Decided to go with http://sittingonthetoilet.wordpress.com from now on. I imported all the posts and comments over to the new blog. See you over there.
I was reading Proverbs 16 this morning:
1 To man belong the plans of the heart,
but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.
2 All a man’s ways seem innocent to him,
but motives are weighed by the LORD.
3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do,
and your plans will succeed.
4 The LORD works out everything for his own ends—
even the wicked for a day of disaster.
5 The LORD detests all the proud of heart.
Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.
Time after time the bible teaches us that in the valley of humility is where God reveals to us His fullness and His glory. Either we choose to be humble or God takes us there. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus said, blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
So then what is meekness or humbleness? I’ve heard lot of people describe someone as overly confident as cocky or proud. So is being proud one spectrum and the humble being on the other end? That doesn’t seem right. We are told to be confident and bold in who we are because who we were created by, and who is with us and ultimately, whose we belong. At the same time we were told to be humble.
Almost seems like those are two seperate things. Opposite to Confidence is Low self-esteem. Opposite to Humility is Proud.
Meekness is not about think less of yourself, but think yourself less.
Too many times I’ve seen people putting themselves down as if it makes them humble or something. Especially asians, you give them a compliment of a job well done, and they’ll say “ahh nah nah, it was nothing. I really didn’t do much”. Is that really humble or pride in disguise? Then what is the proper answer? How about – “thank you” ?
Confidence is something that we have and we don’t have to prove to anyone. It’s where and what we are rooted/grounded with. Pride is often associated with showing to prove one’s ability and often an ability they don’t have. Truly confident people don’t have to show. Just like the wise don’t have to prove they are wise.
To see God’s full plan and walk in His favor is to walk in humility but still be confident and bold in everything we do because we can do everything through Him.
How often have you put yourself down trying to be humble while finding yourself low in self-esteem?
I am very facinated with the topic of how we think, and what we think. There is a large amount of people don’t know what they don’t know, and in fact it affects the person’s whole life. People say that ‘what you don’t know won’t hurt you’, well it’s quite the contrary.
Romans 12: 1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, please and perfect will”
Paul mentioned to renew our mind, our thoughts, our thinking to transform our lives*. What people don’t know is that most of the time, their mind is on auto pilot, auto respond to what people say or to what situation arises. Every little things we encountered growing up have shaped up the way we think, good or bad.
Where do we start?
1. Stop thinking negatively about yourself
If our thoughts ultimately drives our lives, then negative thinking will reap negative outcomes. If you think badly about yourself, you will think that other people view you the same way. “I am not good enough”, “I am not loveable”, “I am not smart enough”…get the pattern? Remind yourself what God said about you.
2. Don’t listen to the negativity of other people
Hurt people hurt people. Because of #1, people project themselves onto others. Lots of people out there are nay sayers. Not because they are deliberately doing so, but because they don’t know that they are doing that! I am not discounting that other people’s opinions don’t matter. Rather, you need to be careful of who you select to be your council and ultimately surround yourself with like minded people who can build you up.
3. Leave the past at where it belongs
Past is in the past. No point of dragging all the baggages around. If it helps, communicate it out and bring clarity. If it was something someone said to you, perhaps ask them, if that’s really what they meant. Most of the time, that person won’t even remember or didn’t even mean what they said. Yet, you’ve carried that around for years. Even if it was something hurtful someone did or said, let it go. Keep moving forward.
In the begining, it won’t be easy. Acknowledge your thoughts and don’t go on auto pilot. Examine your thoughts as they come up and see how you should respond to them. We can’t control the thoughts that comes up, but we can choose what to do with them. It’s like riding a bike, after a way you’ve trained your thought to think less negatively etc.
*(Yes to those who wants to make sure God is part of this, let me say this. Motivation comes from God and transformation is done through God and renewing our thoughts to view/think in light of who we are in God)
I have been churning on the topic of value and price. For example, you pay a price for an item, but really you are buying the value of what that item can bring. Fair price is really variable to everyone because the perceived value is different.
But more or so, I am thinking along the line of as a person, do we pursue to build value. Too often, we ask more than we can give. We take and we don’t give. We want to reap what we didn’t sow.
I begin to wonder those who chase after the riches (money, gold, power etc) are simply missing the value part. They are not in good judgement of how much or little value they have to offer. If they happen to get that, if they don’t have value to substantiate them, they will lose. People ask for a salary that they simply don’t offer the value to the employer. Eventually either they are forced to realize and change or the pink slip. But to those who focuses to know thy self and build wisdom and value, riches come to them.
Perhaps this is why money is not something we need to chase because it is abundantly available to those who adds value to other people’s lives.
We need to sow, in order to reap.
Price in itself is nothing, just a currency made up, some papers or coins. Value is where the worth is.
It’s also why we say our worth isn’t defined by the money we have or pocession we have, but it is defined by who we are. Who we are as person, our knowledge (and what you can do with it), our experiences and ultimately whose we are.
So how valuable are you?
You want a big house that you see in magazines, facing the ocean with large floor windows. A fast car to enjoy the road. You dont want to live a rat race with barely capable of making the ends meet. You dont want to put your family through the same situation that you’ve been through. I know all of that. I can search your heart. But leave those to me.
For you, focus on what I have commanded you to do. Love me and love one another, love your neighbors as yourself. Do these in the context of where your gifts and passions are. In your work place, in the market place and in your family. In all places and circumstances I will take you through. Do those.
Trust and have faith that I will take care of you and reward you more than you can ask for. Just build on the right foundation; me.
It’s been a while since I just sat and did nothing. It felt very foregin. I am at Whistler, BC this weekend but didn’t actually ended up snowboarding. The boots didn’t fit properly and was hurting my feet. But the weather was gorgeous and the dog was in day care. I took a short stroll and then just sat at the coffee shop watched people walk by and sat and did nothing.
At first it was really weird, it’s like what am I doing? Why am I wasting time? I kept on having to bring my mind/thought back from drifting off to think about work, or the to-do list. After a while, my mind quiet down and was able to just enjoy the moment and plug into the surrounding. It was amazing.
Chillaxed!
Reflecting on the 40 days that Jesus was tempted by the devil in the dessert. ‘Turn this rock into bread, so you won’t be hungry….No harm will happen to you, even if you jump off the cliff….I will give you all of your desires; power, money, fame as long as you worship me’
God cannot tempt us, but He allows temptations to come to us to teach and better us. Where as the devil is total opposite. It is also written that God will not allow us to be exposed to temptations more than we can handle. With temptation, He also always provides a way out for us.
I wonder how often we succumb to those temptations.
I also come to realization just how easily I fall out from God and rely on my own abilities and understandings.
As I was sitting in the board meeting, taking a little pause gathering thoughts during a discussion, a voice spoke to me ‘Did you invite me to come to this meeting?’. Of course, God doesn’t need my invitation. But the realization was that I’ve always asked God for help, His guidance and vision when we started; and when the results were tough, I often asked for strength and courage in the meetings. We’ve been kicking butt the last few weeks, hitting milestones and gaining grounds and things are bad ass. I was excited to go into the board meeting because I knew things would go well since the results were great; but left out God. When He was the one provided all this.
It was a good reminder.
I am really excited to see the all the heights God will take us this year. We’ll accomplish the impossible. We’ll see increase in traffic, in revenue and in team size. I believe in that confidently.
While waiting for the service to start today, I pulled out my pda bible and started reading today’s verses; Mark 4. Specifically, the parable of the sower gave me a nudge in the heart.
3“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.”
I’ve always wondered what kind of seed I was, from the first time I laied my eyes on those verses. That question always bothered me because obviously there is one type of seed you’d want to be, and deep down I didn’t want to think that I wasn’t.
Lately, I’ve been wrestling with “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything else will be added onto you”. I thought I had understood this and integrated that into my life by trusting and seeking His guidance on my career conducts and ambitious plans. These days this started to stir in me lots of questions. Questions like, am I just scratching the surface of that verse by trusting that He is the provider of my job and finance? What does his kingdom look like? Ultimately the question, what moves God’s heart and what is valuable in His kingdom that I am not seeking, but yet seeking the none important?
Today as I was reading the parable of the sower, I had this feeling that I wanted to fight it but decided to try it on – it was the feeling of, ‘gasp, I feel awefully like those seeds that grew among the thorns and didn’t bear fruits’; letting the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and desires for other things come in and choke the word.
I realized this may be a new phase that God has brought me into to teach me and mold me. Last year was about surrendering to Him and trusting Him for everything. It was tough but I saw the fruit and also deepened the trust. This year, I’ve been sensing that it’ll be on relationships – not just about surrounding yourself with people and always out socializing, but rather, bring the focus onto the people part in everything we do. In business dealings, coworkers, friends, people come to contact at stores etc. Seeing them not as means to an end.
After all, ‘Love God, and Love People. Love your neighbours as you love yourself”. Perhaps everything will be given and increased, if I just put my focus on what’s really important.
We all see the world with our own set of glasses/filters, and hardly able to see the world as how God would see it. People might say one thing, but we hear something totally different.
Wonder what it’ll look like one day when I could completely remove those filters and see the world as is. Hopefully soon.
What are you seeking? Is it: What will I eat? How will I pay the bills? How will I have a happy marriage? How will I have a successful career?
Things are only cliche because people don’t internalize it and embrace it. Sadly, a lot of sayings have been labeled as ‘cliche’, but they are by no means any less powerful than the person who spoke it, and the meaning it carries.
Let’s hear some of the sayings that you like but it has gotten the label of being a ‘cliche’
I had another interesting conversation with a mate of mine today on the topic of job and ministry. The jist of the story is that a job in the secular world feels like not really serving God, compare to a full time ministry. As I was conversing, this reminded me of a sermon I heard from Hillsong Church in Sydney.
I do believe the deep desires in your heart were placed there by the creator and ultimately for his purpose. There is a difference between desires and wants in my mind. Desires are something that is carved into your heart and even if you shake it off, it’ll always be there until your heart gives up. It’s what moves you to tears, or that nudge in your heart when you see/hear something related. Wants are more or so in our head and not consistent. Today I may want a nice car, but tomorrow I may decide to get a bike instead. (sorry for the lame example).
Truly following God’s will, one has to start with complete surrendering. God will take us through the life, giving you small things and let you learn the lessons before giving you the ultimate desires. But he needs your heart and you need to be in him. ‘delight yourself in the lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart’.
So, our job right now doesn’t seem ‘holy’. What if God placed you there for his plan? Unless there is a strong desire to not be doing what you are doing now, there is very likelihood that you are exactly where God wants you to be. [Well you are always exactly where God wants you to be, sometimes that point is where you realize you need to change]. We can always use what we have in our hands to be a good steward and good servant. Not all of us are called to be in full time ministry, but we are all full time ministers. Just in different settings – some may be in church, some may be in another country, some are in the marketplace. I’ve heard people say I am just going to lay my job down. I don’t know. Is it really yours to lay it down?
It’s very hard for us to understand what we currently doing can be used for God, or even where is this going. I think if we just trust it, and do the best we can with what we are given now, few years down the road, we will understand it clearer. If you do well with the little things, he will give you more.
I am glad I never thought about singing, or at least the opportunity never came, because I am pretty sure it’ll be very distracting and awful to the listeners. I will make William Hung like Elvis compare to me. It’s just not in me. I am very much like to be doing what I am good at and be more effective at that.
I can’t say much about others, but at least looking back on my own; God has taken me through every step of the way to get me where I am right now. Even through the early part of my life which I didn’t even know him, but yet he was still there.
So, what’s in your hand today?
