Chasing Daylight

The day started with a gruelling interview that once again deflated me totally. Actually I never like interviews, and to handle 2 person interview is propably the max I can handle. This is the first time I face 3 interviewers. Funny when he told me not to take this as an interview but a knowledge sharing session. Because, it really taugh me one thing, to re-read my sap notes thoroughly and be fully prepared. I guess I really was caught by surprise.

As my mind drew a blank, I ended up alighting at bugis area to pray. Due to the crowd, I thought it must be the first day of the month and was chided by my mum who told me if it is the first, it would have been CNY. Hmm.. conclusion, I lost all logic at the moment.

Then I thought of the book Chasing Daylight again and decided to spend my afternoon reading. I did not expect to find 2 entirely different books of the same name and ended up flipping through these 2 books to motivate and perk me up.

Book 1: Chasing Daylight by Eugene O Kelly


He was once a CEO of the big 4 and a high flyer. Then he was diagnosed with an illness that left him 100 days to live. He call it a gift as how many will know when death comes?

To him, the business of dying is difficult with the physical wrapping up and emotional winding down. The tedious paper work to sell your business, set up your will and properly transfer your assets is mind-bongling even to the average Joe. What's more the emotional farewells you have to say.

To the author who seems a bit of a control freak, admitting that things don't go according to his plan in reality is indeed a hard to swallow fact. Thus he tries very hard to treasure the present which most finds it difficult too. How many times you watched a good movie and you immediately say you hope to see the sequeal. Or you read a good book e.g. Harry Potter and all you can think about is what J.K. Rowling is going to write next? To some degree we must plan for the future but how to do so and yet enjoy the moment? That is the challenge.

The book summarised the 4 points:
1. Face reality to see the big picture
2. To simplify life by considering all aspects of our experience
3. Live in the moment which will centers us and being centered puts us in the moment
4. Recognizing perfection which requires us to observe where we are at any given moment. Achieving balance is the ability to be centered wherever we are.

I guess it is no surprise that the author died in peace as he had first accepted that he is dying. Which made me compare this books with the likes I read before e.g. Prof Randy Pausch's Last Lecture or Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie or even Richard Carlson's An hour to live, an hour to love. I felt to read how an accountant account his dying months is a refreshing perspective.

Book 2: Chasing Daylight by Erwin Raphael Mcmanus


This is a religious book and the topics are as follow:
Choices - choose to live
Initiative - just do something
Uncertainty - know you don't know
Influence - breath in, breath out
Risk - live before you die and vice versa
Advance - go unless u get a no
Impact - leave a mark
Movement - ignite a reaction
Awakening - wake the dead

Have you ever encountered a moment filled with opportunity and yet you let it slip away? It is the chance to do good, but you chose instead to do nothing. It is not choosing to do evil, it is purely choosing not to get involved - to be neutral.
>> Will you regret it once the moment is lost? I definitely did and no matter what I did after that, I still felt the pangs of regrets.

The greatest danger that success brings, aside from arrogance, is the fear of losing what has been gained.
>> Guess that's what most successful people fear.

Sideliners have the talent but lack the confidence. Thus they try to hide themselves and be as inconspicious as they can be. Most of the time, they are the spectators wishing feverently to be given a chance to be performing too. Or the player who is sitting on the bench.

If everything remains uncertain, be clear on this point, there is a calling on ur life. There is a level of clarity you can have about what to do next. Serving others function like a compass. The unique way God has designed you - with talent, intellect, gifts, personality and passions - informs you about how that service will be expressed. But don't look for God to fill in all the blanks. Don't wait for Him to remove all the uncertainty. Realize He may actually increase the uncertainty and leverage all the odds against u, just so that you will know in the end that it wasn't your gifts but His power through your gifts that fulfilled His purpose in your life.
>> Judging how uncertain I am.. I wonder is it really training me up? The last thing I want to do is to do something wrong.. But what is something wrong?

Often divine moments look like inconveniences on the front end.
>> I can only hope I can define the inconveniences.

Divine moments live in between the sweet beginning and the savory ending. You do yourself a disservice when every story has a happy ending in this life. It's far more important that there be a meaningful middle.
>> Yesterday Dr Yeoh in the 7pm show says it does not matter if a story has a bad beginning so long its ending is good. Apparently not true if following this theory.  No wonder people always say is the journey that matters.

After risk comes advance.  After "no turning backs" comes "you must go forward".  The closer you get to a divine challenge, the bigger it will seem, and the smaller you will feel.


Prayer is not about informing God of your needs, nor is it even abt trying to convince God to help you. Prayer is about connecting to God. It is about experiencing his presence and moving with him in intimate communion.