Faith comes from experience.

Last night I was with another Buddhist family and our talk drifted to the strength of one's faith. It is a story of how sincerity and true love for one's 'brother' lead a man to accept a religion.

First of all, before I continue, let me repeat what i have said all this while: I belong to no religion but have a strong belief in God. I know, it's most contradictory for some people but that is how it is. Through personal experiences, I know and feel His presence but religion; that is a totally different story as religion has been messed up by people. Still, I have a healthy respect for all religions.

However, today it is not about me. It is about a young man a friend knew. He grew up deprived of his parents presence. Look after by relatives, he understood the toughness of life. With parents who left nothing to him when they passed away, he depended upon an uncle, his own father's brother.

Without any parents, he grew up always having insufficient funds to finance his education, wants and needs. The uncle always advised him to stop schooling and start working to have money for himself. Luckily for this guy in Penang, his uncle lived near a church in Macalister Road where there was a church. Although his and his uncle's family were Buddhist, the church came to know of his problems. The church was caring enough to provide him with school fees, money for second-hand books and clothing. Otherwise, he would have to drop out of school very early in life.

At form three level, he passed his examination with such good grades that the uncle (imagine that!) became jealous of his results and commented that he should stop schooling then and get a job with his Lower Certificate of Examination results to support his own life. Even the aunt was flabbergasted with the husband's remarks. What kind of job can the young boy of fifteen do to support himself? Apparently, the uncle was unhappy because this young man achieved better results than his sons.

Fortunately, there was always the church and the people there who constantly gave verbal as well as monetary support. Eventually, he got his School Certificate at form five and was able to get a job. With a job and a place of his own, he attended church and became a Christian. Some people were aghast with his embracing Christianity. Yet, these people did not realise that his position then was only made possible by the amazing love that he received from people he did not know, people who were not even related to him. Help came from loving hearts that grew in a church.

I would say he has done the right thing. Perhaps I would have condemned him if he had done otherwise, although I do not believe in condemning people for their choice of religion.

God gives us the choice. That is my belief. Since God is all powerful, and who among us can say otherwise, if he does not want us to have any other choice but one particular religion, he would have not given it existence. Don't worry is you disagree for I respect your religion and God.

Fear alone is not enough.

The other day I met this friend who told me of a guy who had diabetes and heart problems.
"So what did you advise him?" I wanted to know.
"I told him to join me for evening walks."
"That's good. With his heart problem, he certainly cannot take on strenuous activity.
"Yeah but what's the use? The guy says he has sufficient exercise already."
"Well, if he really has enough exercise, that's good enough." I pacified him.
"Well, do you consider strolling to the nearest sundry shop which is a hundred metres away exercise?" he wanted to know.
"Of course not! Any activity can only be considered exercise if the heart gets to beat faster than normal and the lungs are forced to take in greater gasps of air," I explained. "Perhaps you ought to explain that to him," I suggested.
"I did but he was adamant that that was sufficient for him," he ended that with an expression of hopelessness.
"Well, sometimes, there's just nothing much more that you can do. You have done your part. The rest is his choice."

Well, every now and then, we meet individuals like the guy with health problems. They find it difficult to get out of their comfort zone and refuses to put out some effort to overcome their problems. And sometimes it is only when the problem has reached the critical stage that these people would want to act which might be too late.

Well, if things worsen and the guy dies, then all his problems could be over. But, sometimes, life is not that easy. A stroke may put them down and life is limited to a bed and four walls. And if funds are limited, with no help to turn the body, bed sores come to create greater misery. The disgusting smell, the fear of gangrene and losing limbs makes life frightening.

Unfortunately for these people fear alone is insufficient to drive them to move towards recovery at the earlier stage. At the later stage, when movement is too restricted to bring about any change, there is only prayer and hope.

Prayer? Talking of prayer, I remember these words: God helps those who help themselves. Of course, there are miracles but they are only for unbelievable occasions. That's the reason they are termed miracles. And hope is only there as long as there is enough energy and strength to find a means to get out of the situation; otherwise it is hopeless. And there can only be pain and suffering.

Is that what we want? That is a most important thought. And this thought ought to be voiced early, and action taken accordingly.

A computer can cause a fire.

A family lost their 25 year old son in a fire at home some time ago. This is what happened.

He graduated with a MBA from University of Wisconsin-Madison two weeks earlier and came home. He had lunch with his dad at home and decided to go back to clean up his room at school. The father told him to wait and see his mother before he goes back for a few days. He decided to take a nap while waiting for his mom to come home from work.

Neighbors called 911 when they saw black smoke coming out of his house. The fire brigade came but it was too late for the son. The 25 year old son died in the fire in this house.

It took several days of investigation to find out the cause of the fire. It was determined that the fire was caused by a lap top in the bed.
According to the investigation, when the lap top was on the bed, the cooling fan does not get enough air to cool the computer and that was what caused the fire. The uneven surface of the bedsheet had blocked the air intake vent below the cpu fan.

When laptops are placed on a flat surface i.e. on a desk or a table, there is a gap between the desk surface and the base of the casing to allow air to flow or be sucked in through the air intake vent by the cpu fan to cool the cpu.
He did not even wake up to get out of the bed as he died of carbon monoxide poisoning. The reason this is written this is that too many people are using their lap tops in bed. Let us all decide and make it a practice not to do that. The risk is real. Let us make it a rule not to use a lap top in bed or put a computer on a bed with blankets and pillows around it.