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Last few weeks of juggling my career and work, planning a wedding (who am I kidding… the more accurate way of putting it would be helping in planning a wedding.. my fiancee’s been pretty amazing at keeping on top of everything), keeping up with my family relations and caring for my family, and trying to learn to be a good future husband… some may say that I’ve taken a lot onto my plate.

I don’t disagree with them. In fact, I’d say that for the first time in my life, I feel overwhelmed with all the moving parts of my life. I enjoy it, but at the same time, it’s a lot to handle.

With all this happening in my life, I realized the value of having God who sympathize with our weakness.

I’ve been dwelling on the nature of God recently, thinking about what it truly meant for us to have God who understands our weaknesses. First, if this “god-figure” was perfect and all-knowing, he must understand our pain. It’s the question of whether God is sympathetic and humane to understand exactly what we are going through. If God didn’t truly understand what our situation is, He’s not fully God. If God wasn’t willing to be sympathetic, then he’s an impersonal God.

Your boss can be like that. Fortunately, my boss is humane enough to sympatheize with things I’m going through. He’s gone through a preparing for a wedding and he understands what I’m going through. Yet, there are elements of the corporate world where the firm has to run in-humane. It’s not about being nice or being sympathetic– rather, it’s abut results and about the numbers. I fully agree that firms should look in the best interest of the results and the numbers. But, as a manager and a boss, it’s their responsibliity to be sympathetic and just.

It’s the same way with God. God is fully just. As the everlasting and non-changing God that he is, he cannot bend on his rules, his nature, and his self. It would be plain wrong for him to look over sin and unrighteousness. Yet, it’s also his nature to be full of grace and love. As a personal, sympathetic God, He had to pay a penalty for our sins, and his need to stay true to himself was satisfied through His Son dying on the cross.

Nonetheless, it’s really nice to know that God himself knows our pain. He knows what we are going through. He knows when we are having a difficulty loving Him. He knows when we fall into temptations. I don’t ever want to make any excuses for it, but it surely feels nice to feel understood.

Because, after all, don’t we all want to be loved and understood?

I was taller than the average in the crowd.

I was older than the average in the crowd.

Wow.

First time for everything.

It’s been over a month that I’ve posted something meaningful here. Last month has been quite crazy and life changing.

On Friday June 27, I’ve asked my girlfriend to marry me. She said yes; I’m getting married.

This is the engagement story, from her perspective.

We had planned a good bye party for a close friend of ours. He and I were going to go together but he said he got held up at work and I should go without him. I arrived at the pub and Dan & Sue (our pastor couple and the ones that set us up) were there. Having no idea anything was up, I gave them the run down of the evening. They said, “Well actually this night isn’t about Steph’s good bye party at all, it’s about you!” They pulled out a huge bouquet of roses and my first clue. A limo was waiting to drive me to different locations in the city that had been significant to us while we were dating. At each location there were friends (or even my family from St.Catharines!) waiting with the next clue and a small gift. The last clue brought me to him where he told me some really nice things and then got down on one knee and proposed! Later on, we went to his place where everyone who had been involved in the proposal and a few others were waiting with champagne and cake and we celebrated together! What a great night!

Thanks everyone for the warm wishes and wonderful words. Once things settle a bit with the wedding planning, I promise I’ll do more blogging!

A blast from the past: A post I wrote on marriage about two years ago: click here

Being in the confines of the financial industry, where not a lot of Christians like to go, often I feel very isolated from both the Christian community and the financial industry. The other day, I desperately went to google, hoping to find someone alike– someone who loves Christ and also involved in the financial industry.

There I found Ken Costa, currently Lazard’s deputy Chairman and co-head of Lazard’s UK investment banking. He wrote a book called, “God at Work“. I have NOT read the book, and therefore I cannot recommend the book yet. But I was intrigued by what he had to say.

‘As an investment banker in the City of London, I have read the Financial Times and the Bible almost every day for the last 30 years. People often ask how I reconcile being a banker and a Christian. There is a widespread view that God and business simply don’t mix: the competitive, cut-throat demands of the marketplace are seen as the obvious enemy of Christian compassion and love. But I have found that the God who created and sustains the world is also the God of the workplace. If the Christian faith is not relevant in the workplace, it is not relevant at all . . .’

I wonder the same thing. How do I reconcile being a banker and a Christian? The job is so demanding and require your every attention. In a way, being a banker requires you to worship the work before anything. In a bigger sense, how does work relate to God and our faith?

I am intrigued by his last sentence. Relevance of the Gospel and our faith. If our Christian faith is relevant only in our personal lives and our personal decisions, then our God is not who He claims to be– the very God that is involved in every aspect of our lives. God must be relevant in our workplace.

Something to think about and mull over. No, there will not be my conclusion or final thoughts on this.

Dalton and I watched the Clinton and Obama speeches last night. It was pretty interesting. Basically, Clinton did not concede in the race, and Obama accepted the party nomination and went to attack the Republican Party nominee, John McCain.

What was interesting was their tone. So I did a quick-’n'-dirty statistical analysis on their speeches:

Total words: Obama-2603, Clinton-2265

Use of word, “I”: Obama-28, Clinton-64

Use of word, “we”: Obama-38, Clinton-26

Use of word, “you”: Obama-18, Clinton-45

Obama’s use of word, “change”: 19

Hugs exchanged between their spouses: Obama-long/happy/caring, Clinton-short/gestural/pat-on-the-back

Obama is perhaps the best orator in the modern political realms, and last night’s speech was amazing.

The closing remarks of Obama:

The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs for the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment — this was the time — when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals.