Family gathering in Hongkong :)came back to nagoya all ready to confess to my staff team how slack i've been spiritually during the holidays, just shopping and being fed so well in hongkong everyday. then at the first staff meeting i realised how i was not alone!!! all of us just slacked through new year in different ways. sleeping in, watching dramas, even my director shared that he was stucked on an american series called "24" almost everyday. haha...seems like we all needed that break huh? i just love my staff team so much :)
well hongkong was great. love the feeling of returning to hotel with lotsa shopping bags, love being with my family, love the dim sum mango pudding sesame dofu redbean almond paste, love talking about best buys and regrets, love bed-sharing and having someone to watch the tv with... hm.i miss life with my family in hongkong. how amazing it is that i have been so loved all my life. as i was walking away from them at the airport, i thought about how i've to relearn how to live my life- a life without the love of family to return home to everyday...
true enough, arriving back to my apartment in nagoya at night, only darkness and silence welcomed me. will i ever get use to coming back to a home like this? just as i fell asleep thinking of how lonely i am in this land that night, God poured snow outside my window the next morning to remind me of His love. my first snow in nagoya this year, from my daddy in heaven :)
that sunday i wished i could stay in bed staring at the snow falling outside my window. but in the end i got out of the warmth of my blanket and went to church. sometimes it is hard to get yourself out of house on sundays, but at the end of the day (sounds like someone huh?) you never regret going for church service. i had such a good time with my church friends and because it was so cold that day, we made steamboat at my pastor's house for dinner at night :)
God brought this verse to me as i was reading the bible yesterday : "And now these three remain: Faith, Hope and Love. But the greatest of these is Love." serving in japan requires unwavering faith and enduring hope that God will do great and mighty things, but even if i have them both and have no love, i am nothing. i can't help but to think that i am really reduced to nothing when it comes to loving my housemate. it has just been too long and too hard. after crying over something that doesn't change for some time, hearts get numb. i know God is less than pleased with my "whatever-i'm-tired-to-care-anymore" attitude. today at campus a student was making unreasonable childish complains about her dissatisfaction towards our ministry. i was feeling so mad and unjustified. but my leader's response took me back. he apologised. eventually we all prayed and reconciled. at that instant i learnt how responding evil with good is such a powerful thing. sigh. all these while i have been fighting satan with a very weak weapon that has only equal amount of power as my enemy.
so, my new year resolution for 2007? To employ my new secret weapon, "LOVE".
2 comments:
Sometimes when we show our 'enemies' love, we will get a different respond from them than we expect. (a better one). It may take a long long time before they respond, but when they do, it is worthwhile.
"what is good to love only your friends? Even the pagans and tax collectors ones loves their friends. Love your enemies and pray for them." summarise from Matt 5: 43-48
eee......................... both of you so biblish and so holyism.
erms.. "when bad people slap your right backside hor... turn your left backside to the bad people and let the bad people slap..." summarise from a bible story.. teach us hor.. even if your backside kena slap also tahan... dun slap here slap there back...
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