Today's church sermon is on the introduction of the book of Ecclesiastes. I think i've gain a reminder from today's sermon. A timely reminder too, considering that i am in the midst of making plans and preparations for whatever that might happen after i graduate in June...
Life is like a mist. You can't exactly own it or buy it. A second in life is there and then it's gone. You can't put a pause button on it and then press play again whenever you want or keep it in a bottle and take it out from time to time. So, life is like a mist, you can't possess life for it is a gift from God.
Every second of our life passes by really quickly. In a blink of an eye, we're 2 years old, talking and walking. In another blink of an eye, we're in primary school. Then, another blink, we're all 18 years old, going to uni and deciding the courses we want to do. Another blink, we're out there in the working world, another blink, we're probably deciding who we're going to marry, whether the person is The One, etc.. There are many moments in our lives as such, and all these moments in life, it comes and it goes.
But i guess what the Book of Ecclesiastes is trying to teach us is to learn to fear the Lord. As it says in Proverbs 1:7 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." When we fear our Lord, i guess that's when we begin to live life wisely. I'm not saying we have to live in utter fear everyday. I guess what it means is that, when we acknowledge that God is the Lord of our life, that He is in control of our life, we'll learn how to live joyfully and cherish every single moments in our life and live it as if it is the last, because we can't keep a moment forever - it's like mist.. and also because we never know what will happen tomorrow.
Like what it says in James 4:13 "Now listen, you who say "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." So we need to also learn to be less controlling of every aspect of our life. We can try and plan about everything, but ultimately everything is meaningless if it is not part of God's plan.
So yeah, what i learnt from today's sermon is to live in the present, cherish every moment that i have, with my friends, my family. And also, as much as i can plan and try to map out the possible routes for my future, at the end of the day, i will need to lay them all before the Lord and entrust them into His hands, for only He knows which route i should take. For in everything, i will need to seek the Lord first and the rest shall be given to me.
I hope it will be the same for all of you as well. Whichever stage in life you may be, whatever answers in life that you are seeking, whatever that you may be going through, etc.. It is a moment in life that will come and go. If you're going through a hard time, trust in the Lord, seek comfort in Him. The hard time will eventually pass and you'll emerge stronger than ever. If it is a good time that you're in now, cherish it for when the moment has passed, it is gone. In every moment of your life, trust in the Lord, give thanks to Him and give the reign of control over to Him. When we do that - give control of our life over to God, i think we'll all learn how to live more joyfully.
CNY is finally here. Today is the eve of chinese new year. Every year on the eve of cny, we'll all gather together at someone's house for our reunion dinner. It's such a joyous day. Though it is crazily busy, spring cleaning the house, buying th cny goodies, buying new clothes, preparing the food, etc.. but it is all a happy kind of busy.
I can just imagine what it'll be like at home now, since this year's reunion dinner is at my house. It must be a crazy time of preparation of food and all that, perhaps cny songs will be playing from our speakers and soon in about 2 hours time, all my relatives will start to arrive and all the lovely joyous time of reunion and fun begins :) And then for the next few days it will be a time of house visitationsssssssss. Literally, visitationssssss, cos there are just so many houses to go to, a little tiring to be honest, but it's nice :)
So this year is my first time spending cny away from home. But i guess it's okay. I just hope everyone will have a great cny this year, with lots of good food and good fun :)
