Perhaps luck exsists somewhere between the world of planning, the world of chance, and the peace that comes from knowing that u just cant know it all.

I watched an interesting movie last night. “Little Black Book”, movie came out about 5 years ago but I’ve only heard of it when I decided to randomly pick a movie off the rental shelf a few days ago. Looking at the cover and reading the synopsis, no doubt you’ll know it’s a chick flick but I found it quite entertaining and actually, has a lot of good thoughtful quotes.

I’ll try not to spoil the movie for those who are wanting to watch it, but I’ll mention a quick summary. Stacy, the main character is going through life trying to follow her own plans and expectations, the right guy, the right job, etc. When the mention of an ex girlfriend came up while talking to her boyfriend, her insecurity kicked in and when Derek, the boyfriend, was out of town… she decided to get in touch with his previous girlfriends and do a little research. As the movie would say: “look under the hood before you buy a car”. I’ll leave it at that, but spoiler… as many of you can probably guess, it gets out of hand.

I found it quite entertaining due to the fact that it portrays so well the personality of men and women. In general, women are very curious creatures, detail oriented, and wants to know everything… which unfortunately, we hurt ourselves in the end from knowing too much, worrying, doubting and then starting unnessary fights. We think Omission is betrayal. Just for that reason, men believe that what you don’t know won’t hurt you, ignorance is bliss and if somethings not important, its not nessesary to mention it. “Knowledge is a terrible and marvelous thing.” God definitely has a sense of humor to wire us the way we are.

Male and female differences aside. This movie talks a lot about plans, expectations, luck, changes and life in general. Some of us perhaps leave life to chance, whatever happen happens, go with the flow. I, personally, believe that God’s got all my plans set, whichever way I accidently drive down, He will find a way to bring me back. It makes me ponder whether it’s better to have high expectations and plans for our life or not? Pros and Cons. Eitherway, also be ready to be disappointed when it doesn’t work out the way you had always dreamt it will.

Not sure where I was going with this post,
but here are a few more quotes from the movie that I enjoy reading…..

• John Lennon said Life happens when you’re busy makng other plans
• You know, life’s funny that way. Once you let go of the wheel, you might end up right where you belong.
• I believe we write our own stories and each time we think we know the end… we don’t.

And that’s the end of  my jabber post for the day.

For my own reminder, I like to write down a few points and messages that I recieve during church. It helps me rethink everything through in a timely manner… so here it is. I hope you can be encouraged by it in some way or another.

We went through the Book of 3 John two weeks ago. it’s the shortest book in the bible if you count by words. The book of 3  John teaches us to imitate the good instead of evil. First of all in 3 John:4 we are reminded to Seek First the Kingdom of God and everything else comes second. “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” You can seem and pretend to be the most Godly person, performing Godly acts but none of that brings as much joy to God as Seeking Him and His Kingdom.

Gaius vs Diotrephes. Gaius was faithful in helping those in the church, despite whether he knew them or not. Diotrephes is an example of a heart that has gone astray. “…Diotrephes, who likes to put himeslf first…” he was quick to discern and judge. Worst of all, he did not have a heart of teachability. With that being said, many of us are teachable but only to specific people. The test of your bandwidth is who you are willing to listen to, and who can speak into your life. Sometimes God will bring a message to us in the most unlikely, discerning, uncommon way and therefore He can bring a message to us through our enemies, through uncomfortable situations.

This past Sunday, we went through the book of Philemon, in between Titus and Hebrews. A short book that most people seem to flip past as they read the bible…. okay at least I did! In this book, Paul, who is in prison writes to Philemon. Philemon’s former slave was a run away theft and was thrown into prison and currently working for Paul in prison as well as became a Christian through Paul.

At this point Paul sends Onesimus (the former theft), back to Philemon to repay his debt. Paul does not use his authority to produce the result he wants. He paints us a picture of radical grace, He is not manipulative nor controlling. He leaves the decision to Philemon, to have the dignity to make his own decision. Verse 16 “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother…”

Here we can learn a few signs of having Radical Faith and Radical Grace.
1. when you decide to view everyone as equal, everyone is made in the image of God no matter what. learn to respect, love and embrace them.
2. “You are never more Godly than when you forgive” No one deserves forgiveness but we never deserved God’s grace. It’s about extending that radical grace to others when you forgive.
3. viewing yourself in the image of God, moving towards sacrifice, cherish opportunities to reflect the glory of God, take risks and even when you get rejected, you will keep trying because you know God is in you and he will work through you in radical ways

Living in a multicultural city like Hong Kong especially, it allows us to have our paradigm challenged. We have the daily opportunity to have our bias and prejudice challenged.

But none of this changes overnight, it’s a long standing, perhaps lifelong challenge for each and every one of us, to become more like Christ, to extend radical grace to those around us.

It’s hard to believe a month has gone by since I left Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The last few weeks has flown by. I’ve seem to have adjusted back to Hong Kong and slowly reverting back to the Hong Kong lifestyle and mentality, whether that’s a good thing or not, you decide.

One of the things I struggled with was the fact that there are some people out there who doesn’t really care all that much about what you’ve done in Cambodia or why you were there, they might just not understand and therefore, don’t care much about listening to you or asking questions. I seem to focus so much on those people that it slips my mind there are also those who are very intrigued and loves to learn about it.

Over lunch a few times the last few days, I’ve had the chance to tell some of my colleagues about Cambodia. Because HK is so money and success driven, many of us would not ever think about living in a third world country. They are so intruiged about Cambodia, about why I would want to live there and why I like it there. Many of those questions are hard to answer, but after all those conversations, I always end up coming to the same conclusion in my head. And thus the following:

I’m very priveleged to have lived in Cambodia.

Sure it was not always the most pleasant place to live in but thinking back, there is something so unique about phnom penh and cambodia that attracts and sucks in everyone who goes. The way the traffic is, transportation itself, the way Moto and tuk tuk drivers hassle you one after another, the fact that we have to go to more than one grocery store to buy all the nessesary ingredients to cook or bake, the way Cambodians stare at you straight in the eye when they have no idea who you are, and the list goes on.

No matter how stressful everything about and within Cambodia can become, it is also mysteriously relaxing. Hectic, but slow. Overwelming yet once you’ve adjusted to the daily routine, everything seems easier and more convinent than you think. Ah, yes. However long and painful your day might’ve been, you could always step out at night (despite the heat and the mosquitoes), look up- and sit for hours admiring the beautiful night sky with the thousands of stars shinning down at you.

It’s the best of two worlds. I’m very thankful and blessed to have gotten this chance to meet hundreds of friends from all over the world, to explore the culture and to live somewhere so different from home. Of course, can’t forget to mention my parents who supported me in every aspect of the year.

I’ll be back soon. I, along with a number of others, have fallen into the wonderful trap of Phnom Penh and it cannot keep us away for long! God has a wonderful plan for me and I can’t wait to discover more as the years go by.

How many times have you said that to yourself? You don’t want to call a friend to meet up because you think they should be contacting you. Or you do constantly contact them but they never reciprocate the kindness.. how do you feel? Frustrating, I know. It feels like a one way relationship with our friends sometimes and I struggle with that a lot, especially recently since I’ve came back to HK. I wonder if its gotten to the point where they’ve taken me for granted but God spoke to me this morning while going through the last section of Exodus.

What we seem to forget all the timr is that the way we want our friends to give us attention and care about us from contacting us, that’s the way God wants US to be with him. He wants us to speak to him daily, to spend time with him, he wants to get to know us and our daily ramblings! Half the time, we get so caught up in our own lives that we don’t spend time with Him as much as He wants us to but you know what’s great? No matter how little we make the effort to spend time with Him, He continuously knock on our door, sitting right outside for whenever we remember and get the chance to open it- He will be right there sitting on our doorstep.

Perhaps thats the way God wants us to be. He wants us to mold us to be more like Him. It was a reminder that no matter how frustrating it is feeling like I am always making the effort, I need to always be there with a smile for my friends whenever they do come and open the door as I continue to knock and make myself avaliable for them.

“…The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin…” – Exodus 34:6-7

I’m blessed and thankful that God allowed me to have this realization but this by all means does not mean I won’t feel frustrated or upset, but knowing it is a first step to God molding my heart. It’s also realising that I don’t want to be worshipping “The Golden Calf” of The God to relationships- depending on people and our relationships for our happiness and joy.

Perhaps this doesn’t make sense to many people, which is fine because this was more for me and my own thoughts and reminders than anything else. Hope you all had a good weekend!

Side note: I just finished the Book of Exodus and it is GREAT!

When you see a sign that has over 10 different well known clothing brands named (From Y3 to Addidas…) and says “Warehouse, up to 90% SALE!!”, wouldn’t you run over right away to check out the new hype for the afternoon? Even if we are going to be late back to the office. Well, that’s exactly what my colleagues and I did after lunch today.

We treked up 15 floors, walked through a little alley way and arrived in a huge room with piles of clothes, shoes, bags and different accessories. I wish I had my camera at the time so the image could become clearer to you because no, they weren’t in neat folded piles… everything was a mess and the price tags of everything was tangled up. Along with the piles of items on sale, there were probably 200+ people running around scrambling through items, sort of like rats scrambling for trash in rubbish dumps. A quarter of those people lining up for the cashier.

There were also plastic bags big enough for me to hide in within 2 meters of you anywhere you went, in case you run out of space in your first bag and needed another one! “We are very busy people, places to go, things to do and only have so much time to shop! so you better not make us walk to the front of the shop to get a bag.”

Mind you, this is not the first time I’ve been to a sale like this in HK but this time going, it was a different rush of feelings. As I pretended to scramble through clothes, I observed everyone left and right of me and even caught a bit of their conversations. It was incredible, though the whole enviornment was a bit insane and overwelming to me. I even heard someone say “let’s call back to the office and tell our boss that our lunch meeting for work went overtime and we will be an hour late!”

Nobody was just buying one or two items, everyone in line for the cashier had 2 or more FULL black plastic bags they were dragging along behind them. If you didn’t know better, you would’ve thought everything was free! To be honest, it actually gives me a headache and takes way too much effort to try and scramble through until I find something I would find worth it…

Hong Kong’s shopping mentality never ceases to amaze me. With that being said, I’m sure a sale like this anywhere else in the world would attract just as many people.

If you are reading this and thinking “How come I didn’t know about this sale? Where is it?! I have to go!!!” It’s in the Bazaar on the 13th floor of Times Square. Now go and shop away.