THIS EASTER

I'm taking off again this Friday…

It was two years ago that I went for this:

...only two months after arriving here in Melbourne. The phrase “Who is this King of glory?”, the song "Give us clean hands" and Psalms 24 has always stayed with me since then.

And now it’s only four days to my last CF camp (as a student) in this lifetime!

It’s anyone’s guess how my priorities are arranged this year. It doesn’t take rocket science to realize that OCF is right on top of the list… well, second I mean.

Early this year I’ve already sorted my priorities. They go like this:

1. GOD/ bsf
2. OCF/pharos
3. Ministry/Medicine

And I have been observing that quite rigidly. Everything else will take the backseat for now.

I’ll make it up to Pharos (my church cell group) if I end up staying in Melbourne – I shall move over with them to ‘Yound Adults’, leaving the ‘International Student Ministry’ banner (Not that Pharos was really very much a part of ISM). As Clara said, “There’ll never be a time when you’re prepared for working life, you’ll just be thrown into it.” Somehow, I find that comforting… because I don’t feel prepared to make that transition at all. I still want to live the student life!! But the cloud will definitely lift in this aspect. Whether it still stays in Melbourne or shifts to Malaysia, only God knows, for now at least.

In the meantime, this Easter weekend... Coonawarra here I come!!!

CHUNKS OF UNHURRIED TIME

There’s nothing like being able to sit down with my BSF homework, with a cup of coffee at hand and Maria Shandi’s songs plugged in my ear; and knowing that I have the rest of the day to just continue doing that.

I remember one of our cell studies back in my days in IMU: The one recipe in relationships – chunks of unhurried time. I’ve realized more and more how true that is especially in the past year (because I have less and less chunks of unhurried time available!)

No matter how busy I get, there is one relationship that I absolutely cannot neglect, even if it means at the cost of other relationships or responsibilities… one that if I don’t guard, I stop functioning as a person (and I know this by experience).

So for the sake of sanity, friends in hospital, keeping irritability at bay, and my future career in medicine – I’ll have to make sure that I get two nights of ‘chunks of unhurried time’ in a week, no matter the cost, even if it means that I will have to miss out on yet another OCF outing or not put my hand up for something.

No compromise.

Promise.

I’m SOOO looking forward to Easter break. One week of ‘chunks of unhurried time’!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =) =) =)

I honestly can’t remember any other time when I looked forward to a break more.

BY YOUR SPIRIT

Sometimes I wonder if it is only by God’s grace that I’m still doing medicine.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like what I’m doing, and I do like going to the hospital, but I hate the fact that medicine takes up 25-30 of my waking hours in a week (and that’s minus studying time)!

Sigh, this is my last year, possibly in Australia, and definately my last year being a student. Whether I like it or not, at the end of this year, things WILL change. And it seems like there’ll be so many changes and transitions all at once too! >.<

At this point in time, I’ve not been studying much (if at all). I have to confess that I have a deep fear that if I study, I will miss out on the people and the things important to me. I don’t want this year to pass me by - because I have to study - especially when I know that from next year onwards, medicine will be so much a part of my life that many others will have to take second place, or even dropped.

So, it is hard not to hate medicine right now.

In times like these, I remember the Israelites as they were passing through the desert. I remember how they complained about many things – and mind you, many of them were fair things to complain of: no water, no food, no meat, tasteless food, the same food; and not to forget the soarching heat. Yet, even if we complain about things that seem fair, what we’re really saying is ‘We’re entitled to it but God has not provided’, or rather that what God has provided for the time being is not enough for our needs.

All complaining is therefore complaining against God. And the root of all complaining is a lack of trust… trust in God, that He knows and provides for all our needs – ALL our physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

My heart trusts in You.

Bring me through this hectic semester and the next… because looking at my schedule, it all seems very full-on and never-ending.

So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty. Zechariah 4:6

Yes, by Your Spirit.