A friend from church, no more than 30, died today. My sister showed me his Facebook page which had many writing on his wall, “Rest in Peace”.

I then thought to myself, there is no need to wish him to rest in peace (or Requiescat in pace as the original Latin Catholic epitaph said)! Why? Because he is already resting in peace! He’s entered God’s eternal rest (Hebrews 4:1-11) and is with the Prince of Peace himself at this moment in time.

Truly, what a glorious hope we have! We need not wish souls to “rest in peace” as Christ’s redeeming work on the cross means that the saints who have fallen asleep are already resting in peace in a place where there is no death, mourning, crying or pain (Revelation 21:4). In light of such a glorious hope, we do not need to grieve like those who have no hope for we can look forward to being with the Lord forever (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) in the new Jerusalem where God will provide his abundant peace (Jeremiah 33:9).

I remember once lamenting that I do not have a particularly poetic style when I write, this of course in comparison to other writers who somehow manage to blog poetically.

A friend responded telling me that I write plainly and that itself is an art. I don’t embellish my posts or writing in general because I usually can’t be bothered and it isn’t really in my nature to do so (not embellishing my speech whether with verbosity or niceties).

Sometimes though, it would be nice to be able to write a line that sounds vaguely poetic.

On an unrelated note, I really do wish that the teenagers above me who are attempting their version of rockband without the good singer, drummer, bassist and guitarist programmed into the system would stop. After a while, people need to be told that they may have a gifting elsewhere, for others’ benefit and for their own. I don’t know if I’m hearing a lot of feedback from their sound system or if it’s just their natural talent to produce sounds that sound like feedback.

Not seeing  the woods for the trees, and not seeing the trees for the wood.

Sometimes I just sit back and wonder if God, like in Jim Carrey’s Bruce Almighty, gets tired of all the prayers that He gets. He’s constantly getting inundated with requests from everyone. Surely some of them must clash with each other, like someone ask for rain and someone ask for sunshine. How would one decide?

Also, I wonder how He feels when we always leave things as they are, i.e. things like poverty, injustice, cruelty, and say, “God in all His mercy and power will work.” I wonder if He gets frustrated and yells at us, “THAT’S WHY I GAVE YOU ABILITIES AND OPPORTUNITIES TO HELP OTHERS, YOU NITWITS! I AIM TO WORK THROUGH YOU!” (Although I imagine that He’s probably more polite about it.)

Then again, I’m really just looking at God’s job and as a human, wondering how He has the patience and love to deal with it all. In that respect, I’m glad that I’m not God. Actually, in all respects I’m glad I’m not God. He’s doing and will continue to do an infinitely better job than I could ever imagine myself doing.

I’m not trying to be blasphemous or heretical, it’s just one of my flights of fancy.

Over the course of my first year and half of my second year in university, I did better than I have ever done in school. I have enjoyed what I study and have found myself applying myself to my work. It hasn’t all been easy, but it’s been enjoyable.

But this semester I have been swamped, more than before, more than IB and more than last year. I’ve had 7 essays and 4 presentations. I still have 4 exams to go. In the midst of it all, I realised something. God works in our weakness. When we feel weak and unsure what to do, He always provides. I look at my work this semester and know that it wasn’t my doing, but His alone. Only He could’ve helped me. I’ve been very self-sufficient but being stretched means that I can rely on Him for He is always there, perfecting  me even in the midst of the refining process of stress. In all things, He is my Rock to whom I cling.

I had a friend who broke up with his girlfriend. He told me that he moved on, but whenever I met him, the topic of his girlfriend would always come up in conversation, like every single time. After a while, I felt disinclined to meet up with him because he’d either always rant about her or go on about what she was  doing. I told him that he hadn’t moved on, but he didn’t believe me.

For the last time, if you didn’t manage to go overseas and got “stuck” here and have to go to a local university, you’re really not going to die or lose out. Suck it up. It’s not the end of the world nor are the people in NUS stupid. Yes, some are, but not all. But if you come in determined to mope, you’ll never get anywhere then I’ll just say, “Serves you right”.

It all turns out for good anyway. I just hate it when people go on about how it’s better overseas: less stressful, smarter people, less spoonfed. You choose what you want to make of it.

I have brilliant profs and have found myself stretched. Yes, it’s stressful, but if you can’t deal with it now, when will you ever be able to? I’ve found good friends but you’ve got to look (as you would in any university).

So yes, so if you would stop looking down upon us who are staying in Singapore, it would be great.

I just realised while talking on MSN that lol actually looks like someone with their hands in the air

lol

There has been and continues to be much suffering in the world. Someone I know has just found out that her entire village was washed away in the recent flooding. She can’t get in touch with her family because all communication is down.

Sometimes I look at my life and wonder if it’s wrong for me to worry about my 7 essays. Sometimes I berate myself for living the lifestyle that I live. Sometimes I wonder if it’s just wrong. People have told me that I have been blessed and I should enjoy it rather than being ‘ungrateful’ and disowning it. But something still doesn’t sit right somewhere deep down inside.

I just saw Ris Low going through another painful interview on Channelnewsasia. Now honestly, if she has bad english, move on. There’s no need to keep milking the story for all it’s worth. If anything, it just shows that Singaporeans get hung up about stupidly small things. It’s a beauty pageant, speaking does not come into the judging (otherwise the stupid answers given by some contestants would cause them to be thrown out).

About her criminal offence, yes, she committed one. But she’s served her time and what’s done is done. She’s out of the competition, but don’t we send sportsmen who have committed offences for sports tournaments? Furthermore, it seems rather hypocritical that we have this “Yellow Ribbon Project” in which we aim to rehabilitate ex offenders, but we can’t even accept someone who committed credit card fraud but keep making her answer for it even though the punishment has been meted out.

About her supposed exam cheating, if the school has made her retake it, why are we bringing it up again?

She’s 19. My goodness.

She’s causing more furor than Steve Chia did or Devan Nair ever did.

I think that this is like the AWARE episode, the media is just hyping things up. Surely there are more important things to report about rather than spending time harassing a girl?

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