Today I received my 60th month's salary after arriving in Singapore at the end of May 2008. I celebrated God's bounty towards me with a bit of splurging on myself. I can't remember the last time I spent so much money on myself with a measure of abandonment. Previously, I spent money on my wife and on my son. Last Christmas I bought a laptop for my son, paid the bond for his new flat, paid for his summer school and even sent him money twice when he started work full time in February. I thought perhaps for once I enjoyed freely what God has given, the fruits of my labour. I was tempted to buy the recently released Samsung Note 8-inch tablet but ended up not doing so. Perhaps another day.
I read about the Preacher who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes and how he did not refrain from all pleasures and wealth, all that God had given him to enjoy on earth. He had everything to his heart's content but at the end nothing satisfied him. Hence, the refrain, "vanity, vanity, all is vanity and chasing after the wind."
I brought my pocket Bible with me and I was reading a Psalm while having salsa sausage when interrupted by the waitress who served me. She asked, "Are you a Catholic?" What a strange question I thought to myself. "No, I am not. I am a Christian." Perhaps in her experience Catholics read the Bible and Protestants do not, or at least not openly. The Psalm I read was Ps 73, where the Psalmist says, "There is nothing I desire on earth but You. Though my heart and my flesh faileth but You are the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
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