I came in to church today with a heavy heart, recent situations that happened in the past week made me lose my hope - personal hope and the bigger one. I spent most of my day yesterday reflecting and asking myself: what to do next? Is there anything I can do to express this heavy heart?
I came out of church with full spirit, thanks to Ps. Jose Carol for sharing such an inspirational message to remind all of us that God is good. Here, I would like to share his message to everyone in my circle.
We were reminded that as human, we see things in our perspective, We judge situation based on our small mindset. We were reminded the story of Job - he blamed God when he lost everything he has, yet in the end he realized that God loves him by restoring everything he had and some more.
Job's story showed that as human we could only see the current situation, and react to it. In life, we cannot directly relate the current situation to the lesson or reward that come after it. For example, in my own story, without my failures in the past, I would not be where I am today. Those failures are painful and bitter, and at the time I could only react by being disappointed.
Even after we have received God's love in our life, we still questioned his authority and way. A verse written that "the end is always good; it will be better than the beginning."
There are four key points that Ps. Jose emphasized today about God's nature.
- BENAR (righteous) - He is upright and faithful to his promise. God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot see His hand, we must trust His heart.
- ADIL (just) - As a human we judge things based on what is fair instead of what is just. Example, when a motorcycle and a mercedes-driver had an accident - most people would make the point that the mercedes-driver shall pay for the damage. Why? Can be because mercedes driver is richer, motorcycle had more damage, etc. We rarely questioning on why the accident happened. Thus, we miss the point of being just - and instead demand things to be fair.
- ILAHI (divine, sovereign, infinitude) - With His sovereignty, God is absolutely free to do what He knows to be the best. With His infinitude, he is without measure, and we as human most of time will fail to understand why.
- KASIH (love) - And yet above all, God is Love and his love is inside us. Thus this is the thing we have to do. We have to love and live with love.
Remember this story in the old testament:
Once upon a time, two moms were fighting for the right to take care of a newborn (one of the mom's baby died during birth that's why she wanted to take the other mom's newborn). They brought this to a judge. These two moms swore with everything they had that it is their baby. Then to make things fair, the judge decide to split the baby into two. Give each mom half of the baby.
One of the mom said it is OK to split the baby into half and the other mom said it is OK for the other mom to have the baby and not split the baby. The real mom showed LOVE and not insisting on what is her right or what is fair.
Currently, that baby is our country, and let's ask ourselves. Do we want to insist on what is fair and what is our right even though it is split into two? Or shall we show love for the sake of the baby?
We know how the story of the baby ends, right?
My personal choice is to show love - no matter if we care about something we show love instead of insist on what is right or what is fair. And I hope with this, I remind everyone that there are more important things than showing who is right or wrong.
To love. To our beloved country...
