Faith

Faith is a feeling, a feeling of deep assurance. When we say "walk by faith, not by feelings", it seems to suggest that we are trying to do things, going through all the motions without having any internal indications. However, faith should arise from within, that it provides you with absolute confidence that things will work out.

Faith is not called positive thinking. It is not just merely substitute some thinking in your brain with some positive encouraging words and hope that all things will work out good. Hope is not equal to faith. Rather, the positive feeling or more correctly, the joyous feeling, is one of the fruits from faith. Faith begins with an attitude and a feeling of absolute confidence.

Faith comes with actions. The deep feeling of assurance will cause you to act readily and succeed. Somehow, faith belongs to the invisible - the fourth dimension. It is present in the same realm as your dreams and visions. Faith is a substance that will crystalize the invisible to become visible.

The bible talks about the mustard seed faith. That as long as each one of us have faith that is as tiny as mustard seed, you can in fact speak to the mountains and move it. Nothing is impossible when you have faith. The mountains in the bible speaks to extreme unfavorable situations that is hindering or blocking your way. Meaning in tough times, you really need to exercise your faith and believe that all things will turn out good. Of course, like what I have mentioned above, faith is not just merely substituting your mind with positive thinking and confessing positive words. Faith need to arise from your heart and then it translate into some form of intense and mighty strength to reverse the seemingly impossible situation. The knowledge of faith is easy but the understanding and application is arduous. You need to practice your "faith"continually.

For myself, I had mountains to conquer too. At the age of mere 16, I need to shoulder the responsibility to support my family. I need finances to pay for housing mortgages, utility bills, groceries as well as my own school fees. Life is tough but I keep my heart strong, with faith that I will emerge victorious if I do not lose heart. Right now, I am doing very well financially and gotten a scholarship that pays pretty well for my graduate studies.

What is the mountain ahead of you? What challenging issues are you facing in life? Is it regarding your career? Finances? Marriage or relationship with people you love? It is time for you to stop complaining and start to let faith arise in you.

What a busy month

I have been real busy over the last few weeks. I hope that you do not feel neglected.

Many things had happened over the last few weeks. From work to study to relationships with people, there are some updates.

In terms of my work, I have tons and tons of things piling up waiting for me. Feeling kind of anxious that I could not complete some of my work. But with You, I believe I can.

I did some music recordings yesterday. Yes finally.. It has always been something that I wanted to do since college days.

I have been looking at some nice condominiums recently... They are so expensive now... Nonetheless, you still can take a look :D

Been a busy bee

Yes, it has been some time since my last update on this blog.

I am busy with preparing for my exams and doing tons of things (for free). It is not easy and challenging especially over the next few days!

There are different seasons in life. Right now, it is my spring season, working very hard for my harvest!

Building Relationship - Second Law of Thermodynamics

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that in a closed system, the entropy (measure of disorder) of the system will never decrease.

In plain language, the second law of thermodynamics indicates that any system, being isolated from the surround or energy sources, will start to "disintegrate". For example, a cube of ice being left alone at room temperature will have its entropy increase ("disintegrate"). This is true and has been quite vigorously proved mathematically in the realm of physics. If you come to think of it, this is also true in the natural world.

Picture from HumanThermodynamics.com

For example, an apple, if being plucked down from the tree and left alone on a table, will decay in few weeks time. This is because, the apple does not receive nutrients from the tree when it is being disconnect or isolated from it. It will eventually die from the "starvation".

This principle is true in the realm of physics and nature. This is also true in building relationship with people. I have heard this particular statement from a well known clinical psychologist: "You don't need to do anything stupid to destroy a relationship. You just have to do nothing."

I felt that this is so true. Many people will say that lying will break down trust and cause a relationship to break down quickly. It can take many years to build a relationship but it can also be broken down by trust in just a few days. Well, I do agree with that. And that in order to build a strong and healthy relationship with people, you will need to be honest with one another and need to share and communicate openly with one another.

Do nothing is a good way for relationship to decay. Picture from BooklistOnline.com

While dishonesty is liken to being bitten by a poisonous cobra snake, the act of doing nothing is liken to cancer in the relationship, where your relationships will escalate in stages until death. In today's fast paced and highly stressed society, people have been working very hard to make ends meet. It is becoming more and more prevalent for both parents in the family to work and bring in revenue for the family. I am not those man with full of pride and ego that the woman shall be a housewife at home while the man in the family puts the bread on dining table. I am not against both parents working to fetch income for their family. But, I start to get worried when both parents start to get so busy with their tons or unfinished work and start to neglect one another. This is the time when the relationship is diagnose with cancer. If nothing is done to reverse the issue, divorce results.

Thus, no matter who you are or what your work is, you will need to spend time and nurture your relationship. Purposely make time to build your relationship with your family, friends and loved ones. Make conscious effort and grow your relationship. It is like gardening, the more you tend to your relationship, the more and healthier it will grow.

Know and understand the difference between what is necessary and important. Work is important in one's life, where you will learn useful skills and have the financial capability to "feed" yourself and others. But relationship is necessary to make your life complete.

China Singing Competition - I am a Singer

I am a Singer is a Chinese singing competition where the contestants are all professional singers. The singers are mainly from China and Taiwan. These two countries almost dominate the realm of Chinese pop music.

I am very touched and amazed by some of performances in this competition. They have almost drawn tears in my eyes. They are really talented!

Boston Marathon Bombing - Keep them in Prayer

I have been reading many articles and comments related to Boston Marathon Bombing in google, blog post, facebook and many other social media websites. I am saddened and grieved to see families losing their loved one, to see some of the victims had their limbs amputated. One of the victims, an 8 year old boy, cheering for his loved ones, is gone.

A Boston Marathon runner leaves the course crying following the bombings.

People react to an explosions, shattering the euphoria of the Boston Marathon finish line. Picture: AP Source: AP

Whenever such a tragedy happens, be it natural disaster such as hurricanes or earthquakes or violences such as Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting and Boston Marathon Bombing, I would ask myself - Why would God allow it to happen.

Yes, as a Christian, I really do not know the answer exactly. As His ways is always higher than our ways

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

One fundamental truth in the bible is that God is loving and God loves us. He sent His only Son to die so that we can have live a life more abundantly. Rather than spending time to reason why all these happened, why not we offer help and shower the victims with love and care to help them not to spiral down into depression, bitterness or hatred. 

I got reminded of a few things through this incident. Firstly, life is uncertain and treasure your loved ones. Very often, when we graduate from university to step into the marketplace, we are tied up with our busy schedules in work. We tell ourself and other people that work and earn more when we are still young. While this is true, I feel that there is still a need to balance out and spend quality time with your loved ones. Learn how to differentiate between what is important and what is necessary. It is important to earn money and make your mark in your career while you are still young. But it is necessary to spend at least some time with your family members everyday! You may not know when will happen tomorrow. So treasure every moment with your loved ones. 

Secondly, I am really thankful that I am still breathing every seconds. The fact that I am still well and healthy is already a blessing. And when I am still strong and healthy, I would want to be a blessing to others as much as I can. I feel that my strength is in the area of academics. So I'll give free tuitions to poor children at times to help them in their studies. It is really a blessing to be a blessing to others.

So, rather than spending time to reason out why God allow such incident to happen. Why not we just roll up our sleeves and start to be a blessing to those who needs around you. Keep those victims of Boston Marathon Bombing in prayers!

Dear Heavenly Father.

I would like to lift up those who are affected in this Boston Marathon Bombing into your loving hands. I pray for the love and peace of God to come their hearts and the hearts of their family members. Help them as only you can. Whenever they need any help, God you will send them help through people immediately. You have said that you will come close to the broken hearted. I pray that You will begin to heal their broken hearts and physical wounds. Cover them under your wings, send angels to protect them. I thank You God. In Jesus name I pray, Amen!

Psy Latest MV - Gentleman

Well... I should be concentrating in my class.. But..

This latest MV Gentleman, by Psy, actually got close to 93 million views in just 3 days! Will it gangnum the world again? We shall see!

Some thoughts..

This phrase just flash through my mind again and again...

"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care"

This is actually wisdom about building a ling lasting relationship with people. One of the main ingredients for building a good relationship with people is to genuinely care for them, making consistent effort to ask about their lives and be interested.

Building relationship is not bragging about your profound knowledge of the world, it is not about boasting your achievements and accomplishments during a meal with your friends. But it is always asking and listening out to your friends.

I may have understood this principle but I am still not a master in building yet. See, knowing it and executing it is the fine line between knowledge and wisdom. Let us work hard to be a master in building relationships!

Like the picture below, always take time off to spend with your friends!

Real Estate In Singapore

If you were to conduct a search on the internet, you will realize that real estate prices have been soaring rapidly for the past few years. Coupled with the inflation of Singapore keeping at its annoying level of 4.90% as of February 2013, it makes living in Singapore difficult for many locals.

Since the financial meltdown in the United States in 2008, investors has been pouring lots of hot money into Asia and many prefer to "park" their money in physical real estate in Singapore, Hong Kong and China. Singapore is a disaster free zone. Together with the low crime rates, limited land space, strong currency policies and low interest rates, it makes Singapore Real Estate a good investment asset.

The Singapore government has been trying very hard to channel these "hot money" into other investment asset class by implement numerous measures to restrict foreign purchase. Some of these measures includes an additional buyer stamp duty of 15 per cent for foreign buyers. The effect of these cooling measures is still unclear but the latest property price index shows that property prices is beginning to show signs of stabilizing.

I do hope that this cooling measure will help to stabilize the real estate price in Singapore so that every Singaporean will be able to afford at least a house for their family. Providing an affordable housing for every Singaporean, isn't that the motto of Housing Development Board (HDB)?

First Post

Firstly, I would like to thank all readers for taking time to read my post. I have been pondering for some time whether I should start blogging because I may not have the time and discipline to keep updating my blog. And if I want to start a blog, what should I blog about and what blog name should I use?

I would like to introduce myself, I am Andy and I am currently just a student studying nanoscience in Singapore. On the sideline, I actually give private tuition to O level and A level students at my little home located at the north eastern part of Singapore. I do have a research blog that talks mainly about my research progress and what I am working with. However, I do not want to start writing about those complicated science theory in this blog that induce you to sleep. This blog shall be my personal and virtual shout out place.

The term, Andiology, derives from my name Andy. So andiology place is a place where I will share my own beliefs, values and opinions about life and my life. I hope that contents of this blog will not bore you down and I will try to update my blog as often as possible. Stay tuned!

Regards

Andy