Stupidity: Things Above and Not Things Here on Earth

The things of God are stupidity to many. Nobody, of his or her own volition, seeks after God or things that please Him. If you’re that person, you can stop reading now. After all, if you’re looking for a cogent argument this isn’t the place. If any, only a simple faith exists. Many who argue against what I'm going to say (or type, for that matter) have already made up their mind, not in the least concerned about cogency and rigour, and I won’t bring the roof down doing that.

Think about it for a moment. If our value system is not shaped by the Bible (Matt. 6:19-24), the things we value or treasure consistently let us down when we seek our significance, or satisfaction, or security in those things. The energy spent in pursuing what we think those things will provide—happiness, security, satisfaction—consistently lead to failure. The pleasures we think will satisfy us never really do—at least not for long. In fact, they typically just increase our thirst for more. What futile irony!! Such irony is plainly the very fabric of life when it is lived independently of God.

J. Hampton Keathley, III
Resting in God’s Sovereignty

Christians or not, people stock up (rightly) to the point that these material riches become their only goal (wrongly). The “attainable” goal of a comfortable life. Nothing wrong, right? I put “attainable” because everyone thinks that once it’s achieved, we’d step back, sit down, and enjoy. But the fact is, will it ever be enough?

Now God and the Bible aside, I’ve heard on more than one occasion people who proclaimed: “there’s more to life than {insert your goals here}”. Sure thing. There’s more to doing research than to lose sleep over whether the neighbouring lab’s going to outdo and out-publish in a month’s time.

There’s God.

If only people would align their goals to God’s. Instead of asking, “What should I eat, wear, or the type of property to own?” asks, “What do I do with my gifts?” or “How can I bring glory to God?”

I’m perhaps the biggest hypocrite to be saying all these and echoing Paul, “the least and the most unworthy”. Somehow, the toiling and the sustained rush over the past months; plus the little eye-opening chitchats with driven folks did put into perspective the futility of it all when done to satisfy humanity’s benchmark.

What’s prosperity without a purpose? Self-glory is for the here and now. Said Solomon: Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
    nothing was gained under the sun

Ecclesiastes 2:11

I’m not going to change anyone. But I don’t wish to waste my time achieving everything, rely on my [self-perceived] great understanding + knowledge, giving in to the physical pleasures and contemporaneously bankrupting my spiritual life.

No, no. I’m not entering monkhood nor am I shunning the good things in life [that God has created]. All I’m saying is that I need to have my own convictions and not do as everyone else does.

It’s not easy to close my eyes and walk. It’s not too difficult not to peek either, or remove the blindfold and say, “Fine, I’ll do what I know best.”

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

1 Timothy 6:6-10 

If only the Bible hasn’t been relegated in favour of modern, up-to-date societal demands, or verses cherry-picked to fit [our goals and justify our actions] into the world (oh, we see this often among religionists, don’t we?).

I only hope and ask from God that more people will be like-minded when it comes to goals in life — pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. To serve God and not the gods of this world.

See You Again, Buddy!

We walked hand in hand – actually a small fist clasped around an index finger – without a care in the world. On a 2-minute journey to the nearest kiosk. One moment I carry him and we attempted to hit Mach 1. The next, we're in a make-believe toboggan; shrills of delight permeated the living room with each gold coin we collected.

When school's over I'll rush to get your favourite mash potatoes, with extra gravy of course. On your bedside, we attend to your toys in the makeshift playground. Nothing seems to bother you; definitely not the housemen on patrol.

Lil' bro, you could've outgrown Mario and prefers french fries now but it means a lot knowing that you still remember me.

Rest now, we'll meet again some day.

Love, 

'Koko' Julian.

This one's for Darius Low Wei Han. At 14 years and a little over 3 months, some might say untimely but I know that God's timing is perfect. Yes, we grieve. We shed tears. But deep down, we're convinced "that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him... [and] we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." This particular section of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 is a great comfort.

Being the youngest in the family, the feeling that came over me when you have little [or younger] ones looking up to you as an older brother was priceless. It was a crash course in responsibility. That my words and actions were observed and being emulated. But it was fun. It was enriching. It's special. Looking back, could I have done better? Yes!

Digitized: Eight years ago in January. One of two treasured photos in my album.

The funeral's in a few hours time and I'm wide awake. Time really flies. Till we meet again, little bro.
 

Chasing the Dust Bunnies

Ever since the last posting more than a month ago, I could only stare at the collected dust day after day before deciding that I should just put something up here today. Begone, ye binary dust! I had so much planned for the blog before the weekend but Murphy's Law prevailed. There's nothing much I could do.

April is the birthday month of some wonderful people as far off as Минск. Just saying...

I thought the following song was good when I first heard it. Thanks to neungy1 who put up the English translation on YouTube, I now understand its content and find it rather poignant. Ha!

Stream and enjoy.

Unloveable by Mild

Now, I don't spend my time on the net looking for Thai music but some videos, being viral, will eventually catch your attention. Bell Nuntita sang this song as one of the two-song remix during the audition for Thailand's Got Talent.

I must say, a good performance. And sweet-looking too. Before anyone thinks that I support the cause of the LGBT community, I have made my stand some time back. That said, I won't stand in the middle of the street and scream "God hates fags!".

To do that would be presumptuous and assumptive; playing God and being sanctimonious. This group of people misrepresent the nature of God to serve their confrontational methods; cherry-picking from the Scripture whilst conveniently overlook the others.

On another matter, I would have no problems marching in the BERSIH rally to make a stand (BERSIH 3.0 will be a sit-in though) against all things immoral perpetuate by the government of the day.

I should get back to work now.

Boleh in Birmingham: What Does Being A Malaysian Means?

At last it's started. Lee Chong Wei against Lin Dan for the All-England champion's title. The Malaysian crowd's reception is fantastic. Each time the camera pans across the arena, you see Malaysians cheering and waving.  Who wouldn't? After all it's a worldwide 3 seconds of fame.

These fellas aren't paid to sing "Boleh, Boleh, Boleh" in Birmingham (yes, I swear I heard boleh and not Olé or Oé). They scream for their fellow countryman, jump, and clap side by side.

Back home, it's a little different. When I say little, it's actually heaps. Here we're told not to mingle too much lest we go astray (rightly or wrongly, I'll leave it to the 'learned'). Here, we're taught day after day since 7 years old that the Ahmad, Beng, Chandran, and Dominic ak. Embong have evil plans waiting to be realised. So, we cheer for our own and we jeer at someone who speaks a different tongue.

*Hey, that's another questionable call by the umpire!*

Living/studying abroad was never an option for me but I reading about what life is like over there and I'm always moved by the unity displayed by Malaysians; the most recent one being the worldwide BERSIH rally. I learn from a friend studying in the UK that whenever there are student-organised events, the Malaysians always do food. Ha! Home or abroad, food's on our minds.

But there's more at home. We have bread war! And on Facebook, racially-motivated rumours has been circulating and many gobbled it up blindly. Nobody cares. Why do anything when you can get the people to suspect one another and remain divided?

*Lee Chong Wei conceded a walkover to Lin Dan. Damn! Better game next time, Lee.*

Yes, we've heard this time and again. We're Malaysians outside the country's border and in here, we live within our own racially-demarcated enclave. Enclave because some are still considered immigrants; or made to feel that way.

This is purely my opinion but I suspect it's a fact. Perhaps this one comes a little too late: 55 years late. But whoever said we shouldn't push for a change? A change in [insert your favourite noun here].

Time to dream about change. Good night Malaysians abroad. Good night my friends. Oh, come back and vote-lah! Satay and teh tarik alone ain't good enough, y'know...
   

Looking Back in Time - Kizuna

They say time flies when you're having fun but on the flip side, it stops when tragedy strikes. Does it really? Depends on how you perceive it.

This photo greeted me on TMI

It's been a year already. For many, it was news. And it was difficult. But for victims of the March 11 quake and tsunami, it truly is. Whether it's a minute's silence or a daily revisitation, the events of 2011 and others that followed should cause many to stop and reevaluate the course of their life.

I did.

Kizuna: Kanji of 2011, story on BBC News Asia (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

As for looking back, it's very much up to an individual how he or she wish to make of it. To some, bad fortune hardens their resolve to push on. Personally, I'm beginning to learn that the woulda-coulda-shoulda sentiment won't do me any good.

For every other things, a moment's pause is all it takes to realign and try again.

And oh, it's also been a year since the "unofficial first lady of Malaysia" aired her unadvised * opinion on the disaster,

(*grossly understated)
     

Women,

John Lennon "stole" my words. *winks*

Love this animated GIF (found here)

Woman I can hardly express
My mixed emotions at my thoughtlessness
After all I'm forever in your debt
And woman I will try to express
My inner feelings and thankfulness
For showing me the meaning of success
   

Phlegmatic Days

These days, the vision's clear but appeared out of focus. Voices seemed shielded, spoken from behind some fabric. Muffled. It's even harder to try to process mood of the whole affair.

How nice if we'd just agree to everything: life's principles, finances, decisions. Yes, you and I. Our thoughts effortlessly meld. We nod in a split seconds. Kiss and promenade in the dreamy rays. When hunger sets in, we take a bite out of each other. The thigh today. The arms tomorrow. Careful, it's a little tough there. The ribs the day after. Yes love. The world's ours.

Oops! Too much Walking Dead I reckon. And it's not even possible that two people are the same. Guess everyone's gotta work hard where the heart matters.