The Good Samaritan

The people around these days have so much animosity for each other, it really saddens me. What would seem as a friendly greeting from a stranger could be met with comments that the person greeting is crazy and doesn't know who he's talking to. C'mon man, just harmless attempts to brighten up the day for one another can be met with such far-fetched accusations? Of course, it doesn't happen all the time, because at the end of the day some people would recognise that effort and return you the favour.

Well anyways, I randomly pushed my finger through the book during the weekend, and it led me to the Parable of the Good Samaritan(Luke 10:25-37).

This story really struck me hard, in that it portrayed the Jewish priest and Levite as being cold-blooded people who'd rather walk the other path than to help the dying man lying on the original path.

Because Jesus spoke this parable to a Jewish lawyer, who wanted to test Jesus and justify himself, I suppose this parable is used to highlight that this priest would rather go to all lengths to keep the Law of Moses, and save the hassle of doing all the cleansing for the dying man with blood on his skin(Leviticus 15:1-15) and nursing his wounds, than to do what is morally right in both God and men's eyes - to offer first aid to the dying man. Hence this shows the blind faith of the Jewish people in that time. (I don't know about the Jews of today, but this is lifted off the Bible)

In this, the Samaritan fared much better than the priest and Levite. This must have been a shameful thing to an expert in the law, because Samaritans were despised by Jews, yet a person whose background and heritage were treated as inferior to the Jews could actually be much kinder to his neighbour. From this, I see that the Samaritan indeed showed love to the dying man by taking all the trouble to treat his wounds with oil and wine, bring him back to the inn, and ensured that all his needs were met by paying for his lodging. Now, isn't that good when you have someone to take care of all your needs when you are at your worst?

As Christians, we do in fact enjoy this benefit of the grace and mercy of the Lord, in that he loves us enough to die on the cross for us, paying the price of sin in order to redeem us, just as the Samaritan paid the money to the innkeeper, so that we may be taken care of. We didn't deserve it, just as the man did not deserve any help from the good Samaritan, but he did so willingly, just as God provided for us, and still is to this day, providing for our every need.

Even though the Samaritan had so much to carry that he needed his donkey to carry it, he took the trouble to attend to a dying man, which isn't a small feat in those days. Indeed, loving our neighbour is sometimes tough - he may hurt you so badly you couldn't even walk, but Jesus was able to love us even though we sin against Him. While we were still sinning, He died for us as an ultimate example of loving our neighbours as ourselves.So, what better way to learn how to love our neighbours than through Him?

Intensive Study Time - no time for mistakes!

It's getting harder day by day. You get tired of studying after a few hours of studying when you could've put in more. The lack of time for extra study has its toll on my sleeping hours these days. You hardly have to relax, and considering all the church activities that I'm gonna miss in favour of studying, not to mention the upcoming tests that the teachers are going to throw at us. Man, this is intensive...

...or maybe not intensive enough. Something ought to be done for more effective studying than just staying in school and just studying, studying and studying. I find that I can't concentrate in school, partly because of noise and socialising with fellow classmates and stuff, and a Mathematics teacher who can't really keep the class in control once everyone goes restless with the practice papers. Sometimes the stuff they throw at you takes more time than what is needed.

For now I think I'm gonna stick to the ten-year series, since there's only so much I reckon that I can do for now until then...

Something really challenging

Well now. I've got just a measly 39 more days to the preliminary examinations, so the call to fully make use of the time left is there. More tests, of course. But homework needs to be done, even more so in this period of time. Ms Tay said that the revision would only work while the homework is done. I totally agree.

Anyways, here's a rather profound question: Why must men suffer on earth?

Non-biblical answers:

1. We are fated to suffer.
2. Suffering makes us learn where we've gone wrong.
3. Suffering consists of birth, old age, illness and death, and these are unavoidable. To end suffering, achieve nirvana by following the Eightfold Path
4. Theories about suffering, etc etc...

Biblical answers:

1. Because of the Fall of Man when Adam ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and sinned against God. Since then sin has caused curses to befall on mankind.
2. God's using suffering to punish you for something you've done wrong.
3. Suffering is a means of a test of faith in Jesus Christ.

However, I'd pretty much prefer this answer, though: Jesus Christ, being the Son of God, came down from heaven to suffer for our sakes. Think about this: God, being God of everything for all eternity, came down to earth as a man, which is, in my opinion, one of the most humbling acts of all, and to suffer and die for our sins when He didn't need to. There's no reason that an almighty and omnipotent God should even be hurt by the floggings of men, and the pain and bleeding on the cross. But he did it.

He did it for our sakes. He doesn't want us in hell, where we aren't supposed to belong anyway. Sin will ultimately separate ourselves from God and cursed to go to hell after our earthly bodies die off, but thanks to Him bearing all of what was supposed to be OUR curses on the cross, those that believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life(John 3:16).

Even Jesus Christ suffered on Earth for our sakes, what more us for His sake then since we love Him?(doesn't apply to those who still reject Christ at this point of time, but He's still willing to receive you when you receive Him in your life today)

Seriously though, having His presence sometimes brings the unanswerable questions answers that bring it to full circle. Really, He has taught me many things in the past two months.

Smacked right in the face - wrong purposes of studying, I'll admit.

Okay, I'll be honest with myself.

I studied a lot, but I did so half-heartedly, just wanting to get over and done with the Mid-Year Examinations. Because of this, I lost sight of my goal towards the As and I ended up with Bs and Cs for my results. Of course, there was quite some difficulty in the Biology, Physics and Chemistry papers, and that everyone scored badly for them. I however, simply wasn't mentally prepared to get so low a mark.

Why all that bad grades? I found that I am studying just for the sake of getting an opportunity to make it big out there and earn money, but then I found that what I'm working for in my studies is just to let my parents have a better life than what they're working so hard for. If that was so, why bother to study so hard? I could just get an average grade, get into average school, get into average university and get an average degree to earn an average income and feed my parents...

That was what I thought. But this low results and Kevin's words, though soft and casual, woke me up. Why am I doing all this for?

"Don't do it for your parents - they won't care shit about what you're gonna be when you grow up. Do you honestly think they'll follow and guide you for the rest of your life? No - just study to glorify God." He struck a chord in what I was vexed about, the whole time I was studying during the June holidays. I now find that the reason that I'm studying this whole while was just something very temporary.

Given my father's character and what he's done for the family so far, I don't think he deserves much, other than simply for the fact that he's my father. My mom, slogging just to keep us alive, is the one who deserves the bulk of the pay I'm gonna get when I get to work. But then, who am I really gonna work for ultimately when they and the people around me start going off to, touch wood, the grave?

Pondering over this for a while, I start to think: "Yea, the grades are mine, not theirs." Who's gonna care about what I'm getting in the future when nobody else is around? Only Jesus would. He died on the cross, gave his life for me, so why shouldn't I give him what he expects of me - to get better results to glorify His name, rather to please men? It is impossible to please everyone, so I reckon I'll just please God instead. Given His high standards for me, I'll do much better for the preliminary examinations, for ultimately, I will trust in Him to give me strength and discipline to do better.

If anything in particular, I declare that Jesus will be my guide in my academic success from this moment on, however He is much more than just help for my academic successes, you understand... So far I've not met any God who is gracious enough to help me out in academics, other than Jesus.

A great injustice to a man who doesn't deserve it

Recently Uncle Hin, our tenant, got kicked out of our house by our father. Apparently, it was said he was not giving my father the due respect he gets for being the landlord, and were already fighting a cold war.

The cold war, from what I've heard from Mom, happened when Uncle Hin lent my father his CDs to watch, and that my father left scratches on the discs, so Uncle Hin went to get a replacement. However, my father misunderstood it as him not wanting to borrow the CDs to him. Given my father's "addiction" for watching home-bought movie CDs, it broke out into a cold war that lasted for quite a couple of years. From there, many quabbles and temper outbursts led to what happened last week.

I wasn't at home that weekend, due to preparing for my examinations at my grandma's place(where I usually live in). But from what I know, my father was angry because Uncle Hin didn't even greet my father or ask him to eat, which was a common sign of respect in Chinese families. Moreover, my father was even told by my mom to carry his food to the living room so that he can enjoy his food and watch TV at the same time, which was how he usually has his meals at. Because of this, he was way well pissed off because it seemed to him that he was treated more like an outsider and Uncle Hin was behaving more like the man of the house, when my father is the actual landlord.

This turned the cold war "hot", and Uncle Hin, a person who has a proper family to feed in Malaysia, and never owed us rental, had to leave. In fact, WE were the ones who owed him a favour of fetching my sister home everyday after work from my grandma's place ever since our maid, who had served under us for a long period of time, left us.

Obviously, everyone was distraught, even Uncle Kelvin. "Your father always never thinks of what people has done for him, and the consequences of doing so," he commented. "Now see what happens - $500 per month income now lost for nothing!"

My family isn't well-to-do anyway, and my dad, from what I see, never brings back any money from his taxi-driving, but squanders his money elsewhere on his bling-blings like handphones, good food for himself or on his cigarettes and CDs. My mom is the only one supporting this house, I reckon, since most of the family expenses were from her own pockets. Needless to say, a woman with only a fixed salary of $1500 per month working under my aunt, and subject to GST and rising taxes and prices, that extra $500 is extremely important to us.

Unless my father realises that he didn't do any shit in keeping our family together and alive, he's gonna continue being a failure in life... As for why I'm making this statement, I'll put it up on my future posts - it's got to do with my family history, and probably too wordy to put within one single entry.

Doing a quickie

Ah, finally back to blogging after a hard week's work in school, preparing for Mid-Year papers. I still have 2 more papers to go, both of which I'm going to sit for tomorrow, so I'll have to go back to studying right after this quickie post.

As usual, we gathered up to put our bags at some corner so that people wouldn't find and steal stuff from our bags, before going on to the exam hall. Skipped breakfast for the whole week - wow, didn't know I could last till 11am without food. So, just to sum up what I've been doing this whole period of absence from this blog:

• Prayed for His wisdom, knowledge and quick-wittedness before and after studying, and also before and after the papers.
• Studied, studied and studied.
• Ate, slept and drank.
• 2 hours of computer games per day
• 2 hours of TV everyday
• Set the alarm for 5.45am everyday
• Slammed the alarm clock a couple of times(hey, this one's durable!)
• Worried about examinations, but fell back to God's promise of victory

...okay. Gotta go back to studies again. Will be updating again soon.