Malacca, Marquis of Pombal

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Just managed to make it back from Malacca. Went there for a research trip to help out with the history department with some reseach regarding the Chinese religion(s). Life is quiet there, unlike in Singapore, where the pace is so fast. Though I'm quite used to it, I can't help but feel that life there is that tranquil... But it doesn't mean that I got to get away from my mainstream work at all. For all your information, Malacca was once a trading port of Portugal... and that name reminded me of the word 'Empire' and the both of them combined together reminded me of one module I'm taking this semester: HY2245 Empires, Colonies and Imperialism. Particularly so as this is the mid-term break and I have an essay to do by the end of it and best of all, this essay required me to watch this movie called 'The Mission' which illustrates some sort of dichotemy between 'God' and 'Gold' in the process of establishing empires. Particularly so, since this movie is based on the period around the late 18th century when this guy- the Marquis of Pombal- then the prime minister of Portugal ruled over the Crown of Portugal. Well.. managed to link everything into one piece, managed to formulate the basis of my argument in the essay in Malacca.. what an irony...

I just recently realised that this blog has an ever-changing nature, depending on the nature of my life and the focus too. It naturally reflects the state of things in my life, and naturally, I share what I want to share, cos I know I need to share. It's just like when you get something that you really love, you can't help but tell other people about it. For example, if you get a really cool new car, everyone around you will hear about it. When you meet an amazing person, you can't help but tell others about him or her. You're not making a deliberate effort to talk about that person; rather, it just seems totally natural to want to talk about him or her. Well, that's what my blog is currently reflecting on now.

Many could have remembered a few blog posts ago, I mentioned that I'll try my best to keep my blog applicable to the broad audience. Well, I'm still trying to do and as I have done in the past few posts, I earnestly share those stuffs because I know that they will become eventually applicable to the broader context, they will eventually mean something to the readers. Because God is so real in my life, my blog will naturally reflect this. It's natural, and it can't be helped. What He did for me was so great that I just can't stop talking about it in this blog, cos I know there are a lot of people whom I can reach out to, whom I dun have physical contact with but do regularly visit my blog.

And yeah, to come to this point of life where I keep on sharing about God in my blog is perhaps unthinkable of a few months ago. And the only explanation is that I have really experienced Him.

Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
- Psalm 34:8


Indeed, you all know what? God has actually got into my life and become part of my identity. I was looking at my Johari square one day and I saw a friend of mine, classing me as 'religious'. Not something that I intended to become in the first place. But looking back, it is actually quite funny. I received Christ into my life, telling myself I'll give the relationship with God a try, since there is no loss doing so. It's a bit impossible then to think that today I can openly share about this in my blog. But somehow or rather, I managed to experience Him so much, that I can no longer contain myself.

I'm sure that there are a lot out there who dun understand what I'm talking about- the feeling, the joy, the hope, the future, and most importantly of, the life. It doesn't matter whether how much I talk, how much I blog, how much I sweat, and how many i spit. The only way to know it, is to experience it yourself. This is certainly not a joke from me though...

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
- Philippians 3:7-11

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