Harana

harana,

a memoir from singapore

p.s. : super thanks for Kevin who was willing to sacrifice his precious time for the video :)

super broken-hearted by now. should not hope for more :(

auf wiedersehen.

eye-opened-moment

As I went to church today, I was so moved by the sermon delivered that I regretted not having this kind of thoughts for the whole time.

The sermon is about how we should have served the God, using everything that we have, including our body and soul. Thereby, I regretted for not publishing the words I have absorbed through all of the sermon given before so that all my friends could get the same inspiration as what I had had for these whole time.

And today, I decided to write it in my blog, a place where I usually share my thoughts and my inspiring-moments or ideas.

I'll do it in Bahasa of course, as I believe it will create the best effect if it was in Bahasa.

Here we go.

Today's sermon is titled "Bertumbuh dan Melayani dalam Konteks Keluarga dan Gereja"

Bertumbuh tidak sama dengan bertambah.

Bertumbuh = sebuah proses pengembangan diri di mana kita turut berkembang, di mana kita melihat ada perbedan antara dulu dengan sekarang, di mana situasi ini bukan pemberian, melainkan diraih melalui usaha kita sendiri.

Bertambah = sifatnya sangat material

Melayani = bukan cuma soal tindakan, tetapi juga motivasi yang melatarbelakangi / mendasarinya.

Berdasarkan definisi tersebut, ada beberapa mentalitas yang harus kita miliki untuk dapat bertumbuh dan melayani dalam konteks keluarga dan gereja :

1. Melayani dengan ucapan syukur

Sebenarnya, syukur harus diterapkan dalam keseluruhan hidup kita, bukan hanya ketika kita melayani. Kita pergi ke gereja bukan untuk mendapatkan sesuatu, tetapi sebagai rasa syukur kita atas berkat Tuhan di sepanjang kehidupan kita.

Tanyakan ke dalam diri kita sendiri, apa yang bisa kita beri, bukan bertanya kepada gereja ataupun keluarga mengenai apa yang bisa mereka berikan kepada kita. Bukankah kita hidup untuk memberi?

2. Melayani untuk beribadah kepada Tuhan

Seperti apa yang tertulis di dalam Roma 12, bahwa kita harus mempersembahkan hidup kita sebagai persembahan yang kudus dan yang berkenan kepada Tuhan, begitulah layaknya kita harus beribadah semampu kita dan bukan semau kita.

Iman bukan sesuatu yang statis, melainkan dinamis. Itulah kenapa kita mengenal kata berakar, bertumbuh, dan berbuah di dalam Kristus. Terlebih lagi, iman tidak cukup hanya diteorikan, tetapi juga dipraktekkan ke dalam kehidupan sehari-hari.

Masalah terbesar yang kita hadapi dalam relasi kita dengan orang lain adalah kita seringkali menuntut orang-orang di sekitar kita padahal kita harus melakukan sebaliknya. Alangkah indahnya kita juga bisa memberi untuk keluarga kita.

Pertanyaan terbesar adalah, mengapa kita harus melayani?

1. Roma 11 : 36

Bahwa segala sesuatu yang ada pada kita, bukan milik kita, tetapi merupakan titipan Tuhan, yang suatu saat akan Tuhan ambil. Tuhan mengaruniakan itu semua, seupaya kita bisa menjadi berkat bagi orang lain. Tuhan berikan BANYAK. Tetapi sekalinya Tuhan minta dari kita, selalu kita tolak, seolah-olah semua yang kita miliki (waktu, energi, tubuh, dll) itu adalah milik kita.

2. Setiap kita butuh hidup yang bermakna

Tuhan menghendaki kita memiliki hidup yang bermakna, supaya kita bisa meninggalkan dunia dengan karya kita. Supaya orang akan mengenang kita karena keindahan yang kita tinggalkan.

3. Karena melayani adalah kesempatan

Dan bahwa kesempatan tidak datang 2x. Dan akan ada masanya kita tidak akan dapat melakukan sesuatu, tapi kita tidak bisa berbuat apapun. Karena itu, akan lebih baik jika tidak menyia-nyiakan kesempatan yang datang untuk melayani.

Jadi, haruskah kita melayani? Sekarang?

Today's Daily Bread - May 1, 2011

Just as the seasons of the year continue, so do the cycles of life—birth and death, success and failure, sin and confession. Although we have no power to stop the clock while we’re enjoying good times, we can rest in God’s promise that eventually all bad times will end (Rev. 21:4).

A Fantastic City Park

As my idol, Emil, the Architect, believes that a great city should have more public spaces since it is a place where interaction begins, I also believe that public places is a place where balance will be gained only if it serves as green zone, or the so-called nature reservation.

A balance of life which I defined as a combination of modernity and preservation of natural resources.

It is undeniable that we can never live without nature. Therefore, I strongly believe in the importance of public places in the crowded living spaces like city, or should I say city park.

For this notion, I take off my hat for Singaporean Government who tried their best to serve public not only with the best technology for the sake of ease of living - that results in the sophisticated buildings and constructions, but also with the place to release exhaustion contrived by fast work paces.

Even more, those places are not in the end of the world (read : far away from city), unreachable, or even remote. Those places are just right all over the city itself. It is everywhere you can find.

And today, I dropped in to Chinese Garden, a huge nature park nearby Jurong, that is a 3 mrt station away from my place. I was stunned with the nature, the architecture, and the distinct atmosphere. It is nothing like the Central Business District. It is nothing like Singapore.

It was just fantastic! Super spacious, it was cushioned by plants and lakes. A very impressive place to visit and to find an inspiration. Or just to release stress. Or to hang out with friends. Or just to be alone and savor the ambience.

A round of applause for the government, again, for providing such chances to the citizen to embark the beauty of nature, to learn to love nature even more, to appreciate what nature has given us.

Flickr!

Recently, I dedicated some of my times for Flickr!

Although I am no photographer at all, I just want to share some of great places I visited here.

Enjoy, http://www.flickr.com/photos/89984979@N00/

Ubin Island - Before The Moment Deteriorates

"Before the moment deteriorates.."

That was what Peter answered me when I asked him the reason why he uploaded all of the pictures in his camera just right after we reached home. Peter, Joseph, Adi, and I went to Ubin Island today. We have been waiting and planning for the trip such long time ago but just made it on this Saturday when it was raining in the morning which totally blew our hopes to go. Fortunately, Peter insisted to go and so there were we, spending the evening together.

I just love the relax ambience, you can feel the beauty of the nature. Yeah, I forgot to spill out that Ubin Island is some sort of a nature reservation for mangroves in Singapore. Compared to Indonesia, it might not be the best (Ubin), but they really made the best out of it. They tried to attract people through its advertising. Furthermore, I think the government also support Ubin Island to be one of its tourist destination. For this, I guess we should learn more from them.

One thing that kinda disturbed my excitement were the mosquitos. They left remarks after sucking your blood, hated it. Now the marks are just all over my body.

Nonetheless,

I love it!