time waits for no man memories fade... limbs go weary... still i run the race the race to be with you... my Savior and my Lord
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Sunday, October 23, 2005
11:37 PM
tsunamis
hurricanes
earthquakes
terrorist attacks
bird flu
chelsea
seems like everytime i flip thru e newspapers or look at the news, it's nothing but doom and gloom...e bird flu is particularly unsettling....cos it cld hit anyone...and given globalisation as we have it now, unless u're holed up in a cave in rwanda or something...it's gonna get ya sooner or later....hmmm.....brings to mind a few things i've read recently...
i read a quotation that had the effect of saying "it is indeed folly that what most humans are afraid of is actually something that comes to all of them"
for the uninformed..that's death...esp since tax evasion seems pretty easy...but that's another matter altogether...
what i just wanna say is that its so darn easy to get paranoid over all these news...i mean...who knows? mabbe such things had been happening all the while....just that with the technology we have, we're able to see the very graphic images of these events...
a very common question that non-christians ask me is "if God really loves us, why does he allow all these sufferings?"
e best answer i cld possibly give wld be: Go search google. Yup...if you are expecting answers here...go do it yrself! haha~~
not trying to be mean lah...just that...when ppl ask that...i'd just simply think: what's the point of asking that? r u lookg for a fight/testing me/act smart or really looking for an answer?
well...if it's to get my personal opinion...all i can say is that...we are loved by God because of His grace....
meaning....although we call Him our Father...it is not by default that we get to do so. it is a privilege. The meaning of grace, to me at least, is that He loves us not because we deserve it, but because He has given His love to us as a gift~~ we shd never ever take God for granted like we take our own parents. sure, some of you might say that our parents' parents took care of them so its their duty...but gg by that logic to argue that it is God's duty to take care of us, if God takes care of us, are we to be gods to someone else? Do we need to endure endless grief at our offspring's misbehavior, trust them only to let betray this trust, only to totally forgive them and still love them? nah...dun think anyone of us can, at least not me...
to get back on track...i reckon its the definition of "love" that is the crux to understanding part of God's mysterious ways...
Love in the strictly human sense probably means to show care and concern for the other party, to try yr best so that they dun suffer.
To me, God's love to us does not really mean that. Sure, He wants us to be happy. But do u need to be in comfort to be happy? Certainly, the Bible states that Christians are in for plenty of suffering...but He does wants us to rejoice in the suffering...and there is only one way..by depending on Him during this sufferings, we can achieve happiness no matter what. Nothing is forever in this world, certainly not comfort. Wldn't it be worse off to depend on comfort as a source of happiness rather than having a fixed method of achieving this happiness regardless of the situation?
of course, i can only approach this issue thru my limited human understanding...if anyone states that this sounds alot like an SM r'ship, it isn't too far away from the truth...Psychologically, it cld be rationalised to a certain extent. But personally, i KNOW that it is true. I reckon i'm a logical and practical person...yet i do say that you have to go thru it to know it...using logic just totally defeats the purpose...
in short... All of us deserve to die because of our sins. So even if you are suffering from bird flu, during a hurricane, with a tsunami coming, seated in bali cafe, watching chelsea on the telly making a farce out of the Premiership, it's really nothing compared to what we really deserve.
and there is only one way out:
God offers us salvation thru grace. The price: the belief of the little puny human, in comparison to God, that is you.
AND
it's not just a normal lead-a-sorry-life-and-rejoice-after-you-die kinda deal. you still CAN be happy on earth. Just rely on Him! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
shucks..didn't really wanna get preachy...but.....ah well...God's way bah....it just comes out naturally...
only wanted to wonder aloud what we wld do if the bird flu pandemic ran crazy all over the world. i.e. judgment day..
wld you call ur significant other and tell him/her how much you love him/her?
or just huddle with yr family?
or go satisfy all yr hedonic desires?
me? dunno...i mean...if the world is ending.....nothing i do matters...sounds really passive but i can't picture why i shd hold anything impt...but i do know where i am gg already...so perhaps my last actions wld be to call all my loved ones and ask them:
Are you sure you will be going to heaven?
who am i?
People call me:Simon
i was born: Sept 1981
so i am: 24yrs old
mental torture @: SMU
spam me/msn @: simontkf@hotmail.com
liKes
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2 kids - elder son and younger daughter
early retirement
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ArChiVes
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