Qualified Ahmad

Weeeelcome to my part of the internet!

Well, just came back from my 3rd driving test (yeah I am that crappy as a driver lol) and YES I finally passed! I won't be jumping around in joy like a mad guy, as it wasn't a great achievement. I passed mainly due to my 'experience'...the tester passed me because I already tested 2 times before haha :)

Kind of think of it, my 'driving career' has thought me that things don't come easy. My little achievements have come with some price, and instant successes don't pop up in my life like MSN sign-in notifications. Exams were tough, my driving took rather long, my uni application still goes on, my army life isn't pretty and my normal life reverberates with some acute pain.

Not that I am a killjoy, but just like to share with you all something: God gave us pain.

People have asked, if God was soooooooo powerful, why doesn't he just kill off Satan and stop evil in its devious tracks? Millions are starving from Sudan to right here in Singapore, and what has God done for them? He could at least gave them some grain, some dollars or some rain for their parched crops.

Although it might sound like an air-tight argument against God, but it is a question that does in the end prove God really does exist. You can reduce my stand here as I come from a comfortable home and do not know the real pain people go through daily. Yes, that does get my goat sometimes, but it drives me to use my time here well and appreciate the things God has blessed me with.

Well, there's a book out there written by a renowned author by the name of Lee Strobel, and it's called The Case for Faith. It's a good read and Lee raised up 8 tough questions to well-qualified individuals who gave their insights in this book. The one above was one of them. A couple of points provided were:

1. God gave us a free will and He respects it. If he killed off evil and made us chose right all the time, we would be robots. We won't be able to learn the real essence of good and will not appreciate the goodness of God.

2. There is eventual good that lies in evil and suffering. It is not to say that we can remain in our ignorance and dismiss all evils as preludes to good. There are valuable lessons that lie in the suffering, people do draw closer to God in times of trials etc...


I seriously reccommend this book to the skeptic, the believer or the agnostic. Actually, anyone. Go on ahead and read it with an open mind. I will not force you to think that Christ is God right away. I can tell you Christ is Our Saviour, but you've gotta run your personal journey to trully convince yourself. Reading this book and others like it is a way to find out about the person who made a huge impact on the religious fabric of this world, and His effects still ripple on.

Or the other way is to...come to my Church! There's a programme going on right now on Saturdays! Just for the person who is keen in learning about Christ. Heh...I'm not joking but here's the details for your persual. If you wanna go, just go on and give me a message or something.

Every Saturday
Venue: Newton Life Church
Time: 1700-1830hrs

Here's the URL: http://newtonlifeyouthministry.blogspot.com/

Darn another long posting of mine. Hey, I've gotta book in back to camp. Home sweet home haha...take care out there and see you guys real soon!

Joshua

Urgh...duty clerk

Heeeeeeello there!

Hope you are doing fine, but if you ask me, nothing beats me than knowing the Lord! Haha nevermind about that....if you have any problems, feel free to email them to me :) I'm serious, 'cause I'd like to hear about them and try to find a solution for you.

Not so good weekend

Well, I've just come back from a weekend duty I wasn't supposed to do. It's more or less 'signing myself an extra'. Long story, like to hear it?

To start off I'll introduce to you the characters, and here they are:

Friday's Duty Clerk - PTE A
Last Sat's Duty Clerk - CPL B
The other duty clerks

...and of course me

It's on a Friday night, and I was on off and gonna play some warhammer with my pals. Mood is happy and quite excited because I didn't get to meet them for quite a long time.

So as I was about to leave the house, I get a message from PTE A. He asks who is the Duty Clerk for Sat.

Drats, there is no Duty Clerk for Sat! I forgot all about it and how it came about is as follows:

Originally, there was no one doing last Sat's duty (30 Sep). I couldn't find anyone until I ask CPL B, who is actually clearing leave, to switch his Duty on 07 Oct to 30 Sep. He agrees and the switch occurs.

Well, I was quite thankful for his help...and darn my forgetfulness that I actually forgot to schedule one for 07 Oct. Big mistake. My mistake.

After getting the message, I start to ask all the others and I guess you can predict that all of them couldn't do it. Yeap, lots of commitments/MC etc...and unfortunately, no one was willing to do it.

Darn, and after quite a lot of thinking, I decided to do it myself. Even though I had commitments on Sat, there were a few reasons why I decided to do so:

- It's my mistake.
- No one was willing to do it. (I distrust the unwilling)
- I could spend the time and focus on writting my app essay and read :)
- Little/no time left to force someone to do it.

It was a tough decision, and trust me, my mind flew into a lot of negative thoughts. I could sense the simmering hate and 'humiliation' of arrowing myself a duty that I am not supposed to do and no gurantee of getting something in return. I had to cancel a drama act for duty. I prayed to God for wisdom and help comfort me in this situation...and to get to learn from this experience.

Not to praise myself, but I told myself that it's an opportunity to do some good. It allowed me to focus on stuff and achieve something. Maybe meet some new guys since the Duty Officer was a new one. Being in camp also allows me to do Quiet Time...as there's no one in camp and I can do it in peace.

So yeah, I bitterly went back to camp on Sat morning and fought against the negativity to do my duty and get something out of it. Thank God I had supportive parents who fetched me from there and after duty, straight to church :) The duty's over and well, life goes on as normal.

It was a tough decision, and you might say an unneccessary one. You can keep that view, and I'll respect them. But I am happy that the thing's over and perhaps learnt a few things, such as the supportive nature of my parents, and the danger of forgetfulness.

If you read until here, you have my respect haha...well, I've gotta go now and live a normal life before booking in.

Have fun and stay safe!
Joshua