How have you lived?

Today, I had a lunch with an old friend.  We had an interesting conversation, and we touched on how a colleague of hers turned health conscious and became a vegan.  She also paid to go on health camps and detoxifying exercises.  Her supervisor was a bit stumped on her willingness to pay good money for such activities.  His comment was “Everybody dies eventually.”

That got me thinking.  It is a fact that everybody dies eventually.  The difference is, how did you live?

Did you live just like everyone else, so that your dying was nothing, well, spectacular?  Just another person that passed on?  A shadow that slide across a dark alley?  The candle that never burned bright enough to light the room?

Will you live a boring life, or did you do something interesting?  Did you live just to earn today’s meal, or did you do something that you’re passionate about?  Did you live a life with integrity, honesty, honor, joy, happiness, care and love?  Or did you lived like the walking dead?

In the end, the difference is in the living.  You would have lived so that no one would want you to die.  Tall order?  How about, you would have lived, so that someone remembered that you died?

Chinese toothpaste found to contain a potentially deadly chemical

I read this news article about how a toothpaste made by a Chinese company contained diethylene glycol, which could be blamed for causing 51 deaths in Panama after mixing with cough syrup.

Quote:

Chen Yaozu, general manager of Danyang Chengshi Household Chemical Co., said his company had exported toothpaste to Panama containing diethylene glycol, a chemical blamed for the deaths of at least 51 people in the Central American country last year after it was mixed into cough syrup.

In the article, you can read “used as a low-cost substitute”, “permitted under Chinese rules and was safe in small amounts” and “export markets worth about US$30 billion (€22.2 billion) on alert”.

It is disturbing for a few points. Obviously a lot of manufacturers are using low-cost chemicals to manufacture low-cost products for the masses for the purpose of profits. The safety of chemicals that is acceptable is also questionable. In this instance, it was not safe for 51 people. The most disturbing point was that concerns are more focused on economic ramifications , and not humane concerns.

When are we going to wake up to the facts that the authorities’, the governments’ and the manufacturers’ primary concern is about the bottom line? When are we going to start taking responsibilities on deciding what goes into our mouths and on to our skin?

Read the full news article here.

You are your own life’s captain

A few weeks ago, I received an email that pierced my heart so deep and tortured me so agonisingly. In the end, I decided not to respond to it. But it still pains me, and writing about this is a release and a closure to this chapter.

I interpreted that email as patronising, accusary and a final cut to the strands of friendship that I thought we had.

My final thoughts on this, we are all captains of our own lives.

Unless we are forced, coerced, or against our will, we, as human beings, have the free will to choose the path to take. If your live became screwed up, upside down, inside out, you only have yourself to blame. Blaming others is the easy way out, our way of denying responsibilities and ownership.

We are our own captains of our lives. If we feel that we don’t have to live our lives for others, then we don’t have to. If we feel that’s the right way to go, then go for it. If we feel that’s the path not worth taking, then don’t take it. But if we decided to take that path, then we have to accept whatever that path has to offer as our own. If the offering is good, our path is then worth while. If the offering is bad, it’s God’s way of teaching us something.

Finally, using vulgarities just show how vulgar a captain we are.

Best lessons are the toughest.

I believe the best lessons that you can learn in life is actually about yourself. Your own flaws, short comings, how far you are from the next better person. Unfortunately, they are also the toughest lessons to learn.

For a start, there was constantly a teacher or a mentor to guide your way. Your parent was one. Your school teacher was one. Your seniors in school were probably one. Your supervisor was probably one if you are lucky. But you’ll notice that as you grew older, the teachers became further and fewer. Your own believes and personality, as they take shape, start getting in the way of your open acceptance to teaching.

Tough number one. The chinese say “江山易改，本性难移“, （translate: Rivers and mountains are easy to correct, own personality is difficult to shift.) . At this stage, life as the teacher takes over. If your resilence is strong and your stubborness is hard, then the tougher the lesson is going to be. Accept that there are some lessons in life that we have to learn, and if we don’t see how it’s not working in the natural order, then the lesson will be tough. Either we break early and feel the pain, or we realise very late and feel the pain for the time that passed us by.

Tough number two. If only you can see your own flaws. It is very difficult to see your own flaws, because you started off by believing that you are right in the first place. If you started otherwise, your openess to learn won’t set you up for the lesson. It is your closure due to your own believe that’s going to blind you.

Tough number three. You see your own flaws only when someone brings you a mirror. It’s always a bitter pill to swallow when it has to be someone to point out your flaws and you have to admit it. But that’s your pride getting in your way. It’s not so tough when humility is your first gear.

When you reach the stage in your life when you feel that there is no one else better to mentor you, that’s when you are up against yourself and life as the teacher. That’s where the toughest lessons are, and when you learn, you turn into a better person. There are no better lessons than that.

I end off with my mother’s advice.

“活到老，学到老” (translate: Live to an old age, learn to an old age.）. You stopped living when you stop learning.

A word of advise for success

As some would have known, I’m at a cross road in my life.  In a few months’ time, I’ll be moving on, for the better or worse, I wouldn’t know yet.

Someone asked me for some advise.  I said, “Work hard.”.

He said, “Wouldn’t Work Smart be better?”.

True, I agree.  Only if anyone knew how to work smart.  If I do not know how to work smart, that wouldn’t be very helpful, I argued.  If I do not know  how to work smart, that wouldn’t make much sense and would left me wondering.  If I never figured out, then I would spend a lot of time wondering and left out on working hard.  But if I did figure out how to work smart, that’s definitely good advise.

If anyone work in a thinking way, then working hard is definitely the way to working smart.  I would be thinking, “Wow, this is hard work!  Isn’t there a better way to do this?”.  Figure out a better way to do that, and I have figured out how to work smarter.

If anyone doesn’t work in a thinking way, well then working hard is definitely the way to survival and success.

There are rare cases of accidental successes in this world.  Most successes come from people who are trying to solve problems, who are trying to find a better way to do things.  A smarter way of doing things.  So if you are gunning for success, then work hard.  If you find yourself working too hard, then it’s time to find a smarter way to work.  If you do find one, then there are probably many others in need of the smarter way.

What a leader should…

There are lots of books on how to be a leader, what a leader should do, and many autobiographies on the lives of leaders. Most of them cover on how to motivate, how to gain respect, how to mentor, how to, essentially, lead.

But I have never come across one that says when to stop leading. Most books will tell you how to continue, how to strive on! In the midst of obstacles, no matter how tough it can get, strive on!

Is it possible to strive on forever without ever breaking? What if you are no longer able to? I believe leaders should also be able to see when they are no longer effective as a leader, and not possible to lead anymore. A leader should be able to raise above all, and recognise that it is time for someone better to take over, than to continue to lead the team to their demise. A leader should be able to acknowledge that and humbly step down so that the team can rise higher and further. But then, that won’t make him a leader anymore.

It could be that a leader can never break and fall. Someone that leads on and on, over the obstacles, the mountains, across the sky and the deep blue sea. The kind that will never understand limits, and never see limits within him. Do such people exist? For those leaders who never admitted to their limitations, is it true that they do not have limits within them? But if they did admit it, that would make them lesser beings.

For me as a lesser being, I can only say that I tried to be a leader.

Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?
There is more hope for a fool than for him.  Proverbs 26:12

Tongue – The savage in the last frontier

While preparing for Sunday School, I read this passage in preparation for the teachers and I humbly acknowledge that my tongue is still a savage.

There are many times that I regretted saying certain things and making certain actions.  Truly, the tongue can be an evil serpent when it slashes out mindlessly out of control and sting someone.

If I had stung you before, I ask for your forgiveness!  If I sting you in the future, I ask for your forgiveness!  Tell me that it hurts, so that I can learn to tame the savage.

Passage reproduced for the purpose of sharing:

The Last Frontier In You

(James 3:2, 7-9)

I have had the wonderful privilege of being in just about all of the United States. But one of the last I had the opportunity to visit was one of the most beautiful–Alaska. When I went there the first time, I was impressed with the motto on their license plates. It seemed pretty appropriate. “Alaska – The Last Frontier.” I can see why they say that. There are hundreds and thousands of miles of unpopulated expanse, abundant wildlife like including bears and moose and eagles, great untamed areas, even some untamed people. There’s a wildness that does make it the last frontier.

As a state, Alaska probably qualifies as the last frontier. But if you’re talking about the state people are in, well, Alaska, move over. The greatest untamed frontier on earth is identified in our word for today from the Word of God. It’s in James 3:2. “We all stumble in many ways,” God says. “If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man (or a complete man), able to keep his whole body in check.”

God says that when it come to the untamed areas of our personal lives, the tongue is the last frontier! He acknowledges that we stumble in many ways, but then He elevates controlling this one particular kind of sin to the position of Proof # 1 that a person is really grown up spiritually, proof that the Lordship of Christ is conquering the deepest corners of a person’s rebellious heart. That’s when his faith has reached “what he says.”

Listen to God’s description of the wildness of this frontier. James chapter 3 beginning in verse 7. “All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed…but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” Talk about a spiritual frontier!

Now, there are people who are doctrinally sound, sexually pure, financially honest, personally unselfish, busy for the Lord, but verbally untamed. If you want to graduate to real spiritual maturity, make your tongue a central issue in your commitment to Jesus Christ. This is the battle on which you focus all your spiritual weapons.

A tape of this past week would tell the story–that sarcasm that cut so deep, the criticism that diminished the reputation of someone who wasn’t even there, the put-down that made you feel bigger when it actually made you smaller, those angry words that wounded people you say you love, the negative talk that destroyed someone’s confidence, the double-meaning comments that polluted you and those who heard you. Unfortunately, the tape would tell the story. What we say is the greatest proof or disproof of all we say we have in Christ, and it’s the battle we must win.

If you can, in Christ, get control of your tongue, you can find the power to control any part of your life. It’s time you turned all the power of Jesus Christ on that last, untamed frontier–the one in your mouth!

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc. Permission to reproduce this material is automatically granted on the condition it will be used for non-commercial purposes, will not be sold, and will be distributed for the sole purpose of expanding the Gospel

End of cut-n-paste.

Why

I started a search on Python, and the first site shown up on the Google search was titled “What is Python, and Why Python”.

Ok, before anyone goes shaking his head over this late bloomer, at least I am getting started right?

But it strikes me that for everything that happens, or is done, there is a beginning with “Why”.

Why should we do this?  Why should we create something new?  What is the purpose?

Before we do anything, there should be a “Why”.  Rarely does something turn significant if it did not start off to tackle a “Why”.

In going down all the way to the beginning, why are you here?  What is the basis of your existence?  What is your purpose?

Past Stupidity or Present Learning?

Today my friend told me that the comment by Karin in the post on “Fireworks and my Nikon” was actually a spam… and I responded to it!

My friend: “Hahahaha! It was a spam and you wrote back thanking it.”

Hey, I was being polite. It shows that my upbringing was on the right path.

Me: “Ok lah, don’t rub salt into the wound already.”

My friend: “It’s ok, I responded to one before too.”

I am speechless… I guess it’s funny when something reminds us of our own stupid past.

That reminds me of a conversation that I was having with another friend in the morning. We were discussing about her son growing up, getting wiser and wanting to make his own decisions. She felt frustrated sometimes. I guess the frustration comes from a mum advising her son not to do something, and yet he insists on having his way.

So I said that it was part of learning process. Sometimes, we have to do something stupid, get burnt on the fingers and learn that we shouldn’t have done that.

Reminds me of the time when I was young and I needed to put a 2-pin plug into a 3-pin socket. As there was a safety lock in the 3-pin socket, I needed to push the top slot in before I could push in the 2-pin plug into the bottom 2 slots of the socket. I used a metal pin and stuck it into the top slot, and was electrocuted for a short 1 second or so. My mum who was on the phone, saw me froze and told her friend that she has to go because she thinks something’s happening to me. Fortunately, my fingers went laxed and the contact with the metal pin was dropped. I guess that saved my life.

Lesson learnt:

1. Never stick something metallic into a power socket.

2. Electricity flowing through the body has an interesting sensation, but can kill.

3. Making someone worry is irresponsible and they don’t find it fun. I was lucky to get away with a earful of scolding.

4. Once electricity flowed through the body, it doesn’t stay in the body. My brother came and said to wash my hands under the tap, because water can conduct electricity, so the residual electricity will be washed away. My mum scolded us for wasting the water, and went away muttering “Stupid!”. I guess she was still a bit shaken by the incident.

Learning is good. It makes us wiser. Just don’t get hurt in the process.

My bike has been stolen

My bike has been stolen today. *sob*

Upon returning from work, as we walked towards the bike stand, we saw the usual coupliedly chained bikes has become one. My heart sank, knowing that there was nothing else I could do. My wife’s bike has been widowed.

Why now? When I was in China and cycled for 1 year, my spiffy blue-coloured bike was never stolen. In a country where bike theft was rampant, it was a miracle.
As I walked slowly back home, my thoughts raged from cursing the thief to personal retribution to consoling by charity. Maybe that person was a needy person who really needed a bicycle and couldn’t afford one? But why my shiny chromed-coloured with red-and-black markings bike, with front and back suspensions? Why not that next grimy ah-pek (old man) bike? Maybe it’s retribution. It’s God’s way of payback time.

Yes, I stole before. When I was a small kid, with so little pocket money that I couldn’t afford those attractive and curious little things on sale. I remembered those little coloured paper clips that were so pretty and desirable, but I couldn’t afford each for 50 cents. I stoled 3, and regretted that act terribly. I resolved that from then on, if I wanted something badly enough, I’ll earn or pay for it.

So why do I have to be the victim? Have I stolen from other victims? I think so. Let me count the ways.

I stoled from the company when I am supposed to work but I did other things.

I stoled from a person’s trust when he trusted me to full fill what I promised, but I didn’t.
I stoled from death when I am supposed to be living, but lived like a walking dead.

I stoled from another person’s rights when I denied his rights and allowed him to live a lesser life.

There are other adjectives to describe the mentioned ways, but stealing because they are not rightfully yours in the first place.

Losing the bike doesn’t feel so bad now. If it’s retribution, then it seems like I didn’t stole that badly? We never will know until the next bigger pay-back time. I won’t be expecting that eagerly. Better to live more righteously for the universe that we are living in is a balanced one.

The Book of Proverbs in the Bible writes better than I do.