Today at church, we talked about what our lives’ greatest aims are.

Pastor Ken Taylor talked about love, and how it should be all of our greatest aim for our lives.

Loving God,
Loving Jesus, and
Loving people.

What can be more important than this?

Loving another as he has loved us, this is what we are meant to do as followers of Christ. Through our actions, the bible says: “By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” -John 13:34-35

I agree with this sermon completely and it really spoke to my heart. We all know that love should be the number one fundamental principle that we should know and act out as followers of Christ, but it is also one of the hardest ones go actually follow through.

To have love as my life’s greatest aim, here are some reminders to myself:

(taken from the creekside teaching notes for Sunday, May 6, 2012)

I will know love is my life’s greatest aim when…
Love is my MANDATE
Love is my MISSION
Love is my MOTIVATION
Love is my MEASUREMENT
Love is my MARK

Let him wish his life
For the sorrows of a stone
Never knowing the first thread
Of these
Never knowing the pain of ice
As its crystals slowly grow
Needles pressing in on the heart

To live forever
And never feel a thing
To wait a million lifetimes
Only to erode an become sand
Wish not for the stone
But for the fire
Last only moments
But change everything

Oh to be lightning
To exist for less than a moment
Yet in that moment
To expose the world to every open eye
Oh to be thunder
To clap and ring
To rumble into memories
Minds and spines

To chill the soul and shake the very ground
Pounding even the sand
Into smaller pieces
Or the mountain
Brooding, extinct
Yet gathering for one fatal moment
The power to blow the top clean off the world
Oh to last the blink of an eye and leave nothing
But nothing unmoved behind you

- Moment: Poem by Vincent Guilliano 

I’ve recently started reading The Freedom Writers Diary.

Before my brother introduced me to this book, I’ve never heard of neither the book nor the movie so I had no idea what was given to me when I had received it.

I put it off to the side, telling myself I will start reading it tomorrow, and that went on for about 2 weeks.

This past Sunday, I was on my way to Toronto and I decided to bring the book with me just in case I get bored. So on the bus, I started reading. 

From the beginning, the book drew me closer and closer and I couldn’t put it down. As I read through each of the diary entries that the students of Wilson High and Ms. Gruwell wrote in the book, it was definitely touching, and also I felt a lot of pain.

It is fascinating to me how one person can have such a big influence in another’s life. How kind words of encouragement can put so much hope into another. It’s really true what they say, the tiniest push can get people going.

It most certainly did for these lucky students in Wilson High. Not only did they gain hope, they learned that they are all equals. No one is different from one another, we are all the same. We all have eyes to see, ears to hear, brains to keep us thinking, and hearts to live.

These students, who are all about the age of 14 and 15 went through so much in their childhood and adolescent years to completely lose their innocence and hopes for their lives…

What disturbed me the most was that there is so much unnecessary hatred going on in the world. It is an obvious topic, but when you read journals that make it so vivid, it becomes so scary. Discrimination based on skin colour, religion, culture, appearance and et cetera. If you think about it, these things would never matter in the end. We are all human beings, grown up in difference circumstances. How can we all be alike? 

These things drive me crazy. Reading about it, seeing it in the news, experiencing it in every day life. 

I wish we can all look beyond our physical appearances and the language speak, or the culture we come from. I believe that we can be more united as one big nation. Equality, freedom, respect. We all deserve to experience it. 

The message is simple yet so hard for the world to see. 

We are all human beings. No one is higher nor lower than another, no one should judge another. 

We shouldn’t be putting each other down for our differences, but rather, we should be celebrating it. The diversity and wonderful spectrum of colours not only apparent physically but also psychologically too. The differences make each of us unique and enable us to learn not just about ourselves, but about others.

We tend to let selfishness get in our ways of opening our hearts and minds… 

I hope one day, we will all be free from all of the injustice in the world. 

I will stop rambling now. toodles 

PS. Read The Freedom Writers Diary if you get a chance to 

In 2012 alone, I have made so many unforgettable memories that I will forever hold on to and cherish! What a blessing it has been to be able to live a life, so full of joy, love, and learning. 

I’ve learnt to accept many things that I was unable to accept before and I’ve also learned to have an open mind and an open heart. God does wonders when you seek something.

Now that I look back on my last four years at Waterloo, I have done nothing but grow each and every year. The more I seeked, the more I got, and God has been pouring his blessings to me endlessly :) 

I’ve got another two years here. I hope it will be a similar road. A road of growth, limitless, with no boundaries! 

Doing my M.sc degree should be interesting. I have never considered myself to be an academic person. But I seemed to have found a passion for studying, learning, and doing academic stuff - the stuff that seemed so boring and pointless to me before.

It’s really hard to be completely passionate about something if the only motivation that’s driving you is materialistic stuff or worldly things like money or personal image. That’s why I think passion is a gift from God. 

God gifted us with the ability to be passionate and truly LOVE and CARE about things that we are meant to live for… 

I guess there are a lot of ways to define doing things out of “Passion”. Others may have different feelings about it, but I am sure of what the difference between PASSION and DESIRE or LUST is in my heart.

I’m just really thankful for the opportunities that have been presented to me. These things that I would have never dreamed of doing. 

—-

PS. I told myself I will journal again from now on because I think it’s a good way to pour out all of my feelings. Also, it’s a really good way to reflect back on myself and give myself little reminders.

(Picture frame by JC, EL, AS. Instax pics inside the frame!)