Monday, March 23, 2009

Mothering Sunday in UK

Pagi ini seperti biasanya, aku bangun lebih dulu dari Mark, berbenah sebentar dan terus ke dapur mengerjakan hal-hal kecil, juga mempersiapkan sarapan kami. Ketika mencuci gelas-gelas bekas minum hot chocolate semalam, pandangan mataku tertuju pada tanaman cabe rawitku di dekat wastafel cuci. Tanaman cabe rawit dalam pot seharga 5,99 poundsterling itu memang sengaja ku beli dari Barton Grange Shopping Garden, untuk kuletakkan di sana, di dapur basahku, agar setiap pagi saat aku di dapur selalu teringat akan Indonesia, juga akan ibuku.
Ingatan tentang bahwa setiap hari, pagi-pagi sekali, di Indonesia ibuku pun juga bangun lebih dulu, biasanya beliau saat teduh pribadi dengan membaca Alkitabnya dan berdoa, baru kemudian mengerjakan sesuatu di dapur untuk sarapan keluarga. Kadang ingatan akan hal itu membuat hatiku sedikit tentram dan hangat berada di dapur sendirian sambil membayangkan bahwa di luar sana mungkin pada waktu yang sama pun ratusan ibu-ibu juga sedang mengerjakan aktivitas mereka di dapur. Perasaan tentang itu membuat aku merasa tidak sendiri di dapurku yang sunyi pagi itu.
Melihat tanaman cabe rawitku yang mulai berbunga itu, mengingatkan ku juga bahwa hari ini adalah Hari Ibu di Inggris, atau masyarakat di Inggris mengenalnya dengan "Mothering Sunday". Teringat sewaktu masih di Indonesia, di setiap Hari Ibu aku selalu berusaha memberi sesuatu untuk ibuku, entah itu sekedar kartu ucapan yang aku tempel di kulkas, bingkisan kecil, kue, atau pun sekedar uang tanda kasih. Tapi sekarang aku di sini, di UK, jauh dari ibuku...
Hari ini setelah kebaktian gereja, kami berencana langsung ke rumah mertuaku. Karna ibu mertuaku mengundang kami untuk dinner keluarga. Dan sesuai permintaan ibu mertuaku, agar kami tidak perlu membeli bingkisan, buket bunga, atau makanan untuk beliau, jadi kami hanya mempersiapkan kartu ucapan berwarna pink bergambar kucing, binatang peliharaan favorit beliau!
Segera kuselesaikan pekerjaan kecilku di dapur pagi itu sembari bersenandung lirih lagu Di waktuku masih kecil...
Di waktuku masih kecil,
gembira dan senang
Tiada duka kukenang,
tak kunjung mengeluh
Di sore hari yang sepi,
Ibuku bertelut, sujud berdoa,
'kudengar... ada namaku disebut.
Di doa ibuku, namaku disebut
Di doa ibu kudengar namaku disebut
Di doa ibuku, namaku disebut
Di doa ibuku, kudengar...
Ada namaku disebut.
I am dedicated this day to all mothers in the world.

Monday, March 16, 2009

PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE

Dear friends,
I just want to share with you about the new insights I found by this. Hope it could be blessing you too...
RICK WARREN - and his wife now having cancer, he is the author of the Purpose Driven Life. He is a pastor of Saddleback Church in California now, is said the prayer also during the inaugural ceremony of Barack Obama as President of USA.


In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with him, Rick said :
People ask me, "What is the purpose of life?". And I respon that in a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with HIM in heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body... but not the end of me! I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years eternity. This is the warm up act the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life is not going to make sense. Life is series of problem : Either you are in one nw, you are just coming out of one, or you are getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is making your life happy. We an be reasonably happy here on earth, but that is not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife - Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys, I believe that it is kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on! And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is something good you can thank God for...

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you are going to self centeredness, which is my problems, my issues, my pains, etc. But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off your self and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her! It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her characters, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to God and to people. So, you have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies! It made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego for you to life of easy...

So, I began to ask God what HE wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence?! HE gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, in II CORIANTHIANS 9 and in PSALM 72.

We need to ask ourselves, "Am I going to live for possessions?! or popularity?!. Am I going to be driven by pressures?! or guilty?! bitterness?! materialism?!. Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?!".

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, "God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know YOU more and love YOU better!".
God did not pu me on earth just to fulfill a 'to do' list. HE is more interested in what I am than what I do... That is why we were called 'human beings, and not human doings'.

Happy moments...PRAISED GOD!
Difficult moments...SEEK GOD!
Quiet moments...WORSHIP GOD!
Painful moments...TRUST GOD!
Every moments...THANK GOD!


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