Small Matters.

Why would writers of both the Old and New Testaments make it a point to write about how God cares about the tiny things in life that we think are small and not important?

Lets take a peek at just one example from each Testament:

Exodus 25 - 28
Just look at how detailed God wanted the glorious Tabernacle (and everything that has got to do with it) to be. When I first read this book, I was astonished at so many small things which God commanded the Israelites to do. Was all that really necessary?

Matthew 10:30, Luke 12:7
The very hairs on my head are numbered!
Seriously, as long as there are hairs on my head, I don't really care what's the number...though the thickness does :P

We live our lives going through the ups and downs, focusing mostly on the big-important matters because they are simply big and 'important'. Some of us have actually forgotten about the small matters altogether, and dismissed them as unnecessary, and need no attention at all.

However, things which are small don't mean that they are not important. Just like how a stranger smiled at me this morning while I was walking along the corridor at the court complex, and that smile maybe small, but it made a difference! Things like saying thank you to anyone who helped in anyway at all, sharing an umbrella with someone who's stuck in the rain and helping someone pick up books that fell to the ground are small, but they do matter.

I became so disgruntled after giving someone a lift home last night because that person didn't ask me how I was doing and didn't say thank you when getting off my car, simply slammed the door and left. It was a very very silent drive too (minus the conversations I made to know how that person's life is lately). Although I didn't express how I felt, I had to stop and think, "Why did I react that way? It's really small...but it affected me so much."...I was glad that now I know how it's like to be a chauffeur.

Last week, I got scolding from two strangers, on two different days, at two different locations, for really small reasons (one of it wasn't even my fault). I had to get to somewhere isolated and cool down so that I didn't burst out in anger in front of them. Honestly, they are really small matters, but they affected me at a larger scale than the relative 'size' I gave them.

Well, the truth is: Small matters don't make them don't-matter's.

Now I know why God wants us to cast all our cares, whether big or small, unto Him, not just because He wants to take care of all our needs and help us through our concerns, but also because He knows that small things DO matter to our lives.

Just as He is a person who likes details and how small things matter to Him, we being created in His image, are the same. Without these small matters, sooner or later we'll lose the joy in living within a community, and lose our 'lives' because we have become mere robotic creatures that do only those things that seemingly matter more.

For me, yes big things do matter, but the small things are part and parcel of life, the ones that cling on to my journey in dealing with the big things. Small matters do matter.

God bless! ;)

Some '25' Facts.

Just because I turn 25 today.

1. Thomas Clarkson was 25 when he won the annual Latin essay contest at Cambridge in 1785 on 'slavery' which drove him to be the pioneer behind the movement for abolition of slavery in England.

2. The first man in space, Yurin Gagarin, has in his spaceship a sealed envelope with a single white sheet on which was written the number 25 - the code to activate manual control of the spaceship in the event the automatic systems failed.

3. 25 Minutes, that's my all time favourite Michael Learns To Rock song :D

4. 5 x 5 = 25!

5. You will have to pay RM32 for posting a package that weighs 25 kgs with Pos Laju for local town delivery.

6. Edward Norton acted in a movie called 25th Hour.

7. Indonesia has won 25 Olympic Games medals so far, 6 of them are gold medals, 9 silver and 10 bronze.

8. The population of Saudi Arabia is 25 million.

9. 25 Words Or Less is a board game that I'd like to try ;)

10. The chicken satay at Balik Pulau, Penang costs only 25 cents each!

11. We celebrate Christmas on the 25th day of December every year.

12. Brunei celebrated its 25 years of independence in the year 2009.

Ok....I think I ran out of '25' facts now.

A Quarter Century On Planet Earth.

Happy birthday to me :)

I am on Earth for 25 years officially. That's about 13,140,000 minutes...

I do enjoy life here, and I thank God for each day because He tells me how much He loves me with every single experience and minute spent on Earth. I praise Him for having the idea of creating me (and executing that idea) so that He can take me on this adventurously beautiful and wonderful journey of being a first-hand witness to all that beauty of His.

It is such an honour and privilege to be born on this very day 25 years ago.

But when I think about what have I done for Him, I am so ashamed to say that I didn't really do much. In comparison to what He has done for humanity, the total sum of all I did is so puny :P

However, I am glad that I am here on Earth not to just do, do, do and work, work work, but to live, live, live.

I am looking forward to many more great adventures with God ;)

I hope you will share the same excitement I feel on your birthday too.

How long can I withstand it?

I always knew that there is something bigger than myself.

But why is it so painful to bear?

I looked in the streets and see men & women high on drugs, infected with HIV, identity-less, tormented.

I looked at the next generation of this nation and see kids who are abused, disillusioned, lost, broken.

I looked in the systems adminitering this nation and see corruption, selfishness, unstability, injustice.

I can only keep declaring that He reigns no matter how things look like. But I want to use these hands, feet and voice to make a difference. What can I do?

My fragile heart is too small to contain the burden it carries.

How long can I withstand it before it explodes?