spring onion

Did some self re-evaluation after watching the opening week of the new games show – Deal or No Deal…

Always thought I was kinda ‘safe’ from the trappings of the sin of greed (monetary, not gastronomy!) until the show premiered. Despite having no part in the money at stake, I was just as stressed out and excitable as the contestants themselves; berating one who gave up too early and missed out doubling his winnings; and moaning the loss of $75,000 as a young lady chose to stick with her case of $750. Heartache, man!

Then I daydreamt about going on the show myself… overcoming that scrooge of a banker, opening all the right cases of “small money” to win the coveted $250,000! Big money! Big money! (Hiak hiak hiak hiak *hysterical laughter*)

Just imagine how a prancing, screaming woman on telly would appear to those who know her in church … or thought they knew her… She cannot testify of this windfall… just like how God cannot be associated with the spoils of gambling, theft, etc…Her testimony is lost and worse of all, she may stumble some believers along the way…Fatally high price to pay for temporal gains…

It was more edifying to watch a Chinese series – Find Me A Singaporean. The host went to various countries to seek out the lone Singaporean or a Singaporean community based there. Really seems like there is a Singaporean in every corner of the world, Europe, Middle East, Africa, China… Some of these have given up their familiar and comfortable life in Singapore to improve the life of fellow human beings in the remote regions through education and medical attention. It was heartbreaking to see them, strong and stoic in their altruistic mission, broke down or squealed with childlike glee as the host prepared a local dish for them for a little sampling of home. For these Singaporeans, the intrinsic rewards far outweighed monetary gains. Some of them actually invested their savings or retirement funds to set up learning centres for the otherwise illiterate children.

In these heady days of property speculation, en bloc sales, the country seems to be back in the boom times pre-Iraq war and pre-SARS. There is certainly nothing wrong with being successful and doing well financially, so long as we can surely and genuinely give God all the credit and praise… Just remember, don’t be swept away by the tsunami of greed…

Do you know…

God equates greed to idolatry…

“For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” (Ephesians 5:5)

God lists greed among the “most terrible” sins:

“For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’ ” (Mark 7:21 – 23)

School’s out… and young lovebirds abound…in popular hotspots… at shopping centres… on trains… anywhere and everywhere…One does not need binoculars to do a spot of aviary watching…

On a train ride back to office, my neck was uncomfortably locked in at one angle… firmly away from such a pair perched just a seat away… How old were they, 13, 14, 15… shouldn’t be older than 16…Thus looking in the direction of the next carriage, a lady seemed to be looking back at me with a look of reproof…Then again, she seemed to be looking past me at the teenage pair …And what’s that in her hands? A book entitled, “Praying Parents”! Wow… how apt is that?!

So it is the same for all of us… temptations lure, desires burn, evil will increase in the last days… Pray, we must!

Cynthia Soo
3rd July 2007