pain in its very essence
it is the nagging, persistent and subtle quality of pain that nails it in.

i just had the most spectacular 9 days of my life. nothing beats it, really. not the breathtaking hongkong trip, not the awesome centrepoint canvassing OVE'09 had, not the rather interesting ball i went for, not even the truckloads of activities the church teens are organizing.

because when you have been through 9 whole days of pain, it is easy to forget how to spell nuf. i mean fun.

yes, i didn't know i could take it too. but well, i kind of did. 9 full days of constant pain and tragic whining in bed which i don't even understand how it came about. i will give a breakdown of what i think it is - it started from food poisoning that i got from hongkong. then it evolved to constipation when the medicine got too strong for me and finally, gastric pain when i couldn't down any food because i was as stuffed as a turkey. and boy oh boy, is that the second most ridiculous evolution i know of other than the darwin's theory.

i entertained all sorts of thoughts for that 9 days including stabbing my stomach, having an accidental accidental drug overdose so that i can be sent to the hospital, using my alarm clock to knock me out and using my sony ericsson K750i phone to call God. and indeed, all these thoughts just emphasized how helpless i was.

over the 9 days (i declare that day #10 shall not exist because God disallows it), i realized that when God says that "our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 6:19), He's not kidding and i should start taking it seriously. i should care for my body and nurture it so that the Holy Spirit can dwell in it. most importantly, it showed me who had the ultimate lordship in my life. it was a painful (yessss) lesson for me; but i hope i have learnt it well.

tell me about being in an unpained state and i will tell you how big a blessing that is.