blessed are the poor in spirit

backdated post

thurs, jul 13, 2006

yest, 27 & i had the privilege to go down to spp in town for mass. the homily by father talked about Hos 10:1-3, 7-8, 12. the gist of it was that the more abundant Israel were, the further they distanced themselves away from God. you can read it here: http://www.usccb.org/nab/071206.shtml

this really got me thinking coz yest when i was rushing the short post-event coverage story for my co's 1st anniversay party which last fri, i realised that there was a group of young Indonesian students/musicians from some university in Indonesia who came down especially for the party, prior to the event, i din know why they were coming down to play for the event especially when there was already a jazz band to play some live music.

then, while writing the article, i realised that these young group of people had lost their homes in the mount merapi earthquake which took place a month ago. honestly, I was kinda shocked and dumbfounded because firstly, i never read the papers at all, haha!! ... and it's like ALL of them who came down lost their homes and despite this calamity, in an effort to rebuild the community and raise funds, they flew down to singapore(thru the generousity of some kind-hearted soul) and used whatever they had to offer to raise some funds.

i mean can you imagine having lost your homes and still coming down to singapore, and play and sing in front of a huge crowd of ppl who maybe cant possibly care.. man!! i admire their courage...despite their situation back at home, all of them were full of smiles :)

so this morning while sitting in my dad's car on the way to work, the dj on gold90fm was telling some interesting trivia about which country has the happiest people and the country was Vanuatu, somewhere in the Pacific Islands. Well, the people there are mostly fishermen and farmers, there's only about 209,000 on the island and they are all basically very happy with life.
other statistics of the report, U.S. came in 150th place, The U.K., ranked 108th, singapore is one of the least happy countries in Asia. haha, through this all, I was realising something that I think God is trying to say to me:

1) to be thankful of all the blessings that i've come to take for granted (safe and warm house to go home to everyday, my family, my friends, the community in church)
2) blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven - Matt 5:3

upon reflection, if in the event that I find that I have lost everything (finances, family, hands, limbs, etc) and have nothing left in the world, I know my God will never forsake me and that he will restore everything that I have lost in his way and time, and if he doesnt restore it, praise the lord coz I know he has better plans for me than I could possibly imagine.

fact: peeps in more developed countries are more highly stressed and not satisfied with their life. how true is that, and the more financially well off, the higher the possibility of them drifting away from him (like the ppl of Israel mentioned in Hosea).

father, enable us to continually draw closer to you,
in good times and bad, and also,
to recognise that everything works for the good for those who love you. Holy Spirit, continue to purify us with your santifying power and that we might set our hearts on the things of God and not on the things of men. amen

fool 23.