Written by Annabelle Yau
As I became more familiar with Christianity, I began to notice some things. Christians always had a good life. So many instances in which, I see my Christian friends excelling in studies, work, love life, family life and basically every aspect of life. I remember a conversation that I had with a friend in a car one day, and in attempts to know her in a deeper level, I asked “what are your struggles?” After awhile she said told me, “Hmm, to be honest, I’m blessed that I don’t really have much struggles in life”. I began to notice a pattern. I would hear things like “God has really provided. I’m grateful that I have a good boss in comparison to those horror stories you hear about bosses screaming at you all the time”, “God is great! Without Him, I wouldn’t have been able to win this competition”, “Praise the Lord, I got all A’s for exams. Thank you Lord”, “Oh thanks, it isn’t me, it’s all in the Lord’s work”. When I became a Christian, I looked around me: stuck in a local school with lecturers that hounded me for merely asking questions, a research supervisor that says “okay” to everything, even when it isn’t okay, having no friends in which I can call best friends, no international recognition or winning of contests, nothing. I asked, where are my blessings, God?
Sure people state that, the blessings are in heaven above. But, was I doing something wrong? If the Lord was giver of all things good, where were my good things?
There’s a story someone once told me. Once there was a farmer who had a dog, and the dog could walk on water, and the farmer was so excited that he went and told his friend, his friend came to see, they scoffed and said, your dog can’t even swim!
My teacher said you don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you don’t even see the miracles of God even when they’re right in front of you. That’s when it made me realize, that Christians choose to be blessed. You may think that they are just highly optimistic individuals.
However it wasn’t just that, they choose to be a blessing. Even if bosses scream and shout, my friends wouldn’t perform below the standards, but work hard to submit to authority and providing their best. When someone loses a competition, they would hug others and write notes saying you’re doing great! When you didn’t get the scholarship to go overseas, you do your best here to serve and provide for others.
I know you’re thinking, how? The answer is choice. It’s God’s ultimate gift to us. He gave us the choice to choose the path of salvation, to be free from sin, to be his followers. We are being empowered by choice. Hence, choose to flee from sin, choose to be happy, choose to serve others, choose to let go.