Be fair to yourself

 

pearlie

My family, my world

Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten. 

~ David Ogden Stiers

I'm every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future. 

~ Alex Haley

A happy family is but an earlier heaven. 

~ George Bernard Shaw

I think togetherness is a very important ingredient to family life. 

~ Barbara Bush

A family can develop only with a loving woman as its center. 

~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

A family is a place where principles are hammered and honed on the anvil of everyday living. 

~ Charles R. Swindoll

pearlie 

An excellent read: The Book Thief

The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak

I have finished reading The Book Thief and I absolutely loved it. I have not read such a good book in a long time.

The book is about living amidst dying. It's about the suffering and the joys of life. It's really a book about the paradox of life, as told by death. 

And I like the way Markus Zusak write, the way he brings life into words. Read these and you'll know what I mean. Such beauty in words. 

Eventually, Liesel Meminger walked gingerly inside. Hans Hubermann had her by one hand. Her small suitcase had her by the other.

Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness. 

"My heart is so tired," the girl had said. 

The consequence of this is that I'm always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both

In years to come, he would be a giver of bread, not a stealer - proof again of the contradictory human being. So much good, so much evil. Just add water.

I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I ever simply estimate it.

The words were on their way, and when they arrived, she would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain.

pearlie

Time wasted

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. 

~ Bertrand Russell

A day wasted on others is not wasted on one's self. 

~ Charles Dickens

I have wasted my hours. 

~ Leonardo da Vinci

When you kill time, remember that it has no ressurrection.  

~ A.W. Tozer

pearlie

Writing and Thinking

Good writing is clear thinking made visible.

~ Bill Wheeler

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. 

~ Benjamin Franklin

Was it only by dreaming or writing that I could find out what I thought?

~ Joan Didion 

Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better. 

~ Herman Hesse 

If you really want to know yourself, start by writing a book. 

~ Shereen El Feki

Wiring is the most fun you can have my yourself. 

~ Terry Pratchet 

Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers. 

~ Isaac Asimov 

pearlie

Miracles of the Human Language

I was researching for some online language courses for work purpose when I found this very interesting course in Coursera - Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics by Universiteit Leiden & Meertens instituut. 

I don't know much about linguistics but languages fascinates me and so I signed up. Classes have already begun but thankfully just over the week and felt I could easily catch up, which I did. I started two days ago and finished all the video lectures and discussion questions yesterday. I completed the test today, though there are still two nagging questions which I could not figure out the answers to, even after many attempts. 

I learnt that language is a very unique human activity and for a language to be a true language, it needs to fulfil three characteristics:

1. Discrete infinity - the ability to produce an infinite number of phrases and sentences using a finite and discrete system like the English alphabet of 26 letters
2. Displacement - the ability to talk about things out of time and space
3. Joint attention - the ability to cooperate when we speak to each other, to understand and add on to the conversation

But there were two questions that linguists ask which they keep saying that they do not have an answer to, which to me, being a creationist and a Christian have no problems answering: when and where did language originate from? God created us with a language; and if language is so important to humanity, why is there so many different languages? The tower of Babel obviously. 

They certainly would not agree but to me those are plain facts. And as what Dallas Willard has said, "We live in a culture that has, for centuries now, cultivated the idea that the skeptical person is always smarter than than the one who believes. You can almost be as stupid as a cabbage as long as you doubt."

And what is interesting is this: in wanting to load a picture here, I went to Coursera to see what was used for this course. Isn't it an irony that they have used the picture of an oil painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder entitled The Tower of Babel (c.1563)?

pearlie

Is it for me or for God?

The topic of motives came up in yesterday's sermon which my friend Ee-Tan and I discussed a little in relation to our service to God in our singing and worship leading. 

I always see it as a very, very fine line - do I sing to serve God or do I sing to perform? Am I doing it all with the right motive? 

I am often in that dilemma - is it for me or for God? Or can it be both? Maybe having that very dilemma is a good beginning. 

I don't know. I am still struggling with that question every time I go up onto the chancel to lead in worship, to sing the anthem either by myself, with others or with my choral group. 

Of course I want to make sure that I sing well so that the songs will be well-ministered to the people. I will be doing a disservice if I sing in an awful way without proper techniques, same as no one plays the piano in church if they can't play it at all. 

I like what my choral director Joanna said to us once: we should train ourselves to the point that when we sing, the people do not "hear us" at all but only hear the song and be ministered by it. It means that we should sing so well that people will not get distracted by our singing but are focused on God through the music. The focus is of course God, not us. 

It's like when we listen to radio, no one, except maybe the vocal pedagogy, would think much about how the song is sung but what and why the song is being sung. 

So in relation to my motives in singing in church, I will continue to train and improve in my singing technique but I also need to daily commit what I do and what I sing to God, that when I sing, my mind should be focused on both producing a good sound--nothing wrong with that--and in centering what I am doing in God as worship. 

So can I say then that it is both for me and for God? For me in terms of the effort and for God in terms of my worship of him.

Pastor mentioned Dallas Willard yesterday as one who cleared the confusion about effort and works. Maybe I can't apply it directly here but I like what Willard said: Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.  Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone. 

So in my effort to produce a good sound when I sing, it's the action that I do that should not become an attitude of pride, of what I can do, but as an offering to God in music and worship. 

It's tough, but not impossible. 

pearlie

Being home

Two quote-days in a row, how so? Well, as Jorge Luis Borges had said and I quote, "Life itself is a quotation."

If you go anywhere, even paradise, you will miss your home. 

~ Malala Yousafzai

He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home. 

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Home is the nicest word there is.

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

The home should be the treasure chest of living. 

~ Le Corbusier

Nothing can bring a real sense of security into the home except true love. 

~ Billy Graham

Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need. 

~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

But...

My home is Heaven. I'm just traveling through this world. 

~ Billy Graham

Home interprets heaven. Home is heaven for beginners. 

~ Charles Henry Parkhurst

Home is where one starts from. 

~ T.S. Elliot

pearlie

If ever you feel useless

Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless. 

~ Thomas Edison

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else. 

~ Charles Dickens

It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing. 

~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. 

~ Paul, 2 Corinthians 1:21-22

pearlie

Taking it all out of context

I was at lunch when someone partly quoted Matt 7:7, "ask and it shall be given", without realizing that it is from the bible, and was taking it out of context. 

I then realised that quotations taken from famous people may also be taken out of context. I suppose people in general would freely take quotations to be applied in whatever ways that are suitable and relevant to them. And I'm sure the originator of the statements quoted would mind their words being taken out of context.

Christians, particularly bible scholars and theologians, as we all should be, take the context of bible verses very seriously and we would not misinterpret them as we please. We read them in immediate context of the passage and in overall context with the whole of Scripture. 

We must not take bible verses in isolation and interpret them as we like. If we do that, we can take the Word of God to mean anything we please and that we must avoid. The intention of a writer of any books or of a speaker of any speeches is very important. If I say or write something, I am intending it to mean what I intend it to mean, not as what you would want it to mean as you please. More importantly for the Bible when it carries the gospel, a life giving message. 

Dr James Davis of Bible.org says, "When it comes to making claims about what the Bible means, sometimes we hear comments from Christians or non-Christians like the following: “Well, that’s just your interpretation.” “The Bible can be made to say anything you want.” “You can’t really understand the Bible. It is full of contradictions.” “No one can understand the true meaning of anything anyone says.” Or, someone sitting in a Bible study might say, “This is what the Bible means to me.”"

So how are we to know what the bible is really saying?Some verses are very commonly taken out of context. One of them is definitely Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." If you read it with its previous verse, you will see that Paul was talking about the immense suffering he was facing and with that, we cannot apply it to ourselves so freely. 

Paul said, "I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:12-13)

Davis gives 7 principle of biblical interpretation. Do you agree with them? Check it out here for the details. 

Principle 1: Interpretation must be based on the author’s intention of meaning and not the reader.

Principle 2: Interpretations must be done in the context of the passage.

Principle 3: Interpret the Bible literally (or normally) allowing for normal use of figurative language.

Principle 4: Use the Bible to help interpret itself.

Principle 5: Interpretation must be distinguished from application.

Principle 6: Be sensitive to distinctions betweenIsrael and the church and Old Covenant and New Covenant eras/requirements.

Principle 7: Be sensitive to the type of literature 

pearlie

Given up?

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of being yourself. 

~ Anna Quindlan

You cry and you scream and you stomp your feet and you shout. And you say, "You know what? I'm giving up, I don't care." And then you go to bed and you wake up, and it's a brand new day, and you pick yourself back up again. 

~ Nicole Scherzinger

Giving up is conceding that things will never get better, and that is just not true. Ups and downs are a constant in life, and I've been belted into that roller coaster a thousand times. 

~ Aimee Mullins

Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent. 

~ Marilyn vos Savant

pearlie

Sometimes you just got to let go

I realize there’s something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they’re experts at letting things go.

- Jeffrey McDaniel 

Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny. 

- Steve Maraboli  

There’s a trick to the Graceful Exit. It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over – and to let go. It means leaving what’s over without denying its value. 

- Ellen Goodman  

I’m guilty of giving people more chances than they deserve but when I’m done, I’m done. 

- Turcois Ominek  

The best skill at cards is knowing when to discard. 

- Baltasar Gracián

If you only knew how to respect my heart, I wouldn’t have found a reason to let you go. 

- Jourdane Erasquin

pearlie

Blissful Weekend

I had a lovely weekend of cooking and eating and TV. Bliss!

I made dry curry chicken and watched the entire season 1 of Fresh Off the Boat. Totally hilarious. I then started watching Mr Selfridge. Very interesting series. 

And why does this blogpost sound like a Facebook post. Looks like I have finally been Facebooked. Bad. 

pearlie

I'm thoroughly exhausted

He who talks more is sooner exhausted. 

~ Lao Tzu

I was giving training at work today. They are a happy bunch of people to train and they were a delight but I was so exhausted right now. Maybe like what Lao Tzu said, I have talked too much. However, I think he meant it differently!

I am exhausted nonetheless like I have never before. I don't know why. Just hoping I won't end up having weeds growing on my...in my head. 

On an exhausted field, only weeds grow. 

~ Henryk Sienkiewicz

pearlie

The still small voice

It has been awhile since I've settled down to read a book. There is just too many things happening at the moment that I could not find the time and when I do, I am just too exhausted.

I am still reading Dallas Willard's Hearing God but I have begun to love and appreciate Proverbs 20:27, and what Willard wrote about the still small voice, being one of the ways how God speaks to us. He said,

The final means through which God addresses us is our own spirits—our own thoughts and feelings toward ourselves as well as toward events and people around us. This, I believe, is the primary subjective way that God addresses us. Of all the ways in which a message comes from within the experience of the person addressed (such as dreams and visions or other mental states), the form of one’s own thoughts and attendant feelings is the most common path for hearing God for those who are living in harmony with God. Of all the possible subjective routes, this mode is best suited to the redemptive purposes of God because, once again, it most engages the faculties of free, intelligent beings involved in the work of God as his colaborers and friends.

Thus the familiar King James Version of Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.” This is possibly better put in the Jerusalem Bible: “Man’s spirit is the lamp of Yahweh, searching his deepest self.”

In a passage of great importance to our exploration here, the apostle Paul makes a comparison between humans and God regarding self-knowledge: “For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 2:11). Paul then points out that we have received the Spirit of God and concludes that we can therefore search out and know the very mind of God by means of his Spirit—in contrast to the proverb quoted earlier, which emphasizes the Lord’s use of our spirit. After quoting the question from Isaiah 40:13, “Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has instructed him?” the apostle replies, “But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16).

So God uses our self-knowledge or self-awareness, which is heightened and given a special quality by his presence and direction, to search us out and reveal to us the truth about ourselves and our world. And we are able to use his knowledge of himself—made available to us in Christ and the Scriptures—to understand in some measure his thoughts and intentions toward us and to help us see his workings in our world.

pearlie
Source: Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God, IVP, 2012.

The Profundity of Sadness

I don't feel too well lately, both physically and emotionally. Nothing to it though, just the periodic ailment I get once in awhile. I found these quotations quite profound nonetheless. 

Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness. 

~ Jonathan Safran Foer

The longer and more carefully we look at a funny story, the sadder it becomes.

~ Nikolai Gogol

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.

~ Oscar Wilde

There are moments when I wish I could roll back the clock and take all the sadness away, but I have the feeling that if I did, the joy would be gone as well.

~ Nicholas Sparks

I do not believe anyone can be perfectly well, who has a brain and a heart

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

pearlie

Solitude and Loneliness

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.
~ Mother Teresa

Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.
~ Paul Tillich

We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.
~ Albert Schweitzer

Friendship needs no words - it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness.
~ Dag Hammarskjöld

Loneliness was the first thing that God's eye named not good.
~ John Milton

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever.
~ John 14:16

pearlie

Feeling oh so lazy

Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.
~ Jules Renard

Periods of wholesome laziness, after days of energetic efforts, will wonderfully tone up the mind and body.
~ Granville Kleiser

I like the word 'indolence'. It makes my laziness seem classy.
~ Bernard Williams

pearlie

Life's ups and downs

Life as we know it, with all its ups and downs, will soon be over. We all will give an accounting to God of how we have lived.
~ William Wilberforce

Life is not linear; you have ups and downs. It's how you deal with the troughs that defines you.
~ Michael Lee-Chin

My life is about ups and downs, great joys and great losses.
~ Isabel Allende

When you win a lot, you don't learn much. With my ups and downs, it's a lot of learning.
~ Tina Maze

I think that as you get older, you mellow out a lot more. Having been through the ups and downs in life, I feel more qualified to play the blues.
~ Mick Ralphs

pearlie

Nonsensical Quote?

I am still using the Askt app. It's an app that gives you a question a day for you to ponder on. The question I got recently was this: what is a quote for the day?

And I did have one, and I came up with it in a conversation with my husband. But I'm not sure if it make sense. He said it doesn't.

What's best for you may not be good for you.

What do you think?

pearlie