*Grumble*

A song to personify my disposition: Friend (Emil Chow)

Woke up at 4:30am today... that in itself is enough to annoy anyone. Add to that the fact that the reason I had to wake up that early was to send one of my closest friends off at the airport, 'cause he's going to London indefinitely, and it makes for a pretty crappy start to the day.

Its a bit depressing how people tend to grow apart as time goes on. People's lives go in different directions which lead people to various parts of the world. I now have 3 of my closest friends all scattered around the world: California, London, Melbourne (ok, so Melbourne ain't so far, but still...). I tend to like stability in my circle of friends, I like that assurance that your mate is just down the road and you can just go visit or call whenever. And they'll always be around when you need to just hang out and bum.

It's understandable that people move on and need to follow their dreams/careers/whatever; I can deal with that. Travelling is extremely affordable and convenient nowadays so visiting and keeping in touch is not hard. What I am really concerned about is the Spiritual decline that is often associated with moving away. Most the friends who have left were Christians when they left. Few are still Christians now. It's very disheartening to catch up with old friends and find out that they no longer value their relationship with Jesus.

Makes me realise how fortunate I am to be here surrounded by my Christian brothers and sisters who constantly look out for me and keep me accountable. Even thoguh Church each Sunday can be extremely boring, and takes up pretty much the whole day, its beneficial 'cause the routine keeps me reminded of God's prescence in my life (dispite the constant distractions during the week). Once you get taken out of ur comfortable circle of Christian friends and the routine of Bible study/Youth group/Church then it is extremely easy to fall away.

I have had first hand experience of this while I was on exchange at UCSC in California. I went to Church a total of zero times. I think I knew 1 other 'Christian', whom I never talked to about Christian stuff. Without the encouragement of my usual Christian Support Framework (CSF - cool, think I'll coin that acronym) I ended up doing alotta shady things.

It is quite possible that I'm just prone to doing stoopid things regardless of where I am, but I do firmly believe in the importance of having a CSF. So, I guess I'll just have to make a special effort to keep in contact with my overseas buddies and keep on praying that God will keep guiding their lives.

A big thanks to all my CSF constituents!!! HAHAHA