the Christmas spirit of Giving

So its the Christmas holidays and everyone is shopping, giving, serving and helping left right and centre. People like giving food to local charities, giving food to the poor and homeless and good stuff like that. Walking around Toronto, you can definitely see that stuff on Christmas eve.

The question is... have you really thought about why you give? What motivates you to help others who need it?

Is it because you want to do a good deed this Christmas? or you have extra change lying around the house that you can spare? Or are you required to give that 10% tithing at the end of the year? Or maybe its just the Christmas spirit pushing you to give to others.

For me, because i feel like ive been so blessed in my life, i cant help but want to give back. I mean, ive done nothing to deserve anything that I have and gone through, but yet, im here and im living out my life with all the things ive been blessed with. I remember a pastor saying that We are blessed to be blessed in this world. Which means that God has blessed us so greatly that we can in turn use this blessing and go out and bless others through our good works, through how we live our lives, through kindness and compassion.

There are many things we can give... not just material goods. We can take a couple hours out of our life give out hot chocolate to the homeless people, to have a coffee and chat with someone who could use someone to talk to, maybe even a little smile will make someone's day or a simple thank you.

I always like to say... and ive seen this in action.. that something small to you may be a huge blessing for another person... so the challenge here is to reflect on why do YOU give? Look deep down inside and think about why you actually give and not just say because it feels good to give... why does it feel good to give? I believe that in order to help ourselves grow, we need to constantly challenge ourselves and ask why and take some time out of our busy schedules to reflect. To reflect about our past, our experience, our "stories" and think about things like how we became a person who likes to give. And maybe after you read this blog... go out and do small good deed... even saying merry christmas or give an encouraging quote or your favourite passage to a friend (since christmas day is almost over ... its 9 30 pm) and see how it goes for you and if you re lucky, you'll see if it brightens up that person's day

the B-I-G 21!

Sooooooo how does it feel to be 21? some people may ask.... well right now.. im studying for my finals, so i dont think its going to sink in until after i finish my finals (dec 22nd)... let the countdown begin.

So far, even though my exams are taking up most of my life these days, turning 21 aint too bad. On saturday, me and my roomates featuring WAYNE YIPPERS went out for dinner at Oliver and Bonacini. Newly opened at conestoga mall. I had sesame salmon with a bunch of side stuff like green mango and some fried noodle things as you see in this picture.



Over all it was pretty good, a little on the pricey side, but once in a while or for special occasions, not too bad.....
Then my roomates got me an apple pie tart sort of thing as you see in this picture


Now this was really good.. haha and i like deserts a lot! I would definately recommend this one for people who want to eat there.

On the 14th.. i spent the day studyingg with the froshies featuring derek ma, tyler, Matt and rosanne. Good timess in that study room.... people leaving their laptops unlocked... lots of changing of statuses and commenting andd not studying... i actually got quite a bit done though haha. But yea.. jasmine brought in her cake for her bday and shared it with us. It was Marble slab cookie dough ice cream cake!! yumm.... Right before i left to go home to get caked (i knew it was coming.. after 3 years of hanging out with them) the froshies sang happy bday for me! THankkkssss FROSHIES.

And then i went home... opened the door.. and my roomatess sang happy bday for me.. i checked anna's hand to see if there was cake ready to cake me... and i didnt see anything... then i blew out my candles.. and then grace and karina caked me.... i was really surprisedd.. thennn anna full Cake slapped me haha.. good times.. as you can see in THIS picture...soo i technically got caked 3 times... except all at the same time.. and my face smelled like cake for the rest of the night haha.






Good times for sure... so even though i was stuck studying ... i had a pretty good 21st bday. Looking back... God has blessed me with soo much... i could list it all right here in this blog.. but then you readers would stop reading cause it would take days (ok...maybe im exaggerating just a bit)

But one thing i feel really blessed about is.. all the friends and brothers and sisters in christ that God has surrounded me with. All the support, all the things ive learned, all the things ive been through, whether good or bad... ive had a really good group of friends around me, so at this very moment i feel very very very X1000000000000000000000000000000 blessed for my friends and of course family.. i cant forget family... they raised me the way i am today... but i'll stop at that before i start listing a million things that im thankful for..

PS... did i tell you my roomates got me an IPOD... blessed FO SHOO
PPS... Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!

The hard part is reaching out

During the past 2 months, God has really put something in my heart. Especially at the 2009 fall retreat, the speaker asked... how many people did you tell about God in your lifetime? I thought about my grand total of 20 years of when i first started breathing and i looked down at my hand and lets just say i failed the test and im not even talking about Asian standards! I mean we were called to share the gospel with people and i dont think ive even done much in that department.

This brings in Evangelism to the picture. When people think of evangelism, people think of someone standing out on the busy streets of Toronto and just shouting out stuff about God. I guess it is one method, but like many other christians, im not brave enough to go out and do that. I dont think i'll be doing that anytime soon either, but there are other methods of evangelism and easier ones at that. Something as simple as sharing your testimony and experiences and praying for them or inviting a friend out to a fellowship or church event that he/she might be interested in, or even using youtube, to show a friend a video of a sermon that you find interesting or even funny. These are pretty simple things to do to get anyone thinking about who Jesus is and why do i put all my trust and faith in God.

Another method that a lot of Christians dont think about when it comes to evangelism is living a life comparable to that of Jesus. I know some skeptics might say that we are all sinners and we can never compare ourselves to Jesus, but why not try our best to? Isnt that what God wants us to do? Surely your friends, whether christian or non christian will see how you re living your life and they notice all the small things that you do. Some things i can think of are devoting some time to God through prayer or reading the bible, showing forgiveness, showing love and compassion for others, showing patience, joy, self control, gentleness, kindness (Galatians 5), listening to a friend who is in need of comfort and just in general, living a life where you are able to shine the goodness and joys of God onto the people around you. Im not saying that I perfectly carry out this type of life.. haha i dont think i would be human if i did, but what we can do is try our best to be like this.

In the best case scenario, if one of my friends were to see this and ask about God, i would surely tell him/her about how greatly ive been blessed by God even though i dont deserve it and why ive put all trust in God (life experiences). But how many people actually come up to you ask right?

From what i know of myself, i dont think im good at evangelism at all, but you have to start somewhere right?

Blogging

So this is the first time i've ever written a blog. It kinda seems like a place to vent out what you re thinking at this very moment or maybe something good that has happened and you just want to share with people. In any case, this is my first time writing one and hopefully people will take some time to read it!

So what made feel like blogging? Its actually a bunch of things. One is that i think of things in my head and then i forget it like 5 minutes later. But recently, i felt really encouraged to start figuring out my story. When i say story, I mean my life, my experiences and what made me who i am today. This is an idea taken from a speaker, Jeremy Tao. He said that God shows us our purpose in life through little clues hidden in our stories, our experiences, our DEFINING MOMENTS. As soon as i heard that, I looked back even just briefly in the last couple months and that concept just WOWed me. I mean I am who I am today by my experiences in the past and all the things that God has thrown my way. Whether good experiences, bad experiences, trials, life changing retreats, going to church, going to retreats, all these decisions ive made in my life and what Ive done with what I have learned is what makes me, me.

So i think i want to start blogging mainly because i want to start keeping a track of things that i go through or things that i am thinking about at this moment and in the future, I can look back and read these blogs and realize how much God has really done for me during my lifetime.

I felt challenged to start writing down my story from the very beginning when God opened my eyes, through all these past years ive felt so blessed. The only problem is, i like to keep myself busy by going out or just finding something random to do or watch a movie and I have a hard putting time away for God and even for myself, so i guess in a way this will help me not be somewhat lazy.... hopefully.

Its funny when i think about it, if you would ask me 2 years ago if I could see myself writing a blog, i would say no for sure. That also goes with a lot of things ive done in life, like leading a devotional group during a retreat, leading worship (as in the guy with the mic in the middle doing all the talking), becoming the frosh cell leader, being involved in a discipleship group (DG) or even starting my own DG. All these things, when I look back, I would not have done if I you were to ask me about it in the past couple years.. even in the past year. I ve changed so much since last year and i feel like ive grown so much even in the past 10 months. And all that growing happened because God threw all those experiences, stories, and DEFINING MOMENTS at me. Whether good or bad, Im glad God put me through these things and I see my life shaping up to be something pretty awesome, well to me anyways.

But the past is the past and what people really worry about is the future. Especially being a university student, I can tell you that first hand, its not fun not knowing what is going to happen in the near future career wise. I mean im fortunate to know what I want to do, but getting there and getting in is the struggle for me at this moment. Ive heard of the saying "Fear is because of the unknown". But this verse has been keeping me going since my second year of university when i was all jumbled up between med school, optometry school, nuclear medicine, research, chiropractic college, "In a man's heart, he chooses his course, but God determines his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). So whatever happens to me, whether i get in or not, its up to God. This doesnt mean that i just sit here and wait for God to give me an acceptance letter. It means that Im going to try my best to get into what I want (my course), but ultimately, whether or not the admissions person screws up my application (Almost happened... long story), whether or not my reference letter is sent-in in time before the deadline (another long story), whether or not the admissions people see me as a future optometrist, all these things, ive put in God's hands. Ive done my part and the rest is not in my hands and I am giving it up to God to choose the steps that I will hope to lead to the desires of my heart. For those who dont know, i am applying to optometry school and i have my interview this weekend. Wish me luck! I think i'll stop now before people say.. mann this blog is too long to read haha until next time!