Too Many Eggs

A couple years ago, a health shop opened on the row of shops across the street from my house. It was an instant hit with the residents, especially since they were dishing out freebies every few hours after their organised health talks were over. If you had ever been a victim of these sales gimmicks, you would know that it was really a cheap way of ensuring a crowd. The topics ranged from age-defying tactics to relationship boosting methods, peddled by young, enegetic speakers duking it out with very loud background music!

My dad was a frequent visitor to the talks. One day he came back from the shop and announced, "Everyone quickly! Get to the shop now coz they are giving out a carton of fresh eggs to everyone who attends!" Needless to say, every breathing soul in the house - my parents, the maid, myself and even my then 5-year old niece - darted across the street to secure our seats.

We spent 30minutes listening to a sales pitch. Then returned home with enough eggs to last us for months, since we don't usually eat a lot of them to start with. We realised we've created a storage problem. The eggs will go bad before we can finish them. In our greed and haste, we failed to see the consequences of our actions. We just hoarded. My memory gets fuzzy at this point, but I think we gave most of our eggs away, and even had to beg some people to receive them!

Sadly, in that sense we were not that different from the infamous children of Israel who grumbled, moaned and complained in the desert; as described in Exodus Chapter 16.
And when God miraculously provided food from heaven, the first thing they did (despite specific instructions to the contrary from God) was to - you've guessed it - hoard!

Sure, the need to acquire and possess more helps assuage the fear of insecurity. Who doesn't want some measure of security... savings, property, investments.... ? All these are good stuff, given by God. However, the unhealthy emphasis on good stuff can often distort our perspective of the true value of things. And life. Especially when it edges into our priorities unnoticed.

The Israelites' greed revealed a blatant failure to trust the God who had rescued and provided for them all these while. Either they thought God was unable, or unwilling to. My eggs incident may seem miniscule compared to the problems of the Israelites, but they are certainly in the same basket! The familiar ugly traits of unbelief, over-indulgence and reluctance to live in daily dependance are all evident, being thrown into the mix for good measure.



Too many things, God, compete for our love and trust in You. Help la... help us understand that submission to Your will should always take priority over our immediate needs. It was a lesson to the Israelites, let it be a less severe lesson for us.

Just Another Breakfast...?

Expect the unexpected.

Such a well-worn phrase. Happens to be the story of my life too.

This morning I woke up early and went to the wet market. Then, as I sat down to have breakfast, I ran into an acquaintance whom I had not seen in 13 years. We recognised each other instantly, but for the life of me, I could not recall her name. She sat down at my table and both of us simmered in pretend mode - each trying to out-wait the other asking for identification.

Our conversation centered around small talk - her family, my family, who's doing what, where, etc etc. Then somehow the dialogue veered towards the gap years between 1997 - 2001 and I inadvertently shared my testimony.

She sat and listened, her eyes welling up with tears as I recounted how my parents came to the Lord. She appeared visibly moved and was wiping her eyes. Just before going our separate ways, we exchanged numbers (and names!). Whether we would keep in touch remains to be seen, but this incident really reminded me of one thing I keep putting off - I have to get going on writing the memoir... and preferably before I become senile too.

Sigh.