summer school exam ended on wed. woohoo. one week break before the normal semester starts. yet another year of studying… havent been doing much since coming back to melbourne besides moving house and going for lectures… my mundane melbourne life.
or maybe not. one of the more interesting things that i did since coming back – went to the Yarra Valley, an hour drive from melbourne city. this region has a cooler climate than the city itself, so many of the vineyards are located there. an interesting experience for me indeed, since i’m a noob at wines. red wines, white wines, is there a difference besides the colour? apparently, white grapes are crushed to obtain the juice for fermentation while red grapes are crushed and the skin together with the juice is fermented. uhha! but tastes the same to me leh
so, the day was spent tasting all the different brands of wine (i went to a few winery). had lunch at this small cottage that was empty that noon. the entire place to ourselves! what a lovely lunch i had. barbied (aussie’s short for barbecue) kangaroo meat (not bad, i must say), fresh air, great view, peace and tranquility.
some photos i took…
some parts of the Yarra Valley was affected by the bushfire. ppl working at the winery i visited said that they were lucky that their crops werent burnt but there were some wineries that got affected directly.
i hadnt really thought about all this devastation actually. hear of it here and there (surprisingly, ppl back in singapore are even more well-informed than me!) goes to show how oblivious i am. even up until this point, i dont think the state of destruction really hit me. a memorial was held at the Rod Laver Arena (where they hold Australian Open) this morning. this was a day of remembrance for the terrible fires that took the lives of more than 200 people… (strangely, i actually feel more for Lo Hwei Yen, the singaporean who died in the mumbai terrorist attack.) i think my oblivion is partly because i’m fortunate enough to live in the city, where even if a fire were to occur, there’d be minimal damage. ah, all these ‘natural disasters’. also read somewhere that approximately 100 melburnians died from the heatwave a few weeks back. i mean, it was bad, but i cannot imagine why ppl can die from it.
brings me back to my previous post. what is judgement? i used to think that judgement is God punishing us for sinning. but my idea of judgement has changed. now, i think that it’s God allowing punishment to happen. does it make sense?
say for example, instead of saying to God, “let Your will be done”, instead of committing their lives to the purposes of God, some ppl choose to spend their days smoking and drinking. smoke, smoke, drink, drink. one day, they discover that they contracted lung cancer and liver failure. they go into the shame-blame-game. God, why do You give me such a miserable life? You are punishing me now for not obeying You. well, i dont think that God brought about this cancer on them. i dont think that God is punishing them for not being what they were created to be. its more like God saying to them, “let your will be done”.
a different perspective on judgement – its not about God punishing us. its more of God allowing the punishment to happen since people refuse to change their ways.
in light of this, all these natural disasters are not ’sent by God’ to punish mankind. think about it. mankind has been mistreating nature. deforestation, water pollution… now that we’re experiencing global warming that has caused heatwaves, we blame God? when will we stop blaming others and take responsibility for our own actions? when will we say to God, “let YOUR will be done”?
there were times when i find myself being one of those that keep doing things my own way (in a way that God will surely disapprove) and when God allows consequences to take place, i get frustrated. good though that i dont blame God. i blame myself cos i know i caused the end result. BUT, the shame-blame-game is one that i hope never to play. even if the blame is on myself and not others. (more about this interesting game next time maybe.)
your turn,
what is/are the area(s) in your life that you have to change(or submit to God)?
-lynette
