"... and the truth shall set you free."

It's midnight at 2am, a beep from my phone. It was an SMS from the god-sister, who had gone to Utah a week earlier.

It was bad news.  She didn't get along with that guy, whom she had been crazy about for the past few months. He's nice, I don't doubt that. The only thing that troubled me is simply this guy is a Mormon.

I've always had this issue with her being a Mormon without knowing much of what she believes in. Almost no knowledge about the doctrines and why she believes in what she believes in. You can say that she's almost blind to it, as it seemed so to me when I questioned her understanding about the religion.

My fear, is that if she ever get on with this guy, it'll be ever harder for her to get out of it.

Before she left for Utah, I wrote her an email. Apart from all the obligatory good-byes that I have to say, I included a prayer for her, that she will, in exact words, "know the truth and let the truth set you free".

She's hurting, I know. I can tell from the SMS.  I am sadden that her pursuit of happiness had to come to an end, but I can't help feeling a good sense of hope. It's God's answer to my prayer. Truth has been shown to her about this guy and the reality that they can't be together. And hope for me, that she can turn back now, anytime she wants.

I guess people have to be cruel to be kind.

Surely there's a reason why God has allowed this. I have been praying for her to know Him for who truly is, and not by what a random guy who digs for things and rewrites the Bible.

I just hope she recovers soon.  

Food for Thought

William temple, archbishop of Canterbury 1942-44

"Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God.

It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness.

Nourishment of mind by His truth.

Purifying of imagination by His beauty.

Opening of the heart to His love.

And submission of will to His will and purpose.

And all of this gathered up in adoration is the greatest of human expressions of which we are capable."

Making a point

I spent two hour writing a post. Towards the end, I find that the points I was trying the make were rather contradicting.

So I deleted the whole post.

Anyway, here's a picture I took with Instagram today!

 Hope you're having a good weekend so far! :)

Back on Track

Of late I have been having this nagging feeling to start writing again. Some of you might know, I was in college to be a trained writer (I was trying to be fancy. Really I meant that I did journalism). Writing was something I find myself to be relatively good in since primary school. Also as an extrovert, I find writing (or talking) allows me to express- an avenue for me to pour my feelings.

Of course, along the way I've gotten distracted. There's the new job (Yes, I have ANOTHER new job now!) which is huge blessing from God. It is a steep learning curve for me, therefore I have found myself in situations where I will think about work first thing in the morning and it is also the last thing at night before falling asleep.  At times I work weekends, so it was hard to sit down and actually pen down my thoughts because I'll be exhausted.

As I was talking to a dear colleague about this, she said something which I thought was interesting. She said I maybe going through quarter-life crisis. I think there is some truths in that. As I am turning 25 this June, maturity is what I want to see myself progress in while keeping a positive and almost child-like outlook in life. Writing meant a lot to me, so is journaling my quiet time with God, spending time mentoring a young church member, exercising, missions and photography. I want to travel and see the world, particularly Europe for myself. Some years were wasted in the first quarter and I want to make the best out the rest that I have. I don't know how many more years ahead, I just want to make it count this time.

Running the race a little differently this time. Will run it purposefully and not just running for the sake of running it.

And because I cannot stand having a blogpost without a picture, here's a picture taken with my iPhone last month during my church's youth camp. It's one of those rare times I think iPhone photos are better than my DSLR's.

The sun setting at Peaceheaven, Genting Highlands. 

Tech savvy

I've always had this app on my iPhone since June last year, I mean the Blogger app, apparently allows me to blog right off my phone. Since insomnia came to visit again, I thought I'd give it a try.

So to test this out, I am going to publish a random photo from my phone.

I unearthed my old Nokia today as I was clearing my desk. That tough cookie was stuck with me for almost 3 years, although in between I used a cool O2 Atom Exec. Cool during it's time, anyway.

I shall put that away in the museum.

Lost & Found

Found the existence of my blog after more than 1 year.

Yes. I am ought to start writing again.

Hello, January 2011

It's the time of the year I feel new. Every thing has been reseted, start a new.

I've decided that it is time to get back to writing again this year. Apart from a lot of things that is happening in my life right now (which I will fill you in later), the reality is that the will to write and time to allow myself to explore my imagination is now unfortunately rare.

This reality hit me like an eighteen-wheeler when I was given a task to do a simple write-up of my church's Christmas carnival. The dateline was 12th January and I struggled through the writing process until the 9th January. Even that I had my pastor to check what I've written and I am embarrassed at the silly mistakes I made in the article.

As I wondered, I was not able to recall the last time I actually pen my thoughts. And since this blog has been accumulating dust, guess it's a good time to start.

Tonight is one of those rare nights where I get inspired by listening to Josh Groban and reading some thought provoking quotes by C.S Lewis, Elisabeth Elliot and John Piper. Again, I don't remember the last time I had so much of inspiration to express in writing and in speech.

However, since this is my first post in the year of 2011, I will fill you in on what's been happening in my life.

I got a new job. (Yay!)

I am not sure how many of you know, the reason for the birth of this blog was a result of a careless practice on freedom of speech. It was foolish and it had cost me my previous job as a kindergarten teacher. Sure, I have hated the management there, but it was foolish of me not to practice self-control and let it spill all over the world wide web for everyone to see.

Anyway.

For some time I was afraid of going back to work. The job in the kindergarten was just a glimpse of corporate and I hated it. Hence, I've been battling with myself to find something that is not corporate and having this very idealistic, if not, unrealistic idea of doing things I totally love doing, like ministry, or photography. I thought it is time. I still believe there is a place for that to happen perhaps later in my life, but then, God has other plans.

As I wait for the right time and the right door to open, I was working in church as a casual worker with very minimal pay. And God is good by giving my leaders like my both my pastors to knock some sense into my head when I needed it. There were things in my own life that I need to sort out, some attitudes and character flaws that needed correction and my pastors have very tactfully yet firmly conveyed them to me.

So August last year I have decided to send my resumes out, hoping to get interviews for jobs. It was a scary a ride as the thought of going corporate still scares me. Committing the job interviews to God, for Him to help me know which job to take on, I went for a few here and there and simply to cut the long story short, I got a job with a local stock photography company. Though the job description for me has very little to do with being creatively involved, instead, it is more on the selling aspect.

I took the job as the job came at the right time and I acknowledged that as a proof of God's faithfulness in providence. I admit, there were days I dread going to work because of the nature of the job, which is actually cold calling. I persevered simply because this is God's will for me to have this job.

Somehow, in the days where I dread going to work yet I completed my quota day by day, without any complains to my superior. God's favour was all over me, I have also gain favour among my superiors. To cut the long story short again, God has enabled me to skip two steps up in position and was given a good increment in just 4 months in the job.

I couldn't have done it if it's not for God.

This has been such a good start to the new year, to which I look forward with God's loving guidance and that I would not allow anymore fear to hold me back from taking that step of faith. A friend once taught me to ask myself this question before taking that step of faith- "What is there to lose, anyway?" Come to think of it, what is there to lose, anyway? What could be the worst thing that could happen? For us as Christians, we are assured of God's leading and that ALL things work out for the good for those who love Him. So what if it's not the right way? The Bible says to trust in Him and lean not on our own understanding and He will make our paths straight. It is better than staying stagnant, paralyzed by fear and not even making that step at all.

I hope you, whoever you are reading this will have a great year ahead. :)