Round 1293803 -- Fight !  

The Pugilists employ Qigong that enables them to morph 

Xiao Long Niu 

Captain Spock from Star Trek intervenes during the War 

" Are you guys going to church tomorrow?"  

The Pugilists divert their attention towards Spock. 

Lets play "Spot the Difference"!  

There are 2 differences between the photos. This excludes the fact that i look better in the first one.  

Trouble and Knife dont have Ds

Sometimes its easy to spot differences in photos. At other times, its not. Especially if you are playing the arcade game photo-hunt, which includes a speedy time limit that makes you panic and unable to concentrate on spotting the subtle ( and many of times, cheapskate) differences.
During troubled times in our lives, its much the same. We become flustered and agitated, unable to concentrate on the hidden nuances that God has planted to mold our character. Its good to know that turmoil can bring about God's work in our lives. However, all too often, when the tool of trouble is wielded upon my life, i cry out for deliverance, not development.
I guess its human tendency. Even as Christians, its so much easier to cry out "Lord, deliver me!" Instead of "What can I get out of this situation? What is God trying to make me learn?" For one thing, "Save me!" entails fewer words.
The next time painful experiences come to cut me open, i want to pray a different prayer. For now I have spotted the difference : Trouble is Christ's special tool to expose weaknesses in order to fill with His strength.

Adapted from "The Renewed Mind" by Larry Christenson. From the chapter "The tool of trouble" and the topic "Deliverance or Development".