MSB – Semester 2, 2011

Now that the Mid-Sem Break has come, I guess I’ve got a bit of time to relax and reflect over how things have been since MYC, or maybe the whole year for that matter. Anyway, this semester at uni has been much much more relaxing than last semester. Having that one free day (as opposed to no free days) makes a huge difference in my energy levels. I’ve felt much better over the course of this semester about everything I’m doing. Shall probably go through each thing in some detail.

 

Uni

So in having four days this semester rather than five, the only major drag is that I have five courses to worry about, rather than four (sadly two of my math courses count as half a course each but have nearly just as much work as a full course). I regrettably have to admit that I’ve lapsed back into my pattern of not doing any of my tute homework again; I powered through the first week’s worth of homework and again things just died starting the week after that. However, that hasn’t stopped me from getting decent marks in my assignments and class tests. There is some real confusion in how I’m doing reasonably well in my courses even though I’m not really put much effort into studying. Surely in response to my last post, “where was God in all this?” He was there the entire time carrying me through all my uni work, that’s where.

 

The rest of the semester is looking fairly well; there are still assignments and test to come but I suppose we will always be facing them anyhow. And being my third year of study, there must be some moderate degree of difficulty to my courses, otherwise it wouldn’t really be called “third year”. A somewhat downside to uni right now is my lack of success in internships. Of course having put minimal effort into my applications and research, one could only blame me and my lack of effort. All hope is nearly lost for me but that’s okay, I have stronger intentions to go to Hong Kong at the end of this year; and I trust that God will provide a job for me when the time comes, there is no real need to go out of my way to desperately search for one now. Sounds like a stupid view to adopt, I can’t say that I’m fully convinced that it will work out well for me but I certainly prefer this path more.

 

 

CBS

Leading another fairly large Bible Study group again this semester alongside our MTSer, Alan. Groups are all guys or all girls this semester (obviously I’m leading an all guys group). One good thing about my group is that I know a fair number of them already prior to this semester so establishing a relationship with the group was easier. Following up on the group isn’t too hard as I have ample ways to contact them. My major setback each week is my inability to wrap up the Bible Study on time. In fact that happens at youth group too haha. Sadly during set group times such as Bible Study, we don’t really have the freedom to chat for hours on end; we’re limited to that one hour. But when your group gets good discussion going, it’s hard to make them move on to finish the study.

 

I get a few opportunities here and there to chat to my group members to see where they’re at in their Christian lives; it’s many and usually only for a short moment but gradually I think my group is maturing in their faith and their desire to glorify God at uni. Managed to get into a really good conversation on the train once with one of my group members; it was good to find out more about that person’s circumstances and to understand what they hope to get our of Bible Study and such. Hopefully I’ll be able to give him what he needs in those areas in the coming weeks.

 

Other than my Bible Study group, it’s been cool chatting to a few people in our CBS hangout room at uni. I literally only have those two hours of break at uni on Wednesday and each week they seem well spent in chatting with other people in my faculty and hearing their thoughts and opinions on different matters. Seeing how the whole faculty is growing makes me feel more relieved about stepping back as a leader at CBS and entrusting that role to the younger students, and giving them a chance to lead and such.

 

 

Church

I think after many years of changing around the leadership structure and working out goals and stuff, we’ve finally started to settle down into a routine where we can get things efficiently and plan strategically and dynamically for various goals at the same time. We might not have found the most optimal method in organising things and getting things done but by the grace of God we’ve managed to make huge improvements from how things were at the start of the year. A more concrete and solid foundation has allowed us to look after the people at our church better and helped us chase up newcomers more effectively. And for once we can actually start thinking about really long term goals; so not about what we plan to do next week or next term; but rather we can actually think about things such as leadership structure next year and the year after. Hopefully this second half the year (well, final third to be more precise) will see us able to reach and convict people with the gospel of Jesus and compel them to give their lives to Him for His glory.

 

As for youth group, even though I said before that I feel discouraged at times about how things might not go well on some weeks, I think it might because I’ve been trying to focus on the group as a whole, when rather the real growth takes place through individual relationships. And getting to know the youth better over the last few months (and the first half of this year) has really helped me understand them better and see how much they’ve matured over the years. Surely, to not waste my life, it means I have to put more effort into individual relationships so that I can find ways to encourage and grow the people under my care. Perhaps I’m not quite ready to lead the youth group as a whole but in directing which way our youth group is heading I think I’m beginning to see that it starts deep down at the roots of friendship and unity in Christ. Only after we’ve built upon those roots may we then progress as a youth group living and serving Jesus.

 

 

Summary

All in all I think this semester has allowed me to find renewed strength in the things I’m doing; and while I’ll feel anxious here and there about all the other things I need to do (particularly my assignments right after this post), if God has been able to carry me through thus far, what worry would I need to have in other things? Of course it doesn’t mean I live my life carelessly, but it means I can afford to give up more of my time for things such as this blog, since clearly if I held back every time, I’ll continually find an excuse to put these things off, and that would be pretty bad particularly when I tell my youth to read their Bibles daily. Probably shouldn’t ask them for something as challenging as that unless I’m prepared to do that myself.

 

In the meantime, more work awaits me, as well as a lot of 21sts, along with my own 21st. So many things to do; but so many more things to do for Christ. It shall be a good final four months to the end of this year.

1: One Saviour. One Life. One Night. Don’t Waste It.

Last night, about ten thousand people from all over Sydney (and maybe a bit further) gathered at Sydney Entertainment Centre to hear from John Piper and John Lennox, two renowned speakers from America who have written quite a number of good books. This was a completely new event that has never been run before in Sydney but the reputation of the speakers certainly attracted a lot of people to come; seating capacity was completely maxed out and both speakers preached a very powerful message to a full house, such would be deemed the success of the event.

 

For a few of us, the topic of event seemed quite ambiguous and we didn’t really know what to expect from the speakers. I think we’ve all heard about “not wasting our lives” (particularly in the Christian context) and I also wondered what more could be said about the idea. Last night was a night to re-ignite the spirits of those who attended, that they may burn with a strong passion for Jesus and indeed not waste their lives but live it all to their max, for the glory of God.

 

The night was filled with worship and was MCed by Al Stewart. All in all, the night was quite simple and very heavily focused around the speakers; and they themselves focused heavily around the Bible, it was quite an intense event in terms of the amount of stuff we were hearing. They also gave us very cute little booklets with information and also space to write notes and all (photo above).

 

John Lennox

John Lennox came up to speak first and he began by addressing the concerns of investing our time, and even our lives, for Jesus. He explained both points of views, that indeed it would be quite a waste of a life if we invested into someone who wasn’t real and the promises of heaven and all were not real. However, if we did not invest into Jesus and he turned out to be real, then we would be in serious trouble. John talked about the transfiguration of Jesus and how that event was a truly remarkable change not only for Jesus but also for those who witnessed it. The eyewitnesses (and apostles) who saw all that Jesus did would be able to invest in Jesus because they actually saw what Jesus had in plan for those who believe. And as eyewitnesses they shared this news with the people around them because the way we live our lives would certainly have an eternal difference at the end. Lennox also talked about how the transfiguration demonstrated Jesus’ power, and it was not a power of this world and while we might not receive this same power,  we are called to trust in the one who does have this power.

 

Lennox moved onto talking about death and leaving the world; because if indeed there is an eternal reward waiting for us at the end of time, how we live our lives up to the point of our death is important. The Bible shows us examples of how some people live their lives and went out with a “bang”: Moses died (but lived a very arduous life), Elijah left the world but did not taste death, Jesus was crucified, and Peter was crucified upside down, in order to not shame what happened to Jesus. If we are indeed convinced of the value of our investment in Christ and of the eternal difference that will show itself at the end of time, then indeed it makes perfect sense to live our lives as best as we can, to reflect the treasure we have in Christ.

 

Lennox’s talk was a good opener to the evening and explaining why it made sense to invest our time and our whole lives into Jesus.

 

John Piper

After a short intermission, John Piper came up to speak. For a 65-year old man, he demonstrated quite a lot of energy in his preaching and I was glad I was able to hear him and the ideas he presented last night. Piper introduced a lot of radical concepts that I hadn’t really thought about before but I was deeply moved by what he said. He started off by reminding us of some of the world events that resulted in various numbers of deaths, namely the famous incidents, starting at 9/11. These, and many more, are incidents where the goodness of God is questioned and a lot of people hear the question: “Where was God in all of this?” Funnily enough Jesus himself was not as sentimental about life and death as we would expect. Piper read out Luke 13:1-5 and showed that amidst suffering, Jesus did not comfort those who lost loved ones but instead called everyone to repent. And of course many people would dare to say that Jesus was unloving because he didn’t show a care for those who died.

 

The radical idea that Piper presented was that we should not presume even one more breath of our life but be somewhat expecting of the bad. For those who suffered accidents, some of which led to death, we should be surprised not that it happened to other people, but that it didn’t happen to us. Too often we play the “where were you God when ‘this’ happened?” card and replace ‘this’ with something bad that happened. But we don’t seem to ask “where were you God when ‘that’ happened?”, replace ‘that’ with something good. The perspective shift Piper asked us to take on was that bad things are the “default” and anything good, even the next second of your life, is a blessing which we must make good use of, clearly because those who are dead do not have such a gift.

 

I didn’t find it too hard to take on this perspective, I imagine people who don’t have their trust in Jesus would find it harder to accept such a view. But adopting such a view really turns your world upside down. While it does make you seem pessimistic (because you’re always anticipating something bad), it makes you much more joyful and motivated when good things happen. Not only does it put our perspective on life right, but it also corrects our perspective on God. God has all the right to end our lives and pour His judgement our on us, but He chooses to have mercy on us instead and when we begin to contrast His blessings against His judgement, we begin to value what He’s given us.

 

Lastly, Piper talked about us learning to give up everything we have in favour of Christ. That is, we don’t literally go around selling everything we own, but in whatever we own or have, we should be prepared to make Jesus more important than that. And I think it works to say that having as much as we want isn’t a bad thing, as long as we are able to value Christ even more, which will end up in a willingness to give us everything else we own (hence you really only become rich to just give it all away out of generosity). How we our lives then should be to magnify Christ in everything that we have and everything that we do. By “magnify” we think of how a telescope magnifies the vast vast universe so that those looking through a telescope can see the magnificence of the universe; same with our lives and God.

 

Response

Well, they asked us to make a response as to how we intend to live our lives from this point on; how we plan to not waste it. There was a small section in our book for us to jot something down. Here was what I felt at the time:

 

I’ve never felt like each day in my life was truly a waste because it always felt like there was something to be learned, and something to be gained, not matter how big or small, and no matter whether it was a good or bad day. But I suppose the call for me is to sharpen my life and be more and more proactive with my time which would be the main challenge since I’ve packed it with so much stuff. But that can’t be right since I should always have time to slot people in when needed.

 

I hope I’ll continue to have time to blog. I have so many pending things to type up that I’ve kind of just left it all to one side. Frankly, it took a while to even finish this post up (probably partly due to my laziness and my wanting to do other things at the same time). But all in all this was a night for us to think about out long term investments for Christ. And while Lennox and Piper didn’t say specifically “how” we should spend our lives, the main focus indeed was to spread the glory of God to all around us, in whatever way we feel comfortable with. For some of us like me, the ministry field seems most applicable; and so I shall try to redouble my efforts at my church.

 

To end on a semi-dim note, sometimes all my years of leading youth group have felt like a waste, perhaps not a complete waste, but there are times where it seemed pointless or not as fruitful as doing something else. And that definitely discourages me when my passion and vision for youth group doesn’t turn out the way I had hoped it would. But through God’s grace I’ve seen more than enough change to conclude that all my efforts have not been in vain and indeed any amount of energy was worth it to see the fruits that were yielded, and the fruits that will be reaped if we persevere in our race. I believe that to be true of any other aspect of life we devote to our Saviour, Jesus Christ. He will see us through to the last day.