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It was a wet morning. I was walking to the MRT station on my way to school, thinking about my studies, what I should do to get good grades, whether I am working hard enough, comparing myself to others and feeling inadequate, etc. Looking down deep in thoughts, I suddenly noticed the large number of earthworms stranded on the path due to the rain. This is when I noticed the birds happily enjoying the windfall of food, hopping around on the path, totally oblivious to my presence, even when I walked past them.
Right at that moment, I was reminded of a verse from the bible. Luke 12:24 says, “Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!”
Humankind has always been proud of our knowledge, and we have always claimed that it is our wisdom that has set us apart from the mindless, wisdom-lacking beasts and creatures that populate the earth with us. We have always placed our success on our wisdom, saying that knowledge is the key to power and to everything that we crave to achieve. Without knowledge, we would not have prospered and progressed to the stage we are today.
But what of the birds? Why is it that they, the ones whom we deemed to be useless and mindless, sometimes survive better than us? Why is it that they, the ones whom we deemed to be lacking in the knowledge we so desire, prosper and do not fret about life like we do?
Why am I in this race for knowledge? Why is it that there is such a large number of people I see in the lecture theatre who are so concerned with the amount of knowledge they have, revelling in the fact that they know more that the others, and then fighting to get more knowledge?
What is the meaning of knowledge? Why do we then, need knowledge if we will be taken care of by God even when we have none of it?
At that moment, God spoke. Knowledge is not about us. Knowledge is not something for us to boast of. The reason why we have knowledge is for us to realise just how wonderful God is and how great His love for us is. We have knowledge to let us understand the great works that He has done for us.
Humans always take pride in our own discoveries, with the recent discovery of DNA deemed to allow us play God. But how many realise that our so-called “discoveries” is merely naming of what was created by God at best? Did we create all these “discoveries”, or did we simply put a name to it?
The birds who do not have knowledge simply enjoyed what God had provided, and never understood the greatness of God. But us, who are God’s special creation, His children, have been bestowed with knowledge not for us to indulge in self-pride, but to allow us to see His greatness and to therefore give Him all the honour and praise that He deserves.
Therefore, if that is the meaning of knowledge, then the reason why we seek so much knowledge is no longer to get better grades or earn more money, but it should be so that we can honour and praise God even more than we are doing now.
Maybe then, it’s time we take a new outlook on our pursuit of knowledge in our lives.
I was watching this video posted by my friend on Facebook. It’s this music video of sorts by this guy called Jon Schmidt where he plays the song Love Story on the piano with a cellist. I’ve watched him doing another beautiful piece where Love Story meets Viva La Vida. Watching him and hearing the beautiful music, I suddenly thought about how long he must have practiced before he got that good. And I start thinking about what he did when he failed in the past.
I was going through a rough patch recently and everything weren’t really going that well. I spoke to God, more of in a frustrated manner, but He is so faithful that He spoke to me in an unexpected manner that brought me back to His side just like that.
I was walking at Jurong Point when I passed by the shop Precious Thoughts. And it was playing Facing the Giants on the TV at the entrance. I’ve watched the show before, and watching it again, I just thought that it’s so nice that I want to watch it again. So I went home, and watched the entire movie on Youtube. And the part about how our priority in our lives is to honour God in everything that we do just hits me. We honour God whether things go smoothly or not. I guess I’ve slowly let other things move up my priority list, to the extent that I’ve neglected God. And suddenly everything just makes sense. I know He’s there with me. I know there’s gonna be a reason for why things aren’t going my way. We usually focus all our energy on being successful but I realize that success means nothing without God. Everything in our lives should be a tool that we use to honour God and that should be the most important thing.
And when you realize that, you realize that whatever failures you face now, as long as you honoured God in the process and put in everything you’ve got, are no longer considered failures. You are never a failure in God’s eyes. Just keep going. God has a plan for you and one day He will fulfill it for you.
I guess we have been bought into the world’s idea of how everything should be done fast to the extent that we have neglected the value of patience and how things can only be properly done when done slow. Learning is a process and takes a long time but we often forget that. We often just want the fast track but that is usually impossible. Maybe it is time to change our mentality.
Have been so busy that once again, I’m not updating my blog. Sorry to you guys who do check out my blog.
Really been busy with all the projects and assignments, and the one module that really pisses me off is Business Communication. Too much to be done with too little time, to the extent that I feel that I’m not really learning anything but merely rushing to meet deadlines. Seriously, they should look into the organization of the module for the entire sem.
Just realised that I got removed from Facebook as friend by someone. Yes, that particular someone. I’m not sure when it happened, but I found out just when I thought things were moving on. So yes, another wrench is throw into the gearworks again. And we are still not greeting each other. How to move on and just go for CG? I have no idea. Don’t ask me.
Think I’m really getting lost and moving real far away from Him. And the worst thing is, I’m not sure how. Have been praying, but somehow the passion still seems to be lacking.
I’m just hoping everything can be over real soon. This sem is really shit.
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