Pulau Ulbin.

A one night camping trip that was full of trashy fun and bonding in the name of Christ. It was great living, cooking and eating outdoors. Even the heavy pounding of the rain and the roar of the waves at night were so fun and did not dampened our spirits at all. So I thank God for this time.

More details in the next entry. =)

Quips.

A: I like Communism.

B: I hate Communism.

A: Why?

B: Because muggers like me will end up with the same pay as slackers like you.

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Me: Have you read about the Yasukuni shrine in the “Life” section today?

Y: Not yet. But I know what it is and the issue about it.

Me: I was there and visited the museum last month, and it was true that they omitted some of the atrocities that they did. However I disagreed with the writer’s perspective that it was bad because the war was strictly from Japanese perspective – the attackers and the defenders will have differing positions and that is normal. The Americans kept their “war atrocities” in Afganistan and Iraq quiet too didn’t they?

At least through ommission, they did not lie.

Y: You lie by ommision.

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Z to me: You should be the last one to comment on my  eating etiquette. (After I splatter cheese sauce all over her fork when i was dipping my potato wedge in the saucer.)

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X: The jungle is more exciting. (When asked to choose between Pulau Ulbin and a resort in Sentosa.)

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Me: It is only when we get much older then we realised the mistakes that we made when we were young. There are a lot of things that we can only do when we are young.

Z: That is why it was said that “youth is wasted on the young”.

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C: Hey. Your train has just left.

D: Yeah…

C: Well… I will accompany you till my train comes.

D: That don’t put you at a necessary disadvantage does it?

(the next trains for both platforms arrived at the same time.)

Your power over me grows stronger yet.

It was good catching up with Valent and Disong, and also a good laptop research trip together. 

I dropped my handphone hard on the floor yesterday. I just realised how bouncy my sonyericcson phone actually is. I lost many messages, but most of all, I lost the one that Weijie and Min Min sent me. Especially Min Min’s one which was a very pleasant surprise. It takes so little time to send an sms, but it takes the right moment to surprise and delight. I hope I do enough good things in the Lord’s eyes to deserve another one from her soon, so I will not miss the recent one so much.

I’m glad that our overnight trip to Ulbin this friday got settled. Thank God! I really hope our bonding gets closer, and also we can make the loved ones of our fellow brothers and sisters feel welcome, like Joshua. Therefore, will make effort and let God bless our efforts. =) 

I get pleasure when my overseas friends replied my email, or even those random ones dropping a word of “thanks” when we shared about topics like “Cello Motivation”. Maybe t is because of the effort… But yeah. Thank God for them for they are like the external source of energy that I have been blessed with.

Seeing the 平太堂 people continuing to worship God with all their heart is sort of inspiring. too. 

Ramblings on Thought.

I had the privilege to reread atheist Sam Harris article again which I first read in January and comparing it side by side with the Newsweek article “God Debate” between him and Pastor Rick Warren. Warren’s closing statement struck me alot, as that was exactly the meaning that my GP teacher had when we debated about God versus Atheism:

“I believe in both faith and reason. The more we learn about God, the more we understand how magnificent this universe is. There is no contradiction to it. When I look at history, I would disagree with Sam: Christianity has done far more good than bad. Altruism comes out of knowing there is more than this life, that there is a sovereign God, that I am not God. We’re both betting. He’s betting his life that he’s right. I’m betting my life that Jesus was not a liar. When we die, if he’s right, I’ve lost nothing. If I’m right, he’s lost everything. I’m not willing to make that gamble.”

Actually, much as I disagreed with some of the things that he said, I’m quite amazed at the mastery of thought by Sam Harris. I mean it isn’t really easy to seperate science from faith, fact from preconception. Whether it is about the theory of evolution and its ability to act as an unifying cornerstone of natural sciences, or the fact that seemingly incompatible phenomena like “altruism” and “sexual selection” challenges that theory. Saying that, I think Rick Warren answered his questions very well, especially noting his ability to feel the difference “actual emotion” between “impatience” and “anger” as compared to what was said by Harris.

Reading their conversations made me felt even more urgent to develop the evidence of independent thought, capacity for good writing & research, and flexible, integrative & critical thinking. I remembered both Disong and Esmond telling me that they can accept Christianity for what it is. They did not have to believe the bible is true before they start believing in it. I’m sad to say that I don’t take things with as much faith as them, yet sometimes I lack that mastery in thought to disssect them, and that leaves me as disappointed as I am sad.

But I will not give up, till I am conscious of thought. “I think, therefore I am” is a case of mistaken source of identity. Rather it is the source of the power of thought that perhaps all of us should give some serious thought about, and not to accept everything, religious or otherwise at face value for the injustice of being shortchanged in life – simply because you do not think deep enough.

Love right all wrongs.

Proverbs is a really amazing book… If there is anything one can lust after, that will be wisdom.

to my dearest Jie.

Happy Birthday! It has been more than a month and I’m missing you lots ya… *hugz

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The Way It Is.

“In The Book”

A hand appears
It writes on the wall.
Just a hand moving in the air,
and writing on the wall.

A voice comes and says the words,
“you have been weighed,
you have been judged,
and have failed.”

The hand disappears, the voice
fades away into the silence.
And a spirit stirs and fills
the room, all space, all things.

All this in The Book
asks, “What have you done wrong?”

to my God.

and may at the end of my life, I will be able to say “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”.

- 2 Timothy 4:7

Ask Me

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.

-William Stafford.