"helpless in hong kong?"

first, i've decided to revive my blog for the 9th time. i blame facebook. ever since that came out, i don't vent anymore! but now i have time. caitlyn is sleeping, linnet is out taking her japan friends around town, and i'm here watching 'the lake house' all by my lonesome typing on my computer. life is awesome!

so, while on the way home in the taxi, i was talking with the driver. conversation started when i asked why this cab was being ticketed by the cops at this bus station. he says police are under pressure to increase revenues (read: give more tickets!), and taxi drivers are under pressure to make... income... so that means sometimes, like at 9pm on a sunday, they need to 'park' in relatively busy spots to pick up fares, which means at times they become cop-fodder and help make quota - despite the fact that in 'normal' times, cops never even bother with such minor of minor infractions.

anyway - turns out, cabbies are suffering - this downturn especially. life has just been tough as fares risen in a while except that cost of living has skyrocketed. buses, both big and small, have become too efficient and ubiquitous, going everywhere and anywhere (go figure!). so this poor guy - he's sharing his life to me - he says he needs to go to macau after work (i.e. when he returns his cab) so that he can gamble his day's income in the hopes of making more. he says no choice. can't earn enough driving cabs. too much competition. young drivers have no respect, nor etiquette (yes, there's cabby etiquette w/respect to fares). so the answer is macau.

then he says that he believes that life is pre-destined. he's dealt his hand in life, and there's no way to improve it. life is all written out, and he can only live out his script. he says in chinese "have so have {more}, don't have so don't have hope". it's a pretty hopeless existence. so i ask if this is b/c of the downturn - and he says it had already been declining before the market tanked. this just made it worse.

so i had nothing to say. i didn't know how to tell him about hope. about jesus christ. about the promise of so much more following life in Him. about the impossible becoming possible. i felt useless. just clutching onto caitlyn in the cab for dear life.

i think i use canto, or lack thereof, as an excuse for these types of situations in hong kong. i think i've destined myself to defeat with that way of thinking, which is sad. i dunno... next time? lord please help me improve my canto!!!!!

i pray Lord that you bless that taxi driver. help him to put his life in YOUR perspective. i pray for provision for his household - that he may come to lean on you, and not on macau or otherwise. (all in canto, of course!)

i just pray that i can always be sensitive to those around me - to have the eyes and heart of God, and to have unconditional compassion for all of God's people. to always give without expecting to receive in turn. to take the talents God has entrusted me and my family with, multiply them, and offer it back to the Lord. i'm pretty sure that doesn't mean build a big altar and burn it and dead fat animals to him. well - i don't want to be staring down the eye of a needle, and turn away in fear!

so i'm sitting here - typing on a laptop. i have a laptop! watching tv (or listening, rather). got a tv too! just held caitlyn long enough for her to fall asleep. a daughter! my wife is coming home. i have a wife and home! wanna go to bed cuz gotta get to work tom'w. i got a job! yeah - i get the message...

blessed to be a blessing...

it feels good to write much about nothing....