Da da da da da da da da!
Da da da da da da da da!
Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da DAH DAH!

Haha, God is good.

Once again, I am overwhelmed by his grace:
his providence,
his blessings,
his joy,
his comfort,
his peace,
his rest…

The LORD is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation;
This is my God, and I will praise Him;
My father's God, and I will extol Him
– Exodus 15:1-3

Events of the day:

[I'm currently auditing a software company, in a team of four. The work environment is not *too* favourable: despite the completely open concept layout, it is *extremely* quiet. Also, the client placed us right behind a couple of servers, and the fans around are FREEZING! The drone of fans is also quite sleep-inducing. =P Anyway...]

At around 11 o'clock, the server makes a noise, like it's going to shut down. Subsequently, some power goes down, and monitors around us start flickering. The server maintenance guy runs in, some profane language escapes his mouth, and he runs off. Apparently, (as I later found out,) he went to pull the fire alarm.

A few seconds later, all power dies.

The fire alarm rings.

"Fire! Electrical! Get out!"

I look to my team, and shruggedly, we follow the crowd out to the parking lot, actually smelling some burning smell on the way out.

A few minutes later, four fire engines pull up and the firefighters proceed to investigate the situation in the basement of the building. They come back out, get gas masks, and start pulling out a waterhose, pumping water through.

A few minutes later, Pizza Pizza pizza is delivered, and we get free food.

["nice." =P]

After half an hour or so, as the firefighters retreated and started to pack up, everyone was let into the building to collect their personal belongings, and were dismissed for the day.

Haha, exciting things *do* happen on audits. =P Actually something else happened today too... we were notified that one of our contacts was to be let go today, effective immediately. That was *not* fun.

Anyway, our senior let us go home for the day, but I ended up going back to the office with her because a whole slew of things was looming over my head, although I still intended to leave early.

And so I did.

I really need to practise. =P

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

re: July 22 - Sanctification, the death side

I've never thought of sanctification as explicitly as Oswald Chambers explains it.. the process of my "stripping down," down to my totally depraved nakedness; the vulnerability is kind of scary.

This text made actually me think of the book we attempted to read [for cell group]: "The Heart of Worship", by Matt Redman. The second chapter is called "The Undone Worshipper". It tells about worshipping God with a brokenness where God "undoes" us, maybe even leaving us with a thorn in the flesh to remind us of our weakness. It's only in this realization of our nothingness that we can truly worship God.

Matt Redman's story is pretty amazing.. what happened was that he got tendinitis in his right hand, which means not being able to play guitar for 6-7 weeks. For a worship leader, songwriter, a general music person, that is detrimental.. I don't know how difficult it would be for me if I had to give up a similar characteristic so integral to my self. But he only faced it with an attitude of worship, humbly trusting in God.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
– Psalm 51:17

(Read the previous post first if you haven't already...)
(Don't worry, only seldomly will I write such lengthiness. =P)

Oh yes, I *did* have another point to my story.

Given my gratefulness and appreciation for all my friends who have taken time to give me a card, I should really turn my efforts up a notch and try to remember birthdays... I'm just not a "date" kind of person. =P

[sigh]... perhaps too much nostalgia for my own good. =P Not to say, however, that I don't live in the present; I very much do...

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

OK, I don’t often do this, share my recent thoughts, (or even, my life story.) But in any case, here goes. I’ll try to come up with a point. =P

Random thoughts on a common theme…

…a result of a combination of items:

1. I’ve been cleaning my room lately (it’s taken >6 mos.)
2. I possess tendencies of an extreme packrat (it’s genetic, I say.)
3. I also possess meticulousness in organization (anal accountant? Perhaps.)
4. My friends and I either graduated this year or will graduate in the next year.
5. I enjoy very much moments of nostalgia in general.

I stumbled on my old cards as I cleaned my room. Of course, they were all packaged and labelled by year, grade, and event. Because my friends and I are all approaching graduation and moving on to the next stage of life, everyone is curious as to the “goings-on’s” of everyone else with whom we went to school before university.

Looking at these cards made me think of my journey:

Meeting my first friends in grade one: Alfred and Andrew… it was on the school climber (back then climbers were built out of wood, complete with opportunities to pick up slivers, none of this ultra-safe plastic nowadays: what fun is that?? =P)

My first birthday cards: 11th birthday in grade 5, 12th birthday in grade 6… where the gesture of a card was ample; where Andrew was the coolest person to have a computer-generated, dot-matrix printed card =P; we only signed names without writing anything; friendships were innocent and fun; there was no need to “talk” anything out; disputes were rare, if any.

A drought of cards between grades 7 to 9, which confirms the reasons for my extreme dislike of middle school… it was a traumatic experience, indeed. =P

Starting from grade 10, (sweet sixteen!) a LOT more was written in cards. It’s amazing how far we’ve come since grade one. We have since matured significantly, having gone through many more life experiences (although I don’t deny having a somewhat sheltered childhood / adolescence…), accomplished many achievements, dreamt bigger and better futures.

As I graduated from high school, my circle of friends expanded... We’ve shared wonderful experiences together: Switzerland, and being stranded in Florence; monopolizing the school by controlling the yearbook ([to the student council] Oh yeah? Oh yeah? One page for you! Black and white! =P Haha, joking); graduating from a ghetto school as a circle of friends who actually looked toward the future... =P

I also got to know what *real* friendship is: sharing struggles and burdens with each other, empathizing based on the understanding gained from past experiences, caring without seeking anything in return, tasting the purity the love of philios…

This concept of friendship extended to university; having met a few more people whom I now consider as my closest friends…

My point in all of this?

In the final analysis, all I can say is that I have been blessed beyond comprehension. God has carried me through all these years (especially out of those traumatic middle school years… =P) and I am forever grateful.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
– James 1:17

Hello there, I realize this will only be significant to some, but I just wanted to announce that I (finally) saw Minority Report.

Very interesting, quite thought-provoking.

Anyway, I'm sure you'll hear more about this later... =P

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Sorry, I realize it’s been a LONG while… haven’t had much time to think and write, but here’s what I *was* thinking about:

Do we ever *need* a boyfriend/girlfriend?

By definition, “need” means there is a *necessity.* Perhaps this necessity demonstrates the importance of the person; that we cannot live without him/her. This may be the highest form of compliment… (recall the movie, “Needing You” =P)… demonstrating to the other person that the relationship is indispensable.

Maybe we *need* affection, need someone to care for us, to be there for us when we need it…

But… do we ever get to that level of necessity? I don’t know.

Nor am I an advocate of necessity for such things either…

Just something that I’ve been thinking about lately.. =P

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

(In response to Nighthawk's comments:) [see "Enjoy a Yam here"]

I agree. Long distance is *not* an ideal, and I don’t think people go around *looking* for a long distance relationship anyway… it just results from circumstance…

And I’m not saying distance is completely not a factor. =P But I guess I emphasize the “commitment” part of the relationship. True, commitment should be a significant part of *any* relationship, but it just takes a *lot* more effort in a long distance one. The risk of being too independent is extremely high. However, it’s still possible to still communicate, to support one another in struggles, to overcome trials together despite the difference in location…

I don’t know, I realize I’m idealistic in many ways… =P But it still boggles my mind: if people really want *something*.. wouldn't they stop at nothing to get it? (fine, under reasonable situations... but still...)

I don't know, I still think that if there's a will, there's a way...

*especially* if it's God's will...

so I guess the question becomes, then, *is* it God's will...?

But then again, that is *always* the question... =P

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.