Weep and Rejoice

Weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. My question is, which is easier to do?

Weep?
Going to a party seems more pleasurable when compared to going to a funeral. Visiting a couple in a maternity ward to congratulate them on the birth of their newborn certainly feels better than visiting another who just lost their child no thanks to cancer or a road traffic accident.

Rejoice?
In a marathon, you finish second. Looking back at the months of disciplined training and preparations, are you sure you are able to look into the eyes of your opponent who just beat you and sincerely feel happy for him/her for winning the race?


I don't care. Maybe it is due to living in a big city, in a foreign land, no less, that I have become comfortable living alone. Yes, I know, no man is an island; but no man remains unaffected by his environment either. You take public transportation with hundreds of people to town where even more people are. Everywhere you go you see people, and you may need to queue up for just about anything and everything. Besides, the people we are talking about come from all over the globe. How could one possibly relate to every person he sees? Over time, you just become more and more quiet in a noisy place. And you become comfortable with being quiet. Then you may become self-sufficient. Why would you weep with those who weep? Why would you rejoice with those who rejoice?

Materialism thrives. In a society where we are constantly observing and comparing. Why would I, unaffected by my neighbour's plight, weep when my neighbour weeps? Why would I, not benefiting from my neighbour's achievement, rejoice when my neighbour rejoices? Need I give any explanation? There is no reason for one to weep when he is not hurting or losing; nor is there any sense in rejoicing in the success of another, especially success at one's loss or defeat.

At the end of the day, I believe the only way is to love your neighbour as you love yourself. Not easy, but worth the sweat. Relationships matter so much more than material gains and earthly achievements. If only we could see it.
 

Source of comfort

The darkest days of my life are haunting me still. I try to look to the sky for comfort, each time I am reminded of the pain that I endured.
 

If Joya could model too

Have been shooting for some time now, I enjoy making people or objects look good. Just wondering what if I were to become the subject in some of my photos. What if Joya could model besides taking pictures? I don't enjoy being in photographs; but when I am, I try to make sure that I am the one doing the editing.

If you have not seen my work, you may do so here. Happy viewing!
 

Answer-less

My husband had a good career as a stock broker, we raised a sensible child who excelled in his studies all the way to completing his degree course in an Australian university and came back to work and stay with his parents. I, as a full-time housewife, watched him grow up. Why did God have to take him away from us in a terrible road traffic accident at the age of 28?

I said I was "sorry to hear this" to the elderly couple. My patient who was just admitted to the ward, a seventy-year-old man transferred from the Emergency Department upon a fall that resulted in a nasty hip fracture, was accompanied by his wife whom I had a brief chat with.

Having been reading Yancey's "Where is God when Life Hurts?" and Dowell's "More than a Carpenter", I still could not open my mouth to say to the lady that there is a God who cares about each and every one of His creation. This woman, for the past two to three decades, has been living day by day taking care of her diabetic husband who needs assistance with mobility. They live in a studio apartment, on their retirement funds that are constantly reduced due to the rising cost of healthcare.

Had their son not died in that car accident, life for their family would be so different today. Maybe I would never have met them in the C-class surgical ward. Maybe the man would not have had the hip fracture. Maybe the woman or her son would hire a domestic helper to provide better care for the man.

Had their son not died in that car accident.

Where is God when life hurts? I could not give this lady an answer.
 

Doing right?

All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart. 
Proverbs 21:2 

Nobody would mind being right, am I right? Of course I am!
Well, there are times when we are aware how not right we can be. For example, beating a red light. Fair enough, anyone who believes he is always right is only deceiving himself. But at the very least we try to convince ourselves that we are not exactly wrong, blaming people and circumstances aside. The driver behind me was driving really fast and it would have been dangerous for me to step on the brakes. The white lie I told was to protect the reputation of a friend. Adam blamed Eve for giving him the forbidden fruit when they were in Eden. Need I give you more examples?

Nobody enjoys being wrong, period. What wise words from King Solomon.
But the Lord weighs the heart. How does He do it? How can we know what are in our hearts? Even the most advanced and sophisticated medical imaging technology isn't good enough to tell you the condition of a person's heart in terms of morality. Time to be frank, we all have motives and rationales behind our every action. A person seated at close proximity to me can not quite possibly read my thoughts better than another who is a thousand miles away. Only I will know why am I acting or speaking in a certain way; perhaps even I might not always understand myself.

Conscience- something that is imprinted on the soul of every man, theists and atheists alike. Some are easily pricked by their own conscience while others may be desensitized in certain areas. Anyhow, it is up to each one to live in whatever way he or she chooses to, with conscience. All of your ways seem right to you, of course. I guess deep down, we all would probably know for ourselves most of the time if what we are doing is really right or not. It is just a matter of convincing ourselves that we are somehow right.

Actions lead to consequences, a simple truth ought to be reminded of frequently lest we start living only as we please.

My actions seem logically right in my eyes, am I too stubborn to receive correction if I were sincerely wrong? I'd love to be right all the time but am I doing right? If I stand before the Lord today and He begins to audit my life, will I be among the sheep or the goats?

Tested

I remember writing this lately, "Character is about doing what is right even when no one is watching, especially when no one is watching."

Today I had a perfect opportunity to do something really wrong, well you know, the worst sins tend to be the most satisfying ones. The circumstances were just right, no one was looking and nobody would ever be aware had I done whatever I wanted to do. Probably not even the person whom I was about to victimize!

Glad to have stood firm.

Not trying to boast in my strength here though, really wish I could turn back time and correct some mistakes made in the past. There is history that I simply can not put behind, haunting me still today.
 

Neither here nor there

Am I.

It is supposed to be my semester break. Heck, it is my semester break.
I am on a clinical posting. Complaining? No. Just observing the fact that I seem to be neither here nor there, between Malaysia and Singapore. Could have gone on a mission trip? Next time lah.

It is supposed to be my semester break. Heck, it is my semester break.
Need to make the best out of wherever I am placed then.