Love At a Distance

My friend Trili told me last night that she always gets her revelations in the shower, as in like enlightenment.

I totally agreed.

Today, it happened again! U know what i realized? In the shower. I realized (at least for myself) that it's actually quite hard to love people that are really close to me. Realize how easy it is to "love" and have "compassion" for the people in Africa but hate you little brother? By people close to me i actually mean people that know me inside out, people that know my faults, my past, my REAL me. Not the me everyone that I'm nice to knows, but the me when I'm sulky, when I'm moody, when I'm bad. I use to think that I'd have to go through the whole awkward stage when they'll say, "What's the matter with you? Why are you suddenly so nice to me?"

Ok for me, that's awkward.

But this is the deal. For people that I hardly know, people that I watch from the tram stop, people that aren't exactly close friends - I find it easier to "love" and be "nice" to. And i was thinking about it, about myself. Know what I realized? Of course it's easier!! OF COURSE!! It dawned upon me like a warm shower on a winter morning. ;)!

It's easy to love at a distance because we can FAKE IT.

Well, there's really no responsibility. We hardly come into contact with them, we don't really have to care for their problems. We don't have to bear their burdens, we don't have to be patient with them. We don't have to clean up their mess, we don't have to SACRIFICE anything for them. All we do is just have a nice feeling about them. That's not love! That's faking it. The Bible tells us not to love with hypocrisy. In other words, if we think we can love the people in Africa, we'd better start loving those around us.

SO RANDOM YET SO GOOD!

love (the irony),
JC.

Tongue-tied no more!

I have three nieces - Emily, Allison & Ella (they are in order =D).

This week, I received an email from my sister-in-law telling the family news of a miracle! It's just amazing. Apparently, baby Ella has been been suffering from a tongue-tie. She's about 6 months old now and is still breast feeding. Basically, there was a piece of skin underneath her tongue that restricted the movement of her tongue tip. Understandably, this has caused her and her mom difficulty during feeding. The doctor's advice was to "snip it off". After church on Sunday, my bro and sis-in-law decided to pray for her healing. It seemed after the prayer that baby Ella's feeding had improved. =). Later on in the week, my sis-in-law sought the advice of Ella's maternal and child health nurse. Okay, the nurse knew the GP who diagnosed the tongue-tie and how a tongue-tie looked like. The symptoms described by my sis-in-law also all pointed to a tongue-tie.

AMAZINGLY when the nurse picked her up, she saw NO signs of a tongue-tie! The following week after that, baby Ella seemed to be sticking her tongue out all the time, something which a baby with a tongue-tie would find hard to do! Now, that's a miracle! There's God at work right there in this present age.

For all of us pressing on for healing, restoring, provision and all that. Our God is mighty to rescue!

JC.

Pointing Up!

I've been wanting to write about this for a while. It sort of dawned upon me one day, the fact that we are like arrows. Actually, we really are aren't we?

The lifestyle we make us like arrows that point at some direction doesn't or at something doesn't it? Okay, I'm rambling on but bear with me. =). I think what we say, how we react to things, the things we do and don't do rotates our life arrow and where it points to. For example when I think of Martin Luther King, his life arrow seems to be pointing at the under-privileged blacks of America; when I think of of Mother Teresa, her life arrow seems to be pointing to God, hope and the needy in India; when I think of David Beckham, his life arrow seems to be pointing at fame, hairstyles and soccer. It's just illustration, I don't really know either one of them well enough to be making valid statements like that.

But imagine ourselves - regardless of our job, physical appearance, social status, abilities, achievements, living as walking arrows that point to a Creator. In all we do and say and act just pointing to hope that lies in Jesus! That would be awesome wouldn't it.

Are we pointing to God? Are we pointing the hopeless to the Hope? Are we pointing the sick to the Healer? Are we pointing the lost to the Purpose? Are we pointing the confused to the Way? Are we pointing the lifeless to the Life?

How obvious are our arrows? Are they tiny or are the so big you could see them from a distance? Do people have to spend a week with us to find out or just a day?

OR, are we pointing to the world? Are we pointing to ourselves? Are we pointing to other solutions?

Don't know bout you but I desperately want to be pointing up. There's enough of us pointing everywhere else already. =).

Sydney + Influence

Am in Sydney at the moment! woohoo! Been traveling with friends for the day and we just returned from a major shopping spree at Safeway. We're bunking at a backpackers that is pretty dodgy (it's mostly my fault for booking at xD!). Mom, if you read this, it's so dodgy you'd be worried. BUT! We'll be fine - it'll make Sydney more of an adventure! Hillsong Conference here we come! I pray that God will empower and charge us up ore so we can change the world for Him!

I just received an email from a friend back home telling me how one of my posts have been inspiring! I'm honestly just really glad! Okay, instad of blogging about powerful Godly influence which I know squat about, I guess I just really feel priveleged. That was my heart's desire and God is giving me that bit by bit. I want others to be inspired to live their lives for Him, to live lives the way it's supposed to be! As a disclaimer, I am very much on that journey of discovering life and living in His freedom as well. He never gives up on us so we should never give up on Him. Ahh! I just soooo feel like LIVING at this moment!! We so need Jesus we so do! He challenges, He heals, He gives LIFE!

JC.

Heart Glasses

Ps. Frank Damazio said this at a leader's conference last week:

"We see people through the glasses of our heart."

What does that mean? Well, if i could put a definition on it, it would be that the condition of hearts affect our view of people. A huge reason why I think the people around me are not friendly is because I see myself as being unfriendly. Why I think people are all snobs is because I am a snob and I hate it. Why I think people are not open to relationships is because I myself am not open to relationships.

I thought that ministered to me a lot. If it doesn't help you reason out certain issues, it'll help you realize a lot more about yourself. =). How are the people around you like?

JC.