Friday, December 14. 2007One Last Donut
I was reading this book that I've read several times before. With each read, I learn something profound.
This time I learned what it means about not trusting God. When you do not trust someone, you constantly breathe over their shoulders to check on them. You are not sure if they will do what they are expected to do - be it their jobs or their role as a faithful spouse or life partner. So it is with God. When we commit something to Him in prayer and still worry about it, it shows our lack of trust in Him. For me, I have absolutely no doubts to His abilities. God is a great God, capable of moving the highest mountains and calming the stormiest of seas. My trust problem lies in whether or not God cares enough to do anything about it. I do sometimes ask God if He has forgotten where I live. Did the opportunity that was supposed to arrive somehow got lost in the traffic? But reading that book reminded me that a life that lacks trust in my Maker is not a life that is good to live. What kind of life is it when I have to constantly battle with anxiety, perennial worries that I may have missed out on something good and resentment that all the good things have gone to other more aggressive creatures and I am left with unappealing leftovers? Today, I went out with two lovely friends to Aeon, Bukit Tinggi, Klang for some shopping and eating. "I must make a stop at Big Apple Donuts," I told my friends solemnly. "I need to get just one Whit Nut donut." With all the eating and shopping, I only managed to make my way to my favorite donut shop five minutes before their closing time. By then, they had stopped baking and were just clearing out the last of their donuts. But I spotted a single white donut with chocolate etchings on it gleaming from afar. "Miss, I'm afraid we only have one Whit Nut donut available and some plain ones," the cashier said apologetically. I blinked in amazement. Of all the variety of flavors available, the one flavor I truly wanted remained. I gave him a huge grin and nodded. "That's perfectly alright! Give me that one Whit Nut donut please." And not a minute too soon, for just behind me came a family who ordered every single one of the remaining donuts. I held my precious donut and walked out with a renewed sense of wonderment and trust that God will provide what I need when I need it. 
Saturday, August 11. 2007RevelationsOk, I spoke too soon. Was ill today due to dehydration and rested at home. But at least I wasn't down while the project was going on. So, yaay Had ample time to catch up on my reading and reflection. One of the revelations I had today was that no matter how close I think I am to a person, there are still many, many facets of the person that I do not know. Therefore I cannot assume I know where they are coming from. And to always practice reflective listening. A case in point - in my family, when it comes to food, we pretty much eat what we want when we go out. If someone doesn't want to partake the main dishes on the table, he can always order something else on the menu. So when a group of friends wanted to eat steamboat and I didn't feel like steamboat that day, I told them to go ahead and order steamboat while I get something else from the menu. To my amazement, they quickly discarded their plans to eat steamboat and we ended somewhere else, despite my protests that I'm totally ok with watching them eat steamboat. I was sure that the restaurant had other things on their menu. I felt rather weird about the whole thing. But upon reflection, I guess in my friends' families, they probably make it a point to ensure that everyone will enjoy the main course TOGETHER. So the next time I join that particular group of friends for makan, I better eat what they are eating or just meet them for drinks later. And to add icing to the cake, a close friend got the revelation that God put us together because we have specific weaknesses that rub on each others' nerves. This is so that we know we are not so great after all and still have things to deal with. When this person shared this with me today, we burst out laughing. Nothing like God's brand of humor to put the spark back on a good friendship. All in all, it has been a great day. Flu and all  Photo Credits Friday, June 22. 2007Smooth Drivin' MF had free tickets for Electric Beckett courtesy of her company. Early last week she asked me if I wanted to go along. An evening with a close pal and free show tickets is a potent combination. But there's also the perennial evening rain fall and resulting KL traffic jams to consider. "Hey, thanks! I'm gamed to go but we must pray for good weather and smooth traffic," I said. "Ya, must pray hard," she agreed. I can hazily recall that I prayed for that - probably dedicated a half-sentence or for it. Well, at least I wasn't the only one praying for it. I felt assured that if there was anything lacking there, MF can take up on the slack. That's why it's always good to have at least one other person to pray for the same matter. The backup principle in action. And so yesterday finally came about. Together with it came ominuous looking dark clouds and pouring rain. As if that wasn't enough, flashes of lightning graced the stormy skies. Thunder cracked sending shivers down my yellow spine. "Wei, you did pray, didn't you?" MF looked at me suspiciously when she arrived at my office, half-wet from the pouring rain. "I did! Well... it was approximately half a sentence but surely that still counts as a prayer," I replied feeling a slight shade of guilt. We looked at the unpromising skies and the bad jam at the crossroad in front of my office with dismay in our eyes. But determination and sheer reckless faith filled our hearts. "Haiya, let's go anyway. Just hope we make it in good time," I said and we made a mad dash to my car. Soon we were on our merry way to the Sprint highway. A strange sight greeted us. Smooth flowing traffic. At rush hour. In the pouring rain. We felt almost giddy and lightheaded with relief. It got stranger as we cruised along the highway towards Sentul West. There was not a single car within my line of sight at all. We were there in less than 20 minutes! We had so much time to dawdle and yak over dinner and even had a nice bout of paper shopping at a nearby stationery shop. I must have prayed for smooth traffic in my half-sentence prayer. Thursday, June 14. 2007What's In A Name? A cat on the outside, a lion in the innards Josh shared with me a list of popular baby names in 2006. He was tickled that his name was #3 on the list. It only goes to show that his is a common name The conversation then took a nostalgic turn. He asked me about the meaning of my name. I used to run a daily email encouragement group where I would send inspiring and encouraging articles that I read to people who subscribe to it. At the height of it, about 60+ people were on the group. Now it's 47 - which is quite amazing for a group that has not been active in a while. I remembered sending a notice to this group circa 2000 announcing the change of my name to Ariel. And to my delight, I managed to locate it in that online email group. The very words I wrote so long ago is now speaking volumes to my heart. I feel very much lifted and encouraged to continue on bearing my name proudly. Here's the mail from near-Christmas past: Dear Friends, Thanks, Josh for inspiring me to take a trip down memory lane in search for the roots of my name Photo credits Wednesday, January 10. 2007The Verdict |
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Ariel is surrounded by amazing, loving folks. So what if there's a fly outside the window with an irritating buzz? Pfffftt :PMenuQuicksearchMisc
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