Passion, an item that burns up everything that is in its way is found in successful people, I wish to share about passion today in a sermon format that I have shared during chapel period in my college.
I wish to show you something exciting, something that all of us have it, but only few of us dare to use it. This is a video clip from the movie “Facing the Giants”. The video talks about American football, a sports game that not only talks about brute strength but tremendous mind power as well.
Here is a link to the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyPkUXGq1S0
or
http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=b170b9474a8be66b5a8b
Now, the message is very clear to all of us right? The never give up spirit, some of u even watched this movie over and over again for many times! But this is not what I wish to share today, there is more to not giving up, the very root of not giving up is none other than PASSION!
Passion is defined as strong extravagant desire for something, in other words “enthusiasm”. Now, why do I want to talk about passion? This brings me to point no.1
1) Passion produces focus
The Couch is handsome, at least to me, but he also knows that he need to stay focus on what he is doing, not getting distracted by words of discouragement! Do you know he is at the verge of being fired in the movie?
You see, people that do everything are jack O’ trades, they are the people that easily get distracted. We call them the “cincai” people! If u thinks that cincai people can be successful please don’t raise your hand.
2) Passion produces energy
As the most influential player in the team, Brock admit lost even before the game, just by doing so he saps dry all the hope and energy from the team!
Allow me to introduce 4 types of people to you,
A) Very resourceful people (they ignite the passion of others!)
B) Very important people (they share their passion with others!)
C) Very trainable people (This type of people they catch the passion from others and do it! And most of us belongs to this group!)
D) Very nice people (This group of people is amazing, they enjoy our passion and saps it dry, leaving you tired and worn out, losing your confident. Do you have friends like that? You are not very nice people right? Right? Look at the neighbor beside you and say you are not very nice people)
3) Passion produces productivity
The passion is the thing that sets the team on fire to win the game, still remember maybe 5 years, 10 years, or even 30 years ago, we are holding a lollipop in our hand telling our parents all kinds of thing we want to do in life, of who we wanna be, of what we can be?
Where is all those passion gone? Is it truly gone or we just forgot the fire we once have, overcome by situations that stresses us up, the circumstances which constrains us, and maybe the wall of trouble that we face, and perhaps even, we doubt ourselves. People with passion don’t live life aimlessly and wait for things to happen, people with passion MAKE THINGS HAPPEN! Ask yourself, where and what is your passion?
4) Passion produces growth
How many of you think that they won the game in the end? Most of us that are NORMAL will think so right? And indeed they won, WHY? It is because you have seen the passion in them!
Do you know cincai people do cincai thing? I personally don’t think Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Jordan, Warren Buffet, or even Mozart and others spend all their time fooling around yamcha and wasting time! Do you know you have limited hours to live? And you know you die after that right? That means something simple, killing time means KILLING YOURSELF!
People often say, you don’t learn from the book you don’t read. If you are saying you are not so smart person, a slow learner, let me tell you something, your book only has limited pages, and they don’t grow and add new pages while you asleep! Please, just stop whining like a baby asking for be fed.
5) Passion produces discipline
Let us look at things this way, if Brock is not willing to listen to the coach, if he is not willing to train, not to mention obeying the order to carry someone that weigh 80kg on his back blindfolded, will he success?
Did you go to national service? I did and I tell you 1 thing I learn the hard way over there, there are some commands that is 100% solid even though it doesn’t makes any sense! If you try to throw all your logic and reasoning to the trainer like me, I’m telling you, you are booking a ticket straight to heaven!
6) Passion is extreme
Do you know even for a professional footballer, carrying an 80kg guy on your back and walks on your hand without knee touching the ground across 50 meter, 100 meter field is extreme?
There is this 1 thing about passionate people, you never see balance in them! Because your balance is unbalance for them!
God is an extreme God, Amen? He sent His only son to die for us, HIS ONE AND ONLY SON! How more extreme can you be to save an ungrateful person?
In bible God say “For God so love the world that He send His only begotten son to die for us!” THIS IS EXTREME!
In bible God does not say “For God sometime love the world, and sometime not, that He may be sending His one of His many Son to die for us? “
Here are some more extreme cool things that God do.
Is feeding 5k people extreme? Not to mention there is still leftovers. Can you do that?
Is raising the dead extreme?
Is rising to heaven in front 12 disciples extreme?
You just imagine the facial expression of 12 disciples when they saw Jesus fly! If you have a poor imagination, go watch superman!
7) Passion gives 999% output
If Brock has given up on the last 10y, 20y, or maybe a few steps before the ending zone, the impact, the encouragement, the power he is giving his team and himself won’t be as strong as he finishes it! He changed the course of history just by being passionate, they just might not win the game if not because of his passion!
Ok, let me put it this way, when you love someone for example your boyfriend or girlfriend, you’ll go many extra miles to fulfill their needs right? Or do you wait until they beg you on the verge of death then you say, maybe… just maybe… I will lend you a hand of mine, but I’m keeping the other hand!
Conclusion
Listen, we often want so many things in life, but God only want our passion, the passion that continuously seeks after Him, God does not gain anything by our work and He is not poor as well, He is the creator of universe! Yet He keep remind us to seek after Him because He loves us, and we are the only one benefit from seeking after Him. If you ever say you are passionate and devoted for God, consider what you have done so far in your Christian years, do you only visit Him only once a week, perhaps once per year, or even never, do you still call that passion?
Can the coach count on Brock?
Can God mold passion into you?
Here is a very short video that is to proof all the things that I have said,
http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=16bfb07c7f3bf96d8854
Thursday, August 20, 2009
HOW WELL DO YOU SPEAK?
I was just writing this for my college's student association magazine few day ago, so I thought of sharing this here also.
- Your life is in your word, in other words, your word decides your life.
We always hear about the need for proof in order to prove something, well… I couldn’t agree more to this fact. I came across a very interesting book written by Dr. Yonggi Cho who is the pastor of largest church in the world with congregation of 800,000+ and the article is even posted in one of the most exciting online magazine http://www.harvesttimes.com.sg, and I was really inspired by it, so I thought of writing something about it!.
One of the latest evidence based finding in the medical world, specifically in the area of Neuroscience, is that our speech centre rules over all the other nerves, having the total dominion over our body! This is really shocking to me but the fact that Dr. James in the bible 2000 years ago said so in first few chapters of his book! The tongue that is least member of the body can bridle the whole body!
In other words, the power to control and manipulate our body as we want lies within our tongue, and if we gain total control of our body, our way of doing things, success and destiny is not far! Your life is in your word, in other words, your word decides your life. Let me explain this in a very simple example, when you say you are becoming weak, immediately all your nerves will receive the message and say “Oh, lets prepare to become weak, just as the instruction we received from our headquarters!” and so you slowly become weak. When you say “this is too hard for me” “I am so useless!” “I am good for nothing” “Nobody loves me, I am no one” “Oh…I’m too old to do this” “I’m losing my memory…” “This life sucks, I wish I can die” and too much more example that we can think of, that we say it casually on regular basis, but what matters is, what is happening to our body, our mind, our soul after what we say feed all those negativity-charged food to our nerves? Remember, our nerves always do what a nerve would do, following commands and do them, do you want your nerve to make you useless? Making you weak? Old and forgetful? Or perhaps, preparing you to die?
We live in a very beautiful country with many beautiful and various languages, and all of us are united under the “Lah!” language! Does “Die lah!” “Sei lah!” “Gone lah!” “Lose liao lah!” “Tak guna lah!” “No Hope lah!” sounds familiar to any of you? I used to say those lifeless words a lot in the past too, but that is before I realized this fact! I have been working very hard to provide healthy food for my nerve babies now! Try to count for your roommate the total of negative “lah”s each day and show him/her.
Lately Korea is shaken by the continuous suicidal case by Korean actresses, most of them are beautiful, successful actresses, just what that made them choose such a “way out”? I remembered I have read an article about Korean cultures, and one of the negative but yet popular Korean culture is that they love to “die”, they would say “Oh, I’m too full that I’m going to die!” “The weather is so cold that I’m going to die!” “I’m so happy that I’m going to die!” and this culture has been going around Korea for decades and centuries along side with all the wars, famines, and diseases. Can you link this “dying” culture with all Korea’s tragic history? And perhaps the continuous suicidal case of Korean actresses also?
You see, people that are filled with negativity maybe doing well in what they do now, however they are not great, and certainly not great to talk to, I’m sure that none of us like to befriend and chat with a person that “die” every minute he/she speaks, so does other people who do not wish to hear that from us. Just if you saw some people grouped together and feeding each other with negative words, and there is this temptation that comes along asking you to join their “die” community, please stay away from them, because they will rob you of your happiness!!! STAY AWAY from the turkeys if you are an eagle! Remember, garbage in, garbage out!
Life is unjust, unfair, and full of failures. You maybe shouting on top of your lungs to be successful, and yet you still fail, but remember this, the food that you feed your nerve, your mind, your body is healthy, give it sometime and they will for sure not to let you down, besides, without failure, there is no comparison to success. People fail not because they are failures, but because they fail to continue.
Let me ask you this simple question today, in the past few hours, or maybe just yesterday, how many negative words have you fed you nerve and other people’s nerve? Comparing to that, how many words of positivity and encouragement did you actually said out loud and not just telling your heart? Consider what you are feeding your nerves starting from now, and mold your way of speaking your life start from now!
Consider this is for yourself, if you know the next word you gonna talk is die, die, die and die, or any other form of negative word that brings absolutely zero benefit to yourself and others, just keep your mouth shut, it really helps a lot in helping you to try and look at the worst situation in your life at the other angle, because if u cannot think and say something negative, you are bound to try to think positively.
Next time if you hear your friend say “Die lah!”
Please do me a favor, reply him “Live lah!”
- Your life is in your word, in other words, your word decides your life.
We always hear about the need for proof in order to prove something, well… I couldn’t agree more to this fact. I came across a very interesting book written by Dr. Yonggi Cho who is the pastor of largest church in the world with congregation of 800,000+ and the article is even posted in one of the most exciting online magazine http://www.harvesttimes.com.sg, and I was really inspired by it, so I thought of writing something about it!.
One of the latest evidence based finding in the medical world, specifically in the area of Neuroscience, is that our speech centre rules over all the other nerves, having the total dominion over our body! This is really shocking to me but the fact that Dr. James in the bible 2000 years ago said so in first few chapters of his book! The tongue that is least member of the body can bridle the whole body!
In other words, the power to control and manipulate our body as we want lies within our tongue, and if we gain total control of our body, our way of doing things, success and destiny is not far! Your life is in your word, in other words, your word decides your life. Let me explain this in a very simple example, when you say you are becoming weak, immediately all your nerves will receive the message and say “Oh, lets prepare to become weak, just as the instruction we received from our headquarters!” and so you slowly become weak. When you say “this is too hard for me” “I am so useless!” “I am good for nothing” “Nobody loves me, I am no one” “Oh…I’m too old to do this” “I’m losing my memory…” “This life sucks, I wish I can die” and too much more example that we can think of, that we say it casually on regular basis, but what matters is, what is happening to our body, our mind, our soul after what we say feed all those negativity-charged food to our nerves? Remember, our nerves always do what a nerve would do, following commands and do them, do you want your nerve to make you useless? Making you weak? Old and forgetful? Or perhaps, preparing you to die?
We live in a very beautiful country with many beautiful and various languages, and all of us are united under the “Lah!” language! Does “Die lah!” “Sei lah!” “Gone lah!” “Lose liao lah!” “Tak guna lah!” “No Hope lah!” sounds familiar to any of you? I used to say those lifeless words a lot in the past too, but that is before I realized this fact! I have been working very hard to provide healthy food for my nerve babies now! Try to count for your roommate the total of negative “lah”s each day and show him/her.
Lately Korea is shaken by the continuous suicidal case by Korean actresses, most of them are beautiful, successful actresses, just what that made them choose such a “way out”? I remembered I have read an article about Korean cultures, and one of the negative but yet popular Korean culture is that they love to “die”, they would say “Oh, I’m too full that I’m going to die!” “The weather is so cold that I’m going to die!” “I’m so happy that I’m going to die!” and this culture has been going around Korea for decades and centuries along side with all the wars, famines, and diseases. Can you link this “dying” culture with all Korea’s tragic history? And perhaps the continuous suicidal case of Korean actresses also?
You see, people that are filled with negativity maybe doing well in what they do now, however they are not great, and certainly not great to talk to, I’m sure that none of us like to befriend and chat with a person that “die” every minute he/she speaks, so does other people who do not wish to hear that from us. Just if you saw some people grouped together and feeding each other with negative words, and there is this temptation that comes along asking you to join their “die” community, please stay away from them, because they will rob you of your happiness!!! STAY AWAY from the turkeys if you are an eagle! Remember, garbage in, garbage out!
Life is unjust, unfair, and full of failures. You maybe shouting on top of your lungs to be successful, and yet you still fail, but remember this, the food that you feed your nerve, your mind, your body is healthy, give it sometime and they will for sure not to let you down, besides, without failure, there is no comparison to success. People fail not because they are failures, but because they fail to continue.
Let me ask you this simple question today, in the past few hours, or maybe just yesterday, how many negative words have you fed you nerve and other people’s nerve? Comparing to that, how many words of positivity and encouragement did you actually said out loud and not just telling your heart? Consider what you are feeding your nerves starting from now, and mold your way of speaking your life start from now!
Consider this is for yourself, if you know the next word you gonna talk is die, die, die and die, or any other form of negative word that brings absolutely zero benefit to yourself and others, just keep your mouth shut, it really helps a lot in helping you to try and look at the worst situation in your life at the other angle, because if u cannot think and say something negative, you are bound to try to think positively.
Next time if you hear your friend say “Die lah!”
Please do me a favor, reply him “Live lah!”
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
YOU ARE A CLAY!
In order to have a breakthrough in your life, the very first thing you need to understand is that YOU ARE A CLAY, if not, you are just another darn stubborn jerk that messes with life.
Why do i mention about clay? First we need to understand what is a clay?
A clay is a mold-able substance composed mainly of water and mud, and there is many different kind of mud giving variations to the clay, the mixture composition of water and mud creates differet effect as the maker wants them, the techniques and equipment used to form the shape is an art work itself, the timing of toasting the clay decides the future of clay, and the final touch on color makes the clay ready for the world.
In other words, each and everyone of us are very unique, we have our own background, character, likes and dislikes, and so are our strength and weaknesses, and all those made us...us! Without the moisture being inside of us, and a heart that accept change, trials, and failure it is impossible for us to show ourself to the world and be proud of it and our maker!
God is the best craftsman in this world, agree? So the problem of you failing doesn't lie within Him! Don't blame Him for every bad thing that happen and reward yourself for all the good thing that happened. Perhaps if you are a christian so you say "GOD, change me!!!" when you end the prayer, you start hoping and hoping for the next 1 year and nothing happened, then you come back to God blaming Him, "ARE YOU REAL?" The problem here is still with you, and not with God, He is real alright, and both you and I know it, a craftsman always need a material to craft with whether it is top-notch quality material, or just simply a leftover, a real craftsman will do his best to create a craft that is part of himself with his hands. When you said that prayer, do you really mean it? Do you really accepting change and actually did try to do something about it?
Maybe you may ask, "Am i good enough?" "But I'm just a simple human" "I love this average life, I dont wan to change", maybe I ask you to join me to a journey 10years,20years, perhaps 50years in the past, where you are still very young, remember all the ambition and wannabes? what about them now? You may say its OK, just a child's dream, and happy with your life now, but don't you feel something is missing? Has your dream really died? or just buried. My pastor always said, the richest place on earth is not in some international bank or treasure chest, the richest place is in the graveyard, where all the unfulfilled, unrealized dreams buried 6 feet under dark cold soil, never seeing daylight again, having no chance to show the world just how wonderful it can be. My heart is just filled with sorrow every time I pass by the graves.
While you still having breath, why don't you do something for yourself and for God, remember this well, YOU GOT TO KNOW WHAT YOU WANT, don't hold the "anything" and "donno" attitude showing it around with the mindset "I'm flexible", the only thing you gonna proof is you have no identity and you do not know what you want, that's it, nothing more than that, do you know God cannot use you when you are indecisive? Just imagine, if one day God ask you "My child, what do you want?" and you answered "anything", and then God asked again "What do you need Me to do for you?" and yet the same answer from you, what is the response that u expect from making such a response? God is not gonna give you everything just because you do not know what you want, He will reply you "Then I donno what to give you also, when you make up your mind, tell me", God can wait, He got all eternity to wait for you making a decision, but you are human, and you will be holding a walking stick before you know it. Make your decision today, make yourself proud, make God proud, and give the craftsman something to craft, you as a clay need a potter, a potter that is so good that can make the plain-you into colorful and wonderful state-of-art and show you to the world!
Can you be molded?
Why do i mention about clay? First we need to understand what is a clay?
A clay is a mold-able substance composed mainly of water and mud, and there is many different kind of mud giving variations to the clay, the mixture composition of water and mud creates differet effect as the maker wants them, the techniques and equipment used to form the shape is an art work itself, the timing of toasting the clay decides the future of clay, and the final touch on color makes the clay ready for the world.
In other words, each and everyone of us are very unique, we have our own background, character, likes and dislikes, and so are our strength and weaknesses, and all those made us...us! Without the moisture being inside of us, and a heart that accept change, trials, and failure it is impossible for us to show ourself to the world and be proud of it and our maker!
God is the best craftsman in this world, agree? So the problem of you failing doesn't lie within Him! Don't blame Him for every bad thing that happen and reward yourself for all the good thing that happened. Perhaps if you are a christian so you say "GOD, change me!!!" when you end the prayer, you start hoping and hoping for the next 1 year and nothing happened, then you come back to God blaming Him, "ARE YOU REAL?" The problem here is still with you, and not with God, He is real alright, and both you and I know it, a craftsman always need a material to craft with whether it is top-notch quality material, or just simply a leftover, a real craftsman will do his best to create a craft that is part of himself with his hands. When you said that prayer, do you really mean it? Do you really accepting change and actually did try to do something about it?
Maybe you may ask, "Am i good enough?" "But I'm just a simple human" "I love this average life, I dont wan to change", maybe I ask you to join me to a journey 10years,20years, perhaps 50years in the past, where you are still very young, remember all the ambition and wannabes? what about them now? You may say its OK, just a child's dream, and happy with your life now, but don't you feel something is missing? Has your dream really died? or just buried. My pastor always said, the richest place on earth is not in some international bank or treasure chest, the richest place is in the graveyard, where all the unfulfilled, unrealized dreams buried 6 feet under dark cold soil, never seeing daylight again, having no chance to show the world just how wonderful it can be. My heart is just filled with sorrow every time I pass by the graves.
While you still having breath, why don't you do something for yourself and for God, remember this well, YOU GOT TO KNOW WHAT YOU WANT, don't hold the "anything" and "donno" attitude showing it around with the mindset "I'm flexible", the only thing you gonna proof is you have no identity and you do not know what you want, that's it, nothing more than that, do you know God cannot use you when you are indecisive? Just imagine, if one day God ask you "My child, what do you want?" and you answered "anything", and then God asked again "What do you need Me to do for you?" and yet the same answer from you, what is the response that u expect from making such a response? God is not gonna give you everything just because you do not know what you want, He will reply you "Then I donno what to give you also, when you make up your mind, tell me", God can wait, He got all eternity to wait for you making a decision, but you are human, and you will be holding a walking stick before you know it. Make your decision today, make yourself proud, make God proud, and give the craftsman something to craft, you as a clay need a potter, a potter that is so good that can make the plain-you into colorful and wonderful state-of-art and show you to the world!
Can you be molded?
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