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I was curious at trying out Yahoo! Answers after seeing the ads on bus stops.
Anyway, since I am a Yahoo! user, I tried the following questions:
1. Why do you wash jeans inside out?
2. Why is it in Cantonese, a loan shark is called "Tai Yee Loong"? (No satisfactory answer for this.)
3. Which mainstream movies mention Singapore?
Try something wacky, you never know what sort of answers you may get...
I think the most overrated and misunderstood virtue is humility.
I think that humility has been misused to cover up fear, cowardice and faithlessness too many times.
Jesus was considered the most humble person yet he had no hesitation to do the following:
1. He called Herod "a fox". (Luke 13:32)
2. He cursed a fig tree.
3. He said "all authority on heaven and earth has been given me..."
4. He said that "we can ask of anything..."
And I can list a dozen more instances.
Humility means that recognize that we should serve others, not reducing ourselves or engage in self-mutilation or deprivation. It means that we recognize that our fellow men are deserving of respect, love and our help. We do not serve others by reducing ourselves. The Bible calls this false-humility.
They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."
"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" (Matthew 10:37-38)
The thing about ambition is that we must always calculate carefully whether we are able to handle the pressures that go with the job.
Do you really want to be an entrepreneur, an actor, a boss, a salesman, etc? It isn't a bed of roses. That's what Jesus said. Do we know what we are asking for?
So when we think about what we want to do, do not just consider the rewards but also the price to pay.
I watched 300 at Golden Village Tampines yesterday.
An absolutely visually stunning movie. Go and watch it in the cinemas if you haven't seen it yet.
The movie is an awe-inspiring retelling of the battle of Thermopylae, how a group of 300 Spartan soldiers fought off the vast Persian army.
One thing that I would like to concentrate on in this review is the parallels between King Leonidas' offer to bow down before Xerxes and Jesus' temptation by Satan.
Those scenes illustrate perhaps better than a reading of the Bible does. It illustrates the temptation for Leonidas to take the easy way out rather than to take the tough stand against evil.
In the same way our King and Lord, Jesus had to take a stand against Satan. He could have achieved victory on this earth easily but he didn't. He chose to die on the cross for our sins.
And just like Leonidas, we remember Jesus' death and sacrifice as he commanded us through Holy Communion to do it in remembrance of him.
On a final note, the imagery of noble warriors fighting even unto death reminds me of the calling of Christians to live their lives on this earth nobly to fight the good fight. We will die one day. The message of the world is to enjoy and live life comfortably. But a warrior looks forward to living a life and finishing it well. We are warriors in this life. We are soldiers in the army of Christ. Let us live like and die for a greater cause other than ourselves.
Continuing on my thoughts that life is one big drama.
I realize that you do not become a manager. The day you are promoted to be the manager, the director, the CEO is not the day you become one.
You become whatever you want to be little by little every day. To become a CEO, behave like one, think like one, way before you get chosen or promoted to be one.
Actors that prepare diligently for a role spent a significant part of their time researching whatever they need to play. If they have to play a drug addict, they will have to research the way they think, how they walk, their gait, how will they react when offered help, how they will react when people do good or bad things to them, what their motivation, etc is.
In the big drama of life. The greatest thing we should realize is that we are our own casting directors. We can choose what role we want to play in the drama of life. We can say, "change the script, this isn't working out for me. I don't want to play the loser in life anymore."
Each day is then an audition. You choose to be whatever character you want to play in life.
You have to get into the role. You have to research your role. You become what you want be little by little each day.
So what role do you want to play in life?
I felt bemused experiencing that "earthquake" or rather tremors in the office today.
I thought that someone was pushing the cubicle partitions until I realized that everyone else experienced the same thing.
No big deal for me. Just lasted like 3-5 seconds for me.
All the way from Sumatra, a 6.3 earthquake in Padang affected us.
I think one of the things I and everyone should keep on learn is decision making.
Decision making is one of the most important things that affect our lives, yet we aren't taught this vital subject in school.
It's quite a fascinating subject, really. A quick search on google websites describes the biases that people are prone to, the psychology of the decision making process, etc.
Our decisions affect our lives and shape our future. Shouldn't we therefore take the the effort to make better decisions?
You can buy a gym membership but you can't buy fitness.
You can buy slimming tea and drinks, but you can't buy discipline.
You can buy gifts but you can't buy love.
You can hire consultants but you can't buy a decision.
You can buy clothes but you can't buy poise and confidence.
You can buy books but you can't buy wisdom.
Each person has a different purpose. Each has been given different gifts.
Life is between you and God. Your actions are judged on your ability and circumstances.
He who has been given much, much is expected.
God's expectations of you are based on the lot given to you in life.
Start each day looking forwards to God's blessing.
