connecting up...

Just heard a sermon yesterday shared by Mr. Henry Tan from Wesley Methodist Church... Well the topic was supposed to be on being missional... Missionary work for all??? I think the thrust of his sharing was really to encourage all us common folks (by common folks, I mean laity) to be purposeful with our lives here on earth. To fulfil the great commandments and commission that God so demands of us.

Anyway, what really caught me & set me thinking was actually something he shared right at the start of the sermon... If I don't remember wrongly, it sounded like, "Finding peace through serving"... I think he mentioned that sometimes, not all the time, we find ourselves caught up in a situation where we feel very un at peace (pardon my grammar) because we have chosen not to be active in serving (God). Can this be true? I mean what about the being too busy and not having the time to seek and find God? Can we really be unsettled because we do not do anything? Well, though I am not entirely sure of the surety of his sharing, I kinda agree with him at least emotionally because I seem to be going through exactly what he was talking about...

Reflecting back on the past few weeks, I realised that I had quietly slipped into a state of non-motion... Well what I mean is that I have chosen to "nuah" and not do anything active with my Christian life. Not planning for cell, FORT, family's spiritual life... Not praying, reading the bible, worshipping Him... Not being a good friend, neighbour, father, son... List goes on... There are many things that I should be actively doing but am not. How did I get into this state? Maybe I have stopped living in the present?

Ha. Kinda sounds familiar.

So being in this state, it is indeed refreshing to hear a wake up call. I believe God was hinting me, nudging me and giving me a catalytic reaction to connect up with Him again... (Hence the title of this blog). Sounds rudimentary but I believe its got a deeper significance...

Connecting up with God doesn't just mean reading bible, praying etc... More crucially, when one wants  to connect up with Him, one needs to be ready for a connection to take place. Let me explain this in an electrical engineer's perspective. Imagine you are in another country and you need to charge your handphone. However, for those of you who travel, you know that different countries have different designs for their electrical outlets. two pins / three pins / round / triangles etc... Having a good travel adapter can help solve the problem and allow us to tap on to the source. What I am trying to say here is that having the conditions for the charge is important. In order for us to connect up to a or the divine electrical source, we need to have the right divine connection.  How do we ensure that we are having the right connection?

Well, I feel that the answer lies in the word, "repentance". When one decides to repent from their ways / sins / wrongs, their hearts turn 180 degrees and face towards God, i.e. if you turn your back on sin, you turn your face to God vice versa. We need to understand that everytime we allow ourselves to be caught up in sin, we inadvertently turn our backs on God. And we all know the meaning of sin... It does just mean doing something wrong. It also means not doing something right. Now on the back of this understanding, personally, I feel that it is time, I did something right!!! Something that is what I should be and should have been doing...

And what is this???... Well I will leave it to my next post...