Christmas is around the corner again...
It's been a while since my last post...The copy-pasted encouragements from devotionals don't count, I know. But today, nostalgia hits again as I suddenly realised that Christmas is just around the corner! This year, time has been like 2 blinks and a sneeze. Before the Christmas tree has had it's time to rest in the store, it's going to be dragged out for the merry-making season of Christmas once again. And i am hit once again by a deep sense of nostalgia and reflections...
So much has happened over this one year. I made the move back to KL...I helped out in Jenny's pre-school (ended up enjoying every moment of it and now, can't get enough of it)...Time took even faster leaps when I joined the DSLR generation and got myself my own D200, spending hours mulling over photo after photo of everything...And of course, Sarah Joy entered our lives...No wonder the year flew by like a breeze...
Now i find myself in a very familiar cross-road, once again. And truth to be told, I am tired of staring at it's corners and wondering which path to take. Maybe the problem is just me...the ever non-decisive, people-pleasing me...Do i return to Melbourne and continue my escapades there? Or do I remain in KL and continue on with the comfortable routine i've grown to appreciate.
Again, I find myself wanting to hide in the cave until the rain stops and the Mr Sun can come out and shine the way for me. Fortunately and unfortunately, God did not make us to be robots. We all have to learn to make choices...and continue to make them till we are lead back to Him forever.
If I sound a hint heavy-laden, it's probably because I am. In the last week, images and memories of a time when I was completely 100% happy and contented have been flooding my mind. A time when I had a group of dear friends around me and we were all looking forward to Christmas together...serving alongside and sharing alongside. A time when things were simple and decisions easy...Today's RBC seemed to be written for me...
Waiting For God
Simeon . . . was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel. —Luke 2:25
Author Henri Nouwen has observed that the first pages of Luke’s gospel are filled with people who were waiting: Zacharias and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, Simeon and Anna were all waiting for the fulfillment of a promise from God. But instead of passively waiting, they were actively looking to the Lord each day, what Nouwen calls being “present to the moment.”
Simeon, for example, was controlled not by hopelessness but by the Spirit who prompted him to go into the temple. His words of praise when he saw the child Jesus, the promised Messiah, resound as an example of patient hope in God: “My eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel” (Luke 2:30-32).
Many of us find ourselves waiting on God for an answer to a prayer or the fulfillment of a promise. His word comes to us, just as it did to those who were swept up in the events that marked the first Christmas: “Do not be afraid, Zacharias” (1:13); “Do not be afraid, Mary” (1:30); “Do not be afraid, [shepherds]” (2:10).
As we listen to God in His Word and obey Him, we’ll discover His goodness and power as we wait. _ David C. McCasland
Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Savior am happy and blest;
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love. —Crosby
Time spent “waiting on God” is never wasted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I seem to be waiting, like the farmer waiting for the first green shoots of his crop; like a little girl waiting for dad to come home with presents in hand; like a cancer patient waiting for the day she can walk out of the hospital and be declared healed and well...
I seem to simply be waiting for the everlasting hope and joy promised to fall over my life and for the creases of life to smoothen itself out and for the heart to heal completely...Where is my everlasting Hope? Where is my Joy? I feel like David when he cried out "Where are you Lord?"
And in the same way I am crying out to God, God is asking me...
Genesis 3:9
But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
Genesis 16:8
And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?" "I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.
Perhaps like Hagar, I have been running away ... But God brought Hagar back...even back to her mistress Sarai, who was the source of her troubles and hurts. And what more? Hagar was to submit to her mistress Sarai.
In the end, Hagar's reply was one of submission and a sense of release because she knew that God was on her side.
Genesis 16:13-14
She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me." 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
I guess the solution is not to run away. What can running away do but extend Hagar's troubles and heartaches? And what can running away do for me? Lord, humble me, so I can learn to submit and like Hagar, I may exclaim with the same release in my heart that "You are the God who sees me and knows me and will bless me". And so let it be...
So much has happened over this one year. I made the move back to KL...I helped out in Jenny's pre-school (ended up enjoying every moment of it and now, can't get enough of it)...Time took even faster leaps when I joined the DSLR generation and got myself my own D200, spending hours mulling over photo after photo of everything...And of course, Sarah Joy entered our lives...No wonder the year flew by like a breeze...
Now i find myself in a very familiar cross-road, once again. And truth to be told, I am tired of staring at it's corners and wondering which path to take. Maybe the problem is just me...the ever non-decisive, people-pleasing me...Do i return to Melbourne and continue my escapades there? Or do I remain in KL and continue on with the comfortable routine i've grown to appreciate.
Again, I find myself wanting to hide in the cave until the rain stops and the Mr Sun can come out and shine the way for me. Fortunately and unfortunately, God did not make us to be robots. We all have to learn to make choices...and continue to make them till we are lead back to Him forever.
If I sound a hint heavy-laden, it's probably because I am. In the last week, images and memories of a time when I was completely 100% happy and contented have been flooding my mind. A time when I had a group of dear friends around me and we were all looking forward to Christmas together...serving alongside and sharing alongside. A time when things were simple and decisions easy...Today's RBC seemed to be written for me...
Waiting For God
Simeon . . . was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel. —Luke 2:25
Author Henri Nouwen has observed that the first pages of Luke’s gospel are filled with people who were waiting: Zacharias and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, Simeon and Anna were all waiting for the fulfillment of a promise from God. But instead of passively waiting, they were actively looking to the Lord each day, what Nouwen calls being “present to the moment.”
Simeon, for example, was controlled not by hopelessness but by the Spirit who prompted him to go into the temple. His words of praise when he saw the child Jesus, the promised Messiah, resound as an example of patient hope in God: “My eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel” (Luke 2:30-32).
Many of us find ourselves waiting on God for an answer to a prayer or the fulfillment of a promise. His word comes to us, just as it did to those who were swept up in the events that marked the first Christmas: “Do not be afraid, Zacharias” (1:13); “Do not be afraid, Mary” (1:30); “Do not be afraid, [shepherds]” (2:10).
As we listen to God in His Word and obey Him, we’ll discover His goodness and power as we wait. _ David C. McCasland
Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Savior am happy and blest;
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love. —Crosby
Time spent “waiting on God” is never wasted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I seem to be waiting, like the farmer waiting for the first green shoots of his crop; like a little girl waiting for dad to come home with presents in hand; like a cancer patient waiting for the day she can walk out of the hospital and be declared healed and well...
I seem to simply be waiting for the everlasting hope and joy promised to fall over my life and for the creases of life to smoothen itself out and for the heart to heal completely...Where is my everlasting Hope? Where is my Joy? I feel like David when he cried out "Where are you Lord?"
And in the same way I am crying out to God, God is asking me...
Genesis 3:9
But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
Genesis 16:8
And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?" "I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.
Perhaps like Hagar, I have been running away ... But God brought Hagar back...even back to her mistress Sarai, who was the source of her troubles and hurts. And what more? Hagar was to submit to her mistress Sarai.
In the end, Hagar's reply was one of submission and a sense of release because she knew that God was on her side.
Genesis 16:13-14
She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me." 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
I guess the solution is not to run away. What can running away do but extend Hagar's troubles and heartaches? And what can running away do for me? Lord, humble me, so I can learn to submit and like Hagar, I may exclaim with the same release in my heart that "You are the God who sees me and knows me and will bless me". And so let it be...
............
