it's the first day of 2010, a brand new year, a brand new decade. i'm glad i spent the first hours of the new decade in church, with friends, family and God. the past three weeks of almost uninterrupted leave from army has really helped re-energise me, helped me reconnect with friends, meet up with family and rediscover God. the best three weeks of 2009. it started with a 3D2N youth camp, followed by a family gathering, LG dinner, 3R class gathering, christmas eve dinner with family, christmas day service and party, boxing day party with YAs, thanksgiving dinner at Labrador Park, LG outing, meet-up with council friends, meet-up with RJ friends, cousin's wedding dinner, culminating in a watchnight service-cum-overnight prayer meeting.
reached home at 7.30am, totally tired but having totally enjoyed myself. yes, i've been living it up!
looking back at 2009, i am just really happy that i survived the year relatively unscathed, save for the two days spent at the hospital for heat exhaustion. unscathed not purely in the physical sense, but unscathed in the emotional and spiritual sense. a human being is made up of three parts: Body, Soul and Spirit. i always knew that going into NS was going to be the greatest challenge of my life. O Levels? A Levels? they couldn't really compare to the turmoil and torment that is NS. not so much in the physical sense, because i've realised that no amount of physical training can really break a person, it's all in the mind.
spiritually speaking, it's been a year of testing. ups and downs really. having my weekends burned because of BMT confinement, and National Day Parade rehearsals really made me distant from the youth i guess. it sucked that i could not be there with them when i really wanted to and the long period away made it somewhat inevitable that i didn't really want to go back. thank God that no matter how far one flies, He never lets go of us. after the two months (8 weeks) away from church, it was very tough getting back into the swing of things again, but thank God for that acceleration and growth.
i guess i've learnt alot in the past year, most of them covered in the previous blog post about army. i think the most important thing i've learnt is that in life, relationships are the most important. no man is an island, and it is the relationships that link us with family and friends that are what make life enjoyable. and it is a relationship with God that makes life purposeful. being away from the people i've taken for granted made me realise that i need to make time and effort to maintain those relationships.
i've always deemed a year successful by achievements: what have i done for the first time this year? what have i achieved this year? looking into 2010, i suppose there are things worth getting excited about: going to India for the first time in March, taking up driving, taking on more roles in Livewire...but, in retrospect, i think i shall define the next year based on how well i've maintained my relationships with friends and family, whether i've built upon the existing ones and whether i'll make new friends and accquaintances. i pray that in the year ahead i'll grow ever closer to God, that i can be used by Him to serve Him in Livewire and even beyond the four walls of the church.
it's going to be an amazing year!
