有一位神

有一位神，有权能创造宇宙万物，也有温柔双手安慰受伤灵魂

有一位神，有权柄审判一切罪恶，也有慈悲体贴人的软弱

有一位神，我们的神，唯一的神，名叫耶和华

有权威荣光，有恩典慈爱，是昔在今在永在的神

有一位神，有权能创造宇宙万物，也有温柔双手安慰受伤灵魂

有一位神，高坐在荣耀的宝座，却死在十字架挽救人堕落

有一位神，我们的神，唯一的神，名叫耶和华

有权威荣光，有恩典慈爱，是昔在今在永在的神

I DO NOT LIKE ECONOMETRICS. sigh.

Thankful so thankful for the option of escaping the trauma of internship applications interviews etc. Although, some of these interview questions are quite interesting:

How many golf balls are flying above ground in the U.S. right now?
Why is a man-hole cover round?
How many ping pong balls can a Boeing 747 carry?

Am I living my life well?

At the counter in the Bloomsbury shop I discovered that:
1. I got a free divine chocolate bar with my copy of The Independent
2. They not only have a 25p offer on student newspapers (inflation that- used to be 20p), but the Economist was £1 off too!

Happiness.

Anyway, interesting bits from the letters section:

From the "press secretary to minister mentor, singapore": a letter about unfounded statements Devan Nair made about Mr Lee, published in Economist's obituary on DN. That was headed "Devan Nair" and followed by their apology. I never knew about the alcoholism or the lawsuit against DN, not that I knew anything much about him anyway, shall look for a copy of that obituary....

From some guy in California: a letter under the header "Evolving Faith".
Excerpt: "I am amazed at your faith in evolution... My faith requires only one mechanism: God's love. Yours requires three: that something can come of nothing, that rocks can spontaneously spawn living things (life from inorganic elements) and that genetic mutations can turn flatworm into an Einstein. You win; there's no doubt that your faith far outweighs mine."

From some guy in Hong Kong: a short one under "Happy union".
Excerpt: "...I believe that we should all be in favour of same-sex nuptials. After all, why should gays be exempt from misery?" Oh dear.

tv

The other day, yesterday I think, I watched this 'child of our time' episode on BBC, on sibling relationships. Most poignant actually, especially the pair of twins with number one always putting number two first, and number two always looking elsewhere for a best friend but turning to number one in the playground on the first day of school. And that other pair of brothers who fought and competed over everything, but when separated couldn't hide that they loved each other. "Don't tell William this, but I miss him."

Wondered then about my sisters and I. How might our childhood have looked like from behind a camera lens? Mostly I wondered about the one closest in age to me, three years, which would probably have been the largest age gap among the kids on the programme.

One thing I know for sure, that segment where they gave one kid a huge chocolate cookie and the other a tiny pretzel, to test if they would share? I think almost 100% we would have exactly half a cookie and half a pretzel each!

Probably not from pure sisterly affection though, there's always been a perpetual calculativeness that led to everything from number of M&Ms, fishballs, fried batter prawns or whatever being fairly counted out... which always got my mother so agitated. But, I always thought 孔融让利, and/or 大的让小的 was somewhat pointless because you couldn't have both at once right, either one of us had to be "bad" and willingly receive. So how? So we're just smart problem solvers! heh.

I really should be a better sister.

--
Monday 8pm seems to be C4's religious controversies slot, last week "Root of Evil, this week "Gay Muslims", next week "Gay Vicars". And, "Balderdash and Piffle" is quite fun (they research the root of words, the word "set" has a dictionary entry as long as a full-length novel!!).

Argh I know, I watch too much TV for my own good.

There is a NEW SONG in my mouth,
there is a DEEP CRY in my heart,
a hymn of praise to Almighty God, hallelujah!
And now I STAND FIRM on this ROCK
my life is hidden now with CHRIST in God.
The old has gone and the new has come,
Hallelujah! - Your love has lifted me

- Kate and Miles Simmonds, Thankyou Music

ba da da-da dum..... yep sang this in church today, and that's the trumpet filler bit after the chorus. (the capitalisation of words all mine, cos I always feel like shouting those parts out haha)

Learn contentment shining, contentment contentment. - On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

weeping for the whale

Ok I exaggerate, and I never was the animal-lover sort, but I do feel a real twist of sadness and grief, for London's loss of its baby water guest. So soon after I got acquainted with him too (well, 'it' actually since no one has told me if it's a he or she), and mostly through the news unfortunately, since I didn't dare visit the Thames. But if you don't know what I'm talking about, you can acquaint yourself with the little, bottle-nosed, whale-sized (5m long) whale, here:

whale arrives in Thames
whale's sad demise in Thames
whale in pictures

In case you still think it's a joke or hoax or something, it isn't! It made front page news on the Guardian too. haha. boohoo.

hilarious!

Text from angela: "Housemate alert- extremely dangerous looking completely blackened banana spotted on kitchen counter. Danger of fleainvasion 2.. Permission to dispose?"

Well I hadn't read the text then, but the minute I got home I heard feet flying down the stairs and a very horrified, "is that banana yours??"

As a matter of fact it was! I'd stupidly put a whole banana in the freezer, skin and all, and when I took it out this morning it was like stone and un-peelable and very black, so I had to leave it out to defrost. It was yummy when thawed though. And, no, thankfully, no fruitflies came.

haha.

mostly I like the simplicity and quietness of the piano in the background, and her wonderful voice, and the simple words...

you and me, me and you
there's so much that we've been through
through it all we've come to understand God's love
and if tomorrow never comes
know this twice, just know this once
knowing you has made me able to go on

you and me, me and you
there couldn't be a better two
to be blessed to know the meaning of true love
and if you leave me, i'll feel scared
fall apart, so unprepared
but i'll dare to make it through all on my own
yes i'll dare to make it through on my own

you and me, rosie thomas

shining likes

at the moment, and in no order of preference

- perfumes and scents and scent strips in books (but to not to wear and not aromatherapy candles either)
- innocent smoothies
- frozen grapes and blueberries and strawberries (and will try the banana sitting in her freezer soon)
- looking at pretty skirts (but not wearing them)
- twinings lady grey tea
- music newly discovered thanks to yuheng: rosie thomas
- leaning pillows against the wall to read in bed

and she is determined to learn to like:
- going to the gym
- doing tutorials before the day before they are due
- econometrics

rest

Got the gulps of fresh air I needed, going for the evening service tonight.

The all souls orchestra was playing for worship, and the sanctuary was packed, with more people in the overflow downstairs, and I sat in the upper gallery as I usually do, but high up on the sides because the lower rows facing the front were already filled....

So there I sit and stand and sing and pray between two people, complete strangers yet binded to me as brothers, and somehow, suddenly, find myself tearing slightly. Was it the grandeur of the music, was it the sharp sermon on hypocrisy, on forgiveness, was it that final hymn that I love and haven't heard in awhile? It could have been a mixture of all that of course, but I think above all I was moved to tears by the presence of God.

I'm grateful that daddy let me bring his guitar over, (he now has to strum my lousy blue one instead) especially on nights like these. To hold the guitar and brush the strings and hum and sometimes sing to. Learnt a new song jingkai led on Friday. Didn't learn the tune properly but I've hummed it so many times now I can't remember which parts I made up to fill in missing bits.. haha. It's really lovely though.

There is a peace, there is a rest.
That settles here in Your presence.
When Your face is very near,
Your love erases every fear.

It's the power, of Your presence.
It's the strength, of Your hand in mine.
It's the glory, of Your greatness,
that has the power to change my life.

saturday energy boost

Something about kids and that combination of innocence and irreverence fills me energy, and is really entirely worth the slight sorethroat after (which is easily remedied with honey-water anyway.) Some examples:

So I ask the children what they think love is and there're alot of hands raised and waving about in the air, but before I can choose one to answer, this boy chirps up, "If, if God is so big and created the whole earth, then if God farts will the whole earth will stink?" ?!? How that relates to love I have no idea.

Today, I got them to kind of act out the story of baby Moses floating down the Nile in the basket, using a balloon as the baby and a box as the basket. When told to copy a verse down and draw what they remembered of the story afterwards, one of them says, "I don't know how to draw a baby, can I draw a balloon instead?"

Really starting to love the children. And really miss my baby sister, though I think she's probably "grown up" considerably again in the few months I've been away. After all, sister number three is now taller than me! (and about ten kg lighter I think) haha.

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ" (Colossians 2:8)

Verse shared with me by my cell leader on Tuesday- timely, apt. Came across it again today browsing trueU's sidewalk chalk. Shall have to elaborate another time but there's an article here on christianity and philosophy if anyone's interested.

"People throw away what they could have by insisting on perfection, which they cannot have, and looking for it where they will never find it." - Edith Schaeffer

Eight days into the new year already, what have I done?

I have...
- resolved to get healthy
- seen, touched, tasted and fell into soft white snow
- caught on my glove a properly unsmashed intricately formed snowflake
- yet to figure myself out
- just tidied up my room for the start of school (tomorrow)
- been singing singing singing praise to my King!

Line from my daily devotional's dec 31st entry:
"Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him."