"I'm a big one for assimilation of everybody. But the basic problems remain the same. People still have existential anxiety, relationship anxiety. It just may not be expressed in Hebraic idiom." //Woody Allen; New York Magazine 40th Anniversary Feature
When the noise around you gets too loud, run back to the place of stillness. The place of safety, where you will be encouraged and loved, where you will find what you need. I know sometimes it's not easy for us to get together and stay together, but last night was everything I enjoy about who we are and I was really touched by the encouragement and the prayers. Now to stand firm and see the deliverance of the Lord.
"Did you know? The world's largest salt flat is located at Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. During the rainy season, the water turns it into the world's largest mirror. It's also called the border between heaven and earth."
This is one of the awesomest photos of this Salar de Uyuni place that I've seen so far! It is really just jawdroppingly amazing. Haha, looks like a place that I could really use right now. With that said, I'm really looking forward to Friday, where we can kick back, chill out and just share about our week. I think some of us had a really rough couple of days and I'm just eager to hear from everybody, to heal and be healed. Honestly, sometimes, the build up to the entire thing is worse than facing the thing itself. I'm just so ready to finish everything up and then take the rest of the month off to get some rest. It feels like I've been working non-stop this whole summer and I really need some serious pick-me-up before I start school.
Surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach me, for You are my hiding place.
15 July 2011
;21:52Just found several news extracts about the pro bono case that I worked on while I was interning with PT! Apparently, they have it on todayonline, xinmsn and asiaone. We were all really excited when the sentence was passed cos we thought he was going to get a heavier term than what he got but it all turned out pretty well in the end. The only thing that's not so nice is probably how all the newspapers took the slant that he was smuggling stuff in for the inmates and how the xinmsn photo makes him look like some kind of hardened criminal. Which is completely only one half of the truth.
If they had taken the effort to get to know Mr. Ng and his family background and how hard he has worked to bring up his children, I think the articles could have had a completely different slant. And most annoyingly, nobody mentioned that the whole thing started from altruistic and compassionate reasons, that he had only wanted to help the inmates out because they were working in such an unpleasant environment. Oh wells, sometimes you can't explain everything to everybody.
"Tragedies do happen. We can discover the reason, blame others, imagine how different our lives would be had they not occurred. But none of that is important: they did occur, and so be it. From there onward we must put aside the fear that they awoke in us and begin to rebuild."
//Paulo Coelho
I just realised that this was the first place that I interned at and this will probably be the last place that I will intern at. And interestingly, in those two years, I have made one full circle to be able to see where I came from and where I am going. Something he said struck me and made me wonder, has it really been that long? And by accident, I found one of my old qt journals and while flipping through it, I realised how truly difficult that period of my life was. That once upon a time, I thought that it would all end here and I would never be able to get myself out. But then as I read on and the entries changed, I understood just how faithful he has been, how he has stood shoulder to shoulder with me through it all.
And as I look back on that part of my life, I found that I could say with conviction that, that was just one part of who I ever will be. Is this what growing old feels like? That portions of your life that you thought would always be stuck in pain and hurt could really move on and allow you to become stronger?
If that is what it is all about, then I'm ready to grow up.
9 July 2011
;00:31 "And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh [that is, The Lord will provide]; as it is said to this day, "In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.".
//Genesis 22:14 (NKJV Version)
But go and learn what this means. He is Jehovah Jireh, Yahweh Yireh, the one who supplies all my needs according to His riches in glory. He has seen and He will provide. Again and again. What else have I to fear?
"We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man." //C.S. Lewis; The Case for Christianity
I'm not afraid of not knowing where to go. I'm afraid that I already know where I want to go but that there will be so many people who pull me in different directions, telling me one thing and another. Another nineteen days to go. Excited, trembling but almost all-ready to make my decisions and fight my battles.
"I'm a big one for assimilation of everybody. But the basic problems remain the same. People still have existential anxiety, relationship anxiety. It just may not be expressed in Hebraic idiom." //Woody Allen; New York Magazine 40th Anniversary Feature
When the noise around you gets too loud, run back to the place of stillness. The place of safety, where you will be encouraged and loved, where you will find what you need. I know sometimes it's not easy for us to get together and stay together, but last night was everything I enjoy about who we are and I was really touched by the encouragement and the prayers. Now to stand firm and see the deliverance of the Lord.
"Did you know? The world's largest salt flat is located at Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. During the rainy season, the water turns it into the world's largest mirror. It's also called the border between heaven and earth."
This is one of the awesomest photos of this Salar de Uyuni place that I've seen so far! It is really just jawdroppingly amazing. Haha, looks like a place that I could really use right now. With that said, I'm really looking forward to Friday, where we can kick back, chill out and just share about our week. I think some of us had a really rough couple of days and I'm just eager to hear from everybody, to heal and be healed. Honestly, sometimes, the build up to the entire thing is worse than facing the thing itself. I'm just so ready to finish everything up and then take the rest of the month off to get some rest. It feels like I've been working non-stop this whole summer and I really need some serious pick-me-up before I start school.
Surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach me, for You are my hiding place.
Just found several news extracts about the pro bono case that I worked on while I was interning with PT! Apparently, they have it on todayonline, xinmsn and asiaone. We were all really excited when the sentence was passed cos we thought he was going to get a heavier term than what he got but it all turned out pretty well in the end. The only thing that's not so nice is probably how all the newspapers took the slant that he was smuggling stuff in for the inmates and how the xinmsn photo makes him look like some kind of hardened criminal. Which is completely only one half of the truth.
If they had taken the effort to get to know Mr. Ng and his family background and how hard he has worked to bring up his children, I think the articles could have had a completely different slant. And most annoyingly, nobody mentioned that the whole thing started from altruistic and compassionate reasons, that he had only wanted to help the inmates out because they were working in such an unpleasant environment. Oh wells, sometimes you can't explain everything to everybody.
"Tragedies do happen. We can discover the reason, blame others, imagine how different our lives would be had they not occurred. But none of that is important: they did occur, and so be it. From there onward we must put aside the fear that they awoke in us and begin to rebuild."
//Paulo Coelho
I just realised that this was the first place that I interned at and this will probably be the last place that I will intern at. And interestingly, in those two years, I have made one full circle to be able to see where I came from and where I am going. Something he said struck me and made me wonder, has it really been that long? And by accident, I found one of my old qt journals and while flipping through it, I realised how truly difficult that period of my life was. That once upon a time, I thought that it would all end here and I would never be able to get myself out. But then as I read on and the entries changed, I understood just how faithful he has been, how he has stood shoulder to shoulder with me through it all.
And as I look back on that part of my life, I found that I could say with conviction that, that was just one part of who I ever will be. Is this what growing old feels like? That portions of your life that you thought would always be stuck in pain and hurt could really move on and allow you to become stronger?
If that is what it is all about, then I'm ready to grow up.
"And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh [that is, The Lord will provide]; as it is said to this day, "In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.".
//Genesis 22:14 (NKJV Version)
But go and learn what this means. He is Jehovah Jireh, Yahweh Yireh, the one who supplies all my needs according to His riches in glory. He has seen and He will provide. Again and again. What else have I to fear?
"We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man." //C.S. Lewis; The Case for Christianity
I'm not afraid of not knowing where to go. I'm afraid that I already know where I want to go but that there will be so many people who pull me in different directions, telling me one thing and another. Another nineteen days to go. Excited, trembling but almost all-ready to make my decisions and fight my battles.
