An article for your heart
hocksiew ong
12 April 2011
12 april 2011 mt kinabalu climb
TO GIVE IS BETTER THAN TO RECEIVE
1…A HEART FULL OF THANKSGIVING
I woke up this morning three days after the descent from the summit and as I look out of the window of my hotel room in the Grand Borneo Hotel in KK, I can see the silhouette of Mt Kinabalu in the distance. To think that I could have had the privilege of one more climb up that mountain brings an outpouring of thanksgiving to a God who has been so good to me. We were really blessed on this recent trip and the friendship built with the climbers was wonderful.
2…WE CAN ALL BE CHANNELS OF BLESSINGS…..
I looked at the world at large (through the BBC news channel this morning) and all I can see are more cases of Earthquakes, natural disasters, wars and rumours of wars. I decided to shut my TV off and just reflect on the blessings that have come my way. As I took some time to pray for those in need, I just felt a still soft voice saying, “Amidst the gloom you can be a channel of blessing.” And then I heard again, “It is better to give than to receive – so give that you might have more……” How true!
3…THE GREAT DIFFICULTY OF GIVING
Giving is really so difficult and that is why the rich hoard up their wealth and defer giving thinking that they will find the right time to give. But the right time is never tomorrow – it is always today. Thus challenged, I decided to commemorate our successful April climb by personally giving to the following charities and NGOs:
- RM4,000 to the October Charity climb headed by Dato Jimmy Lim
- RM2,000 to the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention headed by RTN Janice Lim
- RM2,000 to the OKU Dobi group in Mid Valley Mega Mall helped by Irene Shiu
- RM2,000 to the RCBU Building fund in the coming term of RTN KG Tan
- RM2,000 to the Sungei Buloh Community program helped by KK Wong
- RM2,500 to the Orang Asli Education program for the Jehais
4…GIVING FEELS REALLY GOOD WHEN YOU SEE PAST THE PAIN…..
I felt so good after deciding to give this morning. I am writing this not to talk about my gestures. I am sharing this to encourage many of you to join me in giving to people who are hurting and people who are in need. Let us be a people who will rise up to share of the goodness of our hearts just as we have been blessed in so many ways. I will never forget the “daughter” I adopted in Thailand through an Australian NGO. Over the past 6 years, I have been giving just RM600 annually for her. She has now grown and I received her photo and a letter of thanks recently. To know that she has been given an opportunity to lead a life of potential and hope brought a good amount of tears to my eyes and a feeling of great joy.
5…WE ARE JUST ONE BUT WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE…..
It is like the little boy who was throwing Starfishes back into the sea to save them amidst thousand of Starfishes that were stranded on the beach. An adult who came along and saw what he was doing told him, “Why are you helping to throw them back? Can’t you see that it is futile and it would make no difference because there are so many stranded?” The little boy turned to the man and ran back to take one more Starfish. As he threw it into the deeper waters, he said, “For this one, it will make a great difference!”
6…UNCERTAINTY IS THE ONLY CERTAINTY
Yes, my friends. In December 1999, I was in my apartment in Manila thinking that life was so secure and good and that I had nothing to worry about. I had no real needs in my life and I had no place for God in my life, thinking that I should just live life to the fullest. In the greatest moment of my perceived security, God had to break that hardness and pride in my life. At 2-00 am in the morning, I woke up startled by the bottles falling off my fridge and breaking. I thought I was in a dream when to my utter horror, I realized amidst the shaking bed that it was a huge earthquake.
7…LIFE’S STUPID VANITY EVEN WHEN LIFE IS THREATENED…..
I grabbed my black passport and ran for my life down the stairs. After 2 flights, I realized that I had not put on my false teeth and ran back up for it. Imagine my utter stupidity and vanity. After putting on the false teeth, I ran down the stairs which was shaking like the waves of the sea. I will never forget the horror in my heart as I thought I was going to die. As the stairs started swaying strongly, I started confessing all my sins to God and pleaded for his mercy. I pleaded with him not to let me die. I then moved on to telling him that I will change. All I wanted to do then was to get home to be with my Grandson who was just 2 years old and my wife and to tell them how much I love them.
8…AT LIFE’S END, WE REALIZE THAT THERE IS JUST ONE ANSWER…..
Then I started urgently reciting the many forgotten promises I had made to God over the years and there were many. God knew I had a lot to talk about and I missed getting out at the Reception floor. I ran past it to three floors of underground car parks. As I opened the lowest floor’s door and saw the car park, I ran back up again, this time committing to him that if he spared me, I will fulfill all those forgotten promises. Just as I was about make a sweeping commitment to serve him full-time, I opened the door to the Reception area and ran out to the road where the cars were parked. The after-shocks were still continuing.
9…OUR SECURITIES IN LIFE ARE NEVER REALLY WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE
I leaned against a car and then turned to the passport document that I thought I held in my hand. It was not my passport! Instead it was the fat TV Remote controller that I had and when I saw how hopeless and futile it was to depend on our Earthly possessions, I slumped down to the floor and I cried and cried like a baby. I cried because of my own vanity and helplessness; I cried because I had been so full of myself all the years; I cried because I knew my life was badly lived. I knew it could have been much better and yet I had placed family and the right priorities in a secondary place subordinate to my own desires.
10..CHANGE CAN ONLY COME WITH DEEP REALIZATION
Man’s selfishness is a terrible thing and I knew slumped there on the floor that when the roll is called, it won’t be how much we have earned and how well we have lived and how many places we have visited but it will be a call of the things we have done for others and for good and how we have been instruments of blessings. That Earthquake experience also made me realize that we should not put off doing things that we want to do and that “now” is the time to climb a mountain or sail the great oceans. It also took a lot of fears from me and I knew that so long as I stay in the will of God almighty, I will have no fears about tomorrow.
11…AND THAT IS WHY I ALSO CONTINUE TO CLIMB MOUNTAINS
I count my blessings each morning and I thank God for his grace and mercy. I go on then to prepare for the next climbs knowing that the privilege of climbing is gratefully accepted by me. I make no assumptions about my continuing ability to climb but so long as God gives me health and strength, I will not step back from climbs when I know it is really so beneficial.
12…SOME SIMPLE SCARY STATISTICS
Last year, it was estimated that about 30,000 people contracted cancer and about 38,000 people were stricken with heart attacks. What a dreadful scene of helplessness when such diseases strike. It is only diet, exercise and lifestyle that can help ward off such debilitating diseases. Knowing it and not doing it is the biggest problem for us mortal beings. Deferring action on our own lives is equally bad. Add to this the statistics that 7 out of 10 people over 45 who are overweight will suffer from Erectile dysfunction of some form or other and it is a depressive scene.
13..THE SITUATION CAN BE SO DIFFERENT STARTING TODAY
Whatever you do, don’t say tomorrow I will change my diet or tomorrow I will live a better lifestyle or I will climb Mt Kinabalu next year. Now is the time for clear action and that clear action must lead to a sustainable and continuing move for great health in your life.
Thank you April climbers for sharing those thousands of seemingly endless steps that we took. It was my pleasure to have climbed with you and scenes of your struggles and your subsequent victories will be firmly etched in my mind for a long time to come. I am still sitting in my hotel room in KK typing on my computer looking forward to going home tomorrow morning. God bless you as you make clear decisions for you life! If you are overweight or unfit, make it your passion to do something about it NOW! Make it like the mountain climb where you continued moving forward even when great pain and difficulties came…..
Let me in closing share with you the following passage written by Robert H Smith
THE CLOCK OF LIFE
The clock of life is wound but once
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour
To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed
To lose one’s health is more
To lose one’s soul is such a loss
That no man can restore
Today only is our own
So live, love and toil with a will
Place no faith in tomorrow
For the clock may soon be still
God bless you all richly!!!
ONG HOCK SIEW
--
Ong Hock Siew