With what's going around us -- the economic slide of the Western world, thuggery in London, our apathetic reaction to the famine in the horn of Africa, and our even more catatonic reactions to the Libyan and Syrian crises -- I ask where is the world leading to?

My answer: somewhere not better than where we are now.

Lust and envy, that's why.

So simple yet so true: the world is in turmoil because its citizens covet that which is not their's.

Confession: I have a friend whom I resent for no reason. I hate everything he does and regard his opinion as 'too worldly' whereas mine is 'wisdomly savvy'...until a painful realisation ensues: I envy him.

The reason I hate him is because he is everything I wanted to be. I wanted what he has. Where he is extrovertly active -- enjoying the company of people, joining various endeavours and reaping its rewards through awards and accollades -- I am introvertly living in a shell of self-centeredness.

Nothing has changed yet (I'm an old dog learning new 'lessons') but, a pace at a time, I'm slowly learning to accept the differences in people. Others have more because they have more responsibilities. Others have little, and although they too have responsibilities, it's to a smaller sphere.

I believe that beautiful, rich, powerful people sleep less soundlier than simple people like I.

I shouldn't envy. Instead I should ask God to give me that which is lacking in me.

I heard this from Ophra: Be careful of what you pray for because it may come true, which brings me to what James said about asking and receiving.

I sometimes call myself Imee because my prayers are centered to what I want, what I need, what I hope for for myself, what I dream to achieve. And my motives? So that I would feel and be 'better' than others.

I have stopped praying for what I want because, a sinner that I am, God has remained faithful and giving to me. In fact He has never failed in giving me what I truly need -- the basic things: a shelter, a job, family and friends, and a growing faith in Him.

Let's count ourselves blessed than other people. We have jobs and are able to help our family with our earnings. Our family is not in one of the shelters in Somalia waiting for help to come.

Prayer: May we count ourselves blessed with what we have, and may we share what we have to our needy brothers -- unconditionally, whole-heartedly with joy, and if at all possible, without anyone knowing it.

[You may want to call it as a turnaround from the usual nothingness that I post in this blog. For quite a long time, I hope to 'live' whatever is that I profess to believe in. Although I'm failing big time most of the time, I believe in the proverbial line that says it's not the fall, it's the rising up that counts.

And so this may be a start of -- but in no way means I will not post nothingness anymore -- my personal attestments to the powers of the Word. I'm not a saint; I'm a sinner trying to find His ways in this world.]