Things happen..

I was shell-shocked to find out this morning that a friend of mine was withdrawing from school altogther and going back to Singapore for good. Just 2 weeks ago, she was so happy that her boyfriend came from Singapore to visit her and spend time with her. Unfortunately this bliss was not to last for long. Her dad flew in with news that things cropped up in Singapore and had to bring her back for good. If it were to happen to you, how would you feel?

Sad?

Angry?

Depressed?

Confused?

Or just plain stunned and dont know what to do.


Definitely none of us here would want to be in her shoes, but bad things do happen to good people. Sometimes we dont even see it coming. Just BOOM. and things come wave after wave. Maybe you and I may not have undergone such a torturous journey as Paul did. True, we do not get stoned, we do not get thrown in jail for ministering because of religious harmony. Yet we discover that humans are vulnerable to anything and almost everything. Tomorrow you can get shot. Tomorrow you can head to the doctors and find out you have cancer. Tomorrow your company can go bankrupt.

Just with a snap of a finger, rags can turn into riches (of course with hard work). BUT the converse is also true. Overnight, so many things can happen because of the fallen, broken down world that we live in. However as followers of Christ, we are not called to be victims of circumstances, but to be victors over them. For us, defeat is not an option. Defeat contradicts the Word of God. We can fail because of our fallen nature. But eventually, victory is OURS. For us, any circumstance should be trampled under our feet. For us, Christ is for us. (The Bible says, if Christ is with us, who can be against us.)

Yes, outrageous statements I agree. Yet as humans we always tend to magnify the circumstance instead of magnifying the goodness of God. After all, its human nature. But as Christians, isnt that what we shouldnt do? We proclaim week in week out that our God is an awesome God. He is our Solution. He is our helper, our source in times of need. Yet when we come face to face with circumstance, some of us tremble, some of us panic, some of us run away from it. In Hokkien they always say CHUA TIO. But we have the freedom of CHOICE. It would be foolish of us to choose to wallow in depression.

Isnt it during these trying times, all the more we SHOULD be proclaiming the goodness of God. I agree that knowing God's character should not be just solely based on head knowledge. I agree that God does great things in our lives. I agree that God IS an awesome God. Sometimes, we need to get our actions moving. God is not our Heavenly Maria where at the snap of our fingers and things get done. We cannot assume that God by default will "own time own target" and take initiative to clear the way. God is with us, but sometimes he expects us to turn on our action mode. An action mode called Faith.

Who in the right mind when his/her business is failing will say, "Defeat is not an option." Who in the right mind will say "Praise to be God" when they are poor? Infact our mindset when we just started out should have been that way, rather than wait for decline to occur and then proclaim seemingly contradictory statements. I myself find CAPABLE people saying that a walking contradiction. Excellence should be tops, right after God-issues. I used to slack in the past, but I guess army has done me good although 2 years of reflection is too long for my liking. All of us should press on for excellence in all that we do!

When building a plant, there is always a SOP manual (Standard operating procedure) called HAZOP and HAZAN. It contains all the operations and what to do in times of emergency. Heck, even for army, who will even bother saying "IA IA!" or "1 2 clear" when their out of bullets during an ongoing war. They'll give themselves away! When an emergency happens, no matter how good the manual is, by the time you look for the safety procedures, DONT BOTHER. You're 9 feet underground with a tombstone. Isnt excellence important?


Press on press on. Things may look bleak. Things may not be where you want it to be, but have in mind the thoughts and plans God has for you. Bear in mind that God will never leave you nor forsake you. Continue to totally surrender your trust in Him. God is the author and and the finisher of our faith. If He starts something, He will finish it with excellence without fail. Likewise for myself, my morale was quite low last week, but today I found a confidence boost that only He could have given me.

And I can stomp my feet on the ground and say " Defeat is not an option."


I hope you can make that radical, outrageous statement too.