The Box with a Small Hole at the bottom

I was washing a plastic box in the kitchen this morning. It was a big box. To save time, after applying detergent on it , I thought I would let the water from the tap flow into it while I dashed to the bathroom.

When I returned, expecting to see the container filled with water, I was surprised to see that there was only a bit of water in it! Then, I remembered that there were two small holes at the bottom of the container. That was why, no matter how long I waited, the container was never going to be filled.

I was reminded that the container was like our spiritual lives. We want our spiritual life to be FILLED (with God's presence, goodness, the power of the Holy Spirit , you name it...) but if we neglect the small hole at the bottom (the small hole may be some persistent sin , mindset, habit, selfishness or unbelief , whatever it is that causes our spiritual life to "leak" away on a constant basis, or even a relationship that we are called to give up because it violates God's principles), we are never going to be filled.

God WANTS to bless, and God DESIRES to bless. He is always pouring his fullness into our lives, guaranteeing us a full LIFE ! But no matter how much He keeps pouring and pouring , if we ignore the small leak in our lives, justifying to ourselves that it is only an "insignificant" habit or a matter of perspective , or telling ourselves that God will forgive anyway (which is true), our spiritual lives will feel empty and we will be frustrated, wondering why and blaming God...

It is time to have a NEW LIFE. I need a new life. By God's grace, He has overcome. It is not going to be easy but the past is wiped away and the new has come. My future will be like the new pages of a new book. The only thing is to believe in the Victory that GOD has already given me!

a poem

But God was gracious,
loving,
merciful to me,
despite my sin.

God's grace is sufficient for me.

For His grace is made perfect in my weakness.

"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely .. think upon such things. . Put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." (Philippians 4:8)

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;"
(Proverbs 3:5)

Change our mindset ..

... Our view of God is influenced by our past experiences. And if our experiences are with sinful , imperfect men, these will affect what we think God is like. Especially if our experiences were with authority figures, e.g. our parents . In particular, fathers .

For instance, one who had an abusive father is more likely to scorn the idea of God the Abba Father as being loving. He will think , God! What is this nonsense. You are loving?

Because in his mind, the idea of a Father is not . The very word itself conjures horrible feelings and bad memories for him.

He has never known a human father who is like that, so why should a heavenly Father be like that?

Or, someone who had a distant father who was not fully involved in his life. It is natural that he will struggle with the idea of a God who is actually interested in his life, who is tender and cares for him. A loving Maker who sheds tears for him, who had nail-pierced hands. An authority figure who is not distant at all, but is near & loves him. He may even get very angry reading this.


I know, because I was once like that. It took a journey to change this mindset. And , I forgave my father. Because he is only human.

God REALLY loves you!

And He loves your imperfect father too (whatever things he has or has not done) ...

The Bible tells us that the "height and depth and breadth of God's love" is above our contemplations and beyond what we can comprehend with our finite minds. The bible tells us that "now we know in part" but only later can we know fully.


If you had a good father, praise God, your father is a fraction of what God is really like.

If you didn't have a "good" father, please, understand that God is not like your father. Our human fathers are only human -- like you -- very imperfect, and very fallible. How do we expect a fellow human being to be like God?

Receive God's love. Man may lie but God is not man.
"Is God a man , that he should lie?" "God is not a man, that he should lie in His promises." (Numbers 23:19)

As'salam : Visit to Norizah's house and almost a marriage :D

The Invitation

A few months ago, Norizah invited some of us to her house.

It was a lovely time in an informal setting. We ate food that we cooked by ourselves using a BBQ grill. I enjoyed myself.

The Community

As evening was turning to night, many of the guests started to leave. I decided to be a little more thick-skinned & stay for a while longer as it was a good opportunity to get to know her, her family and some of the other colleagues better. Since the others who stayed behind were Malay, some of them started speaking Malay instead of English. I did not feel left out. There was a genuine warmth in Malay culture which I had always enjoyed.

Furthermore, I find the Malay language and culture interesting, so I was happy to observe was happening & to try to pick up some nuances of Malay culture. They also took care to speak some English so that I would not be left out.

I was also very happy to play with their very lovable children. Hasnita was shocked but pleased and said that she saw a different side of me that day.
She usually saw the more serious side of me in the office and did not know that I could be so playful.

The Abang

It was enriching talking with Norizah's husband , a hardworking and ambitious fireman who did well at his job and had accumulated enough resources to buy the freehold property for his family and Norizah's mother to live in.

He said that he did not want to be laid-back or to blame others for economic problems as he had seen some other Malays do.

He had always wanted to work hard so that he could provide for his family.

He wanted his children to get to know people of different races and faiths so that they would not be limited to interacting only within the Malay community.

Daughter in a public school / missions school ?

He said that he and his wife had purposely enrolled their daughter in a Christian missions school in Singapore.

He said that it was because they wanted their Malay-Muslim daughter to interact with and learn more about other races and faiths instead of having a narrow-minded outlook or being suspicious of Christians/Christianity.

I was impressed by their foresight , intelligence and bravery .

Offer to kiss my hand

When Norizah's elder daughter came home from school, she kissed the hand of each female Malay guest in an As'salam greeting of peace.

I noticed that this was not something Malays normally do when non-Malays are present. Earlier, when there were more non-Malay persons around, the children did not do it. They did it only when there was only Malay company around. Perhaps some of them felt that those of a different race (mainly Chinese, including myself) might not appreciate the gesture and they were trying to be sensitive by not showing certain gestures to non-Malays.

But the truth is that , I was glad and privileged to receive the gestures borne out of a heart of wanting to deepen the friendship and a desire for genuine dialogue.

Far from being offended, I am more than happy to be included.

I was very pleased when Norizah's daughter also kissed my hand.

Actually, I think she did not know at first whether she should offer to kiss my hand because she looked a little confused when she saw me - the only Chinese still around.
I was also a little confused because I did not know whether I should offer my hand to her! I was concerned that the family may be offended.
The truth is that both of us were afraid of offending each other.
But , actually, neither of us would have offended the other in the gesture.

Her mum taught her well by saying rather firmly to her, "Just because she's not Malay doesn't mean you don't as'salam her."

Thank you

When we were leaving, we informed the owner of the house / the host (in this case, Norizah's husband) that we were leaving and thanked him.

As the others kissed the hand of Norizah's mother to say goodbye, I decided to follow suit and gladly did so too.

Wow! A Marriage Recommendation !

Norizah's mother was very pleased at my sincerity, attempts to talk with her and gesture of kissing her hand.

She said something to Norizah in Malay (the mum doesn't speak much English).
Norizah translated it:

"My mother says that you should marry a Malay. She wants to introduce you."

I took that as a great compliment!

I knew in my heart that I would only consider someone for marriage if he believes just as much as I do in the One God who incarnated himself as Isa Al-Masir or Jesus Christ the Lord, but I was very glad at her warmth and friendship...
I knew that it was the old lady's way of affirming me and telling me that she liked me. I felt honoured that she viewed me worthy to be part of her community. :)

Fear versus Faith

about faith and fear

for God has not given a spirit of fear, but a spirit of love, of courage, and of a sound mind.

Perfect love casts out fear.

Fear is natural and I should not be ashamed that I feel fear, but fear should not conquer me or debilitate me.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to take hold of that which we fear and to move on ahead.

at a standstill... to regroup .

I have been on medical leave for two to three months due to the sports injury and have not been going out for some time, except to a relative's house when I wish to stay overnight for several days to recuperate so that my grandmother, aunt and myself can keep one another company when there is nobody else in my house in the daytime. I'm glad to be able to spend more time with my aunts and beloved grandma, because I have always been trying to share the gospel with my loved ones whenever opportunities arose.

A few people offered to visit on different occasions, and I thank God for them: Cat, jm, Yeeping, SC, T, Sandy, Cyrus, Mdm H, and an ex-classmate Alvin who insisted on coming all the way to my place to hand-deliver his wedding invitation card (even though I told him that I would not be able to go because of my injury) because he wanted to see how I was and to chat with me in person. So sweet! I also kept in touch with a few other friends via the telephone or internet in order for us to encourage one another.
Also helped the church with script-writing a trailer for the upcoming Christmas production (sent the script to the team leader, Bernnise, via email as requested by her).

In accordance with my physiotherapist's instructions, I do a set of physiotherapy exercises two to three times a day indoors.
Each session takes more than one hour since I want to be diligent and disciplined about it. Discipline has been a bit of a problem, though I have improved in disciplining myself now as compared with the first week. During each session, I feel tired and bored. After each session, I feel more tired and bored. Usually, I take a nap after each session because it is hot, tiring and boring. :)

It's not advised to go out to certain places yet since I'm still on medical leave, especially to places where one may slip or re-injure the leg as we know that it's easy to re-sprain the foot during this time and that would set back the recovery to square one and may lead to longterm recurring injury (and then whose fault would that be?)

Thank God that He has helped me find ways to reduce the monotony of the long physiotherapy exercises:
- I join my parents and younger brother in watching television shows and though I am not an avid fan of TV, it helps in family bonding.
- On the days that I'm in my relatives' house, I join my grandmother and aunts in watching their shows.
- Praying (but I really need to do more of this.... I know that I really could have been more faithful in prayer during this period of time.... )
- Listening to sermons / messages pre-downloaded from the internet while doing my exercises.

Mindful that it is no point reading books or listening to messages if I do not spend time reflecting & evaluating what I read or hear and asking God what He wants me to learn through the message.

Thus, I write in my journal (not this blog) the more personal reflections & applications for my life.

For example, God has brought up some old issues in my heart that I have to resolve to a greater degree than I ever have... More breakthroughs are on the horizon and God wants to do an even greater work in these areas in my life.

While the aggravated injury was partly due to my own fault, I know that God has allowed for this standstill in my life for me to regroup my resources.. and He hopes that I will emerge stronger, more secure in His love and fitter for service than ever...

Why is it not so easy?

Inter-racial harmony and inter-faith in Singapore ... My neighbours & others

I thank God for my beloved grandmother, a woman enlightened beyond her educational level (she had only primary education as it was World War II when she was finishing primary school and in any case, the family did not have the finances to continue sending her to school), who taught me many things when I was a child & we were staying together. Despite the lack of formal education, she was wise in certain ways and never parochial.

When I was a child, my grandmother set an example for me by befriending neighbours of different races. I didn't think much about it at that time; it was only when I was much older that I considered the implications and was amazed at the values she had helped to inculcate in me without my knowing.

During Chinese New Year or other major festivities, she would always carefully arrange oranges and other food considered permissible by Muslims on a large tray and ask me to go over, knock on the doors of our Malay neighbours and proffer it to them graciously & with sincerity of heart.

They reciprocated during Hari Raya festivals by coming over to give us delicacies.

The key word is 'sincerity'.

As our nation 'developed', it seems some of this community spirit and the shared sense of humanity is diluted. As people live in crowded cities & people in the world become more suspicious of one another due to fears of terrorist threats and so on, lack of trust builds up and people seek to preserve what little space they think they have left. Doors are shut.

I believe that it might feel a bit strange to start the practice my grandmother had , especially if one is not used to it . However, it is important and such a simple step that one tends not to think about it. We don't need more big and major campaigns or organised functions to build ties. We need more of these little things on the ground. How does it help if we bypass our neighbours with nary a sincere thought every day yet try to build ties overnight by partaking in a one-day obligatory function and returning to our own world of oblivion thereafter?

I have been trying to communicate more with my female Malay neighbours & friends (and sometimes, they can really surprise you; my Muslim friends & neighbours are often fun, funny and much funkier and warmer than some might think, once they begin to trust you)... With my Malay housewife neighbour, it started with a smile and progressed to long chats along the corridor... She's really cool, friendly and intelligent.
.... By God's grace, I hope to continue communicating more with them....