'Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do; and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun'
Ecclesiastes 2:11
One of the potential new tourist attractions for the uninitiated visitor to our beloved little but hot red dot of an island will be the sight of queues of heaving and breathing Singaporeans and possibly quasi-Singaporeans, forming a bee-line at the next 'hot' property launch.
What would normally staid, sane and proper professionals, want to mingle, in the full glare of the merciless afternoon sun and the media, with the aunties who are supposed to be at the fish market, rather than the property market. Interpersed that with the well-coiffeured society ladies, in tow with their well endowed(ie belly-wise) husbands and sprinkle a smattering of fresh or rather baby-faced adults, fresh out of school, eager to make a quick killing(investing dad's monies) and truly, the egalitarian dream of Communism, where all are equal, is in place, albeit held together by greed and fear.
'Better is little with the fear of the Lord. Than great treasure and trouble therewith..'
Proverbs 15:16
In the late 1970s, when I was 16 plus, I had put in place a plan(in the subsequent dot com days of the 1990s. it was termed 'business proposal") to manage my 1st million dollars, when I attain it.
Like many aspiring Singaporeans who own a decent property, by the time of the great Asia Pacific boom in the 2nd half of the 1980s, many became asset-rich millionaires, the dream was realized, albeit with plenty of leveraging.
By the mid-1990s, the bubble popped(and it was not champagne) and many found themselves not just in the horrifying throes of the Asian crisis(circa 1997) but that the market does not differentiate between the haves and the have nots. Rich or poor, fat or short, natural or pumped up beauty, as long as you were invested, the financial tsunami took no prisoners.
Not only were most of the East Asian tigers(ie South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore) pounded into near economic oblivion, our near neighbours, the clamouring tiger cubs(ie Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia) were in near smithereens.
'.....Give me neither poverty nor richers; Feed me with food convenient for me;
Lest I be full, and deny thee, And say, Who is the Lord?
Or lest I be poor, and steal. And take the name of my God in vain'
Proverbs 30:8-9
It has been a long 10 years for many. Some have changed jobs, some discarded their better halves, some left the country and some have only recently considered coming out of their pseudonyms to redon their demi-god capes, now that the economic conditions are not just better but roaring.
We are now not at the cusps of a nascent economic recovery, but rather, we could be on the verge of an accelerated momentum of a great asset led recovery.
When we had nothing, enough sounds pretty palatable. But now, in the wellsprings of plenty, never enough is increasingly the mantra.
'The Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly'
Psalm 84:11
Many of us, who professed to be Christians, want to believe in the promise of God. Sadly, we often define it in terms of our own finite benchmarks be it wealth, health or stealth. It is no wonder that in our moments of weakness(which is often), despair, happiness or even pride, we either question the efficacy of the Maker or worse, we desire to subvert His position.
Albert Einstein won the Noble prize for his thought provoking Theory of Relativity. The following thoughts would not win me any prize but more likely, brickbats and maybe some sympathies for such seemingly noble but in the eyes of many, impractical and foolish idealism, for in our finite world with its finite resources and insatiable wants, there is no place for contentment but for contention.
For many who live in this world and behaves like the world, we strive and strife towards a better tomorrow. The dynamo that drives us relentlessly in the pursuit of the promised material riches and recognition of the world is our relative position vis a vis others or even ourselves.
"you are rich when you are satisfied with what you have"
(Daily Bread feb23rd 2007)
Contentment is not an ideal, but a biblical prescription towards protecting us from the ills of the world, from our self deceitful selves and from the gold coated but slippery road to the clutches of the devil.
'Beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possess..'
Luke 12:15
Many words have been shared on the virtues of contentment, yet concomitantly, there have been various dissertations put up by men, sharing their varied and differing opinions on this humanly 'unachievable' and impractical state of emotional well being.
'..And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat'
Daniel 1:15
The brilliance of Daniel and his friends not just outshone that of the rest of the chosen men in King Bebuchadnezzar's Babylon, but their very physical appearance were very much better than their peers who feasted on the best the kingdom could offer, while Daniel and his friends only took water and pulse(ie vegetarian based diet).
If it was just about literally water and vegetables, than indeed it would be a great and inexpensive beauty tip for the many desirous of looking like Adonis and Venus.
But, the fact of the matter is not what they ate, but that, Daniel and his friends, were faithful to the Sovereign Lord our God and they trusted and obeyed His commands.
Today, especially in recent months, the world continues to witness at increasing intensity, the fulfilment of what the scientists have long warned us about.
The price Planet Earth is paying for the years of neglect and abuse of the environment in the pursuit of growth and wealth. And very soon, the last bastions of the natural world will be raided, as man's wiles and ways made possible the exploitation of the Artic and Antarctic and even the literal table top of heaven, Tibet.
The bears in Siberia cannot sleep because winter felt like spring, New Yorkers get a chance to dress down this winter, for spring like weather came a little earlier.
Superbowl is a best forgotten word in New Orleans, but super typhoons is the catchword in Asia and if the recent rains in Singapore and Malaysia are an indication, then the reactive manner of men in thiniking about rebuilding the long destroyed mangroves, might keep out the next tsunami, but it will not keep out the torrential droppings of the skies.
As the year progresses, we will probably not just witness but could be a reluctant participant in some of the extremities of not just the weather, but maybe the financial markets and life itself.
God has promised to shake the earth once again. Yet, he who believes and trust in Him will not be shaken.
It is time for us to embark on building that foundation of faith, firmly grounded in an on-going relationship with our Maker
or do you desire to continue to pursue your desirous dreams of building grand castles up in the air, that sits on the very weak and flimsy quagmire of greed, fear, lusts and finite human understanding.
It will not be a very pretty sight to be caught sitting up at the 30th floor and up of your new castle and have the privilege of a bird's eyes view of the approaching tsunami and feel the loose sands below you, as the sea reclaim the reclaimed land. A figment of imagination?? The script for the next disaster movie??
Man's imagination knows no boundaries and is only exceeded by his sinfulness, but with God, there are limits to His tolerance of our sinfulness.
'And the Lord said unto Moses. How long will this people provoke Me? and how long will it be ere they believe Me, for all the sings which I have shewed among them?
I will smite them.......'
Numbers 14:11-12
Do reflect on the disobedience of the Israelites of old. Like you, many of us have no issue with the value of God's words. Many of us do like what we hear but either we figured that it is unattainable, or we have too much in this world to give up to achieve it, or we have plenty of time to partake of God's grace in the future or there is just a string of other good and bad reasons to not for us to believe and follow.
'..we came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great, and moreover we saw the children of Anak there..'
....We be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we...'
Numbers 13:17-33
Whatever it is, time there has always been, but time is a rare commodity and no one knows when the Lord will return.
God Blesses
Eng Hieang
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