I'm going through a rough patch
Drinking the wine of adversity and eating the bread of affliction
My commitments tested, disciple refined
My willpower pounded, faith stretched
Yet few understand what I'm going through
The many battles waged in my head
Countless struggles and challenges
Many times feeling like throwing the towel
Finally realised the fragility of man's help
Some hear but never listen
Some analyse but can't understand
Some acknowledge but don't empathise
This giant hand grabbed me
Threw me around, smashed me on the ground
Shaken me up - all my desires, hopes, securities fall off
All that's left is that giant hand
That hand is God's hand
And I'm now brought to a place where it's only Him and me
=====
"Those people who just can't see the enemy coming will never understand why some are scrambling to fortify the city."
How far can you see? How distant is your vision? How wide is your perspective?
Friday, August 24, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
God's Generation
This struck me hard and ignited my adrenalin as I read it. I hope you feel the same way too...
=====
So this guy comes up to me and says, "What's the vision? What's the big idea?" I open my mouth and words come out like this...The vision?
The vision is JESUS - obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The vision is an army of young people. You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism. They laugh at 9-5 little prisons. They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday. They wouldn't even notice. They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won. They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence. They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying. What is the vision? The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.
Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation. It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games. This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause. A million times a day its soldiers choose to lose that they might one day win the great "Well done" of faithful sons and daughters.
Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"
And this is the sound of the underground. The whisper of history in the making. Foundations shaking. Revolutionaries dreaming once again. Mystery is scheming in whispers. Conspiracy is breathing... This is the sound of the underground.
And the army is disciplined. Young people who beat their bodies into submission. Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms. The tattoo on their back boasts, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them? Can hormones hold them back? Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them?
And the generation prays like a dying man with groans beyond talking, with warrior cries, euphoric tears and with great barrow loads of laughter! Waiting. Watching: 24-7-365.
Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cozy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.
They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive inside. On the outside? They hardly care. They wear cloths like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide. Would they surrender their image or their popularity? They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.
With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days, they pray as if all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them. Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breaths out, they breathe in.) Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus. Their words make demons scream in shopping centres. Don't you hear them coming? Herald the weirdos! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.
And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will com easily; it will come soon. How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, they very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great "Amen!" from countless angels, from heroes of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.
Guaranteed.
=====
So this guy comes up to me and says, "What's the vision? What's the big idea?" I open my mouth and words come out like this...The vision?
The vision is JESUS - obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.
The vision is an army of young people. You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism. They laugh at 9-5 little prisons. They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday. They wouldn't even notice. They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won. They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence. They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying. What is the vision? The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.
Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation. It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games. This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause. A million times a day its soldiers choose to lose that they might one day win the great "Well done" of faithful sons and daughters.
Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"
And this is the sound of the underground. The whisper of history in the making. Foundations shaking. Revolutionaries dreaming once again. Mystery is scheming in whispers. Conspiracy is breathing... This is the sound of the underground.
And the army is disciplined. Young people who beat their bodies into submission. Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms. The tattoo on their back boasts, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them? Can hormones hold them back? Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them?
And the generation prays like a dying man with groans beyond talking, with warrior cries, euphoric tears and with great barrow loads of laughter! Waiting. Watching: 24-7-365.
Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cozy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.
They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive inside. On the outside? They hardly care. They wear cloths like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide. Would they surrender their image or their popularity? They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.
With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days, they pray as if all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them. Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breaths out, they breathe in.) Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus. Their words make demons scream in shopping centres. Don't you hear them coming? Herald the weirdos! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.
And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will com easily; it will come soon. How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, they very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great "Amen!" from countless angels, from heroes of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.
Guaranteed.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Lessons on time...
Time is a very big thing to each and every one of us.
What matters is not how much years you have left in your life, but how much life you put into your years.
I've been convicted quite some time ago to live as a worthy and good steward of my time. Time management, like what many of us always hear, is more than just listing the things-to-do and arranging them according to their level of importance, but it's also about looking out for opportunities within the time you have.
One clear way to work on your time management is to minimise inefficiency.
Try to avoid wasting little pockets of time because they do add up at the end of the day. With these little pockets you can take on stuff like praying, reading for edification, or doing a quick recap and revision of your day's lessons.
Also, if you find yourself always being distracted by your own comfort zones (like me), get away from them.
Personally, my efficiency maxes out when I'm on 'foreign' ground with nothing else except the things I have to accomplish. If you always fall for temptation, flee from it next time.
One more thing. If you don't make time for something, you most likely won't have time for it.
What matters is not how much years you have left in your life, but how much life you put into your years.
I've been convicted quite some time ago to live as a worthy and good steward of my time. Time management, like what many of us always hear, is more than just listing the things-to-do and arranging them according to their level of importance, but it's also about looking out for opportunities within the time you have.
One clear way to work on your time management is to minimise inefficiency.
Try to avoid wasting little pockets of time because they do add up at the end of the day. With these little pockets you can take on stuff like praying, reading for edification, or doing a quick recap and revision of your day's lessons.
Also, if you find yourself always being distracted by your own comfort zones (like me), get away from them.
Personally, my efficiency maxes out when I'm on 'foreign' ground with nothing else except the things I have to accomplish. If you always fall for temptation, flee from it next time.
One more thing. If you don't make time for something, you most likely won't have time for it.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
I love school!
Yeah! You might say I'm crazy...but I don't really care...coz I'm loving the fact that I'm studying - as in, having the opportunity to materialise my academic pursues.
You see, in life (or the Singaporean life), studies are inevitable. You can't avoid it. And you have to face it no matter what. Also, we should learn to treasure our school days, because people elsewhere don't enjoy the same thing as we do.
So, you can either choose to scrape your way through, or you can enjoy the entire experience of it all. Both ways will still get you to your destination, but the difference is in what you take home during the whole ride.
You can choose to sulk and do whatever that's enough. You put in the minimal, required effort. You fold your arms, take the corner seat, close your eyes and hope that the journey will be over soon.
Or you can choose to put in your utmost into whatever that comes your way - despite how you might feel about it. You do it wholeheartedly for God and you hold nothing back. Even if you don't succeed (in terms of grades, results, or man's expectations), you know that you have already done your best and that is pleasing to God. You open your eyes to the opportunities during the ride, you choose to enjoy it.
I'm sure we will all graduate at the end of the day. But that's not the end of the story. We still have to ask ourselves:
You see, in life (or the Singaporean life), studies are inevitable. You can't avoid it. And you have to face it no matter what. Also, we should learn to treasure our school days, because people elsewhere don't enjoy the same thing as we do.
So, you can either choose to scrape your way through, or you can enjoy the entire experience of it all. Both ways will still get you to your destination, but the difference is in what you take home during the whole ride.
You can choose to sulk and do whatever that's enough. You put in the minimal, required effort. You fold your arms, take the corner seat, close your eyes and hope that the journey will be over soon.
Or you can choose to put in your utmost into whatever that comes your way - despite how you might feel about it. You do it wholeheartedly for God and you hold nothing back. Even if you don't succeed (in terms of grades, results, or man's expectations), you know that you have already done your best and that is pleasing to God. You open your eyes to the opportunities during the ride, you choose to enjoy it.
I'm sure we will all graduate at the end of the day. But that's not the end of the story. We still have to ask ourselves:
- how much have we taken home from the journey?
- how much have we grown/matured?
- how much have we done which truly counts?
- how many have been blessed during our journey?
- etc...
The choice in yours...
Sunday, August 05, 2007
The Rubber hits the Road
School starts for the NTU people tomorrow.
Whether I like it or not, I'll have to face it.
"What you face in life is decided by God, but HOW you face it is entirely up to you."
The past few months have been moments of crafting out my vision for my life and being aware of my purpose for living. The true test of them all starts tomorrow.
I'm stepping back into my academic life with a vision, with purpose, with conviction and awareness that I'm doing all these for God.
And I have faith that God will see me through it all.
But feelings wise, I'm terribly scared. I feel I'm not ready for it yet. I feel that I won't make it as well as before.
But feelings are merely feelings...
Whether I like it or not, I'll have to face it.
"What you face in life is decided by God, but HOW you face it is entirely up to you."
The past few months have been moments of crafting out my vision for my life and being aware of my purpose for living. The true test of them all starts tomorrow.
I'm stepping back into my academic life with a vision, with purpose, with conviction and awareness that I'm doing all these for God.
And I have faith that God will see me through it all.
But feelings wise, I'm terribly scared. I feel I'm not ready for it yet. I feel that I won't make it as well as before.
But feelings are merely feelings...
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Old Photos
Was clearing up my room and stumbled upon our old family photo albums. Haha...many of the pics have faded. Here's 2 of them...
Man...that was really, really a long time ago...
Man...that was really, really a long time ago...
Okay...so a vision's important...really
School starts next week. And I'm feeling kind of worried, anxious and a little fearful. Thinking of the hectic schedule, the impending workloads, and the commitments up my sleeve the next semester makes me wanna dig a trench and hide in it for good.
But I realise that these emotions and feelings aren't everything.
Thing is, to survive the road ahead, I've got to stay focused on my destination. Many times it's easy to lose track of things and wonder off course, only to realise that you've wasted so much time wandering about while you should have spent that time moving on.
My life vision is: To live wholeheartedly and passionately for God, being sharp and sensitive in effectiveness, walking intimately with Him and experiencing His abundance.
My core values are: Discipline, Diligence, Discernment, Passion, Faithfulness, Humility and Integrity.
To tell you the truth, and nothing but the truth, I am ready to die for my vision.
I know this vision is something that will hold me through and help me look beyond my circumstances in the days to come.
Thinking about the reason why I came up with all this actually gives me the conviction and empowerment to strive to live the way God intended me to live. I know I can never rely on emotional highs and sometimes, people because all these will falter.
But one thing I'm sure of is God Himself. He's the One who is faithful and omnipotent even till the very end of time.
So what's your purpose and/or vision?
But I realise that these emotions and feelings aren't everything.
Thing is, to survive the road ahead, I've got to stay focused on my destination. Many times it's easy to lose track of things and wonder off course, only to realise that you've wasted so much time wandering about while you should have spent that time moving on.
My life vision is: To live wholeheartedly and passionately for God, being sharp and sensitive in effectiveness, walking intimately with Him and experiencing His abundance.
My core values are: Discipline, Diligence, Discernment, Passion, Faithfulness, Humility and Integrity.
To tell you the truth, and nothing but the truth, I am ready to die for my vision.
I know this vision is something that will hold me through and help me look beyond my circumstances in the days to come.
Thinking about the reason why I came up with all this actually gives me the conviction and empowerment to strive to live the way God intended me to live. I know I can never rely on emotional highs and sometimes, people because all these will falter.
But one thing I'm sure of is God Himself. He's the One who is faithful and omnipotent even till the very end of time.
So what's your purpose and/or vision?
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