The word "excellence" gets a new meaning today.
If there's one thing that I had craved for badly in my life and the lives of my children, it has to be "excellence". I yearned for it; I aimed for it; I planned and worked for it; I strived towards it; I prayed for it; I had been disappointed because of it; I had been troubled over it... For me, the end-result of having achieved excellence in life was always images of "success", "full marks", "A", "100%", "best", "number one"...
Pastor shattered that definition and revealed a fresh new perspective for it.
The spirit of excellence enables one to do his or her very best, to give hundred percent, and to leave the results to God. So, my best may not be someone else's best! A 50/100 may be someone's best, while a 100/100 may just be someone's partial effort. These statements are so very straightforward and familiar, but yet have never struck a chord of understanding in me!
Truth sets people free. All I need to do is to present my all and best in everything, and even if the results are far from perfect, I can actually say with good conscience that I have achieved excellence in my life! How wonderful is that!
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Inspiration & Paradox 109: When Only Staying Alive Seems to Be Enough
For the longest time, I’ve wanted to write about Jason’s quite out-of-the-ordinary encounter at the hawker centre.
There he was, having lunch with a friend at a hawker centre when a very normal looking middle-aged man came by at their table and said he was hungry and asked if they could buy him lunch. Not sure if he was one of those rogues or ne’er-do-wells who preferred begging to working, they just ignored him. Moreover, he didn’t have the slightest look of an impoverished, filthy beggar.
It was just a little while before he noticed Jason’s friend had stopped eating and asked if she still wanted the remaining rice and fish soup. And in the next few moments, he was busy helping himself to the left-over. Guilt-stricken, Jason offered to buy him a new lunch. However, he declined and requested if Jason could buy him a drink instead, breaking out in sweats and explaining the peppery soup was too spicy for him. He got his drink, of course.
I couldn’t be more stunned when Jason finished his story. Couldn’t the man find something less demeaning to do with his life? What had reduced him to stooping so low? What could make him push back all dignity to publicly eat what’s left over on a plate by a stranger? It can’t be just the will to stay alive, can it?
There he was, having lunch with a friend at a hawker centre when a very normal looking middle-aged man came by at their table and said he was hungry and asked if they could buy him lunch. Not sure if he was one of those rogues or ne’er-do-wells who preferred begging to working, they just ignored him. Moreover, he didn’t have the slightest look of an impoverished, filthy beggar.
It was just a little while before he noticed Jason’s friend had stopped eating and asked if she still wanted the remaining rice and fish soup. And in the next few moments, he was busy helping himself to the left-over. Guilt-stricken, Jason offered to buy him a new lunch. However, he declined and requested if Jason could buy him a drink instead, breaking out in sweats and explaining the peppery soup was too spicy for him. He got his drink, of course.
I couldn’t be more stunned when Jason finished his story. Couldn’t the man find something less demeaning to do with his life? What had reduced him to stooping so low? What could make him push back all dignity to publicly eat what’s left over on a plate by a stranger? It can’t be just the will to stay alive, can it?
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