I have been valuing my own happiness above everything else for most of my life, and it is little wonder that I was unhappy. In striving to be happy, we give first place to the selfish desires of our hearts, which displace other people and promote ourselves.

The world is a cruel, selfish place that encourages self-centredness and conditions you to be self-centred.
We are often told: Fight for your own happiness.
I am astounded I could miss the great degree of self-centredness in that.
Our own happiness, if possible to attain, would come at others' expense and misery.
Our own happiness means that we disregard the condition of others' hearts and exalt ourselves above them.

Instead of cutthroat competitions, where men come up against one another, it should be as: Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (NIV)

There is a sense of mutual growth/ improvement in the Proverb, but in our human version of competition somebody gets hurt and left behind, thoroughly losing.

When we look at all the main sins and offences, we see that they have heavy overtones of self-interest in them. In coveting and in greed, where our own insecurity and self-interest instigate us to steal and claim things that aren't ours in the beginning. This of course harms the rightful owner whom we discount when matched with our desires.

In lust, we desire things that do not belong or cannot belong to us. We prize our pleasures and satisfaction either in the emotional or physical and sexual sense above all, and we do not care if it injures the people we love and care about or demean women who are of immeasureable worth.

Satiety and Fulfillment do not mean the same thing.

This is why I believe that the world is broken.
Some believe that love and neighbourliness will heal the world. I believe that it takes much more than human action to salvage the brokenness; I believe only Christ provides Salvation.

It is also unthinkable when we can be happy when our satisfaction is built on the misery of other people who are as precious as us.
What makes a person precious?
It should not be intellect, beauty, virtue. The human soul is precious.

Instead of self-centredness, we must be God-centred.

*

Looking at how most belief systems make out how our earthly lives, it seems almost like we are in a rat-race, where only at the end, are the Elite with special unique qualities of strength and power and brilliant minds, as well as an ambiguous label of goodness, rewarded with heaven.

I would instantly say that most of us will not make the cut because these virtues and qualities are neither common, or attainable in a lifetime. With doing good, while we are selfish, even when the things we do have positive consequences, it is questionable if we have done good.
I could take this on in another lengthy thread.

My question is: what about the weak, the helpless, the broken?
Are they cared for and catered for while they fail to qualify for heaven?

In a society that celebrates and rewards strength, is there any place for the weak and meek?

My critique is that we give too much weight to our moral efforts and we believe that these will be sufficient to carry ourselves to a higher place, and we structure the end reward in a laughable competition against each other, matching each other's moral contributions.
So once again, we displace one another and advance at others' expense.

I find it strange that the path to heaven seems extremely similar to the selfish cutthroat competitions on Planet Earth.

*

We fully depend on Christ because all of our strength is insignificant, and we have no ability to save ourselves from our own brokenness, our own insidious, unloving selves. Christ cleanses us, declares us righteous and worthy despite our fallenness and empowers us to follow after Him, which we could not. He teaches us to love Him and one another, and in all of this, we give glory to God who is worthy of the highest praise.

Only in the Grace of God can we eat and drink without cost. Christ has paid in full.

It is a big step to yield to Christ.
I dislike the word receive, because it is too genial and non-committal.
Rather, we should stop rejecting and resisting Christ in the areas of our life.

*

I have not mentioned Sin. Most of us have no concept of Sin, or we mute it into the form of an occasional mistake that we can surely avoid.

This low view of Sin is dangerous and foolish.
In characterizing Sin, Sin is like a serpent that sneaks in unaware and takes hold of you and will not let go. It aims to bring you with it to death.

If you are angry, it will instigate you to hurt/harm others, even those you care about, and yourself.

It will pervert your normal sexual urges into something beastly and unnatural, that demeans and twists what is meant to be beautiful communion between man and wife.

It will make you forget about love and kindness and gentleness.

It will lead you away from God because God who is Holy is incompatible with Sin.

It will lead you to go against God, and incite you to violate His laws, which have been meant to protect and sanctify you, reserving you who are originally His for sacred use and His purposes.

Because of sin, we lose our place in God's family and kingdom.

Sin is not contented in occupying a small part in your life, or a small piece of you. It will want full claim over all of you.

I am not scaring my readers, but Sin is not something that is over and done with. It is a constant threat to our relationship with God, and while Christ has broken its claim over us, we must not let it dominate us once again.

If we do not think we need to be saved, we will not want a Saviour.
Christ will not be relevant to us if we are fulfilled and happy.

But most of us are neither happy nor fulfilled.




*

Days left to Enlistment: 13

I'm looking to spend the rest of my time getting together with good old friends whom I have not seen, or will not be seeing for a long time, and also to slip in as many times of weight workouts as my weak body can afford, without breaking down.

Where I am now a free roaming adult with no longer any fresh income and thus a relevant resolution not to abuse my ATM card, I have to regulate my outings also.

Wed 1:
Thu 2:
Fri 3:
Sat 4: KARATE DEMONSTRATION @ SUNTEC CITY

Sun 5: SERVICE (MORNING), THE PEOPLE FROM KARATE, MOTHERS' DAY DINNER
Mon 6: EVENING TRAINING @ KOLAM AYER CC
Tue 7:
Wed 8:
Thu 9 :
Fri 10 : FINAL KARATE TRAINING
Sat 11:

Sun 12: SERVICE, FINAL GYM SESSION
Mon 13: PPD
Tue 14: ENLISTMENT DAY

Unless something else seizes me violently, this will be the final expository from me.
And no, I am not a fanatic. If I were one, I would be very inconsistent, frenzied and beyond common reason.

I'm slightly stunned that it is April again.