God's power at work

In all randomness, I am in the writing mood. Probably due to the fact that I have been more 'free' at work, without the stress of assessments/presentations/projects/reports etc, in addition to the 'end of year and time for reflection' idea, there is a sudden rush of thoughts about the year 2010.

Eventful as it was, I really thank God for seeing me through the past year. At times, as distractions draw me away from Him, I look back and see His mighty hand working in my life. Countless things to be grateful for.

As I was scrolling through the updates on my facebook home page, one of my friend's status was 'A year ago, this time, Canada beckoned.' Just a couple of days ago, I was chatting with my friend (fellow intern) during work. She went to Georgia Tech for exchange earlier this year (the same semester I was in UK) and she mentioned how fast the year has passed (similarly, the idea of 'this time last year, I left for US'). Now that we are approaching the end of our IA, we see people from our batch leaving/leaving soon for exchange, hence the recalling of past experiences exactly 1 year or at least almost 1 year ago. She can't wait for the last day of work, while I feel some sort of attachment to the place/people there. She said that maybe I haven't worked long enough to dread coming to work. Maybe it has become a habit and I'm accustomed to going to work everyday, and once this routine is changed, I'll end up feeling disoriented for a while before getting used to the next 'pattern' of my life.

Whatever it is, when I think about the past year, certain specific events keep coming to mind, and I see the worst of situations turn into manageable ones, or even better than expected. I believe only God is capable of changing such circumstances. In particular, He has placed people to help along the way, which made things much better. Being away from home for almost 6 months and returning safely is the first thing that I thought of. Specifically, even travelling to 'dangerous' countries in Europe was only possible with God's protection. Times of trouble (disruption of travelling plans) were also solved somehow, with the prayers of everyone I believe. Glad to have met fellow Christians over there when I first thought that none of the other Singaporeans from NTU going there were believers (not that I know of). Back in Singapore, as I began my IA less than 2 weeks after I returned, worries about grades and presentations surfaced. How will my supervisor grade me? Even if my prof is lenient, will it be enough to get an A overall? What can I present for the final presentations? What if they ask me questions I can't answer? All the uncertainties. And how everything fell into place. It appears that God had already planned everything. How I got help from one of my colleagues to start on a project to present on, how he helped with the conclusions, how it was still insufficient, how another colleague suggested to improve on it, how he helped me looked through my slides and pointed out things to change and went through possible questions the assessors might ask and took the time to explain additional stuff (just 1-2 days before the actual presentation), how some of the questions asked during my presentation were mentioned by him, how the presentation turned out. How the second presentation got postponed to allow more preparation time, how the second presentation went and the questions asked and how I answered. Can't be mere concidence.

Even in uncertain circumstances, past events are, I think, reminders of His power. Looking forward, with even more possible worries, challenges and changes in the year ahead, I believe that with Him, everything will fall into place as He has promised.