Off-mind

Please tell me all of your problems..
..so I don't have to think about my own.

Rain and rainbows

(Dedicated to you, Gee)

I should be grateful.

I am grateful.

I'm grateful for the opportunities that surround me.

I'm grateful for the opportunities that I was given, that I took, and experienced.

I'm grateful that I was given plentiful education, which expanded my horizons, and stirred up my passions, and revealed my potential.

I'm grateful I'm in Hong Kong, for freedom of speech & religion, for it's stable economy, stable public order, unrivaled metro system, and ever-expanding restaurant selection.

I'm grateful I have a rent-free home here in HK (where rent is one of the most expensive in the world).

I'm grateful that I have loving parents, who never once gave up in order to provide the best for me.

I'm grateful for the friends around me, who were my sources of joy, who shared my burdens, who lent me their patience, who were my lifesavers.

I'm choosing to look beyond the rain, and see the rainbows that come with it. OK, there might not always be rainbows, but it isn't always rainy either.

Still - I'm most grateful for my daddy G, who "delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14)

Stolen Thoughts

Psalm 13

¹ How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
...

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love;

my heart rejoices in your salvation.
⁶ I will sing the LORD’s praise,
for he has been good to me.

Colossians 3

¹ Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

For too long I have been stuck in that "Psalm 13:1" state of mind, like the writer David who, in the confusion of the moment, thought God had forgotten him. I have almost been indulging (or letting myself indulge) in that confusion and fear and hopelessness for too long that it was, and kind of still is, hard to come out of. My mind had been so focused on those "earthly things" - worrying about my career, about direction, about what I want to do and where I want to be.

But today's Daily Bread was a constructive first "fist in the face" of the battle against all that.

My life is, for sure, hidden with Christ in God.

What career I choose, what I want to do, how I want to do it...is essentially of minute importance and relevance compared to the hope of glory that I have in Christ Jesus!

Wishlist

New Zealand

Brazil

Peru

Chile

Greece

Tibet

Palau

Morocco

Egypt

India

Germany

via Larry

Re-bleeting (blog/tweeting) Larry's tweet

"Joy! Christ is more faithful and true than faulty feelings and evasive emotions. His salvation is eternal!"

Thanks.

Resource allocation

DEAR MANAGER PLEASE HIRE MORE PEOPLE YOU CANNOT MAKE AN A1 AND A B2 REPRODUCE WHAT WAS DONE BY A B1 AND A B3 LAST YEAR IT IS SIMPLY. NOT. POSSIBLE.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

It is the lack of it, which is the root of the problem.

This race was born without it.

You can beat them, drown them, bury them in mines, make them toil over building a 5500-mile long stone wall, ship them to foreign countries as slaves, conquer them, silence them, shoot them...they will not rise up. They will not protest. They will not make a sound.

And that's why when they take up positions of authority, they will in turn make their own people work 18 hours a day, make you work on weekends, toss you a pile of work and not teach you how to do it and then giving you sh*t for handing in something below their expectations, call you up on a holiday pushing you to hand-in work you said you will hand in.

It's all because they were never given any respect.

And therefore they don't know how to give any. And those underneath don't know how to speak for themselves and speak for their own rights. Because they don't know that they have any.

People here are driven by fear. They don't speak up because of fear. They will toil and slave away to meet expectations because of fear. And those at the top don't realise how suppressed and bitter those below are feeling because they don't let it show, and yet they manage to meet those expectations.

Perhaps it all boils down to history. The centuries of repression and war and hardship and turmoil has produced a tough, hardworking, thick-skinned race. For decades they have been torn apart and colonised by the west. Today, though not used and abused by foreign powers anymore, they suppress their own people.

It's time to rise up. But it probably won't happen. And that is why so many people leave this place eventually. Maybe it's my turn too.