It is said that money cannot buy happiness, but i'll tell u, the lack of money is more than enough to purchase plenty of unhappiness.
My mom is currently unemployed and stays at home watching her stocks. for those that do not know, both my parents are from hong kong.. but they come from different worlds. my mom comes from the slums, where she tells me she and her 8 brothers and sisters lived within 4 walls covered by a tarp for a good portion of their teenage years. She came to Canada around 19 and has an incomplete high school education. She is also semi disabled in that only one of her legs fully function.. so she pretty much hops around.. painfully.
my father, was a lot better off as his parents owned some factories who have become relatively successful. He however has a terrible memory, and although he has a bachelor of arts from laurier.. well in monetary terms he has never been successful.
I am not going to get into it, but my parents have gone through some extremely terrible lows in their poverty. during the past week, ive seen my mom become more and more disheartened as she watched her stocks plummet.. our only true remaining asset is our house which is valued currently around $400, 000. This is the thing they have fought to keep for the past 10 years.. because selling it seemed a very viable option with their constnat financial and employment issues. but to sell it would almost mean they spent 30 years in canada and had nothing to show for it.
Ok so heres the thing, my mom asked me to pray with her that day we were watching their rrsps go to hell. during this prayer she goes through like a timeline of how gods been thorugh her life.. how she was able to have children.. marry a university student.. come to canada.. become a christian.. il tell ya.. some of the things she said rippedm e apart on the inside. by the end of it she was bawling and i was holding back the tears. she ended by saying "im not unhappy, i am extremely grateful for all that is in my life right now". this was sort of an epiphany for her as she was very unhappy during the prayer. i do not know where this is going.. but i cna honestly say that i agree. i have never been too upset at my financial situation.. but rather its impact on my family.. i too am extremely grateful for all that is in my life for i have so much more than so many others.. i have clothes, food, shelter, education, hope, and love. There's a lot more i can say as a majority of my testimony revolves around my poverty(we should b at or slightly below the poverty line),but that's for another day. il end off wit this..
if God is for us, who then can be against us?
1 comment:
you've briefly shared about this with me before and I'm not gonna lie, everyime I hear it I can't help but feel your pain. I can feel the struggles and the effects it has on you and your family, the weight of it all.
I've too somewhat struggled with some of the things such as trying to obtain security. Hey, coming out of uni. in a market that we all know is horrible is scary. I've become soo north americanized that I want those comforts, security, etc.
But if God is for us, who can be against us? The easy answer would be satan, which I believe is only 1 component of the answer. We are flawed human beings, and things are gonna suck simply because of that. Our biggest struggle I find is not identitying what is wrong and who's responsible for it, but rather.. being able to take up the cross every single day of our lives. It's a choice we make and what may seem like external factors that are imposed against us.. in reality, it's our personal decision if whether each and every day of ours lives we choose to follow the Cross or not. The path that is hard, tough and less taken.. or fall back and live a life that's just.. bland.
Brian Tse, keep being that bright spot in your family and amongst your friends. I believe God has placed you in your position for a reason. And soon enough, I believe you will start to see why. Praying for ya.
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