Long weekend

It has been a good rest for me. I took a break from Galatians 4:1-11 whilst Dr. Lawson was evaluating my draft over the weekend.

I've been on a grand eating spree too, now that I'm 90% recovered from my flu (also since I turned 28 last Tuesday). Ooooh... all those cookies I missed out on over Chinese New Year! Suan Hui, who just came back from Singapore, brought us this big box of Bengawan Solo CNY cookies - a gorgeous assortment of them that included my favorite pineapple tarts. I've slowed down a little today on 'em, cookies... but still, the amount of cookies that my stomach has digested over the weekend was hmm.... quite hefty. Having taken a break from good ol' exercise, I will surely return to it tomorrow - with gusto! :P Eating out with the hubby and my parents-in-law has been awesome-pawsome too - not so much of the food (the food was great) - but more of the company and time of bonding. I thank God for the long weekend indeed!

Today, I mapped out the course of my life (as part of my Spiritual Formation III assignment) and roughed out a time-line to evaluate how God has been leading me in the past 28 years to where I am today (and where I will be in the future). I must say that it is a useful exercise. In hindsight, the difficulties I faced in the various seasons of my life don't seem quite so dreary. In fact, I am encouraged that God willed them to be part of the process of humbling and shaping me according to His great purposes. I was especially surprised to recall that I never particularly had a passion for music during my 11 years of formal music education. It was a lot of disciplining for me. I remember practicing rather grudgingly (not to mention that I was kinda lazy to practice too); performing and competing for the sake of pleasing my teachers and parents; and sitting for exams with great fear and resentment. Haha! I was so incredibly relieved that my parents let me discontinue my music lessons to prepare for my PMR examinations. I didn't have much to do with music for that 2-3 years prior to my Christian conversion - and those were rough years for me too, what with my eating disorders (anorexia nervosa) peaking. It was only after I had begun serving in God's ministries as a musician and vocalist (and I have been serving for another ~11 years by now, with God's help) that my passion for music grew in leaps and bounds. On the other hand, the exercise has brought to mind another childhood passion of mine which has been rather neglected over the years - especially since I left home for college. I hope to share a little more 'bout this another day. Perhaps, God's sovereign time has come that I would begin "reviving" the passion some time soon.

You should try the exercise out for yourselves sometime - if you haven't, that is. Pray and ask God to help you recall the seasons past - particularly the turning points, the difficulties, unforgettable experiences, life events that influenced you, childhood ambitions/dreams, maturing passions, education and equipping, things you can not change about life, etc. Subsequently, pray for the discernment of the significance of these. How has God used them to shape you? Where is He leading you in life - especially within the big picture of His mission in this world?

Happy discovery.