Kissing Dating Goodbye

A review - well, sort of - of a famous book written by Joshua Harris way back in 1997.

It took me a while to finish this book. Recommended by a cousin of mine (who's now nearly 40...gosh, you're middle-aged now, cousin!), I brought it along with me to many places to fill my free time. Like the Lawas camp in early December. A friend of mine was reading it too at that time.

In short, the book speaks my mind on a guy-girl relationship. My mind. That being said, there is even kind of a disclaimer by the author: "I've never claimed that the ideas I share in it are for everyone." Perhaps it is for me, or perhaps it's just me thinking so.

The central idea running from cover-to-cover of the book is that we should love God with all our hearts. It highlights, among others, 7 defective dating practices, and draws on real-life examples to show how negative the implications can be. It describes heartbreak, a continual sense of guilt, and ultimately failure in honoring God - set from the point of view of couples in unhealthy relationships. With mainly teenage readers in mind (Josh was 21 when he wrote the book), the book also points out that any godly relationship be directed towards purity. And it keeps mentioning that that's where contemporary dating often misses.

One of the self-talk material in the book is about asking ourselves, "How will my relationship with this person (opposite sex) prepare him/her for his/her eventual life partner?" I think it's interesting because it gives a future-oriented, long-term perspective on romance.

But the part which sinks deepest into me is near the end, where the author suggests us readers to make our own love story as special as it can be.

I'm sure people have different opinions on the ideas presented in this book, but that just makes situations more interesting in this world we're living in. Otherwise romance wouldn't be an ingredient in top box-office films. And humans probably would lose their humanity. And, there wouldn't be sites like this (I Kissed Joshua Harris' Dating Critique Goodbye).

Let it go!

A private moment reflection...

"Those of you who hold A's in your hands, who have achieved success, let it go. Release it. Let others grab the same blessings. The only way to make yourself indispensable is to make yourself dispensable.

Let it all go. God's Word tells us: it is more blessed to give than to receive. God says, if you love me, you'll do what I command. Give it all. The poor woman gave two pieces of coins: all she's got. Jesus points out that she has given the most. Now what about you?

Learn to give, learn to give your all, give it out of love, for God is love. The moment we're giving we're proclaiming God's awesome name. We're being witnesses of God. The light and salt for the world, as Jesus commanded. We'll bless lives and we'll bring the Kingdom of God to every person's heart.

So don't be afraid of giving it all."

16th December 2007
Picture credit: http://www.letmypeoplego.org/

Etiquette

Sometimes, social customs simply bar those curiosity and "critical-thinking" questions which could be interpreted as impolite/rude/offensive.


From an Info Guide for international students:

Some Social Customs

• It is not usually polite to ask people questions about their income, religion or political preferences.

By common sense, those stuff are usually known. But what troubles me now is that out of curiosity/excitement, I could sometimes forget the boundaries.

About finances, MSN Money has this interesting article:
Don't be gauche: Polite ways to talk money

Trips of time

A review of where my time has been.


Here are 10 recent things that occurred to me:

1. Phoned by sponsor - My offer/contract letter's coming soon. There's also a compulsory briefing in KL on the 28th of January. And they don't have my flight date yet. That's bad.

2. Exercise! - Went jogging in Likas Sports Complex. Clocked 4 minutes, 24.79 seconds. Also practiced some Taekwondo moves.

3. Talked about medical interview - that was with two friends, who were hastily informed about an upcoming aptitude test and interview by a medical school. The best part was generously sharing everything I know about my (only) interview experience. The worst part was knowing that my two friends didn't get to go after all. (And I don't know why, yet.)

4. Hung out - or is it hanged out? Anyway, the important thing is that a lot of us ex-schoolmates have got a good time dining and laughing. Until 1.30 in the morning.

5. Napped - this is becoming a daily activity since last week. In the afternoons, as I lied down, a short shut-eye would inevitably come. Even in the midst of a full band jamming (yesterday).

6. Read - (pronounced "red" instead of "reed") God's Word is my staple morning diet, but it's starting to be less routine. This is bad (too). And I've recently read Joshua Harris' I Kissed Dating Goodbye and Spencer Johnson's Who Moved My Cheese?

7. Swam - in a river. With other youth. What made it memorable was that I challenged my fear and jumped from a rock into a deep part of the river.

8. Gamed - Quake 4 and DotA, in a cybercafe. And Facebook Apps at home. Also Diablo (reached level 31 after beating Nightmare on Single Player).

9. Taught tuition classes - about 4 per week. It keeps my sense of teaching alive.

10. Spoke - it was on New Year's Eve, at around 11.30 pm. Mainly about handing our plans (and time) into God's hands. And about my 2008 theme: So run to win!


Previous themes:
2007b: Nothing to lose
2007a: In full faith
2006: Nothing wasted, all for Jesus
2005: To the limits!
2004: Strive for Excellence

P/S: Notice how "time" and its derivatives are very involved in each sentence above?

The Clock Ticks

An insight into the blog title...


Time is a valuable thing. Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings. So said Linkin Park's In the End. And I share the same view.

There was another forwarded e-mail message about being deposited $86,400 every day, with one condition: it must be used up within 24 hours. Ever thought about that?

At first, I named this blog 31.5 million seconds because it related time and a very large numerical figure. That is a period of one year (my pre-university studies was done in May 2007, and I am continuing university education in February 2008. Not exactly one year though...) I had around 9 months of waiting for a planned university entry.

There are:
60 seconds in a minute.
60 hours in an hour.
24 hours in a day.
365 days in a year (366 days in 2008).

That's where the $86,400 (or seconds) come from. And it also shows that we are actually given 31.6 megaseconds this year. That's like an extra $100,000.

Ever seen the time-value questions? To know the value of 1 year, ask the mother of a newborn baby. To know (or make sense of) the value of 0.1 second(s), ask the silver-medalist of a 100m sprint.

Once time passes, it's gone. No turning back. Time machines in Doraemon and Back to the Future explore the human fantasy of wanting to turn back the clock. But it's unrealistic.

There's also a scientific saying: Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once. It makes memorable things memorable. "Good old days" bears meaning because time exists. And drag racing is made possible. And world records.

You know who do I think is unbounded by time? God the Creator. The omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. And probably we'll be free too on the other side of life: eternity.

So what's eternity? It's almost unthinkable. You live forever. So do I. And with each passing day is an ultimate freshness that continues on and on, for there is no such thing as "old".

No aging. Like a Mithril Sword of Ages found in video games - never losing durability, never wearing out, never destroyed. Indestructible.

Wait, did I say passing day? Perhaps there is not even a passing of the day as we know it, for it is already the grand continuum. Eternity is where life lasts forever.


Some more:
Time (wikipedia entry)