enjoying nature

It's rare that I am free on a Saturday, but I was today since I had cancelled my weekend work for a boat trip that I ended up not able to go. So there I went, Long Beach. It was not too long ago that I went there, but it was very long ago that I let my bare feet feel the sea.

大步laam過

Whew, mom's apartment manager is proceeding with our application of a live-in aide. The application process was interrupted as the manager claimed another violation of regulation by the caregiver was caught. The manager informed me to expect a letter and I understood it could be the letter of eviction of the caregiver. An inspector (sent by the manager) went to check out mom's unit and living environment, met both mom and the caregiver, then called my sister. Sister explained. Building inspector said he'll come to inspect on a monthly basis.

We take it as a good sign that the caregiver will not be kicked out immediately. I've put her on RED alert.

Thank God.

fervent no more

Fervent no more? It may not be a bad thing. 熱誠不再，不一定是壞事。

There are times that we are so full of zeal to start something but enthusiam gets zapped along the way. Obstacles could come from many fronts. The experience of serving in a church group seems no different, as the path is not guaranteed any smoother.

Dave Harvey in Rescuing Ambition notes that, "There are certain kinds of entrenched pride that only failure uproots."

Goals may be great esteem boosters and even solid guideposts, but they also tell us something about ourselves: they reflect desires. Sometimes goals revea a heart that understands God's Word and is ambitiously reaching for ways to glorify God. At other times, goals are a monument to an exaggerated self-assessment.

Harvey also acknowledges that failure could be due to other factors like misjudging something, stupidity, or other forms.

Fervent no more? Perhaps the zeal has been transformed.

fasting involving my iPad

On Mondays no checking email until 3pm.

On other days no checking email until after quiet time with the Lord.


[I'm really not sure if I can do it ....]

random thoughts

感冒病，咳得有D厲害, 要快D好番, 否則下周 boat trip 大家都受罪。

Mom's manager is having a problem with mom's caregiver, and she threatens to kick her out of the building. I'm trying to see what God wants us to do in the situation.

9／27第一堂課，2 units, that should be ok.

總之都喺要跟從主

Mom's caretaker told me that one time after mom woke up from her sleep, she said she had an inspiration. (Actually, caretaker said mom often says she has inspirations.) Mom couldn't remember the detail of the inspiration but she said,"總之都喺要跟從主" (I need to follow the Lord.)

Awesome.

感謝

曾經有個小兄弟提醒我過生日可以 say thanks to my parents. 今年早有預備、付諸行動，感謝在我出生的那一天努力的媽咪！

正 中 下 懷

。。。的 禮 物。。。 讚！

mini-breakthru

God is always around me, but praying seems to make myself more aware of him being close by. Praying is definitely not going thru the laundry list; yet during the course of using the laundry list to make conversation with Him, a different "dialogue" emerges from the background to the foreground. When I tune to that other dialogue, the sense of God's presence is increasingly felt and the experience turns sweeter than before. I begin to understand why some people can spend so much praying.

good ambition, bad ambition

This is from my latest read of Dave Harvey's Rescuing Ambition, which is a great book and easy to read. In it he quotes from C.S.Lewis, one of my favorite authors:

Ambition! We must be careful what we mean by it. If it means the desire to get ahead of other people... then it is bad. If it means simply wanting to do a thing well, then it is good.... What we call "ambition" usually means the wish to be more conspicuous or more successful than someone else. It is this competitive element in it that is bad. It is perfectly reasonable to want to dance well or to look nice. But when the dominant wish is to dance better or look nicer than the others--when you begin to feel that if the others danced as well as you or looked as nice as you, that would take all the fun out of it--then you are going wrong.