For the past half an hour, I have taught to myself what commitment is and this is the definition that I have came up with.
Commitment is the promise that you make to yourself to stand by the decision you have made when you first believed in it.
Some committed themself because of passion, some because it is what they want to do. To others, it may be an obligation that they should do it since they have been involved for quite awhile. However, many do not understand what commitment is. It’s not about it bringing happiness to your life, and leaving it while there’s something that crops up. You have to be responsible to your commitment, else it will not be a commitment.
For me, it’s all about joy. The joy of looking at God’s work.
1If I speak in the tonguesa of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,b but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Just as you some of you would think that I’m going to abandon my blog due to laziness, I’M BACK!! Back to share more of my life with you. Finally blogged after completing my exams and majority of the presentation preperation of the FYP presentation. Just a wee bit of improvements required to it.
Today, I’m here just to share some of thoughts in my mind, rather that update about my life. Just I am thinking of how I should present my thoughts, I wondered if I should either bullet my different thoughts, number it, or should I just write like an essay. This makes me wonder since there are many ways of leading a life, so why am I doing what I’m doing now? Also, what life am I leading exactly? And, what do I want to achieve in my life? As there are so many things to think about in this secular world, I suppose I will continue to lead what my hearts wants me to be, and hopefully I can be the person God wants me to be.
As you can see, I have already started my thoughts in form of an essay, I shall continue with it. Sometimes, life is not in questions and answers form and also not in point form. I wonder do we need to do a presentation to God after we pass on. In front of God where we tell Him about the things we have done in life. Ha.. just a random thought.
Yesterday (Sunday), I came across a thick file of transparencies containing songs of worship that was used for BB parades. Remembering those joyful days where we sing praises to God not in a comfortable aircon room, nor with state-of-the-art (or not so) projector and laptop to project the lyrics on the screens. A simple classroom with pre-arranged chairs by the duty squad, 1 or 2 guitarist, and a worship leader had done the job, uniting us in one voice. It was fun those days, especially for me since I quite like singing, with easy lyrics and catchy tunes, sometimes with action too!! It was certainly great to see those and I started singing some of those that were familar to me. I thought to myself, maybe I should lead worship either during parades or officers’ fellowship, singing these classics. Actually, I have these thoughts for quite sometime, but for many reasons, I haven’t yet to put it into action, such as shy, busy and etc. Well, I’m not sure if I will ever have the chance to share these songs with anybody else, but hope that someday I can, even it’s for only one person. I have included a YouTube video of one of my favourite songs. The verse and chorus can harmonise!! Enjoy.
Talking about YouTube, I think that it’s probably the best internet tool after search engines. I feel that I have improved as a piper musically just through the exposure of YouTube. Get to know more pipe tunes, more types of music besides bagpipe, more techniques and more. Looking at others sharing of knowledge, music, life and more makes me want to put up more videos on it!! I am might consider to invest in a good video camera and the mighty H2. haha… But all these will come after I find a job ba… BTW, I strongly recommend you to check out YouTube Symphony, which gathers majority of its musicians through YouTube auditions and staged a performance on Carnegie Hall. Quality stuff.
Some say that as you graduate, it means that you have just became jobless. Especially during recession, it would be difficult to find a job, let alone a well paid one. Right now, I am not looking for one aggressively, but keeping a look out in the industry of my interest, Product Design. FYI, I should have a Bachelor Degree in Materials Science and Engineering in July and product design is not really related to my field of study. Mechnical Engineering or Industrial Design graduates would be more suitable. Well, I am interested in this field because I am always facinated with how new products are developed, how simple toothbrush evolved, how products are mass produced and so on. My course have given me an introduction on these and interest is developed, however they did not really equip me with the necessary skills to get into this field as I think we (Materials Engineer) are meant to do other stuff. All I can say is that in order for me to excel in what I am doing, I have to have an interested and eventually passion for it. I am starting to think about ways to equip myself to get into this industry before and during my re-enlistment to army. A starter will be learning CAD or/and soildworks, which is essential in this field. Thereafter, I may learn and develop a portfolio of my ideas and drawings that might come in handy during job applications. If anybody out there with such experiences can educate me, please let me know what I can do to get a product design job. Utimately, I think that all degrees are the same, most of the things you learnt in your 4 years of study will probably be useless to your career. What universities teaches you is the resourcefulness in obtaining information and problem solving.
Received my re-enlistment letter sometime back. Argh.. can’t find it now to share with you what it says. But it roughly talks about me reporting to my unit’s S1 department on 1st July 09 in No. 4. I hope I will be able to squeeze into my uniform by then. I will be working on reducing weight and keeping fit, as I will be required to run as fast as I used to during PT (which is not very fast because I was never a fast runner). If anyone of you out there (that I know) feels like swimming, gymming or any other form of sports, please “jio” me, I will gladly join you if I am free and not feeling lazy. Also, I have signed with the the NTU Alumni Club recently with a year of subscription for only $100. In the mean time, I would want to fully utilize the facilities there so that I can shed some weight.
Alright, that’s a very long post that takes quite me quite awhile to write. God Bless…
Haven’t visited one of my friend’s blog for quite awhile. Today, while I was meddling with my old com, I clicked on that link. As I was reading through it, I was shock to know some tough times that this friend had gone through. I should have known, if I wasn’t blinded by somethings. Well, this friend of mine came to know God through City Harvest (my first good impression of them.. haha) and finally changed. I felt guilty that I had never been there for this friend through the tough time, I wish I can turn back time…
This has triggered a series of thoughts… What are my values and believes? I guess I had been lukewarm these days giving many excuses such as “i’m busy” and “i’m not ready”. It’s through BB that I became a Christian, and continued to serve because I want to share how BB has benefitted me. Yet, I have neglected the spiritual aspect of my life, thus not being able to do all these effectively. God has blessed my life with many things… Family, friends, knowledge, music and most importantly, someone that loves me… Yet, i have decided to view life a different way… Right now, I have to pick myself up and get my life in working order.. so that I can function as what He wants me to…
While I was in Sec 3, my BB Leadership Training Camp (LTC) theme song was “He will come and save you”. LTC was much torturous those days with uncountable number of push-ups. This song had came to me in a different meaning during that camp, but now, I suppose I am starting to understand the real meaning…
If this friend of mine happen to see this -> Thank you, your story has touched me. And told me how great God is!
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He will come and save youWords and Music by Bob Fitts and Gary Sadler
Verse 1
Say to those who are fearful hearted, "do not be afraid,
the Lord your God is strong, with His mighty arm,
when you call on His name." He will come and save
Chours
He will come and save you, He will come and save you
Say to the weary one, "your God will surely come"
He will come and save you
He will come and save you, He will come and save you
Lift up your eyes to Him, you will arise again,
He will come and save you
Verse 2
Say to those who are broken hearted, "do not lose your faith,"
the Lord your God is strong, with His loving arms,
when you call on His name." He will come and save
Bridge
He is our refuge in the day of trouble,
He is our shelter in the time of storm,
He is our tower in the day of sorrow,
our fortress in the time of war
It has been one day since I have brought the IO matter up to the school. Their action so far was to call “him” up to ask him why he have yet to got me down to work. Apparently, “his” reply was that he will arrange something for me. Well, I am keeping my fingers cross about this. Actually, my decision to bring up the matter to the school was because my mum have told this incident to a uncle, that have been working in the engineering field for decades, the day before and he told me to let the school know about it in order to protect myself. Simultaneously, he is helping me to source for other jobs of related study. Eventually, a lady from Kelly Engineering Resources contacted me to ask for my resume, so that she can help me hunt for jobs.
Right now, the status of the uncertainty is “he” have yet to call me to arrange when to work, the lady from Kelly Engineering Resources is negotiating with an electronics consumer product company to employ me and I am still still staying at home to update my emails every 10 mins.
Well, Dearie did ask me out today to walk walk, jalan jalan, but I think I am currently not in the mood to do so. I’m glad to know that those friends who knows about my case had given me words of encouragement and offer whatever help they can offer me. Even though some did not work out, I am still touched by the amount of effort that these friends are willing to offer. Most importantly, Dearie, and the “imaginary family”, have been there for me all these while, helping me to search for jobs via internet and comforting me with her many pleasant voices.
Certainly, God had been on my mind all these while, blessing me with signs of hope. Sometimes I wonder why am I so “sway” and such misfortune must befall on me. First was me not getting a firm to do my IO, then now is the firm that he blessed me with is turning his back on me. However, I have remembered the blessing in disguised that he have once showed me when I failed my O’ Level English, which gave me no choice but to enter poly instead of JC. It was a blessing after I found out that even if I had made into the JC, I wouldn’t survive there because of my poor command of English. Instead, I spent another year to brush up my English and I passed my next attempt in the exam. (If you think the language used here is still quite bad, please pardon me because blogging for me is not writing some essay but writing anything that comes onto my mind, hence not the utmost important factor in my posts.)
In the mean time, I hope that I can make my time useful instead of brooding whole day long. I have a messy table, messy room and a messy house that I would like to clean up. Maybe that is what I will do today. Please pray for me in this period of uncertainty, thank you…
This is nothing about what happened to me recently… Rather, it’s about something I experienced when I was a young lad…
Today, I was checking out the article that is posted on daily bread, a Christian devotional guide for those that don’t know, I read something I makes me remember a lot of stuff that happened…
The article is on “Cheering Each Other On“. It’s taking about give each other encouragement whenever possible. I still remember those days in BB when corporal punishment is allowed. Corporal punishment is not talking about getting corporals to punish you, but it’s those physical activities that you do, upon either doing something wrong, or saying something stupid… It’s suppose to be banned because there are a lot of ego people that abused it over the years.. causing a lot of complaints.
Okay.. I’m suppose to post about encouragement… I still remember those days, especially during torture camps, when we are asked to do physical activities beyond our physical means… like running for an hour with our bags, doing hundreds of push ups and so on… As most human will react when frustrated, we start to curse the guy that got us into the trouble… Mr. Bernard Chao, the OIC for my batch told us to encourage each other, and if he should hear anymore curse on the “weakest link” more punishments will befall on us…. Soon after, we find encouraging each other very meaningful. It used to be a chore because we still have to mumble words of encouragement when we are quite pissed and tired, but eventually we started to say words of encouragement each time we see anyone of us is falling out, and I’m sure it sounded pleasing to the receiving end…
How I hope that we have a batch of Boys in the BB that is united, saying pleasent words of encouragement to each other in times of need. Even action of encouragement, such as helping out in cleaning the BB room, moving the logistics are much appreciated. I suppose my mission for the next 2 years is to build a company full of selfless Boys that enjoy each other’s company and really bring out the true Christian manliness…
Right now, there are many of you that is like me.. taking exams and stuff… I would like to offer my encouragement to you, “hang in there… the exams will be over soon, study hard and let God decide what you should get for your efforts.”
BTW, the IO is bothering me right now… Very disturbing.. I hope God will make a way for me… I will blog about the incidents another time…