My First Love

My first love is Jesus, who saved me from all my sins, who suffered so much for all my wrongs, who took away my shame and brokeness, who showed me amazing love and grace, and who gave me a new life and purpose through faith.

But how many times I had forsaken my first love? Countless times! I had loved Him half-heartedly. I had always unconsciously and consciously started to chase after worldly things such as money, power, people's approval, ability to do certain things and etc. These things are good in the eyes of the world but they never satisfy my soul nor make me a more complete person. When I surrender one of them to God, I unknowingly start to chase after the other worldly thing. It is like a vicious cycle. After all these years of loving Jesus half-heartedly, I concluded that it did not lead me to anywhere. I concluded that I need a paradigm shift of mentality. I must know that the biggest loss is never losing the worldly things which will not last forever. The biggest loss is losing my first love - Jesus.

When we lose Jesus, we lose everything. When we gain Jesus, we gain everything! So I must love Jesus and I must not be distracted by the love for worldly things. We must constantly ask ourselves (or ask people to remind us) who is our first love especially when we feel troubled by worldly things. We must remember the following verses:

Matt 22:37 - Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'

John 16:33b - In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Now I appreciate what apostle wrote below in Phil 3:7-11

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Don't make enemy with talkative aunties!

It is very common to see stall owners of hawker center make enemy with each other in Singapore. This is particularly evident for drink stall owners. I always feel very amused by one particular drink stall aunty in Geylang East Central hawker center. She mainly sells deserts but does sell a few type of drinks. When we sit near her stall to eat chicken rice, we usually order drinks from her neighbor stall. She will always grumble about her neighbor (just 3 stalls away from her stall) in sarcastic manner. In one ocassion, she told us her neighbor would not bother to keep their drink fresh. She quoted an example saying they keep their longan (龙眼) overnight for many days and use it to sell to their customers. She asked us not to drink from her neighbor stall as the water is taken from "drainage". Whether it is true or pure slander, some of us who heard her comments dare not order drinks from her neighbor anymore. I think this aunty must have told many people about the same thing.

Today I ate at the hawker center again after I finished swimming. I decided not to order any drink from the stall due to psychological effect or just in case something wrong with their drinks. How her neighbor's business is impacted by her slander or sarcastic remark? It is immeasurable!

In my opinion, the aunty's sarcastic remark is > 50 % due to their bad relationship rather than the unhygienic practice of her neighbor. Next time, if you run your own drink/food stall business in hawker center or any other small businesses, the last thing you want to do is make enemy with your neighbor esp talkative aunties. Guess what is the first thing you should do?

The curious case of a special friend

I know a friend who just uncovered the history of his family. Most importantly, he got to know who his real mum is and what happened to his mum. For the first time in his life, he asked his father about the events that took place twenty over years ago. His father married his mum many years ago and gave birth to him. He was a very difficult baby to look after in the first 6 months as baby. He kept on crying and crying all days and nights. It was the mum's first child and she didn't have the experience taking care of a baby. She was so stressed that she cried together with the baby. His father visited home once a week as his work place was far from home. One fine day, his father was informed his wife had committed suicide by jumping into the river in the town. At that time, the baby was only 3-month old. His father didn't quarrel with his mum. Nobody knew the exact reason she killed herself. According to his father, his mother was very gentle, quiet and submissive girl and she was deeply loved and treasured by his grand-parents.

His father married his step-mother 6-months later to take care of him. The family had been concealing the matter under the carpet all these years. His grandma does not love the step-mother as much and has prejudice against her and her two step-sisters. The matter would be briefly or accidentally brought up when there is heated argument in the family. This friend would not investigate the details further and he would continue to treat his step-mother as his real mum (though he knew in his heart she was not). He did not dare to ask the true story because traditional Chinese culture does not encourage people to discuss or mention about bad things that happened in the past.

This friend had always felt something missing in his life. He had constantly felt he was short of real and tangable mother's love. However, after he uncovered the true story of his mum, he felt as if he has just found his true identify. He was touched simply by knowing his mum had ever loved him in the first 3 months of his life. It must have been tough for his mum to take care of him. He felt that his real mother's blood is in him and he wants to live his life well to love his deceased mum. His deceased mum would want him to live well and be loved. Thank God this friend is a Christian and he is deeply loved by Jesus. When he goes up to heaven, he hopes to meet his mum and ask her what exactly happened at that time. Unknowingly he has lived longer than his mum now if count by the number of years they lived.

Mother's Day Home Trip - Part 2

Before departure to Singapore At KLIA

Karen at 友明seafood restaurant her Proton Saga as backdrop

Maggie rubs the bell to create humming sound at Jenjarom Thai Buddhist Temple

Ah Bi with flower adorning her at Jenjarom Thai Buddhist Temple

'Dim Sam' breakfast at Jenjarom

Honey Crab at 日夜兴

Mother's day dinner at 日夜兴 seafood restaurant

Mahjong at my house

Peanut toast at Lavender Cafe

PengKiat and MengLee at Lavender Bread Cafe at Bukit Tinggi Shopping Mall

Everyday is Mother's Day to my dad

View from right side of my house

View from left side of my house

My humble house and car in Banting

Mother's Day Home Trip - Part 1

I went back to my hometown last Saturday and returned lastnight. It was a last-minute arrangement. I felt I could tap on the Vesak replacement holiday on Monday and spend extended time with my family. Overall, the trip was good though it was a little too long. I was getting very bored on the last day and could not wait to come back to Singapore!

My bus ride on Saturday was terrible. It took me 9 hours. This is how - 6 hours from SIN to Klang, 2 hours stuck at Klang area, 1 hour from Klang to Banting. They changed the long-distance bus interchange to a new location at 中路. I've got to take a cab to go to old bus interchange to take another bus. It is so convenient! According to my cab driver, many people protested and are still protesting about the authority's move. Furthermore, the traffic congestion and road/bridge condition is very messy now. They are still constructing a new bridge to smoothen the traffic flow and it will not be finished soon. I decided not to take bus ride anymore in future.

I met a couple of old secondary school friends who live in Klang. One of my friends is very established in his career and life now. He started his own business in the U.S five years ago and is expanding his enterprise across the globe especially the European continent and the Middle East. He is hiring 7 persons to work in his office in Klang. One and a half year ago, he only hired 2 persons. He has a business partner in the U.S. who is in-charged of the operation there. They can execute their businesses and operations around the clock. Their customer orders keep coming in from all over the world and they hired Fedex to ship their goods everyday in contract agreement. The growth potential seems to be huge and unstoppable now.

My friend also mentioned about the hardship he went through in the first 2 ~ 3 years. After his graduation at Kansas University, he worked for other people and designed website for them. He learned the business model his employer used, got to meet clients and grasped the opportunity to run his own from there. Besides his career, he also acquired one shop house for his warehouse and office, one 2 and 1/2 storey house at Bukit Tinggi and two cars. His achievement really caught the attention of my other friends who do not meet him for longer time. They are amazed and wondered how this guy did it.

It took some times for my mind to accept this 'changed' friend. Upon further reflection, I realized it is not so much about his great ability that he achieved so many successes. It is the environment (the U.S) he lived in that made him so enterpreneurer. The environment encourages people to take risk and being open-minded. It is about grasping opportunity whenever or wherever it arises. I guess it is about living our life fully as if there may be no tomorrow. If we view life this way, we will wipe off all our unwanted worries and prepared to take on opportunities.