Something God taught me the past week

There are signs and symptoms of a declining spiritual life. First, is when i start being judgemental. It's hard to notice at first, but it happens everyday. I remember the time when i first came to Central. I would try my best to be polite. I would try to make eye-contact with strangers, with classmates, just to say hi. And it wouldn't matter if i got shot down or didn't receive a response. I guess I just didn't care how i was perceived during seasons of "closeness-to-God". Seasons when i realize that the grace granted to me was undeserved. Seasons when i know that God came to die for an unobedient wretch like me. Somehow during those seasons, grace from God seems to empower me to show more grace to people in my life.

Ah. I see.

Of course, on the outside i may seem normal. But it pains me that I can come up with amazingly mean names for people. It's like blurting out something instinctively and a few seconds later being horrified of what's said. Except this happens in my mind. No one else knows about it. But I do. And God does too. sigh. And then almost always, you find a biblical passage about loving other people, later at night.

love. give grace. be compassionate.

John 13:34
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
John 13:35
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Romans 13:8
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

and the list goes on.

So i'm being a hypocrite. I do show love. But only when it's the "right" time. I give grace. When i'm in the "right" place. I don't judge. but only IF it's the "right" person. A long time ago, there was a time when i loved because God loved. Need to get back there.
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It's too much for me

It's a good week so far. Things that stood out: I got a 97% on my third Communication Theory exam. A pretty big surprise because i basically got Cs and Ds for the earlier exams. Quite relieved too. In the second exam, i did pretty well but the professor had to take off 20 marks of my paper cos i didn't read the instructions. =p ouch. it hurts much less now. besides the exam... Central had its culture nite too. (compare to KingFu's UMKC) I didn't perform "kau ilhamku" though. hahah. It's a beautiful song, and it's one of the only few malay pop songs that i know, but after watching Malaysian Idol online, i don't think i can handle it anymore. Kinda like listening to Chris Tomlin's Indescribable for the first time, being awed, but knowing that christian Radio play would "destroy" it. Back to culture nite!~~ I participated by menggoreng pisang. Got the idea from bro's blog, and thought to myself: "it's high time that i be involved in culture nite, i've been here for one year now..."

Goreng pisang
1. Get not-too-ripe bananas
2. Make batter with flour, sugar, salt and water.
3. Add kunyit (yello ginger) to batter too.
4. [Didn't have kunyit/ don't know how to make any] so adding eggs to the batter will have to do.
5. ??? Eggs = kunyit??? *shrug* don't ask.
6. Heat a whole bunch of oil, smoke out the whole house, tripping off a fire alarm... and fry the "battered pisang".Tah-dah.
Nah. Cubala. Pasti senang dimasak, sedap dimakan. Hehe. Well almost. Mine turned out crunchy only for the first 30 seconds out of the oil. After that it began to wither. =]

The Food Show
We're at the Morrow Gym. My Malaysian cooking partner, Eugene and I stand behind the table handing out the goreng pisang to hundreds of people lined up to get international food.The top/ highest ranked statement we received is:

"IS IT CHICKEN?"

Well yeah. If ya think everything tastes like chicken, so it is. No, it's fried slugs... *shocked expressions* Imported straight form the humid jungles of Taman Negara. Big, fat, juicy battered, Malaysian fried slugs.

Quite a few people were impressed by it(pisang goreng. not slugs). I'm glad. We were glad. Actually more relieved. hahah! =]