Limitation is a Myth

Guten Morgen guys!! I think it’s my first ever post that I wrote in the morning. I just want to share my insight, fresh from the lalaland ^^.

I often thought about limitation in my life, and always wondered how we can quantify that limitation. Is our limitation defined when we really try our best to do something, yet it bloomed into failure? If I’m just a normal JC student with no ‘extra great’ achievement, will it be a limitation for me to dream about entering an Ivy league university for my undergraduate years? Certainly it is not. Indeed.

Something that we call as ‘limitation’ often leads us to stop trying, and then it makes us choosing an alternative pathway, which has safer and lower expectation, and it works magically. But it is indeed not what God desires us to be. If Thomas Alfa Edison stopped trying to make the light bulb after 6o trials, and thinking that it will indeed wither into failure, we might not be able to enjoy what we have today. Thomas might feel constipated on the creation of light bulb, but what kept him moving and trying?

It is called as dream.

(have a dream, visualize it, look upon God :D)

Dream inspires people to move on. In a sense, it works as a painkiller towards limitation. Simple illustration would be when my wisdom teeth were taken. The doctor must inject a painkiller to my mouth first, before he does the surgery. The dream here is “taking out the wisdom teeth”. The limitation here is thelocation of the wisdom teeth, which often lie under the deepest gum. The doctor need to “break’ the gum in order to take them off. All of us know that the process will be severely painful without a painkiller planted.

It’s the same in our life. Limitation is not a border that we cannot pass through. It is just an extremely high wall, but with a stair provided to leap upon it. The wall is strong, you cannot break it, but you can leap upon it. The staircase is always there to let you move to the other side! God has always provided a solution, but unfortunately many fail to see it. It is planted deep inside the “gum” that you need to extricate it out.

Yesterday I found something beautiful in the book of Ecclesiastes. After all the verses about how “All is vanity”, in Eccl 12:9, he said:

“because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge.”

It is a paradox of knowledge in Ecclesiastes. How on earth the Preacher still taught knowledge, though knowing that knowledge is just vanity?

But finally I understand the answer through my pastor few weeks ago. He said that the only constant in life is CHANGE. Amazing right?

God indeed knows that all thing in this earth are just vanity, we will not bring anything from this earth back to heaven after we died. But yet, He gives us wisdom and knowledge. He wants us to always change, change, and change. There must be a reason for it. Hey people, do you know that we have reason to be born in your particular era? God has a reason for it. God does not let Franklin D. Roosevelt to be born during the stone age or now right? :D!! God has prepared HIS people, each of us, in a special reason in a special time. It’s called as cultural mandate. He wants us to shine for Him in a particular society in a particular time. We have purposes. Get it?

So let’s be back again now to the idea of limitation. Now we know that God has a purpose for each one of us and He is God of changes. So what’s the relation with the topic of limitation? (*I bet some of you are confused now, I got stucked as well while writing this. It is hard. Believe me :p)

There is always improvement and improvement. There is no limit in record breaking, it continues to be broken and broken. If we know that God always give us new knowledge everyday, we should know that LIMITATION is just a MYTH!

Hence I would like to propose “Albert’s Dictionary” new definition of limitation:

Limitation: act of laziness causing restriction in life.

Limitation occurs when we stop trying and believing that there is a wall around us. The wall itself is not the limitation. The limitation is in our mind. We will it into existence.

Nevertheless, God never says that leaping upon our ‘limitation’ is easy. It is hard. Like my illustration of the wisdom teeth surgery, the process is painful. It is a secret for those who believe. The staircase is planted deep under the “gum” that we need to dissect the ‘gum’ deeply.

Ok, another illustration through my random endeavor. Trying is like finding a toilet in a shopping mall *albert, wht’s this???. On a particular day, I was at one of the new shopping mall at Orchard, and I needed to go to the toilet. The sign said that toilet is right away after taking a left turn from my position. But, after I took a left turn, another sign saying you must take another right turn. Then it went on until the 4^th sign and I was still not in the toilet! I was thinking to find a toilet at another floor, (the floor that I’m familiar with). But my friend said (*who also wanted to go to the toilet), “just follow the sign, it might be the last turn”. So I nodded and took the last turn and I discovered the toilet! The toilet was just few meters away, but it is cleverly hidden behind a turn.

How many of us know, that we might just be like my “toilet” experience? Our destination might just be few meters away from you, but we stop trying just because of we are tired of failure? think again J

So, last but not least, I want to end this long complicated post with a simple conclusion:

Limitation is just a myth. However it will exist when we believe it is there. Henceforth, we need to have hope as our painkiller and never ever stop trying because it is not for us, it is for the Glory of our God! Always do your best and visualize your dream. Nothing comes close without trying.

Never give up :D

God bless

NPK - Taking or Taken

Hi guys, it’s nice to be back again at tumblr *after a super long gestation period of studying XD!! Wieder Willkommen!!! Actually I want to dedicate this post to one of my friend here in Singapore. Thank you for the inspiration!! :) So without further due, let’s start the fun part :D!!

My post today would be a simple thing. It is about problem, or some people from my church might be more familiar with the word “crisis”. :) (will talk about it next time). In our life, I believe that no one of us has never ever encounter problem. One might encounter problem with family, friend, environment, and even yourself! As a Christian, it is kind of funny that we even have more and greater problems than the world. I myself just encounter a problem with, my most fearful dilemma, which is the “fear” itself. I was stressed out and burned out with my abilities. I kept thinking that my abilities were not enough to escalate me to the university that I want, right there in the Uncle Sam’s country.

(I wonder how, I wonder why? la lala lala ~ :D )

But God is good! Ameen guys? :D!! He gave me with something very simple but has really tickled my mind to the utmost. Yesterday He brought me back to my deep reminiscence where I was still at my secondary 3 year and was doing my research project on plant. (*Hey I’m a green man :D!! hahaha). He made me remember a theory from my secondary biology textbook. Here it goes:

In a natural process of plant’s growth, plant will indeed grow in a normally slow rate, which required tens of years to become a gigantic fruitful tree. However, if we want to inflate that growth rate, you need fertilizer. One of the most popular examples of the fertilizer is NPK (Nitrate, Phosphorus, and Potassium). When NPK is added, the growth rate of a tree will rapidly doubled, tripled, quadrupled, and even more! Amazing right?

However if we focus it deeper to the process in the root of the tree, there is an astonishing mechanism going on. It is called as active transport. Active transport will help the root to absorb the nutrients from the NPK fertilizer that has a lower water concentration to the root that has a higher water concentration. Without the presence of “energetically consuming” active transport by the root, plant unable to absorb the nutrient and water will naturally be diffused out from plant’s root due to water osmosis and causing the plant to wither and die. Water osmosis itself is a movement of water particle across a partially permeable membrane down the water potential gradient. When NPK is added, there is a choice: letting it to withdraw water molecules from the plant or do some hard work “active transport” to enjoy the nutrients from NPK as a catalyst for exponential growth. Do you get what I mean? :D

Life is just the same as the parable up there. Often we want to grow naturally without any extra nutrient, a peaceful way to grow. However, God often wants us to shoot up our growth rate. Why? He wants us to be ready for the storm that is coming. You might be a small tree right now that can be uprooted easily in a big storm, so He wants us to grow faster before the storm comes!!

God often gives us fertilizer to mount up the growth rate of our quality, whether it is character, attitude, abilities, etc. This NPK fertilizer is the problems that we faced. Remember the rule? If you don’t do anything with “NPK fertilizer”, it will withdraw “water molecules” from your life. Instead of bringing growth, it will lead you to your “death”. So, do the “active transport”. Bring all the nutrients from the NPK into your root. Active transport is not a natural movement. It needs energy as you need to bring nutrients from a low water concentration soil to the higher water concentration. It is normal to feel tired and want to give up when you are doing the ‘active transport”. Why? It is simply because the process requires energy!!

So when you are faced with a problem, don’t give up. Visualize the exponential growth that you are going to enjoy when you have successfully extracted out all of the nutrients from the “NPK fertilizer”. Never ever let it withdraws your soul out, but let’s withdraw their nutrients from the “fertilizer” to the utmost.

Hence, I would like to propose to all of you to start thinking that

problems = NPK fertilizer :D

Before I end this post, I would like just strengthen you guys who are facing problems with one of my favorite bible verse from Ecclesiastes 5: 19-20

“As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor – this is the gift of God. For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart.”

So, when you are busy and faced with a problem, thank God, it is a gift from Him.

Be blessed guys :D

Much and Enough

While starring upon the endless rotation of the fan in the ceiling of my room, I often wonder and start to question God’s gift upon my life. Many times I complained to Him why I have not been given enough blessing for this week. Even for last week, there were many things that caused me to fall into depression for several times. Nothing has intersected my expectation. Why God so cruel to me? Am I nothing to Him?

But thanks to God, something beautiful comes across my mind. It was the time when I was hungry and wanting to eat something. Not really hungry, but just needed to eat. I get my self a small apple to satisfy my hunger and I was glad, I was full.

☺!! After that very moment, my stomach was full and there was no will to eat more. It is ENOUGH. Do you get what I mean? :p

(a hungry hamster ^^, nyammm.. nyammmmm )

Same as our life, we often forget that God gives us blessing DAY BY DAY, not WEEK to WEEK, or YEAR to YEAR. When someone says it is a prosperity year, or a bearing year, or bla .. bla..bla…. I don’t agree with it. God gives us blessing DAY by DAY. Often we try to measure it as a whole, compare it with other people’s blessing and think that we have no blessing. As I think again of what God has given to me today, I am amazed that actually there are many things that we are not thankful for and actually they are the blessing from God!! So, try to remember God’s blessing day by day.

And what’s the relationship with my sharing and the “day by day”? here it comes ☺

It is indeed true that we need food to fill our stomach EVERYDAY. But, there are different amounts of “food” that we need each day. There is a moment when you are really hungry and you need a lot of food. But there are also moments when you just need little food to fill you empty stomach. When you are given too much food when you have no extra appetite, the food will be wasted. Here it is the same. God often does not want to give much because you don’t need it. He knows that your ‘stomach’ can’t be filled much and there will be leftover.

We often don’t understand God’s plan. He knows what we need. Often what we want is not what we need. He is good to us. He gives what is enough for us. So, appreciate HIM so much. Be thankful day by day. He is amazing.

Let me end with Proverbs 3:5

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”

Alle Beste

Analogy of Shutter Speed

(pics above:a process of taking a shot with a long exposure time, for the result see the photo in the end of this post :D )

As a freelance photographer (in my free time only ;p), I have learnt a lot of skills and techniques in order to create wonderful photos. One of the most important and interesting part is a “Cameranalogy” of shutter speed. In a dark room, if we open the shutter for long enough, it will capture all available light, and guess what, a picture of the dark room can be captured brightly!! Fantastic right?

Same as our life, we often complain when we are in the “dark room”. We can see nothing and we all are panic!! But, do you know as what I have done to the shutter, we also need to open our mind for a LONGER PERIOD OF TIME. Try to be calm and settle down. When we open our mind for a longer period of time, all the light sources, thought they are small, they can be captured by our “shutter”. So, think big, in a “dark room”, try to absorb all the small “lights” and blend them together.

Hence, I would like to end it with one of my favourite bible verse,

Psalm 1:3a

“He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season.

Möge Gott Sie segnen! :) (May God bless you)

(pics: result after waiting for a longer shutter speed)