Haven't been listening to stuff for almost 2 weeks. Now I'm listening to...

1) Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, A Night On Bald Mountain and Other Russian Showpieces




2) Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade Op.35 and Igor Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale




Both CDs are under the RCA Living Stereo recording, played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner.

Yesterday a colleague of mine just ask how come the title of our coming Christmas production "Sincat's Rough Sea Journey, A Children Christmas Service" is so long and weird. I couldn't really give him a good answer because i thought it wasn't that bad cos I know of longer and weirder titles.

Ever since I started to listen to classics, I cannot understand many titles of the music but yet music communicates beyond using words and it flows on a different level. Similarly photography, art and dance do the same of speaking differently.

I was introduced to aerial photography of Yann Arthus-Bertrand by my wife because the frenchman came to her office yesterday. He needed a helicopter to fly over Bedok resoviour for some shots. If you are arty farty you will like his work http://www.yannarthusbertrand.com/index_new.htm . If you are not, you might just like my colleague Steven Yeoh's.

It rained so badly during lunchtime that I started taking shelter in the Marine Parade food centre. With a flood building up to the ankle level around us, a bunch of other people were with me on a elevated ground right outside the toilet. All of us were adults wearing socks and a bit cautious of them getting soaked. Those walking on water were adults without socks and those with socks were school children several groups of them. They continued eating their lunch, doing what they were doing and having a great time with the water.

I'm thinking about Tsunamis and hurricanes that so often happen around us. With a heavy storm like that, I wondered if that was the beginning of a bad one right here in Singapore. If so, with or without socks, whether we are sheltered or not, it would have killed us. If so, we would have all died but the children would at least have had a ball of a time before they go.

As i live, I do envy the children and want to be somewhat like them.

Saturday afternoon, I went to the Zoo with the family to celebrate May Ann's birthday. The evening time was spend with 2 of my secondary school friends together with Pastor Jeffrey for a dinner, drink and a game of soccer (err watching that is, not playing). Reached home at 1am on Sunday... something I have never done before having to preach at the children's service the same morning. One of my friends, CK from the night before, came to service and brought his 'beloved' XBox to test if it can be connected to our system for games time during our children service, so I had to host him in gratitute of his kindness. Had lunch with him and then after lunch, met with the HopeKids team for a wonderful time of teaching and discussing children caregroups. After that i spent a short time with a volunteer to discuss how to edit children lessons before ending my long weekend with dinner at my auntie's place.

These days, though outwardly things are going well, inwardly it hasn't been balanced. A bit topsy turvy, something that i cannot pin my finger on. I haven't really rested right and haven't had quality time with the Lord.

An hour of intimacy with God is the time I seek which I never really got. Not that I don't have an hour, its just that I don't have the right devotion. Spouse, kids, friends, work and ministry calls for the same thing. Hobbies, thinking, watching tv and even lazying around too. Without the correct devotion, everything else will appear fake, empty and illusionary.

If my life is a musical, I'll break into a song now. I'll sing this Van Morrison's tune (errr...with the backing of a full symphony orchestra hopefully)

" When will I ever learn to live in God?
When will I ever learn?
He gives me everything I need and more
When will I ever learn? "

A colleague sent me some of these. Here are 2 very interesting ones





So the next time we look in the mirror, we don't necessarily have to believe what we see .... Similarly when we look at others.

" Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments " - Jim Rohn

a nice quote i must say .. but anyone know who Jim Rohn is ?

Yesterday, on my way to the library I saw a charming lady in her 40s sitting alone in a quiet park reading a magazine. She was conservatively dressed with a neat appearance, everything to suggest she is a mother has a family and holds a day job. As I walked past her towards my destination, I try to glace at the magazine she was reading. While I couldn't catch what magazine, i saw the article in it and it was titled "Turning Your Life Around".

Now she appeared as someone who wants to do something to her life. While most people I know wants to as well, she appeared to me a bit more determined. I could easily find another person reading the same article not in a quiet park but on a busy train on the way to work or while eating lunch with friends most likely also exchanging smart comments about the article being read. It's often out of convenience and very seldom out of deliberation.

As followers of Christ, we know that while being Martha the worker is important, being Mary the contemplative is better. So almost all of us wants a closer fellowship with God. However it is quite sad that not much 'effort' is involved in waiting on Him. We wait on the Lord while on the bus, while eating, while doing ministry which is almost an impossible task because while on the train, eating and in ministry, there is normally so much of ourselves and so little of Him for Him to really work in us. We need to empty ourselves, be present and be available because that's the prerequisite for a time the voice of God can be heard and the light of God can shine brightest.

A time we should be lesser and the Lord should be more. A time the Lord can be Himself and not molded according to our ideas and perception of Him. A time to built love in the heart because love is then not that of us but of God who is Love itself. I think a time of deliberate contemplation and prayer is perhaps the greatest need in our efficient (but hardly meaningful) society.

Downloaded my first PODCast from the Naxos website. Was about to listen to it in the bus on my way home but Mag decided to pick me up, so now I'm left with no chance to listen to it. I decided to take this 10 minutes waiting time to blog instead. Perhaps I'll try to listen to the audio file tomorrow morning in the bus.

Today I found a sweet potato in my bag. Opps wasn't that suppose to for lunch sometime last week ? I also found a chewing gum which is in my pocket for quite some time. Didn't get a chance to chew on it and now I don't think these things are consumable anymore. I've got rid of them and decided to start anew.

Note: I like starting a new which is the reason why I'm always so disappointed when i don't wake up feeling new. Instead I wake up feeling like I have a past, monkeying on my back. All these are garbage from as early as childhood and as late as just last night. It's our mind playing with thoughts we do not need. We need to control it, tame it and make it a slave. But we don't do it fighting heads on because we will not win. We should allow it to come but we need to be aware of it and watch it closely. When we watch it long enough, they will soon go away. They cannot help but come back because its their nature but we can be watchful. If we are watchful long enough, it'll not enjoy coming back and we will soon wake up feeling new more often. This is all I know about this and thought I should share it.

I just setup the dial up access to my ISP from my office laptop in my study room as my old home PC is confirmed dead. This is the first Saturday afternoon we don't need to setup for HopeKids LIVE! on a Saturday. I did some day dreaming .. what if today I also do not have to prepare for the message tomorrow; What if I will have no visitors for dinner in the evening; What if I do not have to go anywhere this afternoon, or wash the car, or take care of my kids or do the grocery shopping ?

Quite a nice thought I should say .. But then i thought a bit further, what if I don't have anything to do anymore for the rest of my life; What if i spend the rest of my Saturday by myself .. listening to music, eating and watching movies ? What if I don't have a purpose? .. hmm not quite as nice I think.

I think the problem with people is that all of us want to have a life of purpose but is pretty scared of the work that comes with it. So.. therefore many lives have been left unlived. The irony is that those who are living life seldom appears afraid but on the contrary those who are cautious about living it normally appears rather terrified.

After the Children's Day service (Which was by the way a blast... we saw superheroes all around and children responding to God), I went for my one day leave on Monday. I told my boss that I wanted to spend a day to rest, relax and refocus. I started my day with my first jog in months. After the jog, it was downhill all the way. Having read about this guy who exercises so regularly that he falls sick everytime he stops exercising, I feel kinda weird that the opposite was happening to me. I felt so sick that I couldn't do all that I wanted to do. It was frustrating and I tried to force myself to feel good but of course it didn't work. I was lying in bed, half dead with my 3 kids trying to revive me.

The irony is that during the whole day, it never occured to me that I was sick. Until later in the evening when I pick my wife up from work, she enlightened me. I felt silly and I was forced to see a doctor (realise it has been a long time as well)and was given a two days MC. So my leave turned into an MC and I had another day to rest on Tuesday before watching Quidam which Mag and I had good and free tickets to.


Quidam by Cirque du-soleil was fantastic. It was a celebration of music and dance with some good old circus tradition of clowns and acrobats. The communication was impactful solely done with props, music & movements and hardly any words. It made me think if we talked too much in our kids service. Two friends came to mind during the show. One involved in dance and the other music in our church. During the intermission, I bumped into the 'music' one in the toilet. Coincidentally, this brother will be coming to help us with the music side of our service soon. Well I don't believe in coincidences as I believe that God work silently and mysteriously in ways that are beyond words or imagination. So I didn't try to figure out what that incident meant but at night, God showed me something else from His word in Isaiah 49:20.

The next day Wednesday, I came back to work rested, relaxed and refocused. It was great taking that one day leave on Monday.