So we all have birthdays, once every year. Personally I don’t get the big hoo hah’s about birthdays I mean come on, whats more self-indulging than celebrating yourself man, talk about nasserism pfft. Never got the whole party at my place , yay me thing. Interestingly birthdays come with presents and loads of love, that i’m looking forward to but not the whole celebration festive feeling thing.

So why celebrate them? Do we celebrate yet another year given to us in this beautiful world or is it another step to leaving this forsaken world? Interestingly I did a quick google search and looked at the different articles and most of them have this in common, it is to celebrate one’s cumulative achievements, success, resilience and progress between the years.

This social custom is definitely more than an astrological event if you put more thoughts into it, much more than the endless cycles of stars and planets, the very first pioneers who started to celebrate birthdays must have something great or something so good everyone must remember; maybe this was how festive events and holidays were birth.

So don’t belittle this important time of the year, to celebrate yourself, all the things you’ve done in the past year, the progress of your life, all the goods and bads to remember. It is like popping the sweet wine you have kept for an entire year, on that very day poured out, enjoyed by the people around you.

Cheers!

I know that this is not just lies

I’d still hold on to you ever so tight

If you ever tried to shake me with your might

Nothing could ever convince me

that you’re not the one for me

Its not just when we talk

but also even when we walk,

that you make me wana stutter

because my heart is a in a cluster

When we kiss its like “ohhhhhhh!”

you complete me,

you make me whole

The following happened between 1800 hrs to 1830 hours.

I boarded the train at outram park, the purple line, surprisingly got a seat at this rush hour timing. I was sitting beside a nice pleasant gentleman, out of no where, a friend of his showed up, they started to chat, that friend standing in front of him.

Chatting about mundane stuff, about problems he was facing in his life, about his last year in NTU, the guy seated was facing unemployment; “depressing” i thought to myself.

Unzipping my bag, taking out my iPod, I begin to select songs for the next 30 minutes of train ride; Just before I was about to pop in the headphones, I heard “are you a christian?”, I looked up, it was the friend of the guy seated next to me.

Curiosity always got the better of me, I could’nt help but to leave my iPod unplugged, eavedropping on their conversation; the man, in his late 20s started to share how he was depressed and suicidal, and how God unfolded in his life.

Apparently, the man found many opportunities knocking on his life after he went to church, but spoke about being skeptical and all; by this time, a nice caucasian lady with a semi-circle table walked in, we were only at douby guat. I looked up and a nice lady sitting opposite me gave me a nice smile, I smiled back.

Working in a financial institution, the man standing began to share how he got the job from a member of the church and a series of events that followed that led to his success, giving praise to God for every chance. By this time, the train just passed Potong Pasir.

Giving his name card and after being invited church, the man seated said he’ll consider going. Bidding farewell and exchanging contacts, the man with a christian book in his hand alighted at Serangoon.

This set me thinking, how powerful our personal testimony are to our friends, especially when they can see the results for themselves, how often do we tend to forget this important part about giving our personal testimonies?

2 Timothy 1:8
[ Not Ashamed of the Gospel ] Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God,

How our lives come to be of, engineered events of our lives, so detailed, down to every meal you take, every breath you took, our lives so intellegently engineered to who we are today.

Think about it, major events that spun your life off to different routes, would it be the route you’re walking on today? Crucial dicisions made, friends, relationship, family, what do they all have influence over? They decide who you are.

Often we hear, it is not you that decides who you are, but rather society that decides; how true is, that the people around us are the ones that decides who are we? Who then, are we to say who we are? We dont decide for ourselves.

How are we being so cleverly engineered today? Maybe the next 1 hour of your life will spin you off in another direction, or maybe after reading this? No one knows, theres no such thing as tentative truths except for One.

Are you being engineered for success? I know i am.

So, recently was away for the week to visit Vietnam. If you’re wondering where’s Vietnam, its Above Thailand beside Myanmmar; great place to visit, full of heritage and rich in cultures. Friendly people- and surpringly there were no fat people in Vietnam; never even saw a obese local, probabbly must be the diet there which consist of mainly greens.

So in the 5 day trip, Went to 3 Places in Vietnam- Ho Ching Ming City, Veng Dau and one of the village islands, saw the life there- experienced a boat ride, all-so-many-things to say so ill let flickr do the talking:

This’ my favorite of the whole trip