Inspiring

"100 percent of school's first class college-bound"

That is the headline of an article which instantly drew my attention. It is about the first graduating class of a charter high school on a special mission. They have a creed which they repeat every single day of school, and I absolutely love the basis of their creed: I Believe.

Imagine what kind of world we would live in if you believed in yourself. Or if you had other people who believed in you more until you could believe more in yourself. What kind of endless possibilities would open up?
 

What are we doing now to empower each other? What are we doing to empower the future generations? That is the kind of legacy I am working on leaving.

Take Our Jobs

Immigration Reform is sort of near and dear to my heart since I am afterall an American Immigrant.  I have been cursed blessed with the ability to see two sides to most issues.  It is no different here.  Now, I will not go into the whole other discussion about what is an American citizen.  For the purpose of this discussion only, I mean to distinguish Americans whose families have been here for at least several generations from naturalised-citizens, documented and undocumented immigrants.

One of the common arguments against immigration is that immigrants are taking jobs away from citizens born on American soil.  One of my rebuttals: Will you become a trash collector, farm worker, house-/office-cleaner, landfill worker, porta-potty cleaner, etc.?  Seriously, there are really disgusting jobs and really difficult jobs that no American wants and the same people who yap yap yap about stolen jobs will not take those jobs themselves.

So I was pretty happy to see this article. We all know about the bad economic situation in California -- the state is broke, public and private sector jobs have been significantly axed, and we will not even go into the housing market...  I am interested in seeing how many takers there will be this time.  Compare it to the last time:

"California's agriculture industry launched a similar campaign in 1998, hoping to recruit welfare recipients and unemployed workers to work on farms, [Manuel Cunha] said. Three people showed up."

Part of me is hopeful that people really want to be productive and live off the fruits of their own labour, yet the skeptical part of me thinks that many will not swallow their pride or are just plain lazy to work hard to earn money, no matter how little it is.  I always go back to "A Privilege does not equal a Right".  America is the Land of Opportunity, not the Land of Outcome of Your Sit-On-Your-Duff-Daydreams.

What do you think?

My friend is trying to turn me into a member of Geek Squad

I have been pretty quiet this week because my laptop was out of commission for a couple of days this week.  One of my virus scans detected a worm attached to a file in another one of my anti-virus softwares.  Of course, that led to panic when another tech person I consulted said it must be pretty bad considering where it is attached.  The advice given there was to go to a "professional", like commercial tech support.  And to think that I came across 8 different topics I wanted to blog about that day!  Hmph!

To make the long story short, I ended up begging/bribing/cajoling asking my friend Rob for help.  Rob is one of those amazingly talented "Mr. Fix-It"s.  There does not seem to anything that he cannot fix.  Really!  So Rob spent a lot of time scanning my hard drive and then refining my laptop's performance the very next day.  And what you know?  There is no virus (my virus scanner gave me a false positive) and the sluggishness of the last couple of weeks (or is it months?) is gone!  

And Rob's patience in trying to teach me about technology -- words cannot describe how painful it must be to teach a tech-phobe like myself.  Truly, I am very happy to just use the programmes.  I am perfectly happy not having to know anything more about electronics and technology (though electronic and techno are a separate matter...)  So what did I learn from the Learned One of Technology anyway?  Let's see what I remember...

• How to use my new softwares for anti-virus/-spyware, registry cleanups, repairs, etc.
• How to stop programmes from auto-running (and sucking up all my power!)
• A rather impressive browser called Opera (I might have to switch from Mozilla Firefox!)
• Something(s) about Linux
• Something about unlocking cell phones
• Something about video editing
• Something about converting analog to digital (video/cassette tapes to DVDs/CDs) but we want to record through analog to digital to warm up the sound
• Something about data backups, including hard drive images, and comparing backup tapes to other forms of backup
• Something about WordPress (Oh, can I mention that here??)
• Something about...

 So how did I repay my friend?  With food, of course!

Really, I cannot thank you enough Rob!!  You're awesome!!  Thanks!

What Is The Gospel?

Love how this video answers it.

Resplendent Jewels

"Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces.  God hath many sharp-cutting instruments and rough files for the polishing of His jewels; and those He especially loves, and means to make the most resplendent, He hath oftenest His tools upon."

~Archbishop Leighton

As you might have read in the last couple of months, things have not been going well for me to say the least.  It has been one thing after another, most of which have not been mentioned here.  Every aspect of my professional and personal life has been hit... hard... and repeatedly...  Where does one go or hide when your life falls apart?

There is only one place and one person to turn -- God. 

I remember the first time I read Archbishop Leighton's quote -- I cried for an hour after reading it. It was most agonising to read those words while going through severe emotional pain. Even as I read it now, I have to confess that I am not jumping for joy. However, it does bring me comfort to know that I am so loved that He means not to leave me in my imperfection but to continue refining me.  (He must really love me this year! )

Seriously, nothing that happens is an accident.  God does not come up with contingent plans in case something detours His original plan.  I cannot say that I understand how He can see and know all things, how He has all power, yet how His divine purposes can be accomplished without contingency in spite of us throwing detours in.  I am not infinitely wise so of course I cannot understand that.  I just know that He can.

I know that God is faithful -- He will never be inconsistent or act inconsistent with Himself and His attributes.  He can never change and He is full perfection.  Knowing that gives me confidence in knowing that I can trust Him.

I know that one day I will be a resplendent jewel that He has fashioned Himself, and it will only be because of His extraordinary grace.

Economics 101: Minimum Wage Laws

Congratulations Chicago

As painful as it is to write this, congratulations to the Blackhawks for winning the Stanley Cup.

Hopefully we will not have to wait as long as you did.

Dark Night of the Soul 2010 – Round 2

“Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him.”

~ Job 13:15

In the past couple of months, I have had every single aspect of my life attacked. I have no wish to relive my experiences by writing of them here, but just simply know that things that could go wrong have gone wrong, and the past week has been exceptionally bad. I have been battling a severe depression that I believe only a demon can bring on. I keep getting hit financially and things are so bad that all I am looking for is to survive and not even that is plausible at the moment. I have felt abandoned by both God and the one who matters most to me.

I know that I know that I know that the following are true:

• God knows all there is to know.
• He sees everything that happens.
• He cares for and loves me.
• He has all power.
• He has never abandoned me and He never will.

Yet I do feel like He has left me alone. His silence is deafening and devastating.  Knowing all that I know about Him and yet not sensing Him or hearing from Him hurts beyond what words can describe. I have been feeling such anguish over feeling like He has chosen to sit out on my suffering.

I keep going back to last Sunday’s sermon on tested faith, and I ask myself Todd’s questions: What is it in my life that I have to have to be happy? What is it apart from God that I have to have for life to possess meaning? What is it in my life that if God took it away would send me into total utter despair?

“…even the promises of God, the good things of God, can become idols to us if we end up treasuring those good promises even more than we treasure the One who gives them.”

~Todd Pruitt

Could that be my problem? Perhaps I have been treasuring His blessings more than I treasure Him?

“It’s not unlike God, that for reasons belonging only to Himself, to take something away from us that will cause us pain in this life.”

~Todd Pruitt

Whatever it is, I know this: I do not have to like what I am going through, but I can “count it all joy” because of the effect of tested faith – a pure refined faith more precious than gold. As much anguish as pain brings, and as unwelcome as testing can be, God has said that I can count it as joy.  As difficult as that is, and as unwanted an action as I wish to run from, I know that is what He wants -- for me to focus on the end-product of testing my faith.

“What we gain from the test is better than going through life without what we gain from the test.”

~Todd Pruitt

“Our job in life is not to be successful, but to be faithful.”

~Billy Graham in “Hope For The Troubled Heart”

Living A Life Of Purpose

"The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going. "

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else."

~Lawrence J. Peter

"Sometimes the path you're on is not as important as the direction you're heading."

~Kevin Smith

"If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time."

~Zig Ziglar

The four quotes above have one thing in common – knowing where you are headed. You cannot know what direction you ought to go without knowing your purpose.  I also believe that you cannot know your purpose without knowing this Absolute -- the one immutable all-powerful God of the universe.

There is a difference between goals and purpose. Goals are simply milestones in the journey, but Purpose is the direction in which you must go. You can hit all the goals you set, but if they are not in the direction you ought to be going, well… it does not do anyone much good, does it?

I have known since I was little that I was meant to change the world and make it a better place. I was meant to help people and make their lives better. That is my purpose. I aim to add value to people. It has taken me almost two decades but I am finally in pursuit of my purpose in life.  I had previously set goals in all sorts of different directions, resulting in no real impact anywhere.  I am finally getting somewhere now.

There are some rules for goal-setting.  Whatever your goals are, they must be:

• written
• personal
• specific
• achievable
• measurable
• time-sensitive

Believe you me, if those six things are not done, no amount of goal-setting or goals will see any results. 

ps.  This post was originally written a week ago.  Just delayed in posting...