Judge Gently

Pray, don't find fault with the man who limps
Or stumbles along the road.
Unless you have worn the shoes he wears
Or struggled beneath his load.

There may be tacks in his shoes that hurt
Though hidden away from view.
Or the burden he bears placed on your back
Might cause you to stumble too.

Don't sneer at the man who's down today
Unless you have felt the blow
That caused his fall or felt the shame
That only the fallen know.

You may be strong but still the blows
That was his if dealt to you
In the selfsame way, at the selfsame time
Might cause you to stagger too.

Don't be too harsh with the man who sins
Or pelt him with word or stone
Unless you are sure - yea, doubly sure
That you have no sins of your own.

For you know, perhaps,
If the tempter's voice should whisper as soft to you
As it did to him when he went astray
It might cause you to falter too.

~Author Unknown

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

If - a really nice poem

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Dependent Independents

If you know me personally, you probably know that I am a techie. I love to toy with everything electronic. Today, we had a black-out for a few hours and I came to the realisation that I was a slave to electronic gadgets. I couldn't do anything without thinking of when the lights will come back. I also looked at my electric keyboard and it was as useless as ever without electricity. We were all the same- a bunch of dependent independents. We claimed to be independent (which we are supposed to be) but in reality, we were slaves.

So many people are also dependent independents. With the right people around, we do wonders and we never seem to be stoppable. Once we are left aloe, however, we are as useless as can be. We are impaired in one way or the other.

God did not create us to be salves but rather to be free. Free of sin, free of all the vanities of life and most especially free of all addictions. Check yourself. You're probably like me: a free slave, a dependent independent and change.

Good day!

Happy New Year

The wisest man, King Solomon, once said that a house of grief is better than that of joy. It kinda makes you think.

How you exit one thing determines how you enter another. Happy 2009.

Merry Christmas to y'all

It's been a while since I wrote on this blog. I was away on an ambassadors' club retreat and it was really nice. I learnt a lot. Really. Of course we all know that Jesus Christ was never born on the 25th of Dec (way too cold) but what's the harm in wishing my dear readers a merry christmas.

[8]And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping
watch over their flock by night.[9] And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon
them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore
afraid.[10] And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.[11] For unto you is
born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.[12] And
this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes, lying in a manger.[13] And suddenly there was with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,[14] Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Luke 2

Merry Christmas.

Praise the Lord

Today I just realised that human beings do not give the Lord as much as He deserves to be praised. Look at man, a perfect system oly dream able by all engineers. How can an animal as small as a bee make combs so hexagonal and identical. Everything is just perfect. Everything happens at the perfect time. Nothing happens by chance and nothing is pre-programmed like what you are using right now.

He gave man the wisdom, knowledge and understanding to build machines so complex that one can spend a whole day trying to understand a system made by man. But the human body? that's just another special machine. Medics spend 6yrs studying tirelessly to try to understand it but they still cannot. They break it up so as to study one of its sections independently of the others but even after 2 full years, no man can claim to perfectly understand that single bit. Amazing!

Finally, there's the human brain. How we manage to thing, speak, listen, multitask (Don't be deceived, the comp or phone you are using doesn't multitask it only gives each process a time slice and ...), the ability to learn etc. etc.

Artificial intelligence guys at the MIT or whichever university of the world cannot even match an eighth of the human brain's ability. People spend their whole lives trying to understand the brain but it's always in vain. A few months ago, we were all stunned when the MIT professor of neural systems threw in the towel and said that humans cannot match the brain however hard they work or for whatever period of time.

if you've no reason to praise the Lord, Praise HIM for having created dynamic autonomous man in a single day and having given him His breath.

Have a god day and praise the LORD.