dreams and plans

here is life's common debate: to follow goals in life or to just flow with what life brings to us. Working for almost 3 years since graduating, I have met various differing opinions and points of view or call them philosophies of life.

"We could plan whatever we wanna plan in life, but it's still up to God to approve."
"We set goals for ourselves and follow them all the way."
"We should shoot for the moon for even if we fail we land among the stars"
"Life is all about fate. It's not up to us." (do you really really think so?)
"The world stands aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going."
"Your destiny is in your hands."
"Life is about freewill and choice. Not fate."
"Life is about decision making every single day. The process of making decisions is the main thing."
"There's two ways to life. We choose to be in God's permissible will or to be in God's perfect will."

Arghh. We are giving fate too much credit. Even though God is still sovereign in the sense He is who He is (The great "I AM"), and ultimately, only if He allows, will things happen, a huge fraction of what happens in our lives is our own Self-will (We are stubborn creatures), and brings about the idea of Freewill and Choice. Not even the devil is can be given than much credit for making things in our life happen.

Again, we say:
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”- Psalm 91:1

i wish i were more....

Don't we all wish there was something better about ourselves like, "I wish i were smarter, prettier, funnier, blah blah blah." So here we are, trying to hide our fears and doubts about ourselves behind masks, facades and even a persona. or we get really really defensive or offended when others hit that fragile area of our self identity. BUT see the key word here? Its "self-identity" and not "true identity".

Who are we, to doubt ourselves, how we are made, when we sit down and really ask, "Who is the one who made me?"

"concentrate and be aware"

one of the safety trainings i attended as a compulsary thing working in construction industry was conducted by some ang moh (no offence to caucasians) who kept emphasising that at the construction site, we have to all "concentrate on our work" yet "be aware of surroundings".
to my amusement, i looked around and saw the different reactions of my colleagues, each face or expression representing their own country. (that's the advantage of being in private companies). Several overseas colleagues looked very puzzled and confused even. "How do you concentrate yet be aware?" They asked. so the lecturer threw some of us back the question.
then a "smart" haha, guy replied "ohhh.....it's just like driving, u have to concentrate but be aware."
The lecturer was so pleased with him. "Ahh yes you are correct!"

Then i realised how useful this simple piece of experienced advice was from a 60 year old. (oh well). if we could just apply this theory to our living like being focussed on our work, lives, families, friendships, but still listening and reading others' blogs, news, catching up with people that we see daily down the corridors, neighbours, colleagues who seem childish or silly or aloof (as u never know who they are till u talk to them), even simply observing people....

peaks

hmm...the tendency for many people is to just work hard in the first few weeks or sometimes months in our jobs....then ok we're satisfied with the "peak" we've reached. but the truth is, is that the highest peak??

(just trying to challenge myself)