Set apart

For I believe that Christians should not only be set apart in terms of holiness, but also in our source of joy and hope and love.

For I can preach no real joy apart from Christ. No real hope apart from Christ. But in Christ there is joy everlasting. In Christ there is hope everlasting. And no love worth having apart then ones being made eternal in Christ.

That's why sometimes I find it hard to motivate people in suffering and in need to carry on. Because the only concrete, practical reason I see to make a difference to yourself and to the world is Christ. Anything other fleeting reason is like catching the wind. Futile work that is a vapor blown away tomorrow. Futile happiness that is but an illusion. Futile hope that is extinguished with the lamp of life.

Why rejoice, why laugh, why love if everything is put to end by death and the grave. Why exist. Why work to save lives when life will end one day. Why walk in a universe that is now here but one day fold away.

If nothing was eternal, none of this will make sense and it doesn't make a difference does it, a person who changes the world with a cell that cannot be fertilized.

As Apostle Paul rightly puts it, if Christ were false, we would be the most pitiful people on earth. Because people at least have hope in the things of this life. But our hope is in Jesus, therefore we forsake the things of this life.

And yet it is because of Jesus, of His promise of forgiveness eternal, love eternal, hope eternal and life eternal; does anything in this world be worth anything at all. In fact it is worth everything because of Him.

What joy what hope what meaning the message of grace and salvation brings. Oh, come taste and see of this goodness!

Motivation

When I was doing my industrial attachment, the thing that stayed through in my mind was this quote by George Merck: We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear. 

George Merck quoted this in 1950. Today MSD is not just 'Merck' but a merger of many different pharmaceutical companies across the decades. Today it is not Germany my company is in, but Singapore. Today people produce medicine for different reasons and different motivations. What George Merck had in mind back then may or may not be in the minds of my upper management who run and determine the direction of MSD Singapore, or MSD worldwide as a whole. I don't know, and there is so little a small fry like me can control.

But since that day of orientation as a student I have held on to this motivation in my work - to give because medicine is for the people. To serve the world in my own little way, this way.

There are many other reasons why I'm in my job. But this is the main 'industrial' reason I've held on to, and this is why I've always leaned heavily towards staying in the pharmaceutical line after I graduated, limited though choices and openings were. I thank God for this chance to serve in MSD for close to two years. I thank God for this chance to play my little part in this industry, to feel a part of this industry. 

But as I sink down in my little comfort zone, taking in my pay month by month, I yearn to know more of the days ahead. I hope MSD will continue in the direction it has always said it will go. To work because medicine is for the people. What we save on, we save for the social well being of people. What we give our best to, it is the same. Not just because it's just a job, just a profit earning avenue, just something we do everyday.

After I entered university, I discarded the notion that there are such things as 'dreams'. Rather, I took up the notion that when you're given lemons, lemonade is the thing you're supposed to make. So just sit down, wait and see what is given. Lemons, apples, bananas, and then make what you can out of it. It never occurred to me that I should 'dream to be given a lemon, so that I can make lemonade'. Yet before I graduated, I slowly had a wanting to be handed over lemons. Yes I'll take anything else, but can I have lemons please, if possible? And miraculously, despite many odds, I was given lemons! And I started to make lemonade. 

My lemon back then was to serve in a pharmaceutical organization that makes a difference to the world. And then through this organization, make the difference I can in my own tiny way. But the question now is how long can I continue making lemons? And how long is the lemonade going to remain the way it is? Can I, dare I, could I, should I, continue to dream about lemonade making? Are dreams allowed? Are dreams selfish?

Dear God if I can I do want to keep on producing lemonade. It has given me such joy and fulfillment. But I know for sure that Your good is gooder than my good. And no matter what you have me make, I know it will be best for me, and more importantly, it will be the best for Your glory to be seen. I pray for Your providence and direction in doing what You will me to do, for the world, unto Your glory.