What is wrong with us?

IT IS REALLY GOING TO BE BAD....
I spent the past 6 days in Sabah and I went there to also take part in an Open Table-tennis Inter-team competition where many of the top players in Malaysia took part. It is such a joy to be able just to play after my close brush with death a fortnight earlier. We take so much of our existence for granted and we shunt out unpleasant thoughts thinking that by not considering them, they will go away. Things just don't happen that way. Sometimes we live in a fool's paradise. The entire global economy is crashing down and we will see it seriously fall down around us in Malaysia soon enough. We cannot escape the spill-down effect from the US - we are all woven around its fabric. Yes, it is really going to be bad and we ain't seen nothing yet! The sooner we see reality,the better prepared we will be for it!

THE WORLD IS A ROLLER-COASTER
Existence is about realism and whether we like it or not, we live in a 'risky' world. This is why the two issues we should always keep in front of us is to know our future both spiritually and holistically as well as living our lives to the 'maximum' in the present. This is not to say that we should not plan for the future because planning is an act of wisdom. We should plan but we should also live our life impacting people and bringing meaning and purpose for the present. It is our fundamental goodness and our spiritual grounding that will stand us strong through the biggest storms.

FOR SO MANY, IT IS ALL ABOUT SELF AND SELF ALONE
So many people today prefer to live lives that are self-centred and ego-centric. So many people who have the capacity to bless others choose to look at them suffer. So many simply can't care less. So long as they are in control of what goes on around them, they are happy. Many of these people are usually affluent and rich and they think they have a self-effacing right to all that is going well with them. How sad and how fallible a line of thinking. When the times are good, they should have spread their cheer around. Instead they hold on tightly giving tiny little amounts and self-condescendingly at that. How sad. These "stingy" and selfish rich will be the hardest hit in this coming economic typhoon.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE CURTAINS DROP?
What happens when their fabric of affluence is suddenly torn away? What happens when they are suddenly hit with a serious affliction? I remember this friend I know who was both rich and arrogant. He was suddenly diagnosed with cancer. His whole world came crushing down and friends who should have stood by him just stared and watched his condition deteriorate. No one really liked him because he never really stepped out to help. I know of another who was fabulously rich and well-off. He had a bad chronic kidney failure. Whenever I see him, I no longer see all that self-confidence shine through. All I see is a hunched sad pitiful sight of a man who still tries to cling on to whatever little is left of his once-proud demeanour. How sad! When the curtains fall, these so-called successes will end up as failures.

IT IS ONLY THAT LEGACY OF GOODNESS THAT MATTERS
When the whole world comes crashing down on us, we will be comforted by the legacy that we have left behind. It is the people we have given to and impacted that will remember us fondly. It is the people whom we have blessed who will remember us for who we are and how we have led our lives. We must never forget this - for this is the most significant value we can implant in our own lives.

THE GLOBAL CRUNCH - YOU CAN'T AVOID IT!
Few will escape its weight. The good news is many will start turning to God and begin to change. This is the good thing about the economic crunch. So many of us need knocks on our heads to be re-directed. My neck-crunching dive two weeks ago was a timely reminder of the need to be humble & benevolent. I pray that God will make you pliant and humble in all that you do. At the end of the day, we are actually 'nothing' in the chain of life's perspectives.