Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
Today is Father's Day.
One of the earliest recollection of my father was when he taught me how to draw. I was about 6 years old then, I think.
One of the earliest recollection of my father was when he taught me how to draw. I was about 6 years old then, I think.
If your parents are still around, ask them about their early days. They always get very excited whenever they reminisce their younger days. You can watch a video interview I did with my parents, here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVBv7TesQNQ.
My parents had a hard life when they were first married. Dad would work a 12-hour shift as a barber, and mum would wash clothes and cook for students to supplement dad’s income. When I asked them whether it was difficult raising the four of us, me, my brothers and my sister. My mum said, she don’t even know how they managed to raise us up. They were just living day to day. And here we are, all grown up.
The past few months have been quite tough for me and my wife.
After 20 years of surviving a stroke, my father’s condition was starting to deteriorate.
My mother has stage 4 osteoarthritis. Each day her knees hurt more and more whenever she moves around. We were waiting for the appropriate time to book her for a total knee replacement surgery.
Then suddenly, my father suffered a second stroke. He was practically bed-ridden. Could not swallow properly. Increased spasticity of his limbs. Depression. The whole range of goodies….. It was an emotional roller coaster ride. I had to travel up & down to Seremban frequently, making difficult decisions, etc… At one stage, I even spent an entire afternoon checking out the various nursing homes in Seremban, and it was so heart-breaking when I saw the conditions of the homes ...
Back at the office, I was also facing a lot of seemingly insurmountable hurdles in my work.
Life can be so hard, sometimes, even for Christians.
Some days when I wake up, I was afraid to face the day. And it is always the morning quiet time that I spend with God in His Word and prayer that gives me the strength to face the day.
Even Jesus, we are told in Mark 1:35, got up very early in the morning, while it was still dark, left the house and went off to a solitary place, to pray and spent time with the Father.
Sometimes, the stress was so overwhelming that I did not know how to pray. I could only pray, “God, help me.”
Again and again, God has demonstrated that He is a loving Father who takes care of my family’s needs when we honour Him and put Him first in our lives.
1 Samuel 2:30 “He who honours me, I will honour him.”
Ephesians 3:20 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,”
When my father was admitted to the hospital, I was frantically looking around for a temporary maid or even a nursing home as a last resort. Normally, it will take about 3 months to employ a maid. But a miracle happened. My father was discharged on Friday. We were able to get a permanent maid on Wednesday, two days before! Praise God! God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!
A lot of problems cropped up on the way. The maid was immediately struck down with a strange sickness. She has very severe stomach aches. No amount of painkillers or medicine could cure the pain. Fingers were pointing at me, that I have paid a huge sum of agency fees and got myself a maid with health problems, like maybe kidney stones, etc.. I was strangely peaceful through it all. I believed He who has started the good work will complete it (Philippians 1:6). God did not send me a sick maid as a joke.. Finally, after two weeks, it was confirmed that she had no stone but it was just food poisoning and lots of stomach wind.
Three weeks ago, my mother was admitted for her knee replacement surgery. The anesthesiologist warned that because of my mother’s scoliosis problem, it would be difficult to administer spinal anesthesia and they may have to resort to general anesthesia. And for elderly patients above 80 years, there are risks involved when administering general anesthesia. Our care group and friends prayed, and praise God, the anesthesiologist was able to administer spinal anesthesia. And my mother’s only complaint was, because she was fully awake during the operation, she could hear all the cutting, sawing and hammering sounds as the surgeon worked on her knee :D.
Just two weeks ago, I was able to obtain TNB (National Electricity Board) approval for one of my project’s requirement without any conditions! The consultants and friends were all advising that we have to "kow-tim" (bribe) the TNB engineer.
Jesus taught his disciples that we should always pray and not give up. But many times we give up because we don’t always see instant results. It may seem like a waste of time. We forget that prayer is an act of faith.
Yes. God does not answer our prayers instantly. There were times when I wondered at the heavenly silence. But then these sporadic victories and answers to prayer often make my heart jump in celebration of God’s goodness and mercies. It makes me walk with a skip in my steps.
So, as we honour and worship our God, may we remember that prayer is not just talking to God and asking for things. Prayer is talking with God and communicating with Him. And our Heavenly Father is a good God. He is a faithful God. He has promised never to leave us nor forsake us!
Postscript
Postscript
My father passed away on 16th December 2019 as a result of a cardiac arrest.
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