Awestruck

“You must really count your blessings.”

Those were the words of my friend D before we parted ways while on our way home. After musing about what have passed in the two days, I remark to myself, “Actually not only count, but just believe in them.”

I think I’d lost the ability to believe in blessings sometime earlier in my life during that fateful April 2011. After God managed to save me from that incident, I was still a faithful believer in Christ, but somehow with regard to blessings, I had become a diehard cynic. Ironically, it did not manifest itself in the direct way of dismissing blessings as falsehood and lies. It stemmed more from the fundamental knowledge that blessings are transient. Perhaps the best person to quote from the Bible with regard to my mindset would be Job with his famous

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

Job 1:21-22 (NIV)

I was not wrong in being aware of the transience of blessings. They are indeed impermanent and come and go. However, I had become so hung up on their brevity, that I was in a perpetual state of panic that I even as I have come to learnt to take care of myself better and better, while respecting other, my fear would get in the way regularly and disturb me from fully appreciating what I have been blessed with.

I think God had enough. Being pleased with my willingness to serve him was not enough. He wanted me to reclaim the joy I had lost that May five years ago. Being the master planner He is, He did not reveal the plans immediately. Instead he laid the foundations much earlier, with the situation at times looking unstable, erratic, and even dismal at times. And meanwhile I was wondering whether I was really incorrigible, a case doomed for failure.

During this past five years of unravelling, I had not recognized the gift at first. It really took a while to see it, here, there. Now my eyes are blinded by the majesty of it. Indeed His ways are really beyond any comprehension. It is at the revelation of their totality and completeness that you are left gaping in awe and wonder.

I am still awestruck in joy, and I pray to God to help me always hold this moment in my heart. Amen!

OMG Science: Peter walking on water

I’ve decided to put Movie Mayhem with God aside for a while, and delve into examining and reconciling the realm of science with God for this entry, mainly through the acts of miracles in the Bible. Many have fawned over these miracles, but frankly the hoo-haa-ing is a bit over-hyped, and I want to look at them in a more analytical manner. Lest I get stoned for blasphemy for that previous statement, my justification is that precisely because of God’s omnipresence and omnipotence, these acts of miracles are a piece of cake to Him. They are miracles only because we mere mortals are never able to pull it off through self-effort, duh! Ok, enough of the self-vindication because I know some purists will still hold the stand that I’m showing God gross disrespect.

Today’s case study will focus on one of the most famous miracles in the gospel of Matthew, Peter’s act of water-walking. Actually, all human beings will have a tendency to float, depending on their body density versus that of water. One renowned example is the water floats enjoyed by many tourists in the Dead Sea, with an ultra-high salt content, which greatly increases its density, rendering us human beings so much lighter in comparison.

Typically, humans sink due to two forces jointly at work, namely the gravitational pull and the comparative density of what surface is that material we are on. As the typical ground we stand on is much denser than us, thus despite gravitational pull, we’ll never be unfortunate enough to get sucked into the centre of the earth. Proceeding along this deductive line of thought, for Peter to be able to float and even walk on water, all that is needed is:

1. A pull that overcomes the gravitational pull that drags him downwards into the water;
2. A change in the density of Peter in comparison to that of the water he is walking on.

Let us then look at what Peter did before and during the entire process of that famous miracle (Matthew 14:25-31 NIV):

1. Peter verified whether what he saw was truly Jesus; (vs.28)
2. Then he proceeded on to ask for Jesus’ permission to have a try; (vs.28)
3. Upon Jesus’ green-light, he made his own go at it; (vs.29)
4. All was well until he stopped focusing on Jesus and got distracted by the waves and storm, thus he started sinking and had to cry for help to Jesus, who then gently nagged at him for being of little faith. (vs.30-31)

From the entire process we can see that, even Peter’s minute faith in Jesus during the instance between vs.28-29, by just seeking for verification that it is indeed God, and then asking for permission, was more than enough, to firstly overcome gravitational pull of the earth, and secondly alter his own body density relative to the water! Think of Jesus being like this ultra magnetic with a pull that way surpasses that of gravity, while also being an incredible alchemist of sorts, changing Peter’s “element” (i.e. changing Group I element in the periodic table into Group II element).

Interesting when you choose to look at this miracle from the physics and chemistry point of view, you see how much God’s dabbling can effect, when you only need to ask him with faith. However, I think God still intends for many forms of work (NASA scientists, astronauts, and cruise liners’ captains, etc.) to continue, thus so far there hasn’t been any repeat occurrences yet. Or maybe we’re just like the other 11 disciples, being much too “scaredy-cat” to even ask for a shot. Even then, kids do not try this at all, whether under the supervision of only human beings, adult or not. Water is not as dense as the lego tiles in this picture... :p