When Loss is Gain!

Listening to my dad talking about how he survived through financial crisis and business failure is similar to me reading about how God had brought His people to their Promised Land. It is nothing short of miracles after miracles! Although my father is not a Christian (yet), he would often say that "Someone Up There" is looking after him. From his wealth of experience, he developed his unshakable faith.

Whenever an undesirable situation landed on our lap, my first reaction would be to calculate the costs and establish the probability of failure, so that I could work towards the upside; while my dear father would look at it from the most positive angle imaginable! He has faith to pull through any situation as he has been through worst. Ashamed that I am, I realised that God is using my dad to teach me a profound and yet untapped territory in my Christian walk with our Heavenly Father: I must believe in the impossible in every areas of my life, even if this means that my "professional training" might be challenged. Now, it is easy to believe in the impossible on behalf of someone else (like my dear friend, Liz) but to apply such belief in myself and our company's performance, would take much convincing altogether! "Would God be interested in businesses? Surely He would be more interested in those who are suffering because of their faith or involved in great calamities!" I told myself.

Ever since I moved back to Kampar, I have been learning that God is interested in every aspect of our lives, including the part that generates income! If our businesses/careers are going well, I know that we don't deserve such blessings but instead, we must humble ourselves before Him, who gives and takes away freely; If our businesses/careers are going in the opposite direction, we know that everything belongs to Him, and He would only have our best interests in mind. Problems arise when I start to put confidence in our material success and value our earthly dwelling more than our heavenly citizenship.

Recently, the local authorities gave us some problems despite our compliance. The impact could be devastating if not rectified. However this time, I am learning to look at the situation with faith rather than with fear, as I know He is in total control of the situation and steering it for our good. The God who took care of Abraham and my dad, will surely take care of me too.

"I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. ⁸ Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" Philippians 3 : 7-8