Eyes wide open

So I have decided, in view of my epically transforming journey in Methodist College (July 2015-December 2016), to document some of the amazing experiences and opportunities I've gained during my 1.5 years there. I hope you enjoy these little recollections, as I recount and share the little and big things that have established for MCKL a dear place in my heart. Wew, thank God for giving me this wonderful experience.  ♥ Okay let's start with some very dear friends of mine - for it is the brothers & sisters that make a place a second home, right?  Nobody's Birthday [Est. January 2016] Our friendship/sisterhood definitely goes back to 2015, but 'formally' as 'Nobody's Birthday' we were established in January... following a plan to surprise Shin Li (one of us) for her birthday! And to avoid blowing the surprise, we named the planning WhatsApp group 'Nobody's Birthday'. Occupationally, our little team exists to surprise each oth...

I'm done with college and I am at home resting for 9 months from the past 11 years or so of studying! Yes. What a relief. I thank God for how faithful He has been in the past years, walking by me and leading me on in a journey that has me looking back in awe and wonder. I've grown like never before; I am nearer to what is called 'womanhood' - still a very distant future in my view. I have left things behind which are not of worth in my journey with Christ - old mindsets of the world, goals which do not seek to honour God, plans which crowd God out of the picture. I don't even want to look back at those things in the rearview mirror, because where I find myself now commands no backward-looking nostalgia.   (view of Ipoh from Kledang Hill, Menglembu) As with most people when they talk about the close of a long chapter in their lives and wait for the start of a new one, I have pondered on God's faithfulness that knows no end. We can never praise God e...

Psalm 66 "Shout with joy to God, all the earth!  Sing the glory of His Name; make His praise glorious! Say to God, 'How awesome are Your deeds!  So great is Your Power that Your enemies cringe before You. All the earth bows down to You;  They sing praise to You, They sing praise to Your Name.  Come and see what God has done, How awesome His works in man's behalf! He turned the sea into dry land,  They passed through the waters on foot -  come, let us rejoice in Him.  He rules forever by His Power,  His eyes watch the nations -  Let not the rebellious rise up against Him.  Praise our God, O peoples,  let the sound of His Praise be heard;  He has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping.  For You, O God, tested us;  You refined us like silver.  You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads;  we went through fire and water,  b...

1 Thessalonians 3:12 “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.”  I've been going through 1 Thessalonians this week, and when I came across this verse the word 'increase' popped out at me. Why so? It is a reminder to me that for us to  love  is not a discrete on/off function. To love  someone isn't simply a yes or no action. As people we are inherently imperfect, and the sin in us creeps into the way we show love to others. We cannot love everyone with the Father's unconditional expression. We cannot love everyone in the same marvellous, selfless and pure way that God loves. However, as we grow in our relationship with Him, and as we become more receptive to God revealing His love to us - deep in our hearts in the clichest yet truest of ways, we feel the love of the Lord gently flow, the Father's love "increasing" in us. And we are then able to express love in a purer, more G...

The Divine Potter    [ quatrain of interlocking rhyme and intentionally irregular iambic meter ] Held i’th’hands of the Heavenly Potter, He moulds every curve and fold in the clay.  Faulty grooves and dents are divinely purpos’d, Surely following the Potter’s perfect way.                 I was reading the famous Shakespearean tragedy Antony and Cleopatra last week as part of my English Lit course, and I came across the expression “accidents unpurposed” uttered by the tragic hero Antony in Act 4 as he referred to all the deeds of the past his noble subordinate Eros had done. All the things Eros had done in his life – all the things he had been through – these could all be called “accidents unpurposed” – random occurrences which have no higher meaning than as a trivial coincidence. I thought about all the things that have filled every day of every year each of us have ever liv...

And we are broken vessels. Broken , as we are far from perfect, far from exemplifying the righteousness of God. We are rebellious, sinful, lifting our souls to transient names and dilapidated fortresses that ironically will collapse. Vessels , as we have been given the incomprehensible and undervalued privilege to be used by God in this world. Our every breath is sustained by Him, and our every breath should be devoted to Him: Neither just in intellectual acknowledgement, nor simply in tongue-concocted declarations, but in action grounded in unshakable faith. We live subjected to a lovely paradox – that though to Him we are insignificant half-specks of dust, we are significant and (ever more astoundingly) set apart for a purpose in His Will. We are broken, yet we are honourably appointed as His vessels. Today many of us including myself are receptacles stocked with unnecessary contents, like tin cans of food that will never last, but will instead rot and mean nothin...

2015 ... 2016. Just a man-made demarcation of 366 days?  Big smile to end the year 2015!! It’s been a blessed year, from beginning to end. Saying goodbye to old friends and saying hello to new ones. Moving from Ipoh to KL, travelling to places I’d never been to before. Doing new things, experiencing new adventures, all with people I love. Highs, lows, ups, downs; God has kept me from stumbling to the point of not being able to pick myself up by His strength. Walking into the new year praying to be equipped with a heart of love, a spirit of faith, strength & courage from the Saviour alone. New years are about fresh starts and new beginnings. There are myriad things we can do to make 2016 a year that will close with “I’m happy with how the year went”. Whatever these things are and whichever we’ll focus most on, we have to remember: Life is so much more than just being comfortable with where we are now. Life is dynamic. It doesn't call for us to stay put and go stagnant. ...