Good Friday

Life often feels like this.


But on Good Friday it felt worst.


So I managed to get out of camp for the biggest annual event of the Presbyterian church. I was really very happy at this. Once in a year, all the Presbyterian churches would gather in one place, to mark a very significant event.



So early that Friday morning I woke up, put on something red, picked up my Bible, and headed down to the convention centre. I put on a hat but dad advised me not to.

I had a special role to play that day. A brave team was giving out car decals to every vehicle that came to the service to help ‘advertise’ for the year end Presbytery level musical. I was part of that team, waiting for the transports to pull in and going after the vehicle commander to take up the decal.



Once that was done, I headed in for the service. Thousands upon thousands had come, yet at the end of the day I had met only 2 whom I knew. Add that to the fact that I was a little groggy during service (after waking up so early this morning and getting out of camp so late the night before) and you’ll realise why I felt rather disappointed after all that expectation.

And I felt worst going home. I wasn’t as spiritually refilled as I had expected to be (if at all), I hadn’t felt inspired seeing so many believers all gathered together (although it was truly an awesome sight), and I caught myself not wanting to go back to camp. Something was not right, and it took quite a while for me to figure out what it was- My relationships with my 5 closest friends.



One was out sailing for an extended period, one was overseas and I had no time to write and e-mail, one had been out of contact for quite a while, one didn’t want to join me at the service today and one… well there was some awkwardness in our relationship. So after coming back from a huge crowd that made me feel rather lonely and not having my closest friends around, I really felt very alone. Thus whatever worries I had were multiplied. Just imagine the scene below without the 5 friends above.

Hey wait a second, didn’t Jesus feel that way on Good Friday too?


Anyway, God sent help. In his perfect timing, I read the blog of my friend whom I was feeling the awkwardness with, and realised that behind the wall silence, that dear friend of mine was actually doing quite well and quite happily. That one entry bursting with the joy of a close friend was enough to refill me again. It really was quite timely. And awesome. How things so coincidentally fell back into place. How Great is Our God.

And he was not done with me yet. After booking in I found another just like me, groggy at Good Friday service, feeling a little distant from it all, and I found fellowship in his company. I spent quite a while penning down my emotions from the day and when I went over to him I saw him doing the same, just that it was in Chinese. Introducing Arthur, the first I’ve found in the past year who has been holding his ground as strongly as I have.



Refreshing!

Images taken from www.games-workshop.com

Turns Out...

I got out on Good Friday!


Praise the Lord for answered prayer.


But why did I feel so down at the end of the day?

Turned Out

After the events of the past 2 weeks, especially the past 3 days, all I can say is:

God really does prepare us for what lies ahead.

The mindless ‘turn out’s and the extending of our missions when we thought they were finally done made sense during this operation.

It’s been raining the past 3 days and I’ve been out there, singing “On Fire” in the falling sky and the rain as I destroyed the careers of many a spider and felled many trees as the search continues.

I wonder though, is this what God has been preparing me for, or is this but a preparation for something bigger to come.

For now I just hope to be out by Good Friday.