In Christ Alone

"In Christ Alone", a beautiful song and one of my favourites, was sung on Sunday, drawing the lyrics again to my attention. This song has hardly ever failed to touch me. For the past week, with the more than crazy work schedule, there were a few occasions I caught myself, that I had almost forgotten who it was that has brought me through all the past years, and almost for a short moment, I relished in my achievements, almost thinking that it was by my own strength and power that has gotten me thus far. How scary that sounded to me and woe to me to ever think that by my own self effort or "intelligence", that I can ever amount to anything if not for His grace in my life. Many successes in life comes almost supernaturally natural, making it ever so easily mistaken as our own achievement, yet for many circumstances, Someone who loves us dearly must have intervened, translated, diverted, etc our steps and actions to cause all these successes to come to past.

Reaching home every night after 11pm for the past week, a day out celebrating friends' birthdays, and the Sunday night at a colleague's wedding, exhausted me, not to mention that I tried to force myself to stay awake to catch one of my favourite TV dramas late last night, falling asleep several times in the short 1 hour period. I think I am tired, truly am. And this also partly explains the delay in publishing this blog. And yet again, I am totally grateful that despite of this all, my Shepherd has always seen me through every challenge that comes along the way. Yet for now, I hope the pace for this week will slow down a little, for me to recuperate, regain some strength and catches some sleep and reading.

Lastly I always love this song, but it has never occured to me that I can actually illustrate a song. As I was dwelling on the lyrics, the above image came across my mind, and here it is, my imagination into reality here. Hope for your week ahead, that you too catch a glimpse of this eternal truth, "Christ in me, the hope of glory". Only in Him, I can do all things, only in Him. Cheers! "In Christ alone, I place my trust and find my glory in the power of the cross!"

I need a break!

I am trying out a new method of drawing comic, learning this from many animations that use this technique. Since I apply colours by using an appropriate software, I can in fact lay several comics unto one, to create semi-transparent effect, as above. Not sure if you can understand what I am trying to convey above?

For the past 1.5 weeks, it was a really hectic schedule, reaching home every night never earlier than 10pm. Perhaps construction industry is really picking up, I have overwhelming workload, everything that lies dormant, now seems to be activated at the same time. I cannot say I was exactly not affected, that would be lying, I was frustrated, having to rush several projects at the same time. This new year 2007 starts with me clocking in several hours of overtime in just the 3rd of week of January. Anyway, I shall let my comic illustrates my frustration instead of writing much this week.

I pray that the situation will improve over next week and the following few months. Keep me in prayer, really needs much of that! Jesus loves me, for I am His beloved.

Psalm 23

I am combining a few illustrations that were published previously, plus a new one for today, to illustrate one of my favourite psalms in the Bible. Hope you enjoy this series of illustrations and be refreshed as you browse through them. Surely He will see us through every circumstance, and with Him, we can overcome every challenge that meet us in our paths this year.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures:

He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;

For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

New Beginning 2007

It is yet another busy week at work, despite of the fact that it is a 3-working day week, immediately after a long weekend due to the holiday season. For the past 3 weeks, even up till today, I had 3 gatherings with friends, consisting of church friends and old classmates of 20 years ago. Suddenly time seems to fly back to the past, as we looked back and savor the past memories and did quite a bit of catching up, and even looking forward to the next gathering. Trying to get in touch with some old friends seem almost quite impossible these days, after losing contact for 20 years, unless we did a paper advertisement to locate some of them. God help us!

Taking a slight step of faith this year, working less (in terms of hours), and trusting Papa God to provide for me as a result of my decision, yet He will and has remained faithful, as I learn to trust Him as my pay master. This year I hope to embark on a crazy idea that I thought of last year. It still sounds crazy to me now, but I would still want to do it. Meanwhile, I am literally taking a stand to rest more this year, being the 7th year I started working, therefore taking a "sabbatical" year, and see His faithfulness towards me, and also allow my body to have a break, less toil and less stress, after subjecting her to high stress environment for the past few years. Not to say that there is no joy in my work, I still must emphasize that I love my job, just that it is taking too much strength out of me at times. Time to recuperate and be recharged and refreshed.

Finally, the above is an illustration I drew for my colleague. I found it very appropriate for the first illustration for this year, to express a desire to spend a little more time with my Shepherd, hearing from Him, reading His love letters.

Lastly, cheers to everyone! Cheers to a great year ahead, a brand new beginning! Our Shepherd goes before us for us already, to make sure that it is good!