The Loneliness Sickness

I had an amazing tour of Singapore today-culinarily exquisite, the food cannot be beaten on three counts: 1)quality 2)availability 3)price. I have had so many different tastes today my tongue can't clearly distinguish taste as easily...what a taste-bud-workout! We were able to look at so many different places, it seemed as if we had completely covered the island city nation in just one day! From the touristy island Sentosa with the cheesy and overplayed Merlion exhibit (I almost went as far as to accuse it of idolatry) with the imitation "Under the Sea" lyrics...I shouldn't bash it so much, but come to think of it the statue and "myths" were rather disturbing at best. At least we got a free fan out of it-a very useful tool for the rest of the day :)
Then we went to the southernmost tip of continental Asia, beautifully built with two platforms, connected by a very islandy bridge made of hemp and chains. Ingenious design to make you feel as if you're in a tropical paradise with all the conveniences and security of modern design and materials. Ingenious. So careful with their planning. At the top was a breathtaking view of a (blue!) sky, could see green Indonesia and an expanse of azure waters, with a cool breeze and shaded view. Awesome experience.
Then we went to go shopping at a lot of malls and department stores, where I found a very good fitting (and good looking) dress shirt, and realized that I had been ripped off in Shanghai for 3 dress shirts. I wince at the thought-that the reason it can't be sold easily is because of the SLEEVE LENGTHS that I didn't check, that I didn't try on...I was utterly scammed by that lady. I need to check for sure once I go back, but I don't have high hopes.
Throughout the entire time we ate/snacked/talked our way around. Amiable companionship sprinkled with meaningful conversation and spiritual brotherhood make for a very volatile and endearing mix. Add delicious, abundant, cheap food into the mix and you've got dynamite.
We then went to JX's uncle's house, where they had a family gathering/dinner to celebrate father's day (oops). I do hope my father doesn't mind that I didn't do anything this year. Delicious home-cooked food, so much better than I could ever get anywhere in Singapore. Good time of listening and learning from the older, wiser generation and learning a lot of life lessons:
1) find your passion
2) business is about serving people, making life better for them-not $
3) business and success are not meant to be the primary priorities in life
4) our current comfort is at the expense of our fathers' and grandfathers' consumption of bitterness and hardship

Went on a tour of the Esplanade, saw the skyline...and toured the nightlife of the city. My friend reminded me as I was just acting the spectator of the brokenness Jesus feels for these aimless sheep, seeking pleasures and fulfillment that the world promises, yet leaving more empty and lonely than ever.

And thus comes to the part about loneliness.
Loneliness...is such a symptom not only of Singapore (materialistic and artificial as it may seem), nor solely of urban centers, nor even in the insulated environments of college campuses. Loneliness pervades our souls, my soul-because the human heart seeks, longs, craves satisfaction through relationship. Whether to nature, to a divine being, to a member of the opposite sex, to friends, to family-we want to connect with and find fulfillment in the fact that we are not the sole living, feeling, thinking being on a wasteland of desolation and lifelessness.
I awoke with a feeling of emptiness, as if my heart were in another place. How strange and wondrous a feeling is human love! Yet I knew that the way of the world-to wallow in this emotion, to prize it above everything else that may be going on around you (so that you're seen as the romantic whose obsessive inability to connect with reality because of another is somehow construed as attractive). This way is wrong, because as a Christian my fulfillment is given by God and God alone. It is found in God alone. And thus I had to come to God to fill that void in my heart, that vacant, glazed look in my eyes.
Psalm 3:5
I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.

And God does sustain-he provides the spiritual food, the nourishing richness of His Word to abide in me, to let me encourage others despite my...condition. Truly He satisfies like none other, and in His presence I am content.