Above all else

I had an interesting encounter last Friday. Went to a talk and was introduced to a young lawyer J, and I found out that he works in my old office. When I introduced myself, he immediately asked if I was G, who used to work in his office and was now working in S. I asked him how he knew me, since I left my old job long before he joined. He said that my old colleagues still thought of me fondly! The episode struck me as being odd, because I always thought of myself as being somewhat of a recluse at my old job, whereas now I make a deliberate effort to try to meet and talk to more people. But this just goes to show that what we do often has an impact much longer and deeper than we imagine. I am pleased to think that I made a positive impression on my old colleagues, but now worried that the times I was impatient or rude are probably also remembered with equal alacrity! This ties in neatly with today's sermon on Psalm 90. Psalm 90:10,12 says "The length of our days is seventy year...

It's been some time since we met and since I last wrote - I've been travelling quite a bit! I trust everyone had a meaningful Easter. I'll try to book a date for our next meeting - Changhao has agreed to lead the sharing for the next session. I'll let everyone know in due course. I attended one of the Family Festival talks at One Raffles Quay yesterday with some of our colleagues (the speaker is one of my pastors) and I thought it might be useful to share what I learned. As I found out, bringing 3 young, ambitious, single men to a talk about the five languages of love was perhaps a bit dissonant, but still, it's never too early to learn how to appreciate our loved ones in a way that they in turn can appreciate. Which brings me rather neatly to the whole point of the talk, which is that different things speak in different ways to different people. An ambitious young man is likely to snigger at a talk about expressing love to a spouse (as was the case yesterday!). An ...

Went for a reunion of friends from a trip to the US from 10 (yes, count 'em, 10) years ago. After I parked, Daniel saw this sign. Daniel's interpretation: "No Ps allowed". Security guard's interpretation: "*lease sir, *erha*s you didn't see the no *arking sign." *robably. It was really great to see everyone again, especially since I had, most regrettably, completely lost contact with most of us apart from K (the magic of facebook to the rescue). Most of us look pretty much the same, except G and I apparently have shorter hair :) Let's see how long we can remain so well maintained! Off to NY and then Boca Raton in Florida for the FIA on Monday. Will check in again then...

I thought I had something important to learn from my daughter yesterday. She came up to me on Saturday afternoon and asked me what day it was, and I explained that it was Saturday and that the next day would be Sunday. She enthusiastically went "YES!!" and scooted off. I wonder what was going on and asked her, and she explained that she was eager to go to Sunday school. So she went ahead to prepare her clothes, digging out her GKidz club T-shirt in particular (that's the name of the Sunday school class), and also reminding me that she wanted to get to church early. The enthusiasm didn't die out the next day. She told me to drive faster so she could get to sit in front, and when we finally got to church, she got my wife to bring her right to the front for worship. I think there are some things I can learn here: 1. to look forward to church with enthusiasm; 2. so much so that I take the effort to prepare for church, not just in body but also in mind; and 3. be keen to b...

Interesting sermon from pastor today. Psalm 62:1-2 says: My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. But it's not easy to rest in that truth in the midst of the demands of work, family, church etc. It takes work to enter that rest! As the writer of the letter to the Hebrews says in Heb 4:11 "Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest..." So what "effort" do we need to make to balance all these multiple demands? The sermon used the example of skiing (pastor's pet example for context!), but I'll use the more mundane example of cycling. Even if you are a stunt performer, one is never "balanced" when cycling, merely "balancing". This is because balancing when cycling is always dynamic. Practise long enough and you learn to look up as you cycle and keep making adjustments as you move along. And then cycling becomes pretty restfu...

I have four pieces of painted wood art on the wall next to my dining table which I bought from Lijiang, China. They depict the four seasons, chun xia qiu dong or spring, summer, autumn and winter. My daughter was asking about them at dinner and I explained the seasons to her. It's not so easy to explain the turning of the seasons without a globe, but I tried. At the end, she asked why Singapore did not have seasons. I tried to explain but was clearly unsuccessful. Her conclusion at the end of the explanation: "Orrr, because Singapore government don't allow right?" Govt PR machine 1, home education 0 :)