An old man

Finally I'm free enough to add stuff here, actually I've been free for a long time, just a bit lazy to blog again. Or rather have nothing to blog about until this afternoon.

If most of you know I have a tendency to run off to somewhere, don't have to be a quite place, grab myself a cup of good (and expensive) coffee and do my bible study.

This time the venu of choice was the newly opened shopping mall "Riverlink" in Ipswich (the place I'm living in Australia). Since the it was winter I ordered an extra warm cup of Irish creme mocha. Sounds nice? Taste even better...hahahaha...

The book of choice, Revelations, finally I have the courage to study the book I've never dared to look at for fear of what I might find or learn from it, but now I guess its time at the concluding point of this milestone, I thought I'll give it a shot. So there I was having my coffee, and doing my bible studies, than a group of people, a family I guess, came and seat down at the table beside me. Well, I'll cut the long story short and say they had a very loud conversation and I was will, not pissed, but slightly irritated.

So sometime went by and they were about to leave, the old man sitting on that table walked over and he was look in my direction and noticed I was doing bible studies. He asked me what was I studiying about, and we proceeded to talk about things. He talked about how the bible has changed his life, about how, we need to so much more spread the gospal look at the situation in the world today, I talked how it has changed mine, issues, my fear of the word...etc

Which brings up a though, can anyone picture life without God? I know I can't, I can't get by a day without talking to God, without putting God into propective of things, without acknowledging God in the things I do, seeking God....I cannot get by one day with out spending time with God. So what is life without God? Life is nothing....

A good reminder

Perhaps the question here would be “What or who are we working hard for?”

Earlier this year I felt or rather discovered that my perfect GPA which I got last semester was meaningless, as in there is no purpose what so ever for it, I didn’t felt fulfilled despite reaching the pinnacle for of university undergraduate achievement.

Problems like this usually appear when you think inside the box, which most people being brought up by the Singapore education system usually tend to because of “route learning” (Pang 1982; Gopinathan 1998; Chua 2006).

But I think the question should not just end there, however if we actually take the time to ask a further question on it, “Why is there no fulfillment?” followed by “What or who are we working for?”. It is strange that such a question would strike me at a time like this; strange indeed. Since receiving last semester’s results I have been trying very hard to maintain it from the looks of my assignment results for this semester I might just be able to pull it off again. And now this question “Who am I working so hard for?”.

Remember your creator… it all started with this phrase. If we were created in the same image as our creator and material things/works do not fulfill our creator, neither will it fulfill us. So how then do we find purpose in working so hard when the rewards are from this world? There are basically two things to consider; firstly are the rewards ONLY from this world? And secondly upon what do we focus on when we work hard?

It is rather clear that it can be all about focus. Upon what do we focus on when we do things? I’ll just quote from a conversation I just had recently “perhaps it doesn’t matter if u can maintain at it, or whether ur parents expect excellent grades... work hard at pleasing ur King...” So, don’t just work hard because your parents expect you to do so, or just because you want to challenge yourself. Work hard because your Father is happy to see you achieve, work hard because your Master/King will be pleased by your efforts and work hard because a Friend will encourage you to do so.

References

(I’m adding these references because I am aware that people disagree with me saying the Singapore education system is based on route learning and spoon feeding. This is just saying, it is not just my personal opinion.)

Chua, S. K. (2006). A critical discourse analysis on the translation practice of the Singapore’s 2004 educational reforms. Queensland, University of Queensland.

Gopinathan, S., Pakin. A., Ho. W. K., Saravana V. (1998). Language, Society and Education in Singapore, Times Academic Press.

Pang, E. F. (1982). Education, manpower and development in Singapore, Singapore University Press.