8.9 Magnitude Earthquake in Japan

I assume that quite a bit of people know about the earthquake (And after-shocks) that had/are happening.

It really breaks my heart to hear about this. A nation that I love so much, a nation that I've been longing to reach, yet so many of the unreached either died or are suffering some traumatizing things.

Yet some people choose to ignore it, like they chose to ignore other earthquakes that had happened.

When will I go out? I don't know, but I know that God will provide an opportunity to serve these people.

God is a God that provides. God is good. He will provide comfort and shelter for the needy.

Simple JOY #3

"To be thankful for life's simplest gifts"

I guess this entry would sorta be a random one.

Well, not really. Interestingly enough, during Sunday School, we discussed about the difference between happiness and Joy.

Happiness, coming from the root word "Happening", means to feel "content" after something happens but the feeling of being content doesn't necessarily last.

While, for Joy, it's an eternal thing, nothing really has to "happen"

Lately, I've been thinking quite a bit about life; How I'm so thankful for it.
I'm so thankful that God saved me from making a terrible mistake.
And I guess, after all life is a mystery, life is unfair, life is filled with people that hate me, but in the end, I'm still super happy that I'm still alive today...

Life is beautiful, and I thank God for giving me life.

Simple JOY #2 : Cake!

"To be thankful for life's simplest gifts."

Cake never fails to make me happy. I absolutely love cake.
My mother got me some cake from her workplace. Even though it's just leftover cake, this cake was part of someone's happy moment, their Birthday. I don't know whose birthday it was, but being able to celebrate their birthday from afar and experiencing the Joy they recieved by eating this cake, is really exciting!

I guess that's why I love eating cake ^^

Simple JOY #1

"To be thankful for life's simplest gifts."

How often do we take our parent's cooking for granted? Even if their cooking "sucks", be glad that food is being placed on your plate!





Today's dinner was absolutely lovely! Mother knew that I wasn't feeling well, so she cooked Udon with Seafood + Ham + Broccoli in White Sauce. It's a cross Asian-Western dish that can be found in Cha chaan tengs. (Or not... but you'll be able to find something similar to it ^^)

I was honestly so thankful for such a lovely meal, after all being sick and constantly feeling tired is not very cool. There's nothing "special" to it aside from mother's love and sweat in it, nevertheless, I'm still thankful for it :)

New "Serie(s)"? : Simple JOY

"To be thankful for life's simplest gifts."

So recently, I've been wanting to start a daily blog entry-thing about finding joy in... everything!

I guess what made me want to do this was because not long ago, I was eating "Taro cakes" and there was this overwhelming joy that I got from it! Like, "Wow, God has really blessed us with taro cakes, and even though something so small like this can make us so happy, it just reminds me of how great God is."



So why joy and not happiness? In a way, they're the same, but at the same time, they're so different. Happiness is something that you get from man, while Joy is something you get from God. And one may argue that everything I'll be posting is man-made, but in today's age, nothing pleases us. As a result, we're always trying to get the latest trend-things.

I guess, I'll be posting things that reminds me of how awesome God is, and how I should be thankful of everything. I might post things that may be pricey, most of the time I won't (Maybe) but I guess, what I'm trying to say is that we should be happy for everything? Hahahaha~

I think everyone should have this kind of mind set. It's definitely not something limited to only Christians; To be thankful for everything we have.

I'm still going to be posting my other blog entries..., but this is something that I'll be trying to post on a regular basis. I'm going to be using my twitter when I don't post an entry so, every tweet-entry regarding this blog series, Simple JOY, will be hash-tagged with : #SimpleJOY

Friend

God,

What is the definition of a "friend"?

Would a friend do the opposite of what has been asked?
Would a friend criticize you for who you are?
Would a friend soon realize that money or earthly gifts are not what I long for?
Would a friend be able to show some respect?

What is a friend?

Sincerely,

Sad face...s

What makes me frown is that there are some people in the world that claim they're something, when they clearly aren't. It just makes other people of the "same thing" have a hard time in life.

For example, Christians. There are plenty of hypocritical Christians in the world, non-loving Christians in the world, while there are Christians that live like Christians.

Okay, maybe I shouldn't have used Christians 'cause I'm a Christian myself and I could be "biased"...

But for example, in my neighborhood, a lot of people view "Black people" as dangerous people, Caucasian people as drug-addict whores, Arabic people as terrorists. While there are plenty of other people of the same race that aren't like that. And it's just so sad to see some people set up these stereotypes. Because of these people, people of the "same" race, status, age, religion, have to go through crap.

Another thing that makes me sad, school. School makes me crazy stressed, especially since they've changed the examination system; They got rid of mid-term exams and pushed it all to the end of the school year. Boo. But it's something I should be thankful for, school... Haaaaaaiiii.

Life is full of trials, but because of troubled times, we mature.

James 1:2-4 (NIV)
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."