Worship

Better is a few minutes of true heartfelt worship to a man’s soul than many professional concerts.

One can ask for forgiveness, but only his heart may qualify him for it. 

The garden of the Mind

Last week I went to Singapore for holiday. It has been awhile since I wanted to post something up in the blog. But I was always carried away by something else.

Well Singapore is not the reason for this entry. Although it was good family time and lots of fun, some in the sun, and some in one of Singapore’s thousands of malls, this entry is about a thought I read from an article in the newspaper while I was on the 6 hour journey to Singapore via transnational bus.

  The phrase inside the article said that the mind is like a garden. I found it interesting, and this is what I was able to think about this ‘garden’ in every persons head.

  It is fertile. It can change appearance. It is able to grow all sorts of plants. The soil nurses all kinds of flora, like flowers, trees, bushes and many more. However, in any garden, there will be one thing that grows unchecked, those are the weeds. Allow me to explain the metaphors.

  A persons mind is the centre of human conscience. It is the master control of all that one does. It harbors thoughts, beliefs, habits and thinking styles. How a person lives is based on a method of thinking that a person acquires from his environment over the years. In our mind, we can aspire for greater things. For example dreams, success, hope, happiness and others. These things lead to a fruitful, purposed and all that is positive in our lives. However, there are other things, things that are negative that inhabit our minds, and left unchecked, do quite the opposite, and even blot out all that brings betterment to our being. Fear, hopelessness, insecurity, doubt, evil and all sorts of negative thinking can easily just come in and ruin or lessen what we can potentially be or become.

  To further clarify, flowers, trees and bushes are attitudes and traits that are desired. It takes constant trimming or what can be called as discipline to grow these. Once grown to maturity, they can produce fruits of productivity, love and success. Just as trimming allows more sun to reach the areas of the plant for maximum growth, one need to analyze and meditate on life to know where he is going and if there is any area for self improvement and correction.

  For Christians out there, the bible has said in psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

  So brothers and sister, blessed are you who does what is right and loves the bible, contemplates about it and apply it into your lives.

  Weeds are the negativity in our minds. Just like how weeds grow and sap the good resources form the soil, so too, are negative thoughts to our mental energy. Unproductivity, procrastination, laziness, apathy, guilt, fears, insecurity are some of them. These bind to us whether we like it or not, settle and grows. Some take roots and grow to be big weeds that establish their roots deep into us, manifesting in the future as potential problems. Whatever it is, some need the proper tools and a lot of effort to pull out, in other words, we night need help from others and strong will to overcome these traits. Though we can somehow overcome these weeds in our lives, there will be stumps in the earth or scars that become a part of our garden, or who we are. Weeds tend to regrow no matter how many times you pull them out. in the same way, negative thoughts do not go away, but we should be wary that it returns so we may react accordingly.

   Apart from the metaphor, there are other things in the garden that can be made as other metaphors. One of it is the seeds. Seeds of thought come from the outside world. What we see and hear are all seeds sown into our minds. One with too many seeds and plants leave the garden in a haphazard state.

 Hey another one for my bro and sis in Christ. Jesus gave the parable that the gospel was a seed sown into people. Some fall on good soil which grows to produce tens of thousands of fruit. Others fall on rocky ground, the roadside and even eaten up by the birds of the air. Hope that most of us are the good soil.

Another thing that affects the garden is the weather, which is volatile and changing. It can be coined as the emotions and moods that we have. Now thoughts and emotions are not the same. Ones thoughts can be controlled by emotions, but emotions can be willed by thoughts too. One with a strong mind can possess self control to live by his principles and values no matter what mood he is in. moods are controlled by external factors. But values are controlled from within, or internally. One who masters himself internally is able to influence situations and others around him better.

 In my conclusion, a well attended, trimmed garden leads to a good lifestyle. One that is unattended leaves a messy screwed up life. One can have a purpose for their garden, or just let things happen by chance or by accident. It is up to us to decide which the best is because ultimately, we are the ones in charge of our lives, not anything else. 

how to solve a problem

  Well, most of the time, we face problems and there are difficulties which lie in solving them. We just realize that there are many things which make us unhappy or dissatisfied with what we do, let’s say our work, our relationships, running our organizations and to a simple boy like me, games.  This is my experience of playing games and finding what I actually do and some practical things to realize and do when we find ourselves in this spot.

  So this is me, most of the time when I am doing something.

So I’m like playing a game and it just goes on and on .. . and on. … . and on. . . .

Then I lose

And if I really just become an angry monster, I’ll either, stop playing, or brainlessly just go for another round.

This brings me to the topic of this blog. My first question is, do we even know that we have a problem?

I find this critical and it is just called troubleshooting.

What are the common things that we do when facing a problem?

1)      Bang against the same wall again and again 

We do not see our error of our ways and so keep doing the same thing expecting different results, hoping that it will work in the end. They just accept it as it is and leave it like that.  Dude! You’re barking up the wrong tree! 

2)      Rage quit!!

  Ah the hot tempered way of running from a game to continue to fume at the how unfair the game was or that your teammates were a bunch of noobs, people how dunno how to play.

 L

Just another way of saying that we are just getting emotionally flustered over the situation/ problem. These are the type of people who blame and are not really nice people sometimes. They lack the self control and lose themselves while they vent their anger on the poor people around them, causing them to be disliked. So be careful when you get angry.

So these are the 2 reactions that we usually fall into, which leads me to the third and more appropriate reaction.

3)      Troubleshoot

Ah these people are the ones who rise above. They think hard and recall to identify the problem, find answers on google, discuss about it or go on forums to find answers.  

And that’s my thought of the day. I think the main things is that we constantly recall our situations and think of improving them, rather than being stuck in the same place the whole time. It feels good to get better at something. So just keep those brain juices flowing and improve day by day. 

leon

(all work of art was created from microsoft paint)  

Goodbye friend

 An old miri friend of mine is going back for Chinese New Year and he’ll only be coming back after I finish my course. This friend of mine is kinda special in his ways (smirk). But I am close to him because he’s just simple and game for whatever I want to do. We think alike. I dun like to judge people. So other people might judge him in some ways, but I think he’s just fine. We think kinda alike, and play the same game now.

Initially he was just into anime and random things online.  I played League of Legends sometimes and he would watch. One day I asked him to play and try it out. I said I’d make the account for him but he did it himself. Turns out he really liked the game. Last time we were all dota idiots. Now we’re LoL idiots.

  After introducing the game to him, he became even more addicted to it than me. He would read the forums and find anything relates to LoL. A lot of conversations with him was just about the game. Addicted we were.

  What more to make the game more fun, we skyped while LoLing. I tell you, play a game with a friend and you bond. But more interaction with one while playing and that’s a strong bond. This sounds gay but we’d even just leave skype on while we’d do our own stuff. Then suddenly: “dude lets go another round” that was fun.

  Now he can’t really do it because he’s back in hometown where streamyx becomes screamyx, in other words, its suburban internet. So even if we do, the quality becomes real crap. Even then, he will not be here in KL to be my friend when I want some easy company. I will miss his presence here and how easy it was to open up to someone. So now either much initiation is needed to be better friends with others, or go on a loner road. The latter is easier but socially unhealthy

  How interesting relationships and bonds are. Some people just bond instantly with others while finding it especially difficult to be close with others. This tuning fork that everyone reverberates at just works out to be like that. Some people are blessed with more frequencies, while others attain it by training. 

  Out of this one good friendship, I learn that to make a relationship work, it needs to be pushed, unafraid and open. Some friendships are easier, while others take a lot of effort and maybe disappointments and boredom. A common ground between 2 people really bring them together. 

Fasting

My church Eaglepoint was having this prayer and fast for a week so that we could get back in line with God and start the new year right. as everyone was going to fast about something., i too wanted to fast and pray for a year aligned with God. first i was going to pray to get more spiritual as i really did not feel like praying or reading the bible at all for the past few months. plus i thought that  a little more direction and quiet time with God would do my soul some good. for fasting, there are many types: full fast, partial fast, daniel fast, fast from certain foods or things or emotions and etc. i decided to fast from 2 things that really occupied my mind, that were food and computer games(LoL and starcraft2)

   fasting from food is really hard. you feel hungry in the morning when you wake up, throughout the morning, past lunch, hungrier after lunch, rumble rumble, still hungry through the evening and at last its time to eat at 6pm. !!!! oh yeah. i end up eating a tonne of food. and when i'm done, i feel so full and bloated. fasting throughout the day leaves you realy tired, even more so when your body is digesting the food.My church Eaglepoint was having this prayer and fast for a week so that we could get back in line with God and start the new year right. as everyone was going to fast about something., i too wanted to fast and pray for a year aligned with God. first i was going to pray to get more spiritual as i really did not feel like praying or reading the bible at all for the past few months. plus i thought that  a little more direction and quiet time with God would do my soul some good. for fasting, there are many types: full fast, partial fast, daniel fast, fast from certain foods or things or emotions and etc. i decided to fast from 2 things that really occupied my mind, that were food and computer games(LoL and starcraft2) 

   fasting from food is really hard. you feel hungry in the morning when you wake up, throughout the morning, past lunch, hungrier after lunch, rumble rumble, still hungry through the evening and at last its time to eat at 6pm. !!!! oh yeah. i end up eating a tonne of food. and when i'm done, i feel so full and bloated. Fasting throughout the day leaves you really tired, even more so when your body is digesting the food. The body starts shutting off, feeling sleepy. . . .

  but that is what the flesh feels like. I had my friend nelson to keep me accountable of me during my fast and prayer, to give me some advice and company during this week. We agreed on this fast and prayer together and we would see it through.  

  On the first day, I was hungry. I was advised to seek God in this time, instead of concentrating on what my body felt. So I followed his advice and kept thinking of my situation with God. One of my reasons for fasting was that I get good grades in my Bmed science program. Hence at those times, I focused on my research work or rather my thesis which I really have not gotten to writing. This attitude really becomes productive with a sweet taste in your mouth of satisfaction. I cannot boast that it was all that productive, but everyone needs their first steps to slowly progress to running. In other words, I did quite little but at least I start getting momentum to use my time effectively for writing my thesis. So God has answered my prayer in that aspect.

 

   In the morning, I would try to consistently do my devotion. I needed to read what our Lord says so that I can get closer to him. So brings me back to the churches original purpose for the fasting, to get aligned with God once again.  Through the devotions, I learnt lessons to be humble or drop my pride, to acknowledge that everything I have I from God (lessons from Job); and that if I can accept good things from God, I should also acknowledge that I can get bad things from God.

Many lessons of life from proverbs 21, such as the hardworking and the lazy, the proud and the humble, the wife that we marry, the words that we use, the things that the Lord looks in a man’s heart, the righteous and the wicked, are what can be garnered from these words of wisdom.

  One more lesson that I learnt though praying is that I should be totally honest with God. Even though I doubt and question him and his words sometimes, these should be raised up so that we are actually more aware of ourselves and our spiritual state. But as long as I know that God is in control and he is mighty along with my own resolve to stay with him, I know that even all this doubt and questioning will not waver me but provide me more wisdom in this walk with God.

 As I went further into the fast and prayer, fasting becomes easier as the body gets used to it. But even better than that, the mind is cleared and the body feels like its getting purged or purified. In all aspects, the desires of the flesh become smaller. Indeed in the body, there are 2 sides, that is the spirit and body. Whichever we feed becomes stronger and the other weaker.

  Well now that the fast and prayer has passed, it’s quite a relief to eat again. But be warned that once we eat again, the stomach needs to adjust again. Every post meal is followed with a bloated feeling, and drowsiness. Well on the other hand, I am aligned better in my spiritual walk and am doing my devotions.  J

thanking God

todays devotion is summed up as: we should love God and say that life is good because he keeps the earth in a sustainable and beautiful homeostatic environment.

note of thanks

 Pseudo!!! thank you :)