Listening to the podcast as recommended by Shuz, and typing down whatever speaks to me. 

God's will is clear - yet sometimes His will is very unclear (Eph 1:9). What exactly does God's Word (general direction) looks like in the real world (specifically)?

To see the problems in our lives not as a problem, but as an opportunity. - Coincides with what DD recently said to me about seizing opportunities. 

Do the will of God that we do know, instead of spending our energies chasing down the will of God that we don't know. 

The preacher used to think the Bible was a guidebook for my life. But it isn't designed to do that alone, but primarily to lead us closer to the Guide. 

Stop asking God to give us guidance, because we're directionally-impaired. As sheep, it's God's role to LEAD, and my role to FOLLOW.

The Christmas mood has set in quite early in the office, since it's been pretty quiet lately as everyone is flying overseas. Back on home ground, the not-so-new-newbies gathered for a celebration at Charlene's place last night. 

There was more than enough food to go around as we all brought heaps of fried rice, pizza, KFC, home-made sandwiches and salad, and also more than one course of dessert. There was 12 of us, but we probably brought enough food to feed 20+.

Good food aside, we spent the time chatting, playing with the dogs, and also with board games. Since my colleague JW joined NYC, I found myself learning more and more new games. I think he would be good friends with Raphael. Maybe should introduce them as friends one day.

And because of my new found love for such games, I requested for a board game/ card game of my own for this year's Christmas gift exchange. My colleague Kelvin made the impossible happen by hunting high and low every online store local and overseas to make sure I got my own copy of the games within a short span of 2 weeks, and within the budget of $20. And so now I officially own Saboteur 1+2!

Am so very excited to start playing, but first one must always learn the rules of the game. A good start happened last night, when I played Saboteur for the first time at the party. That kind of gave me a hands-on learning opportunity to the game. But with Saboteur 2 in the picture, I found that I was forced to read the rule book/ instruction manual. And here forth lies my learning from this simple exercise.

Firstly, the rule book is in Mandarin. And being out of touch with this language for the past X number of years (so as not to disclose my age), I found it really a pain to decipher and understand all those terminologies. But because I really wanted to learn to play the game - I persisted to finish reading through the instruction manual for Saboteur 1. I felt a sense of accomplishment completing it, though it seemed like it took forever.

Lesson 1) With a big enough vision (ok not so big in this case) and passion, perseverance is not a problem at all!

And in so doing, I realised that there were incomplete or even incorrect instructions that were given out during the hands-on learning last night.

Lesson 2) I believe in multiple modes of learning and instruction, but I guess if you want to get it right as how it was designed to work, some diligence to go back to the blueprint is so very important.

Next obstacle, the instruction manual for Saboteur 2 started with something along the lines of "leave that part of Saboteur 1 behind, and here goes...". So I quickly learned that I'm going to have to unlearn some instructions and replace it with new information. I could almost immediately sense my reluctance to change, and the thought of not wanting to even explore the expansion pack. Like... isn't Saboteur 1 by itself already a good (or even great) game?

Lesson 3) The battle is often not between good and bad, but between the better and the best.

Lesson 4) Learning is not just about acquiring new information. It might involve breaking off old habits (that seems completely logical and normal way of life) and replacing it with intentional practice of the new way of doing life.

Finally, my frustration peaked when I started spotting obvious incoherence and mistakes in the instruction manual itself. Pictures were labelled wrongly, and whole chunks of text was repeated as if some hired hand doing the translated copy and pasted the previous paragraph without much thought, and the editor checking didn't do his part to vet thoroughly before signing off the endorsement email to the publisher. I decided to head online to look for the rules (in English) from the original game publishers.

Lesson 5) Never never never give up. But the ability to change courses and strategies makes the battle so much easier to fight.

All I can say right now is that I'm very touched and very encouraged. As Althea accurately asked, do I not get surprised often? Probably not easy to surprise an old timer in such things, but they did it.

1st ingredient to success - when it is least expected.

I went for dinner with my colleagues (one of the get-together sessions because someone is leaving the company soon), left on time at 7pm to make my way from Shaw Tower to America room, but made the serious mistake of taking the right bus in the wrong direction. So instead of reaching at 7.30pm, I was stuck on an expressway to Parkway Parade at 7.30pm. Bad example.

But on that journey, my other colleague who was implicated due to my poor sense of direction started to share her life. I knew she was attached, but never knew she had been visiting her partner's church at times. This made me realise how much more actively I needed to be sowing on the people around me. It was a good conversation, but I also wished I didn't make that silly mistake of a detour.

So when I rushed into America room, I was not expecting to see only DK and Jian Hao and a lot of bags on the floor. Immediately the questions started to surface: where is everybody? Why so many bags? JH, why are you here? (It was supposed to be Christmas rehearsal and he wasn't involved this time round). Why the layout of the room so weird? Who are those people hiding at the backstage area? (can hear the voices...)

So when JH kept insisting I sat at the designated table, I finally complied. And then everyone started coming in. And the programme rolled on.

I shall not go into the details of the event, but I must say big props to the organisers: JH and Justin for a great idea - of putting together a Dance battle event (1st in our history) and having it in conjunction with my special day. It's really very special to me knowing that we just created another milestone in our church dance history, and it was led by the people themselves!

All the battles, and the special moJazz showcase, the design of the participant/ judge cards, the thoughtfulness of the prizes and the drinks, the programme flow, the energy and the love from the people from the beginning to the end and even after the end, I loved it. There is so much hunger to learn, to grow, and to dance. They say "anything for you", but I know behind those mushy words, are people who would say to God, "anything for You". Because if they could place their trust in an imperfect leader, whose dance skills are not even as dope as most of them and who fail on so many occasions, surely they can place their trust on an ever faithful and perfect God. And because of this, I feel very privileged and secure to lead such a team - because I see Christ in this community and in every one of them.

So I'm still very overwhelmed. Not sure if I can sleep tonight, but I really want to thank God for these people in my life. May tonight serve as a reminder for me why it is worth it to invest in the Kingdom of God, because all these lives are far more precious than the dollars and sense I could ever accumulate in my lifetime.