Delicated to Wen Ni

happy birthday!

Wish you all the best in many many many more years to come!
As you grow in the Lord's house, unleash yourself and find your life's purpose fast.
There will be trials, yes, but they come and go.
There will be troubles, yes, but they are temporary.
There will be disappointments, yes, but love will cover them all.
There will be disagreements, yes, but in difference we are united.
There will be problems, yes, but we have an expert-problem-solver God.
There will be obstacles, yes, but we have already secured end victory in God!
My beloved WN, I appreciate our time together...

And more than stopping at to wish you a happy birthday, we are realistically walking towards better birthdays as we lead a more fulfilling life after knowing who holds our tomorrow! Although it's a little sorry to know your birthday falls amidst exams, but keep that joy and excitement that... God has indeed blessed you with 13years of smooth and safe living! Don't forget Him as you live your special day today. :)

Different people celebrate birthdays differently. And the value of your birthday and its impact to your life is differed by how you choose to celebrate it and on what purpose. Let's say if I chose to sleep that whole day, I've just decided to sleep my birthday away. And the value of it becomes little and the impact of it to my life may not even last 24hrs.(Not long after you'll feel tired again, right?!) Also, I know people who celebrate 21st birthdays by watching R21 movies. Negative value and negative impact. Not forgetting some who look forward to M18 movies and entrance to clubs after their 18th birthday...

Are these the best we can make out from our birthdays? Are these freedom the reasons we look forward to our birthdays? Will we be really happy being free to do as we wish? And of all the crazy stuff that we did, how many of them actually make our life more fulfilling and meaningful? Put non-Christians aside, they are not obliged to make Go-intended-choices: Are we Christians making of these chances to bring a touch of eternity on earth?

We are supposed to, and we should naturally do so if we really have Christ living in our hearts. So, it is quite ridiculous to find myself convincing another Christian what clubbing brings or what damage tattoos have... And now, churches actually have adjust their timings of service and classes to match the working time of members. What is this...

Someone once told me that we have to slow down for the slower ones to catch up with us in church. If not, at the end of the race, you see no one behind and everyone lose the zest to follow. I do agree with what was said, but I had my 3 fear:

1. In the mist of slowing down for others, I ACTUALLY REALLY SLOWED DOWN.
2. We will gradually lose the purpose for slowing down we once had and lose the energy for move back to the initial speed again. Then, I ACTUALLY REALLY SLOWED DOWN.
3. I still doubt if this will be Jesus way of doing things.

So as usual, I asked dad. And he seems to answer be right away without thinking. He says, "If you want the slower runners to catch up with you, you just have to run faster!" Well, I -..- for a while and I finally understood. Slowing down for others is not the way. But rather, speeding up and running the extra mile on behalf of them is then the way it should be.

Take for example a person is unwilling to commit to an area of service. And because of that he/she cracks all kinds of excuses to siam. We can say that, "Oh, the person's not ready to commit to that level of serving." This is slowing down for others. However, we should take more time and effort to care for the person, try all ways to let him submit to God's Word and then challenge him. This is then what it should be, running faster for the slower ones.



Rick Warren once said:

"Knowing the reality, ignoring the ideal; that's complacent.
Knowing the ideal, complaining the reality; that's immaturity.
One who is mature can stand between the ideal and reality and cope the tension between the two."