Successful?

Abundantly blessed in my job with superiors who are objective, great working colleagues, big wide open spaces and lots of facilities in my working environment and in an office away from my boss :p , not to mention lots of friends who have proven to be there for me when I had been down and a recreation that I really enjoy, I praise and thank God that He has put me into an enviable position where I feel I have everything I desire, success from my POV.

If there is one challenge I have to learn to manage, it is the fact that work had gotten so much busier and had become so much more hectic that I don't seem to have time for anything except work and recreation.

Yet even in this fully blessed position, I'm counting the costs, costs that may have become too great to bear. My increased workload means that I am either napping or doing work on the MRT while on my way to work which had taken away my only quiet time for prayer, bible reading or time to catch up with friends via smses to find out how they are doing; I feel tired and have low energy all the time and though I feel care for my friends, it feels so much harder to get involved in their lives, find out how they are doing to pray for, care for and think of practical ways to help them.

Whatever I have, are all blessings for God and I'm fully thankful for them. Yet, I also start to realise, how the fuller meeting of our desires here on earth, can make us less aliens and more at home in, and more conforming to the values of this world. No wonder Jesus has said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." (Matt 19:24)! A verse though that ends with hope because he added, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matt 19:26)

May God grant me the wisdom and strength to make wise decisions so that I may live out the chief end of man - which is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.

Knowing You, Jesus...

Knowing You

Graham Kendrick

All I once held dear, built my life upon

All this world reveres, and wars to own

All I once thought gain, I have counted loss

Spent and worthless now, compared to this....

Singing this song in church made me reflect upon my changed values once I've known Him, and to marvel at the person that I am now that I am in Him. The things that I once run after, that would make the foundations, that I once chased after in life - that one love, wealth, ideal family, model and talented children, popular and sought-after friends - all these things were the things that I've hungered for and that I strive to obtain.

The world would probably look at me as a sad failure - an aging, single woman with no potentials hanging in the horizon or much wealth to boast about. And many years ago, as a person with worldly values, that would probably have been an anxiety, an obsession, the dark cloud hanging over my life. But as I remember the God who save me, the Friend who loved me and the Man who had wooed me and won my eternal soul, I have nothing but joy and thanksgiving for the:

- treasure that no eye has seen, and no ear has heard, and no mind has ever conceived

- inheritance that is everlasting and that will not pass even if man and his glory shall pass away

- joy He has set before me, when one day He will wipe the tears from my eyes of every wrong I have to endure and every persecution that was thrown my way.

I already have everything I need for life.

And that is why, I can sing with my whole heart:

Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You
There is no greater thing
You're my all, you're the best
You're my life my righteousness
And I love You Lord....