I woke up this morning, thankful for the rested body, thankful for waking up earlier than usual. I had this desire to go someplace nice for breakfast and spend time there with my Lord. So I washed up and left. It took me longer than expected to get to Manoa Market which was higher up in Manoa valley. A set of events landed me at Starbucks instead of the Mexican shop beside it.
I ordered coffee and muffin for breakfast, something I had never did back in Singapore (having breakfast at Starbucks). I sat down and began my devotion. A question from the devotion stood out so incredibly, as if the Lord planned that I would read it at Starbucks.
"From where you sit today, are you seeing glimpses of your reason for being here?"
Where I sat this morning had a lot of implications. First of all, I was in Hawaii and I had been thinking through and constantly re-evaluating God's reason for having me here. I felt that it was timely to be thinking about it after 2 weeks since I arrived (with 4 1/2 months to go).
Secondly, it was the exact same place that I felt I should have demonstrated love but failed to realise. The night before, 3 friends and I were waiting for bus outside Starbucks. Because of the rain, we went into the shop for shelter. While waiting for the bus, I noticed a senior lady who looked like a homeless. The rain was heavy and the winds were surprisingly fierce. Yet she was there looking through the rubbish bin for scraps and things that might be useful. The Lord helped me to realise today that I could have handed to her the leftover food that was in my hand (we ate at a Thai restaurant and had packeted the leftovers). Yet it totally didn't come across my mind at that point in time.. So the Lord has His interesting way of bringing me back to Starbucks to remind me that part of my reason here is to demonstrate His love (the end of Mt 25 came to my mind) to the people that I meet.
Thirdly, I came to Starbucks wanting to seek God (the breakfast wasn't my main objective). So that naturally sinked in - my reason for being on this exchange is to continually seek God. While it was something simple and basic, it demanded discipline and tested my love and focus on God while experiencing the life here.
There were a few other points I wrote down but it struck me that the Lord wasn't concerned about me trying to make the fullest of my experience here (according to my standard). My experience here will be fruitful and full if I walk close to God. The Lord in His time will bring about all my experiences here according to His plan. Hence, I need to be concerned about walking close to God rather than just running around.
A blessed morning. Even being able to blog before class must have been planned by God (esp when I did not bring my laptop!)
Thursday, January 21, 2010
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