Internship definitely opened my eyes to the working world, and the struggle of juggling ministry work and life is real. Not even kidding about that. There were days where I'd just be too shag to answer my mom's question of "how's your day?", or days where I reach home after cell and just crash, or days when there is sunbeam duty and getting out of bed is such a chore. Sunday after sunday was just a nap in the afternoon after church, knowing I'd need it for the week ahead. IDMC was def an open door, that was just right for the season I'm in now.
Truth be told I was SO SLEEPY yesterday and had to survive on snacks after snacks (yay for robinsons expo sale when we all stocked up on snacks HAHA). But what really struck me the most were today's messages and the workshop. Arrived super late on thursday night and was so annoyed that I had to miss worship, even more annoyed when I found out that I couldn't get to go for Ps Barney's workshop. But before registering I did have a hunch that I wouldn't be able to get the workshops cos I was late and these were done like 2 weeks before? So otw there I prayed and just went like okay God whichever workshop you want me to be in, I'll go. Got randomly assigned to workshop 3 and 2, and those that went for 2 didn't feel that impacted. To make things worse, I had to go alone for it. Though I was okay with it la because I was quite tired and didn't mind having some solitude. Almost wanted to take Delise's workshop (Ps barney's one) cos she wanted to go for 3 which was in the hall and didn't need a card to enter as the hall was big enough. When I called her, she didn't answer but when she returned my call, I had alr settled into workshop 2. haha definitely God planned cos the workshop spoke to me so much!
So these are the main points of the workshop, after which I'll put some pointers that spoke to me from the plenaries.
3 Common Challenges:
- To love & bear with difficult people who oppose me
This one is particularly difficult for me. To bear is still okay, but to love?! That takes it a step further, but I do hope that the least I could do is to pray for them. When things get hard and people are hard to love, I'll just give it to God.
- To endure with people who are incompetent
This one really tested my patience. haha in the midst of planning for events, definitely will meet with people who just don't give their best. But Ps Ed said yesterday, you have to look in the mirror first. If you think your boss is difficult, or if you think you have unmanageable subordinates, have you ever considered you are that difficult boss or that unmanageable employee? wah this one struck me the most. Eveytime we are quick to judge, we too have to remember that we are hu,am just like them and we too are imperfect. But where we are also meant that we were given chances by people who endured our incomptence, an groomed us to be who we are today. Particularly for me. Basically, we have to be less self entitled, get rid of the ego.
- To let go of disappointments
Disappointments are always part and parcel of life. I think there will always be days when you expect but don't receive. Or you get the shorter end of the stick for no reason. I guess it pushed me to remind myself that nothing I own is ever mine, Everything is God's, every move or disappointment also didn't come as a surprise to God. He knew everything that was gonna happen. But what I picked up today was that when we do things, we don't focus on the outcome, we focus on Jesus who called us to finish the race. When we place our hope in Jesus, then disappointments will not happen because Jesus never disappointments. Whether the outcome is good or bad, in Jesus' eyes, there wasn't a mistake because it grew and moulded you as part of His plan to make us more Christ-like. One of the speakers said this, In times of failure, trust God's hand, surrender your disappointments and hurts with God as it is preparing your spiritual muscles.
One term that was brought in was KPI - Kingdom Priority Indicators
The speakers mentioned how important it is to submit to bosses, whether you like them or not. A new change in perspective was, if we can't even submit and show respect to earthly authority that was God given, how can we submit to God? The speaker mentioned how he always felt like he was just helping his boss reach his KPI, but he changed his perspective and realised that it pleases God when he has a right relationship with his boss which will in turn create a good relationship. If we learn to submit to our bosses, we can live to please and submit to God. Now you might think what if my boss is freaking difficult to deal with? The answer to that would be that everything is already ordained by Jesus. Every person in your life has already been planned out by God. There was never a mistake. Difficult people are there for a reason to mould us and change us to be better people. It struck me that perhaps we find that person difficult because we haven't reached that standard of the person. I mean I'm not talking about unreasonable standards, but sometimes we complain and whine so much about things that could be there to push us to be better, to be a competent worker. And if God doesn't make a mistake with whoever He wants us to meet, surely every single difficult person is there to push us to be a more effective worker. If not to push us for excellence, then perhaps they could be there to train an aspect of our personality that God wants us to improve on. Patience and anger management for example. Nothing is ever a mistake. Looking back, I can only be thankful for everyone God has placed in my life, that pushed me to be better. The process was painful, really painful sometimes, with tears involved. Ultimately as you begin grinding and polishing away the rough edges, you get a shinier and hardier rock - it was only there to make us more and more Christ-like. I also believe that earthly authority is God-ordained and for that, no matter how difficult it gets, submission to earthly authority pleases God because it is also a great testimony for fellow unbelievers in the workplace. (Responding in love to show Christ's love to others)
When it gets tough, trust and go back to God's word, because in every difficult and shitty situation at work, God has seen it all, and He knew the solution before the problem already came up. If you were walking in obedience of course. And face it, we all gonna have conflicts, even within the team. Because I'm sure everyone knows by now that an effective team comes from a diverse group of people.
- Get ready for heaven through humility and holiness
- God placed you in a specific place where ONLY YOU can do what God has called you to do. '
3 unchanging truths:
- There's a greater world to live for
- There is inner world to conquer - within yourself
- There is a lost world to save
IDMC also woke me up to not be selfish with my money. UGH intern life is so shag sometimes, no paid leave etc etc. It's really something I struggle with but Ps Ed said God looks at the money in relation to your heart. If you are selfish with that $100, it is not worth more than someone who cheerfully and willingly gave that $1 which was all she had with her. Reminder to stop shopping so much also because money is hard to earn and it could be used for other better causes like missions. Being selfish with money is not honouring God at all, because if you think about it, everything is a gift from God in the first place.
It also reminded me how God looks at the journey while the world looks at the outcome. The world will judge based on how well something turned out, but in God's eyes, the journey is more important because the journey is where I grew. The journey is the place where it built my faith, and moulded me. Outcomes are just superficial analyses of the journey that you have been on. And well, the world is superficial, sadly.
He ended the last session with this verse that so happened to be devotion tonight:
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes from faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. - Philippians 3:7-9
okay too shag from the past days, this is probably just a gist but yes incredibly blessed for sure. The application part is the challenge now HAHA.
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