Priorities

Christians, how would you arrange the following in order of decreasing importance?

God, Loved ones, You.

Most of you, if not all, would simply answer, "God, Loved ones, Me". Personally, I'd agree with you.

But consider this: an obsessive serial killer, Mr. Z broke into your house, overpowered you and your family members, tied everyone up and threatened to kill you slowly if you do not denounce you faith in Christ. Each time you refused and chose to stand firm in your faith, he sticks a toothpick under your nail and pry it off your finger.

Mr Z saw that his chosen form of torture wasn't working as well as it should so he grabbed your father, mother, brother, sister, wife or husband (has to be one or the other), son and daughter and started torturing them to death when you still refused to denounce your faith.

What would you do if you were, unfortunately, caught in such a situation?

Who would you love more?

Would it be wrong for me to say I denounce my faith at that moment for the sake of the ones I love?

What if I lied? Surely God can forgive me for that.

In church, we sing of how much we love God and how much He loves us (which therefore means, He would not let such things happen to those who love Him; but you know how sick this world is). How far are you willing to go for Him?

Also, Jesus said that those who do not love Him more than his father and mother cannot follow him. I love my family as much as I love God. What does that then mean?

I would really love to hear your take on this, so put it in the comments section wherever it is..

Funny how

Funny how some non-Christians are so much more like Christ than most other Christians

Funny how people you love most as friends often desert you and friends you often desert love you most

Funny how saying something's made in Malaysia degrades its value and more often than not (exceptions are the food and the people!) it degrades Malaysia's value

Funny how I love Malaysia more than ever when I used to hate her to the core

Funny how I've made more Chinese/Asian/Oriental friends than the number friends of any other race I have combined.

Funny how I yearn to learn Mandarin & Bahasa Sarawak now when I used to be so pro-West

Funny how I felt like I've made the very mistake I've hoped to avoid without even making it,

Funny how I've forced this friendship into a silent deadlock when all I wanted was to know you more

Funny how I tell God to take this away and it's still there.

Funny how I can't do anything that won't make things worse for you if not for me.

Funny how things turned out.

Funny how most if not all the international med students are not attending med ball :)

Reason

To all you budding doctor-to-be's out there,

Here are a few words of wisdom and advice for ya

These are things I've learnt from God, wise people, friends, strangers, lecturers, and basically everyone else involved in my life.

1. God comes above all else. Faith, belief and spirituality. Important aspects of life that should not be ignored.

"Abbot Zerchi smiled thinly. "You don't have a soul, Doctor. You are a soul. You have a body, temporarily."" - Walter Miller in his Canticle for Liebowitz

2. Know your reason for being or wanting to be a doctor. Don't worry if it sounds cliche. Everybody wants to be a hero and save lives, that's all good, but it's the heart that makes the difference. It is YOUR heart that will determine the extent you'd go to save a life.

Recently, a friend from church once asked me my reason to be a doctor. I hesitated, rummaged through memories of the few med interviews I've been through, then gave her a generic reason any med student would tell you - "I wanta help people". You can imagine how stupid I felt at that point. It felt like God gave me a BIG knock on my head to remind me not to forget my reasons. I'm doing this only because He has called me to do it, to love His people, to let the world know there is hope, to let them know faith saves. Without a solid reason to serve as a doctor, chances are you'd drop out of med school eventually. That's what she told me. She's right.

First thing they taught us in Clinical Practice - It's NOT like House.

3. It is not your intelligence but your character that makes a good doctor.

Try as I may, I can't remember where I've heard or read this. We're not the smartest people on earth. Engineers are smarter. No, wait, theoretical physicists, those people are brainiacs. We just have a desire for the sick people to get well. And you need a good character to be good at it. Not one of my stronger virtues, but it's good to be learning.

4. Make sure you're fit to serve before you save others. Go home and recharge your battery first. Be positive- Professor René Zellweger (MD, FRACS, FACS) Listen to his lecture during the Global Health Short Course. It was amazing.

5. Prepare yourself to study like you've never studied before! Not that you don't already know that.