Me? On the Dean’s List?

NEVER in my wildest dreams would I have EVER imagined that I, of ALL people, would make it on the Dean’s List!
I came home today so refreshed from spending time in prayer with Rosie and Lisa Hong and from prayer meeting at night. Putting the cherry on top, I received a letter from the QUT Dean saying that I’d made it on the Dean’s List for Semester 1, 2007.

I am seriously lost for words at this incredible blessing! ALL THE GLORY belongs to God because I am CERTAIN that I could NEVER have done this without Him!

Just looking back over this year so far- it’s INCREDIBLE how God has just shaped and progressed and worked in my life. Starting off the year as:
1) THE MOST A.D.D GIRL ALIVE,
2) Average/below-average student,
3) Last-minute queen.
To NOW– my name’s on the Dean’s List.

I am in such an indescribable state. It’s just MIND-BLOWING how God works. It hasn’t been easy, but it sure has been rewarding. Reading through past entries in my prayer journal from this year. It’s just overwhelming- the process of God. I’ve just typed out some of the MANY entries from this year to give you a glimpse of my life this year:

2nd Jan 2007
“Lord Jesus I want this year to be the year where I mature in You..”

19th Jan 2007
“I pray that you’ll give me the ability to FOCUS and have discipline- that is my highest weakness!”

“Dear Lazy Jien-Li, Go away. Do you want to re-live the disappointment? The upset faces of your parents. The OP8 and C in the QCS. It hurts Jien-Li, stop being waffley, stop doing things “later” and get them done well and done NOW. In 20 odd years do you want to look back at yourself and say, “Oh… I wasn’t really an over-achiever. I just was average in everything” or do you want to say “I really did well in uni. I stepped up after suffering a bit in high school. I took the failure as a lesson learnt and exceeded in my studies with the help of God all the way”. Now go and try your very very best. Get off your lazy butt!”

23rd March 2007
“Father right now I really need your help. I need your persistence, your perseverance, your heart. Lord I’m really struggling with time management and prioritising. I need your help father. I come to you seeking your help. Please please please father God. You know how much I need good marks. I don’t want to disappoint any more. I don’t want to feel stupid any more. I don’t want 2nd best any more. But I want to reach for the top- Lord I KNOW I can do ALL things with You who gives me the strength that I need. I know nothing NOTHING is impossible for you my King. Lord I really need you at this time. I ask that you will strengthen and energise me. Lord I just feel so exhausted- I know this is my fault- staying up late to watch Heroes- Bad discipline I have. Lord I just pray for the ability to prioritise well. Father I am relying on you I know I cannot do this without you. Father I pray that I would look back at these times in the future and thank you for this season of preparation, growth and training. I rely on you God, I need you Lord.”

29th March 2007
“Lord I’m trying but obviously not hard enough. My heart’s not in this “hard work” thing. My mind is set on seeing success but my mind’s not willing to do the hard work to achieve these dreams.”

4th April 2007
“Father I pray that during OC you will do your will in my life. Redirect my life, challenge my life, correct, tear down, break and make my life. I know a lot of the time I forget that the reason I’m here is to fulfill your great commission and I focus on MY life, MY needs, MY wants. Lord I pray that this season will be the season where this will be changed to YOUR life, YOUR needs, YOUR wants, because father God you deserve to be enthroned.”

13th April 2007
“I Pray that you will help me through these rough next few weeks. No matter how rough it gets I choose to look to You in ALL situations I will praise you through the darkest nights. I will sing to you even though my heart is breaking and fearful… Father God I need you so much right now. Father you know my situation. You know where I’m at, you know what I need to achieve, You know the expectations are high. but I believe with all my strength that nothing is impossible for my King!”

14th April 2007
“Please Lord I need you more than ever. My heart is so consumed with anxiety I’m scared to death about failing, reliving grade 12, my parents disappointed. Please Lord. I hold on to my hope in you. I hold on to the love you have for me. I hold on to the words you’ve given me. I trust in you Lord Jesus”

15th April 2007
“I thank you so much for growing me spiritually during these times of hardship and stress. You’ve given me such amazing peace that only You can give me. I won’t give up because I know that you will have your way in my life when I place you first. Thank you Lord for molding me although it surely got tough, you’ve given me your perspective on the situation and I’ve been able to rise up and study without breaking down. Last night I could just feel you there as I studied with P&W music on. Thank you father for being my shelter when I need rest, my stronghold when I feel like I’m breaking, my peace when i’m in a storm, my joy in the midst of fear and anxiety”
“I came home so anxious so scared my body had the feeling of just tingling all around…”
“Thank you for helping me grasp all the concepts really well. Thank you for being in my life. Without you I’d be a wreck. I honestly think I’d have a nervous break down without you”

That’ll do for now But WOW looking back over that, it just amazes me how the littlest things that I said months ago are answered prayers today. Things that I prayed about perhaps carelessly or without that much though, God attentively listened to.

Looking over the past year, I just am awe-struck by how God works. I think too often we desire the instantaneous result. We want instant gratification. We live in a world of the NOW NOW NOW- “I want what I want, and I want it now”. When we say a prayer, we want the results as soon as we say “amen”. Often we desire the end product and we want to skip the process. A lot of the time I think God doesn’t work like that. I believe it’s the lessons that we learn along the way that truly shape our character. I’ve found this out through personal experience.

Over this experience I’ve come to know that God’s timing and His process is PERFECT. He KNOWS us more than we know ourselves. When we think we might be ready, or not ready, God ultimately knows best. Think of this scenario: someone’s making a meal but it’s not ready to eat / it’s not finished its PROCESS. It may smell good / it may smell ready but when you go to stick your hand in and try it, it tastes disgusting- because it’s not ready. Only the cook knows when it’s ready. Also, think of this: A baby needs to go through the PROCESS of that 9 month period in his/her mother’s womb before “coming out”. We don’t want that baby coming out any earlier than that 9 month period because the baby wouldn’t be ready. We don’t want a pre-mature baby.

What I’m trying to say is, God knows when we’re ready. His timing and His process is truly perfect.

I believe that this year so far has been incredible. It is the evidence of the carrying out of God’s perfect process in my life. Although the process may be incredibly hard and seemingly unbearable, it is God’s process which leads to the most rewarding result.

I encourage you all, no matter what stage you’re at in life today. No matter how tough it gets. God knows what He’s doing. I challenge you, whenever you’re going through a rough time in your life, take on the perspective that His process is perfect, His timing is perfect. Exercise your trust in Him today and YOU WILL OVERCOME.

God is the shining light at the end of every tunnel, run after Him!

The joke I made up myself

Question: What did the spice say when someone knocked at the door?
Answer: Cummin!

Yes I am brilliant.

How did they drown?

At a birthday party recently, Daisy, Sop, Mae, Amy and I were all trying to amuse ourselves with lateral thinking questions while we put up with the appalling service of a certain Korean BBQ restaurant in Sunny Bank.

I find lateral thinking questions FUN when you know the answer and you’re asking the question, but frustrating when you’re trying to think of the answer. So, I thought I’d be the one asking the questions . This is the first of the “Lateral thinking” categories in my blog. Feel free to comment with your answers or theories!

Lateral thinking 1: The Mountaineers

A family of 4 were going on a mountaineering holiday. The second morning they were all found dead in their cabin. The coroner declared that they had all died from drowning. The faucets in the cabin had not been left on and the boiler and water storage units were undamaged. There was no sign of any foul play.

Question: What caused them to drown?

Clues:
1. They were a mile from the nearest lake.
2. It had not rained for 5 days. Not a flash flood.
3. It was not caused by problems with a dam.

P.s. Don’t google it. Use the brain that God gave you for once haha. I’ll post up the answer in a few days

Cool callouses

If I became a criminal, and the authorities needed to take my fingerprints, I would have pretty bad left-hand prints.
I started playing the guitar last month in August sometime and since then I’ve progressed quite a bit. From being kicked out of Allan’s Music Store for being so bad (sorry Phil!), to playing the praise songs at the “Power[Puff] girl’s life group session” this afternoon. Because of all this playing, I’ve developed pretty impressive callouses (or is it callus’) on the tips of my left hand fingers. They’ve been like my life-saver in dead/awkward conversations- “…HEY, check out my callouses!!”

It was REALLY fun playing for praise today at lifegroup. I played “The Freedom we know” and “Evermore”- both Hillsong numbers. I felt really comfortable playing in front of just the girls. In a way it didn’t feel like I was playing for an audience, it didn’t really feel like I was being watched. I think that’s the beauty of praise and worship. The focus is (or should be) on God.
I think I would be more nervous or more conscious playing the guitar in front of the guys because I think there’d be more pressure. They’d be more judgmental on my guitar playing, being more experienced and all.

Why did I start playing the guitar? To be honest, it wasn’t a, “Oh I feel like playing the guitar today because guitar’s are cool” or “I’ve always wanted to play the guitar, now is a great time to start”. It was more of a “Oh there’s a guitar around the house nowadays so I’ll see what I can do with it”. Because initially, Mae was the one who wanted to get into the guitar playing so she borrowed the Ashton guitar off Nick (?) Once we got the guitar I started playing the only song I knew how to play on the guitar over and over and over- “In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight, awheeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeee um um a-wayyyy”- yes, that must’ve got annoying. Then I looked up basic guitar chords on youtube, got some tips off Justin and Phil and now I’m the best guitarist ever haha.

All in all I think we need more girl musicians

The next instrument I want to play: DRUMS (Hi fung!!)

Everyone should download this song

My Current Favourite Artist/Musician: Newton Faulkner

This is a snippet of an incredible song by an incredible musician and singer. His whole album’s great!

“To the Light”- By Newton Faulkner (from the album Hand Built By Robots)

“But I can’t dance” my butt-cheeks

When you get excited about something, how do you show it?

Whether it be getting an above average mark on an exam, whether it be getting a high score on Warcraft or..Tetris, whether it be finding out that Alex Ling is playing a game other than heads down thumbs up (Powerhouse personal joke)- the fact is we all get excited. But how do we show it? I refuse to believe that we show no emotion when we are truly excited. I believe a form of outward expression is natural in showing excitement. One form of expression I particularly want to touch on today is dancing. You’re probably all thinking, “Great, another one of Li’s “Common guys! Dance!” talks“- But please hear me out!

The most typical excuse to not dance would be, “I don’t dance/I can’t dance”- If I were to translate that I think it’d mean: “I’m too embarrassed to dance”. I believe everyone can dance. Dancing is not a set thing. There’s so many forms of dancing it’s not funny. So, make up your own dancing style and if people look at you weird just say, “…it’s called freestyle“.

Above all, it’s not about the dancing. It’s about the outward expression of your joy. I believe as Christian’s we have something to be excited about! Think of this scenario: Have you seen the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks? The poor guys is stuck on a deserted island, alone, for a trillion days without any form of escape or communication (except for a VOLLEYball-thanks for the kind correction Mark). Imagine you were stuck on a deserted island all by yourself, eating grubs, having no fire or water or toilet paper, looking “hot” in your tribal gear- yeh, a tribe of ONE.

What would you do if you were finally found and rescued from the island? I don’t know about you but I won’t just be like, “Gee guys you took your time”. NO I’d be jumping up and down with all my might, doing some sort of tribal dance I choreographed myself. I’d perhaps even rip off my tribal gear and scar all the rescuers for life.

The reality is: God has rescued us from our “deserted island”! You are no longer alone, no longer helpless and hopeless. You’ve been FOUND by the love of Jesus Christ. I don’t know about you but that makes me excited! Like this guy:

(Don’t you just wish you had matching mittens, beanie and scarf like this guy!)

Perhaps some would say, “But you don’t have to dance/jump to praise God”. There’s only so much that words can do. I believe that doing/expressing what you say through action is the key to breathing substance into your words. You can say, “I love you” a millions times, but what’s love without showing it? So when we sing, “We’re gonna dance, dance, dance in the freedom we know”, it doesn’t mean, “I’m gonna stand, stand still in the freedom I know”.

I believe there’s so much more passion and excitement that people can give in the church today. I believe that too few people are giving 110% in praise and worship today. Think of some of the reactions you may get in inviting people to church versus the reactions in inviting people to a party. Generally speaking, you don’t have to pull an arm or a leg to invite people to parties. People WANT to come to parties. I believe that church is God’s party and it’s on every single week. But do we act like it’s a party?

I think that too often (and I am guilty this) we think, “Oh man, I’M too embarrassed to praise like I’ve never praised before, I’M not a good dancer, dancing is not ME, who’s laughing or looking at ME“. In thinking this, I believe we’re missing the whole point of praising GOD.

To end this longest-post-i-have-ever-written, I hope you dancers and non-dancers got something out of my ramblings. There is so SO much more I could say but I will save it for my book I will write in the future solely dedicated to dancing haha. My prayer would be that each of you would remember the reason we praise- it’s not about us. Increase your PASSION in PRAISE because He alone is worthy of 110% of what we have to give (in what ever form it may be). He made our hands and feet- I believe they should move for Him! I encourage you, let your inner excitement out and “break free” in “the freedom we know”!

(Endnote: Remember this blog is my point of view. Feel free to comment if you agree or disagree!)