His grace is sufficient...

The past week has been like a mild roller-coaster ride.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty good days. And then, the ride down the emo lane started. And it’s been hanging thereabouts since then. I’ve been trying hard to just keep up the good cheer, the joyful spirit and I think I still am joyful and happy but there are times when the down sides of life gets to me and I feel a little overwhelm and sad. I try to rely on God for joy and for hope, despite all the happenings. I’ve been reading Psalms a little bit more these days and just being reminded of how God has been there for David all the time is so comforting to me. Truly, 2 Cor 12:9 has been a great source of comfort to me throughout this week too – And HE said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

And there’s this song that goes:

It's all about You, Jesus
And all this is for You
For Your glory and your fame
It's not about me
As if You should do things my way
You alone are God
And I surrender to your ways

And I keep reminding myself that even though there are a lot of things which I wish happened my way, God is sovereign and He is in control. My life is not my own and all that happens is His and I pray that it may bring glory and fame to Him. It’s not about me.

Like today, I went for the MOE interview. As I was preparing for it, I was just asking God: “Lord, how honest should I be?” And it immediately seemed like a dumb question. So, I said “Okay, as honest as I should be!” next worry, “what if I don’t get the job?” answer: “Well, God decides where I should go…” oh yah. I forgot! So, I went to the interview, having the above song in my head, reminding myself that however I do in my interview, whether I get the job or not, is in God’s hands and whatever the outcome may be, God has deemed it to be so. And He is sovereign. Do I surrender to His will? Do I say “God, may Your will be done”? Do I say “It’s not about me but it’s all about YOU. It’s not for me but for your glory and fame”? I guess, at the end of the day, whatever happens, truly God has so desired it to be. And, yeah…I want to say it…I want God’s name to be glorified above mine. Please la…it’s my name we’re talking about. What is there to glory in? hah! But, God is good. Coz throughout the interview, I really was able to be as honest as I can. Although I spoke to someone else and she said “yeah, honest oso don’t need to put yourself down mar”…true, I didn’t put myself down. But I was honest lor…as honest as I can be…and I think, more than just getting the job, I want to glorify God’s name through it all…And today, as I was walking out of the house, I wished I had accompany. And guess what? When I reached MOE, I saw Xuanwan and Cheryl. Wow. God is really good!

That’s why throughout the emo roller-coaster ride, I can still smile and say “God is good” from the bottom of my heart. Not because circumstances are improving but because there’s that sense of peace, knowing that it is all in God’s hands. And that God will take care of everything. At the end of it all, I know that God’s name should be glorified, not my own. When my eyes see beyond myself and see how good God is, I am joyful!!

xxx

Here are just some pictures taken throughout the week:

Chocolate Brownie at Munchie Monkey in NUS. Event: Celebrating Janice's birthday. The first time in the semester where we gathered the whole group. :)

Campus Crusade's Valentine's Day concert entitled: Victim, Villain, Valentine. I didn't really feel up to it but went ahead in the end. :) It was okay la...nothing fantastic but praise God for the responses through the concert. :)

The delicious and super healthy cake Michelle baked for Janice!!!! :)

Pictures and summary

The pictures are here!

Of Putting up Christmas Tree in the Lee’s house. Of course, watching ‘The Night Before Christmas’ too. My phone camera only 2MP so please pardon the bad picture quality. Too bad none of us brought our camera along.

Of glorious Siew Yuk. Restaurant Kokok.

Of Christmas night. Our annual event. The gang hanging out first in Centrepoint MacDonalds and then at the Leong’s but minus the Yees. I enjoyed myself with them.Talking nonsense. And of course, the day Samuel got his nick name. He’s now “Bad Colour Samuel” in my phone.But Sam, you know we all love you just the way you are!

Of having brunch and sending off the USMers. And a bunch of university students, who were supposedly mature people, being super fascinated with flies mating.

New year's eve's eve, me and Josh were out just to get stuffs and talk. Since 1U don't extend their opening hours, we had to go to MacDonalds Centrepoint again.

On 31^st Dec, with the USMers were in Penang and the Yees in land of the bombed (aka Thailand), the only ones left were yours truly, Joshua, Samuel, and Yueen San. And since Yueen San had relatives from Hong Kong in KL, she couldn’t spend the day with us but instead had to go layan her relatives who only speak Cantonese. If you know how fluent San is in Cantonese, you’d understand how much they'd enjoyed each other’s company. hehe. So, Joshua, Samuel and I were left to do things on our own. We wanted to have lunch together. Samuel wanted to get wallet. Joshua didn’t want to go to places like 1U which will be packed. So, we all went to Amcorp Mall. The flea market wasn’t around so Amcorp was very empty. Then, we put on our thinking caps and thought of watching a movie since we’d be back in uni soon and won’t have opportunity to watch a movie anytime soon. And since all the hype over ‘Night at the Museum’, we decided to watch it at Smiles Theatre at Amcorp Mall.

So, we got up to the third floor. Went to the ticket counters and realise there was no one at the counter. So, we desperados stood there for about 15 minutes calling nobody in particular but hoping that someone will attend to us. A man came out, apologized and gave us our tickets and this is how our tickets looked like. Yes, old school. Tear yourself. Chop date. Tickets with serial number.

We rushed through our lunch, which was of course the Prosperity Burger in MacDonalds. Got into the cinema late. No one to tear our tickets. How cool is that? Haha. Next best thing was this: It’s free seating! Oh gosh. Sam was kind enough to allow me to drive Joan back to church. And from there, we went our separate ways.

At night, there was VBS Thanksgiving. Oh, watching all the videos was so fun. The kids are so cute! Teaching them brings so much joy. Wished I was part of VBS. Ah,the dance was so cool and funny.

Then there was Watchnight Service in church. It was good. Got a specific word from God and a good time just reflecting and thanking God for what has happened over the past year. God’s grace, love and faithfulness truly surpass my understanding. After which, I drove Joan to Sam’s house and we then picked Joshua and Yueen San and headed to Asia Café in Subang for our mamak. Of course, this year we break our tradition of drinking and eating at Lotus. It was good meeting Chuen and Kat too.

That’s about it.

There’s no picture for this one, but I met up with Jon on the 2^nd of Jan. It was good meeting him because friendships are hard to keep and now it’s a challenge to keep the friendship going knowing that there’s no other thing that would draw us together other than our position in Christ. But, friends that I treasure, like Jon, are always a gift from God.

So the night of 2^nd January, Weng Yan, Yueen San, Joshua and I met up. It was going to be our last night out before Yanni, Josh and I go back to uni. So, we went to Giant in Kelana Jaya to shop for Yanni and Joshua’s things for uni. And then we wanted to go for a drink but thought it a better
idea if we just hang out in Yanni’s house. But as we were on our way to her house, the playground in her neighbourhood attracted us. So, like kids, we ran for the swings, played on the slides, some tried the see-saw. It was really nice. We shouted our hearts out as we were feeling depressed needing to go back to uni. Yanni and I had stresses in our hearts over the coming semester and the challenges that are ahead of us. But, it was a good way to relieve stress man. We had a really really good time. Joshua finally learnt how to swing really high. Haha. We spent our last hour in the playground taking pictures. Oh how thick-skinned we are! Hehe.

For all the good times we have had, I wish I was with you guys and that holiday never ends. But, I can’t.
For all the arguments and misunderstanding and pressing each other’s wrong button, I cherish it because through it, ties are strengthened, we get to know ourselves better, we get to know one another better.

Whatever it is, I thank God for you guys. Because friends, as cliché it might sound, are gifts from God.

Sometimes, I get sad by the fact that we’re drifting apart but I realise that no matter how far apart we are physically, you guys are always near my heart. Cheesy yes! But it is the very thoughts in my mind and heart. Because if I laugh with you and for you, if I cry with you and for you, then I know you mean a lot to me still….

Christmas - not X'mas

Christmas isn’t Christmas till it happens in your heart
Somewhere deep inside you
Is where Christmas really starts
So give your heart to Jesus
You’ll discover when you do
That is Christmas really Christmas for you

My all time favourite Christmas song. This year, the gang went for shopping on Christmas eve because some of us realise that we haven’t gotten presents for some of our friends. I got a bit depressed when I can’t think of anything to buy for a friend. Felt like such a loser. How can I call myself a friend when I can’t think of anything to buy for her? Oh gosh. So, left The Curve bout 6pm. Went for family Christmas dinner at 730pm. Put on a really fake smile all the time till it ended. Got home and stayed up till 2am preparing all the presents and even cut myself. The joy of preparing for Christmas day.

Oh this year we had a pretty interesting Christmas carolling time. I enjoyed it even though I joined in unintentionally. You see, I was out with Weng Yan for lunch. After dropping her at her home, I was thinking of going to Ikea. And since I was alone, I thought it would be fun to go together with yueen san la. Since I barely spent time alone with her this holiday. But when I called her she told me she was in an orphanage. Only then did I remember the YF was having a whole day carolling session at orphanage and old folks homes. And since I was in the area and Yueen San asked me to go, so I went la. Join them and sang and got bitten by mosquitoes. But, it was reli fun la…..Really enjoyed it all….The whole day was fun. Eventually went to Ikea with Josh and San. Our luck to be in Ikea when the power went off and no air-cond and only emergency lights on – woah, it was terrible. Then, the time spent catching up with Aliza was fun too. Ahh….so fun

Christmas day…hmmm, it was rather ordinary feeling to me. I didn’t feel like there was something to dress up to…Went to church and seeing it packed was something quite nice la. Choir did well. I’m so proud of them la. 3 weeks worth of practice and they can come up with something that well. It’s really God’s grace man! And then I came to realise, hmm…Chris can be pretty charming too, when he did his solo, erm, side profile la. Haha. I think Joshua did very well for his narration. His lines, postures, gestures, emotions, all went pretty well. Ah. So happy.

After Christmas service was over. Went to Joshua’s house for Christmas lunch and then all of us got to say hello to Charity and Cherrie. Hehe. Sorry ar Charity, I camera shy la. Hehe. Still, Merry Christmas!!! Went back and slept. And of course, as it is our Christmas Day tradition, we met up at nite and stayed in Sam’s house till 5:30am. I got back at 6:15am. I rather drive at 6am than at 3 or 4am lor honestly!!!

So overall, Christmas wasn’t exactly very super extra an emotional high for me. But being able to celebrate with friends and family was really exciting. Friends more than family I think. Whoops. Hehe.

Sigh. God, help. God, sorry. God, forgive me. God, help.