Who First Gave? (14)

Part VI.

Don't hold things too tightly

A

I've already mentioned how I was blessed with a $15 per month rebate because someone decided to buy my mobile broadband modem. And how a researcher contacted me for a project where I was paid $37.50 per hour. Ooh, but that's not all.

Let's talk about food.

• During the fasting month, plenty of iftar's (breaking fast at sunset) were held. I love the sweet baklava.
• Our stage props team boss treated us to brunch one fine Saturday morning.
• My archi friend treated me to some delicious cakes just before he left Aus.
• Another archi friend treated me Vietnamese food in Richmond.
• A 3rd archi friend treated me with lamb kebab. Tells you something about my archi friends, eh?
• A friend (non-archi this time) treated me curry noodles. Nice.
• Two free pizzas during Uni Open Day week (pooled 3 vouchers).
  
• Free food in the GPCE (General Practitioners' Conference & Exhibition).

Apart from food:

• My rent was supposed to go up by $100 per month. Then we found this place that's $30 cheaper. In effect, that's minus $130 monthly.
• Cash rate recently went up by 0.50 points in 2 consecutive months. That means more income from my savings!
• Very cheap flight tickets (KL > KK | KK > KL | KL > Melb). Only Melb > KL was a bit expensive. But that's in return for lab work experience!
  

And the invaluable:

• Basically these are opportunities that come in an unpredictable manner. Like the visit to the RACS (Royal Australasian College of Surgeons), where I "did" laparoscopic (keyhole) surgery on a plastic model.
• Staying with several housemates gave me access to Clinical Medicine (Kumar & Clark), Pathologic Basis of Disease (Robbins & Cotran) and Pharmacology (Rang & Dale).
  
• Learning western blot, cell culture and ELISA at Howard Florey.

B

Hence I live out the life of giving. Time, money, energy and opportunity. Like KidShapers Conference, blood donation to Red Cross, Mei Ling's song, PlanetUni stage props team, and church guest services team.

For who first gave, if not him?

Picture credit: origins-photography.co.uk

The Perfect Life (15)

Part V.

NO₂ "NOS"

3

Oh, how easily we give up in life!
Like being lazy and not pushing myself when studying
And then
As though to make up for it
Act as if I'm studying all the time
Not talking to people
Confining myself
Not loving my friends
A life focussed on 'me' only

Hey, imagine if Jesus had said:
"I'm sick of living a holy life submitted to God."
"I gotta take a break."
"Father, I quit."

If that happened, then his blood would not have its power to redeem (to buy) us. We wouldn't have eternal life. In other words, I'm going to hell.

But Jesus didn't allow that to happen! Every moment in His life was a special moment, holy and acceptable to God. And because of that, we could once again connect to God as kids of one Daddy, and that brings so much more meaning to life.

Go Ask The One (16)

Part IV.

Top Speed

1

This probably should have been posted 3 days ago...but I went out that night with 2 friends, had dinner, played Wii, had a very interesting conversation, etc. Flashback time: I was busy with involvements and activities around the 4th week of this sem, and at 11am on Monday, there was my MCQ test to start off the week. You know what I really love telling people? That despite all the hustle and bustle of life, your result comes out well and good. I got 9/10 and 5/6.

2

Back to the present: You know what I love even more? Telling people that it's really God doing His good work in and through me. How, and why does He do this? Well, when Jesus came as human, He began His countdown to your redemption and mine. His goal was the cross, because only His pure blood could cleanse the rebellion of humanity from a life sentence in hell. Think of the corollary: if Jesus walked out of God's will for His life, His blood would not be precious anymore. Just in case you think this could not happen, well, it actually could. It's all too easy to remember that Jesus is 100% God; but He's 100% man too!

He had the same basic needs as everyone else - food, shelter, clothing. We don't know how much stuff (things, or wealth) He had to start out with, but we do know what He did with what He had. While He had his human free will, He decided to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and He did only what His Father wanted. I guess He faced many temptations in life. So don't think you're alone! Think about your own life, in 1 day, how easy is it to fall or succumb to temptation? How easy is it for us to focus on things other than obeying what God is immediately saying to us? Think: if you're not focussed on God anymore, you won't carry out His will for your life, because we won't hear His voice saying, "this is the way, walk in it". Yet Jesus lived every moment of his life thinking of God and obeying Him. He was tempted in every way, but He never sinned.

The devil comes only to kill, to steal, and to destroy, but Jesus comes so that we may have life, and life to the full. He probably went through a lot of exams as a Jewish student as well, so he went through every bit of stress we feel as students. So why not ask Him how He did it?

Dream of a child (17)

Part III.

Momentum

Back in primary school, we filled in forms with questionnaires like "Hobbies", "Ambition/Occupation", etc. For ambition, I've always put saintis, doktor, guru. Today I'll talk about the scientist part.

One cool thing about the Melbourne MBBS/BMedSc that I'm part of is its 1-year of AMS. You get to do in-depth research on a topic of your choice. Probably a bit like the EE in IB, but you get to write 10-12,000 words instead of 4,000.

I picked a lab-based research project under the unit Advanced Neuroscience, because the brain is so fascinating. Lab work can be a bit tedious and repetitive (as I discovered while learning how to prepare the gel for Western blot this morning), but I think someone's gotta do it. And I'm happy to be that someone. Brilliant inventions like iMacros only come after lots of tedious manual work filling in online forms. Online forms only come after lots of redundant paper form-filling. Paper printing only comes after lots of human hand-scribing. We could go on and on about this, but I hope you get the point. I'm positive that lab analytical techniques will be more sophisticated, automated, and time-saving in the future. In the mean time, let's make do with what we've got.

Have you noticed just how much of human activity (e.g. the inventions mentioned) is brain-dependent? That's why I think it's so awesome. At the same time it's so mysterious, because there are so many uncharted territories in brain research, both physiologically and pathologically. Just yesterday I met someone who's finding out about the role of estrogen in the brain. So how do I select what to look for? Because if I just do it randomly, then 99.9% of the time I'll probably find nothing. This is where Big Papa comes in. I believe that he will specifically tell me what to experiment on, how to do it, e.g. what substances, at what concentrations, to use. Also how much time and energy to spend on the specific experiment. I'll hear a voice behind me saying: "This is the way, walk in it." And when the time comes to present, he'll tell me how to report the findings and relate it to his leadership role.

Hence one of the tag words for me next year is "Discovery". It'll be supernatural.
MBBS/BMedSc=Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery & Bachelor of Medical Science
AMS=Advanced Medical Science | EE=Extended Essay | IB=International Baccalaureate