IF YOU HAD ONLY SPOKEN EARLIER

Dream your pictures, paint your dreams. Don't let life get you down. Stay strong & rise above your circumstances. Each storm will pass you by and a new dawn will come



Touching lives - a great privilege

I have not been blogging for a few days because I was busy with the Rotary Youth Leadership Award camp (RYLA) held in the lovely Tanjung Sutera Resort in Sedili Besar in Johore. I had a great time with RYLA helping to launch off the first day's program. Seeing the 105 Youth Leaders from Brunei, Singapore, Sabah, Sarawak & Southern Peninsula Malaysia come together for an event that will touch their lives and help fortify character for the future was in itself a blessing to me. I looked at their faces and knew that through RYLA we were helping to prepare them for life in the world at large. It was a great experience and I like to think that I have played a small positive part when I spoke into the lives of these young Leaders. There was an added bonus when I found an old friend, Amy waiting for me when I arrived (her daughter was one of the Participants). We had such a great time catching up on the some 20 or so years that we have not seen each other. The friendship was still great and when I later stopped by in Kluang to have a chat with John, her husband, I knew that one of life's highlights is to have friends like Amy and John where time and distance do not diminish the bonds of friendship.



If only I had been there earlier.......

I had the chance to speak in 'Chinese' at the main meeting of "SIB Shian En Hui" last Sunday morning. I spoke on the subject of "Living our lives to the full". I touched on how important it is for us to experience real freedom in our existence and how we must rise above the daily circumstances that hold us down in this world. I also spoke about coming clean in our lives and digging out the roots of bitterness and anger. I knew I was touching hearts that morning because I saw some in the audience wiping tears from their eyes. Little did I know how impactful it had been and how some lives would be moved.

Long after the meeting had ended, an elderly lady came up to me as I was sitting alone and she put her gnarled hands on mine and with the saddest look that I have seen for a long long time, she said, "I wished my son had heard your message......" Then she trailed off and had that far away melancholic look on her face. "If only he had heard your message," she repeated. "he should have been here today." A bit perplexed, I replied, "But you should get him to come."

With tears streaming down her eyes, she said, "I can't! He hung himself three months ago! He was so depressed and was angry with what life had dealt him. Then he just took his life one day without any warning." I looked at her and had no words to offer her. I was stunned. I saw the grief written all over her and despite the words of motivation and encouragement that I had shared in my message, I could not find the right words to say to her.

She said, "Everyday when I wake up, I still feel the pain cutting into my life like a knife. I still miss him just as much and I wish he could have listened to you....." I simply cried with her and for those brief moments I felt what she was feeling. I drew her close and held her hand. Then I prayed with her and asked God in his infinite mercy to fill her heart with courage and grace. In those simple moments of silence, no more words were really needed. She nodded her head and then slowly walked away.

As I saw her hunched shoulders turning the corner, I asked God to give me the wisdom and understanding to heal such hurting hearts and to offer the right comfort to them. That morning, I walked into my car with a heavy heart. As I drove off into the morning sun, I prayed that God will shine some rays of comfort into that woman's life and offer her hope where solace seemed so far away..... Still all I saw was the face of that old woman totally devastated by the loss of the one close person to her. Her look of sadness will remain with me for a long time.