Post Valentine, Pre Term Break
So, Friendship Day, or more commonly known as Valentine Day is over for this year and it will be another 363 days before we see the next one, hopefully so. This season for love has also allowed to reflect and evaluate my own friendship with other people. Or rather, I begin to think about some of the 'wrongs' that have been done to me. I inevitably start linking everything to the word 'forgiveness'. One of the weekly wisdoms for this week says this:
And Christnote gave a very good analogy to demonstrate this. Say you lend a person one thousand dollars, but suppose that when the time comes for the loan to be repaid that person is unable to repay you. If you forgive that person of his debt, then that person no longer owes you anything. By forgiving, you forfeited the money—you absorbed the debt. Likewise, when you forgive other people, you inevitably absorb the issue into your heart. It's no longer just mere acceptance, it's absorption, or better expressed in chinese as '包容'. Forgiveness is a sign of love. To forgive someone of a massive wrong or a massive fault by itself is an extremely difficult task. The pain, suffering and loss absorbed by forgiving can never be understood by others who are not absorbing the debt.
As I began to reflect on this, I began to think about myself. How is it possible that we can forgive people so easily and readily? Given such a strong personality as I am, it is often difficult to do so. Nevertheless, to me, it sounds more reasonable to forgive and forget, since on one hand, on the more practical level, it's harmful to health bearing grudges and on the other hand, I'm more than willing to be motivated by the notion of love. This word, as I used to discuss, is such a powerful word.
Thinking of this, I was therefore touched by the various signs of love that has happened to me for the past few months and would not have been possible. Thinking back all this while, since 10 Dec 2005, when I decided to take the leap of faith and receive Christ into my life and begin a relationship with God, I was truly touched by His love for me and the others. I shall not go into details of these, but as my 'lady boss' had said last week, 'I'm very protected by God'. Knowing for the past two months, I have been so truly convinced that He exists and lives that it will take even greater faith for me to believe otherwise. There is certainly no regret in starting this relationship, and it is amazing to think about it... till this day, I'm still amazed by the changes in my life. To speak in a biblical sense, all mankinds are sinners, but yet He forgave us and loved us so much that, by, certainly, the most outright and ultimate and extreme expression of his love, he 'sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life' with Him. And that Son is of course, who the world has largely known: Jesus.
Then you may ask me, 'hey hey, if God really exist, if Jesus really walked the Earth, prove it to me'. My answer is as such, 'if you really wanna know, why not you pick up the Bible, read it, then you tell me. If you want concrete evidence, go and read books like 'Case for Christ' by Lee Strobel'. Faith in God do not rely on concrete evidence though. It relies on just pure faith, in fact we only need a faith of the size of a mustard seed, in order to do the experimental test, that you will need in order to prove that God exists. That is to receive Christ into your life and see for yourself the ultimate proof of God's existence. To put it in an analogy, in a math test, even if you know how to do the question, as long as you dun write the solution down in the answer sheet, you will never know whether it is correct, and you will never get the mark even if you are correct.' Hence, to know if God exists, we must first know Him first. As said beautifully by one of my brothers in Church,
By then, let your heart tells you whether God exists or not. I did it, and I till this day, the proof is way too overwhelming for me.
Maybe we can put it in another way. You can argue with me that unless you prove that God exists, you will never believe in God. Then let's face it in the most practical sense. If there is really God, and He exists, do you really think that He will be sitting there letting you to prove His existence by empirical methods? For one thing, if this is so, then God has become the subject of our discussion but this is not so. No one can ever find God, it is God who comes to us. I never believed that until I saw it with my own eyes in the weeks leading to my leap of faith. It's the time, when I can no longer deny the existence of God.
Well, who knows, perhaps He's currently pursuing you now too.
When you forgive, the debt doesn't just go away. You absorb the debt. That's why forgiveness is so hard.
And Christnote gave a very good analogy to demonstrate this. Say you lend a person one thousand dollars, but suppose that when the time comes for the loan to be repaid that person is unable to repay you. If you forgive that person of his debt, then that person no longer owes you anything. By forgiving, you forfeited the money—you absorbed the debt. Likewise, when you forgive other people, you inevitably absorb the issue into your heart. It's no longer just mere acceptance, it's absorption, or better expressed in chinese as '包容'. Forgiveness is a sign of love. To forgive someone of a massive wrong or a massive fault by itself is an extremely difficult task. The pain, suffering and loss absorbed by forgiving can never be understood by others who are not absorbing the debt.
As I began to reflect on this, I began to think about myself. How is it possible that we can forgive people so easily and readily? Given such a strong personality as I am, it is often difficult to do so. Nevertheless, to me, it sounds more reasonable to forgive and forget, since on one hand, on the more practical level, it's harmful to health bearing grudges and on the other hand, I'm more than willing to be motivated by the notion of love. This word, as I used to discuss, is such a powerful word.
Thinking of this, I was therefore touched by the various signs of love that has happened to me for the past few months and would not have been possible. Thinking back all this while, since 10 Dec 2005, when I decided to take the leap of faith and receive Christ into my life and begin a relationship with God, I was truly touched by His love for me and the others. I shall not go into details of these, but as my 'lady boss' had said last week, 'I'm very protected by God'. Knowing for the past two months, I have been so truly convinced that He exists and lives that it will take even greater faith for me to believe otherwise. There is certainly no regret in starting this relationship, and it is amazing to think about it... till this day, I'm still amazed by the changes in my life. To speak in a biblical sense, all mankinds are sinners, but yet He forgave us and loved us so much that, by, certainly, the most outright and ultimate and extreme expression of his love, he 'sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life' with Him. And that Son is of course, who the world has largely known: Jesus.
Then you may ask me, 'hey hey, if God really exist, if Jesus really walked the Earth, prove it to me'. My answer is as such, 'if you really wanna know, why not you pick up the Bible, read it, then you tell me. If you want concrete evidence, go and read books like 'Case for Christ' by Lee Strobel'. Faith in God do not rely on concrete evidence though. It relies on just pure faith, in fact we only need a faith of the size of a mustard seed, in order to do the experimental test, that you will need in order to prove that God exists. That is to receive Christ into your life and see for yourself the ultimate proof of God's existence. To put it in an analogy, in a math test, even if you know how to do the question, as long as you dun write the solution down in the answer sheet, you will never know whether it is correct, and you will never get the mark even if you are correct.' Hence, to know if God exists, we must first know Him first. As said beautifully by one of my brothers in Church,
The best evidence of God's existence is in your heart.
By then, let your heart tells you whether God exists or not. I did it, and I till this day, the proof is way too overwhelming for me.
Maybe we can put it in another way. You can argue with me that unless you prove that God exists, you will never believe in God. Then let's face it in the most practical sense. If there is really God, and He exists, do you really think that He will be sitting there letting you to prove His existence by empirical methods? For one thing, if this is so, then God has become the subject of our discussion but this is not so. No one can ever find God, it is God who comes to us. I never believed that until I saw it with my own eyes in the weeks leading to my leap of faith. It's the time, when I can no longer deny the existence of God.
Well, who knows, perhaps He's currently pursuing you now too.
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