02 April 2008

In memory of my father

Yesterday, my family and I visited the crematorium where the ashes of my late father was kept. My father passed away in the year 2001 at the age of 70 due to heart failure. How time flies! It's been seven years already since then.

My father was diagnosed with heart failure 10 years before that. I read an article that said most people with heart failure died within 5 years of their diagnosis. My father survived for 10 years. The doctors said it was because my family took very good care of my father.

My father loved children and so he loved my siblings and me very much. But my mother said, I was his favourite child. My mother said when I was a little child, I was dressed like a boy because I looked so much like my father! It was only when I went to school at the age of 7 years old that I started to wear dresses :-)

When I first came to work in Singapore in 1989, I used to travel home to Malaysia every weekends. My mother told me that my father will wait at the window to watch me alight from my bus. Sometimes he can sit for hours just waiting for me to return home.

My father was a very simple man and easily contented. He worked for 30 years in a same company and won many awards for long term service as well as good service. He was jovial and friendly. He seemed to live beyond worries. My mother used to get upset with him and said that even when the sky dropped, he will just take it as a blanket to cover himself. There is a Chinese proverb for that :-)

I am glad that I have the privilege to take care of my father in the later part of his life, together with my family. God has been good to my father and I hope to share with you again of God's goodness and mercies to him.



A photo of the place where my father's ashes are kept.

01 April 2008

Because He lives, we can face tomorrow

The last few days have been very difficult for me due to physical tiredness, mental stress, etc etc. Thank God for His love and comfort through His Words. Thank God too for sending many encouragements through my blogging friends, my Pastor and church friends.

As I visit my blogging friends' blogs, my heart goes out to many of them who are struggling with physical infirmities, mental stress and discouragements. Some experience rapid cycling in their bipolar and cycle in and out of depression. It is difficult to go through severe or prolonged depression, and when it is clinical or biological in nature it is even more difficult to get out of it. Thank God that we can pray and encourage one another as we wait upon God for deliverance and restoration, while we seek to use whatever means that are available and helpful to us in our particular situations.

This morning, I listen to "Because He Lives" again. This song brings great encouragement to me whenever I listen to it. I am reminded afresh that "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow". We serve a risen Saviour! And He can still any storm in my life, for His lovingkindness and mercies is from everlasting to everlasting. We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us (Romans 8:37).

"Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!"

Christianity Today has a touching account of how this Song was written by Bill and Gloria Gaither during a very difficult time in their life.

Inspired by the miracle of their son's birth, "Because He Lives" poured out of the Gaithers' grateful hearts. The song clearly affirms the hope believers have in Christ. We can face tomorrow, with all its uncertainty, as we realize that God holds the future and makes life worth living.

How sweet to hold a newborn baby,
And feel the pride and joy he gives;
But greater still the calm assurance:
This child can face uncertain days before He Lives!

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!

I love to watch this video "Because He Lives" By The Gaither Trio 1972 posted by hoover4000 in which Gloria explained the circumstances surrounding the time they wrote the words to "because He lives" and then the gaither trio sings it in 1972.

This video "Because He Lives" By The Gaither Vocal Band/Mark Lowry is posted by hoover4000.