Beautiful Lies

Every now and then, somebody claims to receive some sort of revelation of some truth. So I better pen this down before I forget how I think when I am about 20 years old...

This post is something about truth and our predominant culture.

In our consumerist age, we are in constant search for a quicker fix to everything. We want our noodles cooked faster. We want to get from point A to point B in shorter time. If we know who we are going after, we want the relationship to be formed as soon as possible. When we are sad, we want to listen to happy songs to get us happy again ( or we want to indulge in self pity a little longer, I'll get to that later ). We want to make money quicker.

So much so, that as much as some of us do not want to agree, we are already almost living to enjoy life quicker. NOT living and enjoy life quicker... it is living TO enjoy life quicker.

As an engineering student, I am very familiar with this sort of mindset.

Got a problem? Fix it. Find the most effective method, cheapest if possible. Perhaps, if I do that to an electrical component, it is perfectly alright. However, once in a while, I live like that. Tired? Sleep. Awake? Be productive. Get on with the work.

In line with living to enjoy life quicker - I live to get more things done, to enjoy more things. Sometimes, this seeps into my relationships.

"Rate your relationship from 1 to 10"
If it is 2 with person so and so - How to you make it to 3? then to 4 and 5 and so on?

I find myself thinking of things in a way that is either good or bad - requiring improvement or not - 1 to 10.

Along with my many guy friends, we rate girls from 1 to 10. The ratio of doing that versus talking about some other thing about girls is really lopsided.

And very surely I assure you that today, this is what self help books capitalize on. How to push your mood from 1 to 10 (1 being suicidal to 10 being euphoric), how to generate a lot of money, how to be a great leader! I can hardly find anything that does not put the "self" as the main object of pleasure or benefit.

Even the reasoning for giving is goes like this:

You make a lot of money, so by doing that you become very happy ( or some New Age gurus will teach you to love money then you will attract money into your life, i.e. the order is the other way, you are happy, then money comes to you ). Then when you donate money, you are also happy.

The reasoning cannot come from the fact where, giving is the right thing to do - and we ought to "earn all we can, save all we can, and give all we can" simply because it is the right thing to do. Then our happiness comes from the fact that we know:

1) The right thing is done
2) We did the right thing
3) The right thing is good for parties involved

Before I use the word self centered too much, I better define it a little more:

self-centered
the "self" being the center of the purpose of everything being done. The primary concern is self, not others, not "what is meant to be". This does not mean others will not benefit from "self", but that simply "self" is the main topic.

What would we face should self be the main object whereby everything else is subjected to?

We often hear the phrase spoken by one party to the other "This isn't all about you". In fact, most of the time, it is about something else bigger.

"Its about US!"
"Its about the team!"
"Its for the good of everybody"

I seldom hear anybody tell themself in a willing and joyful manner "This ain't about me!". These hard words are normally spoken in a sort of enlightenment, the kind where there is frustration when we know the reality.

It hits hard - all the more harder because it tells us that we finally cannot fight the real thing - and that we knew it all along but chose to live in a way, a way that expects all the goodies that would flow to us AS IF the world revolves around us.

I always think the people who agree with me are the smartest around - until I did not think that the world revolved around me.

Then I started to think perhaps people who opposed me might be smarter. I do remember the times when I had to surrender my arguments and admit that they were telling the truth. And for me to realize that they won an argument because they were true - breaks my argument that " I am right because I am defending myself"

The weaker ones remain in self pity, the stronger ones self-vindication, yet most likely to overlook their own mistakes.

All these spring from the self-centeredness - living to enjoy things quicker is simply one form, one manifestation of this mindset.

Being an engineering student and a Christian, there are also few things I notice. As beautiful as one thing in itself may be, the more beautiful thing is the whole place where the thing is.

Imagine stepping into a house - the lights are not too bright, giving a warm an fuzzy feeling. The wall is painted baige, and the rug is brown - as the fire dances and crackles at the fireplace.

The rug might be very beautiful by itself. But it will never be able to make a person feel at home. Just as much as it may be soft and nice to lie on, it will never be able to give more than what it is on its own.

Take a radio as an example. There is the antenna, a whole bunch of circuits, and a power supply. None on its own could function anywhere close to a radio. A power supply, being 1 of the 3 components of the radio, cannot give us 33% of what we can hear from the radio. Even if I put 3 things together, but not in the right order, I would still not get a radio, not even near one.

In short, when one thing is put in its proper order according to its proper purpose; it will outweigh the sum of its parts.

put toothpaste on the toothbrush, then brush your teeth, then gargle with water. This achieves something.

Gargle with water, brush your teeth, then put toothpaste. This achieves something - too small compared to what it might otherwise achieve if it was in the proper order.

What I am arguing is that there is an aspect of design in truth. Truth is not a sum of information or facts.

Giving an example:

say, you just broke up with you 5 year girlfriend and you are as sad as anybody can ever be. As much as being happy is important - perhaps the best thing to do isn't quickly turning on happy music, hang out with friends and "forget about everything" and be happy.

There are things we want to think through - "sorry"s that we want to say. And we need time to cooldown. Review what we did. Perhaps not rush into the next relationship. And learn how not to break the next girl's heart or something. This way, we are ready for really happy things.

All too much, we are always called to achieve something. We buy motivational books. We buy books on this and on that to quickly achieve what we want in life.

But is life about quickly finding the apparent problem and fixing it? Reminds me of western doctors ( thank God for all of them ). As far as I understand from medical students, the western way to treat a sickness is to treat its symptoms. Fever? Reduce the temperature. Ache? painkiller. Of course, this might sound a little simplistic, but this would be the general philosophy of a cure.

You have intellectual capabilities, you think. As for me, I have come to learn that there is more than additions and multiplications to life. Really, helping an old lady cross the street beings joy to us not only because we contributed to the fact that somebody got from point A to point B.

The is joy attached to it, because deep in our hearts, something right was done, something loving was done. Like this, there are many other types on enjoyable things in life - that we know of involving it being something right, though it might cost... something loving, though we might not always benefit from it... yet a big part of that enjoyment we cannot explain, because it resonates with something else inside us, that is the truth.

The joy of knowing the truth and being in the truth, is one thing that beautiful lies cannot afford to give without surrendering. Surrendering its thoughts, its will, and itself.

Christian World Destiny

Sometimes discussions about purpose in life gets quite messy. Sometimes certain statements that we mention makes God look unfair. Sometimes it seems that everything is fate. This article will cover very briefly human origin, human destiny, the destiny of the world, and how all these relate to us and God. It is a summary of what Christians in general believe as far as the Bible reveals:

In the beginning, there was nothing at all, except God. God was there from eternity, He is the "I AM", the ever present one, the Uncreated One - the Creator of all things. He created the world and everything in it, including man.

It is not exactly known why God created man, but definitely all things in the world (including mankind) is created to reflect God's glory. Everything find their meaning in God's design - the way a ladder would find meaning in the design of the house. Without the first and second level, a ladder is meaningless.

The main purpose of man's creation would be that of worship. Worship, i.e. adoring God would appear in various forms, being summed up in a Bible verse "whether you eat or you drink, do it to the glory of God". For example: a good Christian would honor God in his finances, relationships, recreation, and every aspect of his life - that would be the scope of worship.

One important part in the creation of man was that man was given responsibility to abide in God. This would mean to remain in a good relationship with God, this would basically also mean obedience to God - since He would be the best person to control everything for every reason.

After the creation of mankind, God gave mankind the world to rule and to enjoy. Woman was created as the equal companion of man. So somewhere along the line - Adam and Eve initiated the first human rebellion against God by disobeying God at one instant. That incident caused mankind to suffer a severed relationship - by which they are guilty of eternal condemntation since they went against God's Laws.

After the Adam and Eve incident, humans patterned themselves after their deeds and continued the legacy of disobedience. So much so that it would not be wrong at all to say that going against God's Laws is our innate ability. God's Laws - not to mention any technicalities, in the simplest definition would be to live in a way that does not place God as the highest priority.

For example, as much as a husband ought to love a wife - when he places the wife above God (finite versus infinite worth) he is making a gross miscalculation. In that sense, if he makes an idol out of anything, he is not walking in a direction that is against God - and joins mankind in their eternal condemnation.

God later solves the problem by sending Jesus. In the most simplistic terms, Jesus death was the price of our redemption. It could be summed up in the verse "While we were still sinners, Jesus Christ died for the ungodly".

The Bible teaches that the price of our sins was not something we could afford to pay and still stay alive - this life or the next. Jesus paid the price, so that all who receives His offer would be forgiven, and therefore "saved from God's judgement". The process of believing in Jesus would involve repentance and trusting in Jesus on our side.

So in simplistic terms, this world is not all that is. In fact, this world is less than a fraction compared to eternity - therefore, Christians assume responsibility to steward the earth well, however we do not place our priorities on earth. I.e. protecting animal rights is good, right, and important, but to let others know of the path to God - by believing in Jesus, would have a higher priority.

So according to the Bible, the world will continue to become worse and worse with all mankind becoming more and more wicked. Education is great and important, but education will not save the world - it might slow down the decay in the world, but it wont reverse it.

However, at one appointed day, Jesus will come back to the earth - the judge the earth. This will be the time where God will settle every single account. The Bible teaches that God is always in control over everything - not that He is directly controlling us as though we are mindless slaves - but that everything is within His plan an control.

When the judgement is over, there will be people sent to heaven, others to hell. The basis of going to heaven would be our believing in Jesus. Note: not believe in His existence. i.e. when we tell somebody "I believe in you", we are not saying merely that we believe he exists.

Therefore, the human destiny can be summed up as:
1) Our eternal destination and dwelling place
In heaven, with God and angels and others who are like us, enjoying an eternity of fellowship with one another
Or in hell, a place of despair and loneliness and of torture

2) Our final condition
Completed human beings - restored to who we really are.
Destroyed human beings - lifeless and without anything good left

3) Our final analysis
Our deeds will be judged, according to how much we have been given. The Bible is clear that we will be judged according to how much God Himself has given us -" to him whom much has been given, much mroe will be expected"

World's destiny:
Countries and nations are temporal and serves very useful purposes for the meantime, however, they will all be dissolved as the end of the world comes. God will recreate the world. and God will be the ruling monarch who is just and loving. The new world will not contain death nor sickness nor death or anything like it.

Issues that will be put into perspective:
Present suffering of the world
Political state of the world
How we live our lives

FV: Ken Lee

FV: Funny Videos

Bulgarian Mariah Carey

Random talk about girls...

During dinner, my friends and I were talking about a documentary about this boy who committed suicide. Apparently, the boy was teased over the internet, being called a loser repeatedly. Besides that a girl in school expressed interest in him to tell him in the end that it was a joke. Similar events finally drove him to a point where he could no longer see the diginity in living life, and he ended his life.

We were talking - The emphasis on things will kill people. Most of the things are not evil in itself. For example: Beauty is a wonderful thing. However, when beauty is emphasized, within our human understanding, beauty is most magnified in physical appearance. Beauty being magnified, what happens to those who are not so beautiful looking? Possessions? Talents?

Slowly and surely, whenever we praise somebody of being more beautiful, of being richer, or of being better off than some other people - we strip true dignity of living off other people, in the process convincing ourselves that we are a ∑ (sum) of external things.

C.S Lewis puts it well. People are not proud of being rich or beautiful. They are proud of being richer and more beautiful. The issue is that in today's world, it is very hard to praise one person, and also think of the feelings of others around - so as to not make them feel inferior.

The outrageous cry for approval informs us that the major part of humanity has lost their dignity. If we had our dignity, the approval of others ought to have a significantly less impact on much of ourbehaviour.

We were just browsing through a "famous blogger" - which I found that the reason is because she is physically appealing. How.... Surprising.

"Surely she has negligible value on the inside," I said

"Maybe she is pretty on the outside and even kinder on the outside?" my friend said.

Is that possible? Look at all her photos - she is all out to flaunt. I doubt she has any other thing that she is proud of besides her face. Or else she would have displayed it.

Mathematically, in our society - due to the fault of everybody, influenced by the many people - the hope that a physically appealing girl leading a good life where there is a good balance in life is like limits approaching 0.

We ought to campaign against superficiality. If the population could be 1% less superficial and place less emphasis on externals. It is like petrol prices going down by a dollar per litre. The price of everything will drop. Inflation would go down. There would be more money to be given away to those who truly need it.

We would need less advertisements for donation. Honestly, I really think that most of the cosmetic companies shouldn't exist.

For every RM100 you are paying, more than half the money was used for advertising - to get better celebrities to promote it. So that you would be convinced. How vain. Oh - Ecclesiastes was being preached.

How meaningless.

The bad part is that I am affected like all of us. And for all of us, it is really bad. It seems that our hearts are somewhat inclined to think that the truly meaningless we are involved in are somewhat meaningful.

This is the good part about not being in politics at the moment. When I am not in politics, I can say that some industries should just die off. When I am in politics, I will have to learn hwo to work out the most beneficial/effective compromise.

Politicians - I pity some of them. When they have to work out what is most practical, they can be accused of compromising on their values - these people deserve more support. Well, the others are just greedy.

To my physically blessed friends - let us emphasize on other things which do not tear people down in the process when we praise. Let us praise whatever that is good, lovely, encouraging, supportive - let us praise good attitudes, noble deeds and sacrifices.

In the process, I trust that the more we praise such things - we see that we ourselves lack so much in these areas that we will be humble in the end to know our shortcomings.

Humble people are more well loved. Humble people learn much more in life. Humble people enjoy more even when they have less. Humble people don't get stressed as much over the things that the proud do so often.

Instead of sharing beauty tips -

I'm serious. Before this post ends, I'm really saying that if you wish to do something good and right, you ought to praise certain thigns and regard the others as nothing. Think of it, how meaningless can guys and girls be.

To be very blatant, so many elements are driving girls to emphasize their shell and not whatever that is inside - of course, there are little bits mentioned to quieten the conscience...How much effort, time, or energy left do they have to build up what is inside?

And guess who becomes the female's number 1 cheerleader. Shame on me.

Some of us might say, I am not being like that. I don't emphasize on such things. I just praise them once in a blue moon.

Or some of you think that you are being neutral.

But being neutral in a negative flow, what does that make you?

When you are given a breath and strength to fight what is crooked and you refuse to exercise that right - what does that make you?

There are things that guys are built to do. And I have a wierd idea that cheering the negative flow is not one of our original functions.

P.S. I still appreciate your beautiful physical appearance. I just can't stand you as a whole.

I am not saying that the cry of public approval will decrease even if we successfully achieve this. I'm saying that should we achieve this, we will at least cry for something good. There is a saying that " Sometimes the worst thing that can happen to us is to get what we want". That is what happens when we want superficial stuff.

Continuously approving and emphasizing on things that holds little value if not producing negative effect - gives us a junk food appetite. It makes us full, for a while - then we are empty again. Slowly and surely, it slowly kills us. I am not surprised if we are all in one way or another walking down the path that the boy who committed suicide suffered from others.