About Christianity

'nobody expected that,' my friend (friend A) told me in an expression of disbelief when the results of an interview came out. she had applied for a job at an airline company as an air stewardess. there she met another of our friend (friend .

they had a group interview, and everyone was able to see each other. everyone wore formal clothings, and spoke very well (of course they memorize scripts). but my friend, friend B, did not wear any formal clothings, and did not speak very well. it was very obvious to the others she did not prepare, or did not prepare very well for the interview.

the result was this: friend B was the only person who got through the interview. all the others failed. everyone else was shocked. i guess if you were there you would be too. how can one who did not even bother to dress properly or even speak properly, who looked like she did not even put in much effort for the interview, get through it while all the others who prepared a lot and supposedly did better failed?

well, i am not the judge, so i cannot say anything.

but are we all not like that? like the people who failed in the interview.

why did friend B get past the tests while all the others did not? the reason was simple. friend B had something the others did not. i don't know what it is, and i could not think of any. but it did not mean that she did not have what the others don't.

in our life, sometimes we thought we are good people, if we do good deeds, if we pray everyday, go to church regularly, do mission work, preach the Gospel. of course, all these are proofs that you are trying to be a good christian, at least outwardly.

whatever is your intention, it is proof that for one who does all these, he puts in effort. but sometimes (i think, since i am not God), God looked past all these and looks into our heart, for something that He wants. like the interviewer looks at all applicants to search for the very thing he wants, God also searches our heart to look for what He wants.

it did not matter how many of the other qualities you have, but as long as you did not have the essential and the most important of quality, you fail the test. just like how all the other applicants failed.

for christians, many of us put in a lot of effort. it is an undeniable fact. you put in time for mission works, for ministries, for prayers, quiet time, reading the scriptures...etc. maybe your sincerity is evident. i don't know, i am not you. just like how the other applicants were, it was no doubt they put in a lot of efforts, rehearsing their speech, dress nicely....etc.

but, effort is not tagged to success. it is a fact of life. not that i am asking you to work smart. or maybe i am. just like every test, you need to have something the examiner/interviewer/God wants. for all the work we as christians do, there is one thing we severely lack in our hearts.

and that is love.

our religion is one centered on love. nobody would disagree with me, i guess? because of love, Christ came down, suffer and die for us. because of love, He sent us out to preach to other people, to bring them to Him. because of love, He forgave all our sins, despite how many times we sinned against him, deliberately. because of love, He is always by our side. because of love.....there are many other things you can think of. i can never say finish....

as we do mission work, as we pray, as we read the scriptures...do we have love? when we do good deeds, is it because we love the person, or is it because it is an obligation as a christian? if we do quiet time, is it because we love God and want to spend time with Him, or is it just a routine? for all the things we do, how many of these are done out of love?

i don't know how those people who do things not for love will end up. because i am not God, so i don't know what will happen. i don't know if these people (me being one of them, i admit) will fail the test. i don't know what will happen if we fail the test.

i only know, if for all the things we do, no matter how beautiful it is outwardly, if inwardly we have no love, then, i guess we failed. because the most basic of christianity, love, is not present. (ok i think love is the most basic, but if i am wrong, please tell me.)

we are not interviewing for a place in the airline company as an air stewardess. we are applying for a place in heaven. everyone can go there, if we have what God wants. unlike the job vacancies where there is only limited places and where they only take the best ones, in my knowledge, heaven has no limits to the vacancies. all you need to do, is to have what God wants, and by faith and grace, you can get yourself a place.

heaven is a place much better than an airline company, although i don't wish to get there so soon at only the age of 21. this time, the judge is God. do you have the qualities He wants to see in you?

chinese teacher left behind students and ran away on his own during the sichuan earthquake. what do you think of this statement which was in the news? what is the first impression you have?

let me see..... he don't deserve to live. he is heartless. he is a coward. he ought to die. he is not fit to live. a rotten man. are these the thoughts that came into your mind? if it is, see, you made another mistake. because, who are you to condemn him?

let me say first, i read the headlines, and not the article. but what i am saying is not related to that. that is not important, because, i am going to address the issue of humans judging one another too quickly. no, i am not defending him. i am not judging him.

so he ran, leaving behind his students and leaving them to die. he got slammed, he got flamed and he got condemned. maybe you think he deserved it, because if he just stayed, he might have saved some lives. some of you more noble people may have sacrificed your lives to save that few kids, or as many as you can. afterall, they are children with a bright future. fair? it seemed so.

how about we look from another perspective? his perspective.

what if his parents had not yet died? what if he has a family to support? here, i am assuming his parents are still around and he has a family to take care of. please note, in china, the women do not work, or seldom work after they got married. traditional thinking. the man brings in the bread. in china, you only have a kid. his parents most likely only have him as the only child.

now... the situation in front of you. an earthquake. someone got to die. you either save the kids and risk dying, or you leave them to die and get a higher chance of survival. obviously, he chose the second one. are you condemning him again? think about it again. if he die, who is going to take care of his parents? if he die, who is going to take care of his family? would you save a few kids and let your family suffer, or risk getting condemned and slammed and insulted and flamed but able to live on for the sake of your family? so what if your name got written down in the newspaper as a crisis hero who died but your living family suffered? if you die, that's the end of you.

no, i am not saying the reason why he ran is because of that. he might have other reasons. or he might just like you say, a coward who care for nothing else but for his survival. what i want to say, people do things for different reasons. who are we to judge him? if i have a family, i would rather get condemn and live, than to die a crisis hero. planning to slam me? you better not do it on my website.

same for other things. sometimes people do things that are 'evil' or 'bad'. we are quick to judge. we hear one side of the story and we jump to conclusions. always being full of ourselves, always think other people are no good. but what if, we are in the same situation as them, what would we do? 'i would definately save the children.' is that what you think? no. unless you go through the whole thing yourself, you are not fit to comment on anything. yes. not fit. because no one can talk about what they do not understand. it makes us an even worse hypocrites than we are right now. we may think we will save the kids, but when the real thing came, what would you do? what would you do?

i am not saying you are also another coward who will run away. who knows? you might be a hero. you might be a coward. you might stay. you might run. whatever you do, who are others to judge? everyone has different purposes in life. who are we to judge others?

so, the next time something like that happens, big or small, in war or peace, in any kind of situation, do not judge. of course, i am saying this as a person who has not undergo any tragedies in life. maybe, if something bad happen to me, like someone come and kill off my loved ones, i would condemn him too. because we always talk about things we don't understand. always.

but there is this statement (from memory) from a character in a game (True Tears) i played, which is translated as :

it is true i cannot understand you. but it is because i cannot understand the pain, that i can give you support. it is because i don't know the suffering, that i can encourage you. if i truely know and truely understand, then, maybe i could not even utter a single word.

what i want to say is, encourage people, and not judge them. i am saying this from the point of a person who never experienced a single tragedy in life, which is why i am able to say it. this post is kind of contradicting, eh?

i just finished my exams. like i said, i always have the habit of cramping everything in the last minute. the result of it is that i spent the last 3 months studying like crazy. ok so the exams ended. i finally can enjoy life. in fact i am enjoying it. although i still have to work in the day, i felt relieved that i do not need to take out my notes and memorize the words written on it when i went back to my room after a long day at work. yes, i am quite happy with the way i am.

many people have different plans after exams. playing games, clubbing, shopping, learn something new, go out, work etc. many things. everybody does different things. but whatever the case, we can say that almost all of us enjoy ourselves. i am referring to people like me, a normal human living in a normal and blessed condition. yes i admit i am blessed. back to what i was saying, we all have different defintions of enjoying life.

i got a friend, who recently disappeared on the cyberworld and appeared less often. reason? life offline is more constructive than life online. as we all finish our exams, we have the next thing to ask. we are still young, what should we do so that we will not waste our life away? of course to do something constructive. but what is a constructive life? shopping? playing? learning? no i am not criticizing what people do. if you think by shopping you can be happy, go ahead. i play games too. but then, enjoying life and a constuctive life is different, and a constructive life is different from a purposeful life.

you may play games, but it may not constructive. you may take up a new course to learn something, but that may not be purposeful. we only live life once. when we die, what do you hope to achieve? that i achived a level 100 in a mmorpg game? or i got 20 degrees in university? of course, i am not condemning that. who knows? maybe your level 100 is your purpose in life. everyone has a different purpose that she or he understands and set out to do. who am i to judge? but i am saying, on your deathbed, or years later when you look back, do you want to regret spending your youth on something meaningless?

for me, i play too. and i know games are pointless. i don't play a lot now. i know my purpose. and my purpose is writing stories ( i am posting it up starting on 15 june 2008 though, on my website ). is it strange? maybe to you it is. to me it is not. you might think it is pointless to write a story just like how i think playing a game has no purpose at all. of course, the purpose is given to us by God, and He will know what to do with it, including if your life mission is to do something really pointless in a human's point of view.

now that i have free time, i am able to think in a relaxed way. of course i still play game. you don't expect a human to only work and not play. what i am trying to say is, are you spending your time in such a way and for a purpose that you will smile and be proud of years later, or will you waste your life on enjoyable things but will achieve nothing in the end?