Time for God

Hey guys! It’s Christmas Eve 2012, and the world hasn’t ended yet it seems, so joy! I can’t believe it’s almost 2013. The clock is spinning as fast as a fan these days

So today I want to share my experience from a few days back, how God taught me a new lesson. If you’ve ever experienced being taught by God, you’d know he’s just the best teacher ever. So here goes..

As you know, it’s Christmas break, so I have lots of time to do stuff I wouldn’t be able to do during term. One thing I’ve been doing a lot recently, as a guy, is, of course, playing games. In particular there’s one online game that I’ve been really into these past few days. But the game itself isn’t important to this story, so let’s just call it game X.

So one day the servers of this online game went down for routine maintenance. The maintenance was scheduled from 3-7 pm, so for a few hours I was without my favorite holidaytime activity (I wish I could say my favorite holidaytime activity was studying, or reading the Bible, or something else productive, I wish I could).

The question then was: what was I to do while waiting? Now I could’ve just played another game, or watch TV, or move on to some other form of unproductive entertainment, but somehow I ended up browsing and listening to worship songs on iTunes and YouTube. If any of my readers know me well, you’d know I’m a musical person. I love music in general, I love worship music, and I love worshiping God with music.

So there I was having a good time listening, and then I came across this video of Kari Jobe teaching about worship. Something nagged at me for me to watch it. So even though it was over 30 minutes, I watched it.

If you have time, and you love worshiping God, I encourage you to watch that video also. But one thing she mentioned that really struck me was how important it was for a Christian to (routinely) have a PRIVATE time of worship, a time of encountering God, to press in and learn more about Him.

Then I think to the lives of Christ’s followers nowadays, and my life in particular. How much of our daily 24 hours are we giving to him? How much of our weekly 168? How much of our monthly 720? How much time are we dedicating to the “pursuit” of God? I am on holiday right now, and most of my time is spent doing unproductive things. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have fun during the holidays, but the truth is if we are to grow as Christ’s followers, if we are to know Him more and be transformed to be more like Him, then we need to spend time with Him. We need to have private times of worship, we need to meditate on His Word, and we need to do it routinely, not just “whenever we feel like it”

If you are already doing your devotions (saat teduh) daily, that’s good, but I encourage you to do more than that. At least, if your devotions consist of just simply reading the Word, reading the devotional book, then a short prayer, then I think we can do a little bit more, mmhmm? Take time to meditate on the Word, to prayerfully seek His will, and ask God to reveal Himself to you, to meet with you.

The world as we know it hasn’t ended, but if you look at the state of the world today, sometimes maybe you wish it had, because the world today is full of wars, tragedies, heinous crimes, and hate, people not caring for each other. This generation needs leaders in Christ, who will stand up for what they believe in, who will go against the flow of today’s corrupt and decaying world, and win this generation back for God.

But those leaders first need to be shaped and molded to be Christlike. and how’s that gonna happen if they, we, don’t give time for God?

So that’s my lesson, and I hope you can learn from it too! Maybe this holiday season, instead of seeing how many games we can finish, how many books we can read, how many seasons of a TV series we can watch, or even how much we can study; let us see how much we can grow in God.

God bless guys. Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!

-ka

Uncharted Territory

This song really resonates with me right now. Sometimes it’s hard to trust God when you don’t clearly see His plans. Fear, doubt comes in. Sometimes it takes a huge, painful effort to say “God, I trust you, and whatever happens I will accept it and just surrender”.

But looking back, He has never let me down before, has He? “How could I forget, what You’ve done for me? You have been so faithful, meeting every need.” Surrendering to God is sometimes scary, but rest assured, He has nothing but the best for you, and He is MORE than capable.

But even if things don’t turn out the way you’d hoped, hey, He’s enough, right? Our source of happiness, security, and fulfillment should come from Him, the Giver, alone, and not from His gifts.

“Lord, I know that I’ve given over control of my life to You, but sometimes I still struggle with what I want, versus what you know I NEED, and then I try to take control back from You. Right now I’m as scared as ever. I’m scared of getting hurt. I’m scared that this is only what I WANT. I’m scared that you’ll say “no”. Lord, help me to trust You, and find my fulfillment from You alone, so that no matter what Your answer is, I can be content and just wait for something BETTER”

Hello again!

Hey guys! Wow, it’s been, what, 2+ years since my last post? My goodness. Sebenernya gw uda beberapa kali pengen ngehidupin blog ini dan mulai nulis lagi, tapi yah, sekarang baru kesampean. My most sincere apologies to the faithful readers (ahem) who have frequently checked my blog to see if I have written anything new, and, well, have been disappointed for 2 years. But here I am now!

Anyway, since it’s been a while, lemme get you up to speed. I’m now attending medical school at FK-UAJ (Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia). Currently in my second year, and I’m loving it! So far anyway, hahaha. Lots of activities here! I could spend several posts explaining them all. We study, of course, a lot! But so far medschool has not yet been the ‘school’ where people go to lose their minds and go crazy. We still have quite a lot of time for other activities.

The curriculum? It’s probably what you’d expect of medschool. We study anatomy, physiology, biochem, and all that. We look at cadavers, do some cool chemistry stuff, look at pathogens, discuss scenarios in small groups (PBL), practice clinical skills (skills lab), and take exams. Exams! A lot of exams! Like, we have at least one every 2-3 weeks, one major exam (OSCE, Objective Structurized Clinical Examination) at the end of each semester, and one other major exam (SOCA, Student Oral Case Analysis, also known as The Exam All Med students Fear) every end of the year.

Other than studying, we also have a lot of clubs! Besides the usual sports clubs (futsal, basketball, wushu, etc.),  we have Cellube, which accomodates our campus’ musicians (I’m a part of this, yay!). There’s also AtmaSearch, for those who love research and.. studying (as if medschool doesn’t have enough studying). Also we have MediSAR (Medical Search and Rescue) for those who love to get physical (lolwut); and AMSA (Asian Medical Students Association) for those who want to expand their connections, attend national/international events, and other boring stuff (joking! AMSA members, don’t be mad :p), and many more!

But one that deserves special mention is POERISTA! POERISTA stands for Persekutuan Doa Medis Rajawali Kristus Jakarta (Whew, I think I got that right). Anyway it’s a community of Christ’s followers in our campus. Actually, Poerista isn’t even a recognized club in our campus, but it has changed my life a lot. Sometime in the near future I’ll write about it in a special post, but not now, because this post I think is long enough, and I need to get back to work on my other stuff (medschool is busy), but sometime soon!

So, I think that’s all for now. I have lots to share with you, since I’ve been on a 2 year hiatus, so hopefully I can write more soon. I’m back (and I hope I won’t disappear again)!

God bless you all 🙂

-ka

for thought….

it’s been awhile since my last post, and I think I’ve changed a lot since then…

Since I don’t really know what to type, I think I’ll just rant a bit, here, so forgive me if this writing doesn’t seem to have any direction.

Life is so confusing, isn’t it? We live in a world where often things don’t go as we think they should.  Things are  so twisted they sometimes go against sense, against expectations..

against hope..

Remember being kids? Having not a care in the world, just happy being yourself and cruising along having all your needs met?

Remember being a bit older? Starting to have dreams of a successful life: having the best job in the world, living life, being number one, fairytale scenario.

Then we get where we are, and suddenly things don’t look so bright.

What happened to those days? I wonder…

I think I’ll branch a bit here, talk about relationships

Let’s go back to our teen years. We begin to see and understand relationships. We ourselves begin to feel that spark of emotion and yeah, flowers everywhere, rainbow over our head, can’t stop smiling and blahblahblah all that stuff.

Then what? How I see it, more often than not do relationships end in breakups, in heartbreaks. And we experience it ourselves.

and then we see how illogical, how stupid love is. We see the things people do in the name of “love”, and we wonder how humans can be so irrational.

But I guess that’s the whole point about love isn’t it? Setting aside logic for once. Come to think of it Jesus’ act of love wasn’t based on reason was it?

but when you see people jump relationships, selling their hearts to the first bidder like that, you begin to wonder…

ahh sorry I’m getting more and more melancholic and GeJe here..haha I guess it’s coz I’ve been keeping this in my mind for too long..

Anyway, at least I can still count on God whatever happens, He stays true. People may turn away from us, but only we can turn away from Him..

so ends my rant…here

The Story of a Rose Petal

Gara2 ada tugas inggris gw jadi bikin beginian… lemme know what you think guys! Thanks!

I used to be part of a whole. A part of something really beautiful. Yes, a petal I am, a petal of a rose. What a twist of fate that I end up here, telling this to you all, don’t you think? Sit down and relax for a while, and let me tell you my story, of how I got here in the first place.

As I said, I used to be a part of a whole. My “community”, the rose flower which I was part of, grew in a very beautiful garden in Jakarta. The garden itself was like a piece of heaven on earth, teeming with all kinds of flowers, artfully arranged. Something you wouldn’t expect to see in someone’ backyard. In the center was a beautiful gazebo, nestled underneath a canopy of flower trees. The gazebo housed a piano, and each day the Master would come and play beautiful melodies for everything in the garden to hear.

Everytime the Master plays his beautiful songs, the whole garden would rejoice: the birds and chipmunks sing along; the trees sway according the rhythm, and the flowers would bloom brighter to complement the beauty of the song. My Flower, which grew nearer to the house, would be among the first to hear the Master’s approach, and we would excitedly herald his coming to everything else in the garden.

However, not everytime would the songs be bright and happy: sometimes they would be dark and sad; sometimes they would be so sorrowful that I think even the happiest plant on earth couldn’t help but shed a tear when they hear it. At these times, the whole garden would change also. The birds would sing along the mournful tune, the trees would seem to stoop under the weight of the sorrow, and we the flowers would darken.

So that’s everyday life in the garden, everyday we would mirror the Master’s emotions, which he conveys through his songs. He took care of us daily, watering and pruning us with the love only a true gardener has. He was our best friend, and we were his. It was a beautiful life.
Then came a day when the Master’s song sounded like something we’ve never heard before. As we listened in, we began to feel an emotion we have never felt before in any of his songs. What we felt in this song was a mixture of longing, loneliness, admiration, transfixion and confusion.

We were confused ourselves, and for some time we struggled to find the meaning of this song, of this emotion that he’s feeling.

Then we understood:

Our Master had fallen in love!

Oh how the garden rejoiced at this revelation, I could never tell you. It all made perfect sense. He was still very young, after all, still a high school student! We were all happy, and as the days went by we strived to give our support and encouragement to our beloved Master the only way we could: by changing ourselves to complement his emotions, which he conveys through his songs.

The days turned to weeks, until one fateful day. That day he went straight into the garden as soon as he got home. We eagerly awaited him to play his song again but he didn’t. We watched as he circled around the garden, apparently looking for something, until finally his eyes rested upon my Flower. He smiled, and reached out to take us. It was then that we all understood: he was going to pop the question! Oh how we were all so excited! Without hestitation, we, that is, my Flower, gave ourselves up happily. Even though it meant that we would die soon and never again hear our beloved master’s song, we were so happy to be a part of something that means so much to our Master that we hardly cared. He picked us from our shrub and placed us in a glass in his bedroom to await the following day. A rose for the maid, how romantic!

The next day we were taken to his school, and settled as he awaited the perfect time. From the inside of his partially closed bag we could see our Master’s tension. He could barely concentrate on the lessons!
The moment finally came: he took us from his bag and presented us to her, eyes shining with expectation. We were excited too, filled to the brim with expectation. But then we saw her face, saw her lips move. We couldn’t understand human language, but from our Master’s reaction and the look on his face we knew that things didn’t go right. We felt totally helpless as the girl turned to leave, and our Master recoiled in shock and disappointment. Absently the Master’s hands fumbled with us, picking the petals, including me. One by one we fell to the ground, broken, in semblance of our Master’s own heart, mirrorring his emotions, as our last service to him.

It’s been two days since then, and even though by some miracle I haven’t been swept away by the cleaning department, slowly but surely I begin to rot. As I sit here in the last moments of my life, my thoughts constantly wander to my beloved Master. I don’t know if he will ever recover from that experience. I don’t know what will happen to the beautiful garden, but one can only imagine what it would look like now. Neglected? Possibly, at least for a while. But we know one thing for sure, it would never have looked darker and more sorrowful before.
End

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
-William Shakespeare, in Romeo and Juliet

5 days….

Aaaaaaa….. harusnya gw hari ini bisa nonton ama bokap nyokap gw… tapi gara2 ada tugas suruh mengulas seorang komposer musik.. huhuhu… terpaksa gw ga ikut nonton demi nyelesain tugas orkestra yang dikasih Arya…. heee…

But actually I’m feeling pretty good.. Bahkan gw sempet2in bikin post ini.. I’ve got the whole night ahead of me.. and with God’s help I’ll get this job done..

Oke… ngreview lima hari terakhir ini… Setelah minggu lalu dikasih “libur” ama smukie.. the roller coaster ride of school begins again!!!

Hari Senen. ulangan Geo ama Akun.. I hope I pass it.. Malemnya gw nyempetin makan di prasmanannya J.W. Marriott (hayo lho prasmanan artinya apa??) meskipun besoknya gw ulangan fisika..

Selasa ul Fisika… trus siangnya latian orkes lagii.. dan suatu kejadian yang sangat mengerikan dan mencekam serta menusuk hati terjadi:
senar gw putus!!
Busett.. inilah jadinya kalo kebanyakan nonton Igudesman and Joo (sekali lagi, gw nyalahin film)
oh iya, satu lagi: AKHIRNYA LAGU ‘TRIBUTE TO QUEEN’ TELAH DITETAPKAN SEBAGAI FINALE!! YEAHH!!! TUH LAGU KEREN ABIS!!

RAbu ul sejarah dan Kamis ul PKn….

Dan sekarang jum’at dan gw lagi  sengsara ngerjain tugas yang dikasih ama Arya… AAAA…… haha (padahal tadi gw uda optimis gitu)

Mengenai sekolah minggu depan..

Ah udah ah jangan dibahas..

*poof*

What is true love?

Waduh, gara2 nonton Princess Bride jadi mikirin ginian nih (nyalahin film lagi..)

Iy, jadi hari Minggu kemaren abis pulang gereja, gw dan anak2 young adult gereja gw (yg notabene udah beberapa tahun lebih tua dari gw, sehingga tidak pantas disebut anak2) nonton bareng.. Pasang home theater gitu di salah satu ruangan. Tentunya dengan ditemani kurang lebih 20 boks pizza, satu botol mineral water, 1 botol coke zero, 1 botol fanta blueberry, 1 botol fanta strawberry, 1 botol sprite, 1 karton susu ultra chocolate, dan 1 botol orange juice. Oh iya itu botolnya yg besar ya, bukan yang 200 ml punya.. Gw juga membawa laba2 gw, yang sekarang adalah alat favorit gw untuk ngagetin orang. Ahh that was funn.

Filmnya The Princess Bride. It was quite funny, actually. Ada lucu2nya, ada cheesy2nya, dan yang berhubungan dengan post kita (kita? gw aja kali!) hari ini, ada “true love”2nya.

It kinda got me thinking again. What is true love? How do you know? Maksud gw, gimana lo bisa bedain lo cuma sekedar suka sama seseorang, atau bahwa orang ini emang bener2 “soulmate” yang udah ditakdirkan untuk lo?

Menurut gw only God knows.

Jadi, jawabannya, naturally, adalah untuk bertanya sama Tuhan.

But is it really that simple??

Truth is, I don’t know. Kadang2 sulit bagi gw untuk membedakan antara suara Tuhan ama suara hati gw, suara keinginan gw..

Gw cuma berharap
1. gw ngga ampe kelewatan orangnya
2. gw ngga membangun hubungan dengan orang yang salah..

Happy Easter everyone!

Happy Easter guys! Jesus has risen!

Here’s a music video for you to watch

Naikkan harga BBM!

Gw bingung, beneran deh, ama tindakan pemerintah Indonesia. Mungkin aja aku yang salah, tetapi kenapa harga bbm terus diturunin, padahal ada fakta2 berikut ini:

1. Persediaan minyak dunia sudah tinggal sedikit dan terus menurun
2. Jakarta udah sering macet BANGET dan macetnya sering parah BANGET.
3. Banyaknya kendaraan mengakibatkan banyaknya polusi, yang selain berbahaya buat kesehatan, juga mendukung global warming
4. Kalo minyak dunia abis, kita masih blom punya sumber energi lain yang bisa diandalkan seperti minyak bumi
5. Kalo global warming terus berlanjut, chances are setengah dari Jakarta, atau bahkan seluruhnya, bakal tenggelam karena es kutub utara mencair.
6. KA adalah orang yang keren banget.

tetapi kok bisa2nya, bisa2nya, BISA2NYA! Sekali lagi: bisa2nya, harga bbm diturunin terus, padahal berdasarkan fakta2 di atas, jika hal itu dilakukan, akan terjadi seperti yang berikut ini:

1. Minyak bumi bakal abis. Titik (ya iyoloh masa tanda petik)
2. Kalo minyak bumi abis, dan sumber energi lain blom bisa kita manfaatkan sepenuhnya, ya.. mesti gw jelasin lagi ya?
3. Jumlah kendaraan bakal terus bertambah karena tidak ada alasan untuk tidak membeli kendaraan, yang akibatnya:
4. Macet dan polusi Jakarta akan bertambah, yang mengakibatkan frustrasi karena macet serta penyakit dan mortalitas akibat polusi. Tapi itu mungkin ga ada artinya. karena:
5. Jakarta bakal tenggelam.
6. KA ga keren lagi.

Lalu gimana dong?

1. Ya, seperti judul di atas, menurut gw solusinya adalah jangan turunin harga bbm lagi, kalo bisa malah naikin (kecuali untuk angkutan umum)  mungkin lebih bagus. Emang, banyak orang yang akan mengalami ketidaknyamanan yang cukup hebat, tapi ini kan untuk kebaikan kota Jakarta secara keseluruhan.
2. Subsidiin BBM bagi angkutan umum, jadi harga angkutan umum tidak ikut naik dan orang2 ga kerepotan.
3. Kembangkan transportasi umum. Sebenernya ga usah jauh2 bikin monorail ama subway. BUS KOTA kita aja (ya, termasuk metro mini) kalo diperbaikin bakal cukup kok.
4. angkat KA jadi presiden.

Emang, ide gue mungkin kedengaran ga masuk akal, dan mungkin emang gw salah. Tapi coba pikirin deh, bumi kita ini. Kalo kita semua mati gara2 akibat global warmign ya apa gunanya? Minta komentarnya dong, setuju atau ga? Ada cara yang lebih baik?

SYC blog

Smukiez Youth Chamber udah punya blog sendiri yah! kunjungi di http://smukiezyc.blogspot.com