Favorite Number Collection

As the grand finale to my university life (finally!), I am going to talk about my favorite numbers.

For the longest time, my favorite numbers have been 4 and 7. I associate with number 4 tremendously in my life as a musician, so it just naturally becomes my favorite number. On the other hand, I tend to like things that other Chinese people don't like (or dislike what they like). The homonyms to the Chinese character of "four" means "death", which makes the number rather inauspicious. Chinese people hate inauspicious things, so they avoid using this number. I, however, am the devil's advocate LOL ...

My other favorite number 7, as I feel it is a number of satisfaction and perhaps celebration. God used 6 days to create the world (see Genesis), and in the seventh day He rested. He demands human beings to work only 6 days and observe the Sabbath on the seventh day. During Moses' time, God demands the Israelites to prune their vineyards and gather their crops for six years and take a sabbath of rest on the seventh year. When Jesus was cruxified on the Cross, He used His scarce energy to say the final seven sentences. After He said, "Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit," He breathed His last. Then in the third day, He resurrected, as a fulfillment of His salvation. There are many more examples in the Bible that uses number 7 as a finish; if you are interested you can find out from there. ;-)

Now I have another favorite number in my collection, and that is number 8. Before I would avoid this number because this is an auspicious number in the Chinese culture, for the homonym to this number in Chinese means "prosperity" or "wealth". I personally do not think prosperity nor wealth is the ultimatum to life, so I would avoid anything that promotes it. Nevertheless, I like this number very much now because of how God reveals His work on me with this number.

At the tender age of 16, I have thought of being the president of my fellowship. However, when this thought became reality, I was already 24. God used 8 years to ready me. I wondered why it took so long, but then I was thankful it did because I didn't know how to love people nor communicate with them before, yet God values relationship development more than operating a fellowship, which I was already perfectly capable of when I was still a teenager. Now, I am starting to train younger generation of leaders. All these brothers and sisters I am training, though they are younger, are my beloved friends.

I started my first university degree in music when I was 18. And today (this precise day), being 26 now, I finished my third music degree in UBC. So 8 years of hard work in post-secondary institution! Originally I only intended to do my BMus and MMus, but somehow God convicted me to do an extra two years of DMPS (Diploma in Music Performance). People would think 8 years of university without a break is insane. But you know what, these extra years not only made me a better musician, but also a much stronger person. If I insisted on jumping out to the society 2 years ago (for the sake of peer pressure or trying to pay back student loan), I probably would have failed my career poorly. Two years ago, my musical abilities were still only mediocre and I was totally a vulnerable person. I am not saying I am super-good now, but at least my skills are beginning to be recognized. So thank God - He is the master of my life; only He would know how long I should stay in one stage of my life and when to move on to the next without going through too much trouble.

The 9-1-1 incident happened on the second day of my university life. From that disaster I saw corruption, fear, hatred and uneasiness in humanity. The only thing that would resolve these crisis is Jesus Christ. So I promised God I would definitely go on short term mission someday, to bring the gospel to other countries in the world. Year after year, I gave myself many excuses not to go on STM. Finally, at the end of this month, I am going! Again, God took 8 years to ready me to fulfill my promise.

So, what can I say about this number 8? It is wonderful! Because of what the Lord has done in me!