was all ready to hide under the covers, but...

its 7:21am on my computer clock now and i am awake. i barely slept 5 hours last night but right now i am full of gratitude for the grace of God upon my life. i could have been grouchy coz i took really long to fall into slumber and didnt have that good a sleep, and i could have whined upon waking this morning. i could have just continued sleeping and told myself its okay to be late for the outing with the rest coz well, im just tired. but i awoke this morning feeling grateful and blessed. i received an sms from a friend this morning (i regret that i deleted it so fast) that ONLY thanked God for His creation and appreciate what He has done. there was nothing but thanksgiving and praise on this thursday morning! and i felt ashamed for a moment as i was all ready to hide under the covers and compromise with myslef for more sleep. but the moment soon passed and i begin thanking God too! it was contagious!

while i was washing up and preparing a nice cup of coffee for myself, i just continued to praise God. this morning really brings a whole new dimension to the verse, "[nothing] can separate us from the love of God..." (read romans 8:28-39 for a fuller context). (*and i told myself i must blog about this before i lose the moment.) we awake with wars and unrest going on in so many parts of the world. bloodshed, bombings, deaths of many- innocent lives lost, conflict in the higher ranks, earthquakes, floods are all happening at the same time. and there we were last night, complaining that the NDP was really bad (okay, i admit complained.)- how much worse could it get?, i asked. and we forget the privilege it is to be called a child of God in these times. in times where people are fearful of losing their lives, we can declare like paul that death could not separate us from the love of Christ. we will never understand the suffering and the things that people from these countries go through each day. most of the time we say, "wah, so terrible, thank God im not there." but how many of us really feel for the people that encounter unrest each day? how many of us even keep up with the news to know what is going on in other parts of the world? or have we been so concerned with our own lives- our own little struggles or emotional issues (i am not saying that they are not to be taken note of- God gives us our own crosses to bear) that we get consumed in it and forget that we live in a world and not a shell? we need to be less apathic towards things that are going on around us. we need to learn to be in prayer for our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, we need to be broken for them too... and we need to learn to praise even in tough times coz it conquers the enemy :)

its is not always easy to wake up with praise on your lips. i am learning each day too... that thanksgiving will always be upon your lips and your spirit being in prayer for those going through pain and lost. lets learn to be concerned for lives that are hurting... i dont want us to at the end of the life to say, "i should have..." or "why didn't i..." lets live our lives not with regrets but to the fullest as God's children, living out the verse, "[nothing] can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." What is your response to that love today?