passion @ uwa

Hey everyone!! As I type this, it is the morning of a very special day for 8 of our lovely members!! And as I start to share on today's chapter, I can't help but be excited about the sharings I'm going to hear from those 8 later. Baptism is going to rock!

And now ... onward to my sharing ...

After reading all of the excellent and high quality posts, I realized I made one fatal flaw from my own sharing (Day 2), I did a summary of the chapter instead of typing out my thoughts FROM that chapter. And that is going to change today :)

Troubleshooting ... I have a really funny personal story about this!

When I was back in Singapore studying Computer Science in Polytechnic, I had this really crazy, OP-ed (over-powered), and just pure genius of a friend in my class. It's like ... he didn't need the lectures and the tutorials la, he already knew how to program (JAVA = argh!) and always had the best projects, the best results. Good thing we both became VERY good friends *grin* and hey ... I will have you know I became good friends with him BEFORE I knew he was that pro ok!

Anyways, one fine day ... place = lab and purpose = trying to get my written program to work. It didn't. Looked through over and over again and just couldn't find any mistake! So frustrated and hitting the dead end, I (naturally) turned to my buddy. He came around (cue Chariots of fire music), sat at my station (cue slow mo) and just scrolled through my program. I have to emphasize that he DIDN'T do anything cause I was watching!! After reaching the bottom of the page, he turned (cue light from above + dove flying by) and said, "Looks good mah" and then he hit the "run" (which is the execute program button) and .... (you should have guessed this by now) IT WORK!!!!

You can imagine my reaction, half happy that my program now works and that my code was good and the other half? Left wondering why it didn't work for me and how in the world did my buddy troubleshoot the problem for me?! I came to the conclusion that it was the aura of a genus that made my program work, so I henceforth made it a ritual to make my buddy sit in front of my code before I handed it up! (Which is also the reason why I stopped Computer Science in Uni ... no more buddy, no more working code!!!)

I kinda like to think this incident with my buddy is how Jesus handled criticism ... whenever evil men felt like they had trapped Jesus, our Lord always proved He had all the aces. It's really like playing poker (the non-gambling kind), you have a king full house and you feel confident that you're going to win, you brag, you taunt, you raise the stakes ONLY to realize later that your friend has a ace full house and you got owned.

What has happened? You feel embarrassed from your premature, over-show of confidence, and you realized you thought you had control but your friend was always in control and was all along just sucking you in for the bigger fall (yes Josh Lim ... I hate playing poker with you, as you can see .. the wound is still very fresh)

But Jesus did the same to these people, He knew He had the best cards, and He always found the best way and time to review them for maximum gain, maximum shame and humility to the offender and maximum wow factor for those who were genuinely there to listen to His teachings.

I end by saying this friends. Jesus has all the best cards, and you HAVE Jesus in you so therefore ... YOU have all the best cards. It's just how you play your cards now. And how do we do that? When faced with criticism, always pray and remember these wise words ...

"Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist" Luke 21:14-15

"So the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing , or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say." Exodus 4:11-12

You have all the best cards = you have the aura of a troubleshooter = go OP criticism or anything that comes in your way!!!

***
Other than being a great buddy and computer genius, this guy was an awesome believer and follower of Christ as well (which would explain His aura .. hmm). But his name was Joke, pronounced Jo-ke ... which really sounds like "Joker" ... and the best part? He WAS a joker ... and most of the time, really a joke to all of us! So my friends ... God is indeed fair :p

Peace out!
Max
(Poker anyone? heh)