LEARN TO RUN IT

I have a very unique father. His friend bought him a cell phone (We're still only able to buy one cell phone and I have to bring it because I need it for work. I think I really have to say thanks to the nice uncle who had bought it for my father, for we do need it. My father doesn't need to look for me to all my friends' houses when I have to come home late. He could call me to make sure my position and my condition.)

Even though it is not one of those complicated cell phones, but my father did have difficulties in using it. I have taught him how to pick up a call and how to make a call. Yet still, my call was never answered. I often had to wait for almost several minutes for him to pick up my call. Yet still, he didn't pick it up. He told me that he would pick up the phone when it stopped ringing. Hearing his explanation, me and my mom almost couldn't stop laughing. But don't worry, he can do it now.

Do we ever have something highly sophisticated, a cell phone, a computer, an i-pad, or other sophisticated things? No matter how modern it is, if we can't run it, if we don't know how to use it, if we don't know how to maximize it, it is useless. It shows its full benefit to those who know how to use it.

The same principle is also applied in God's power. When we accept Him as God and Lord, He gives us a power to be His children. See? God's children! What do you think God's children can do? Many, of course, we can do many things, many great things. But, if we don't know how to manage the power, we will never be able to maximize it, for it is useless in our hands.

Becoming God's children is easy, but living as God's children needs process. We have to learn a lot about our rights and duties, and we have to work together with Holy Spirit who will show the way God's children live. We need His wisdom and faith so we can maximize the power He has given to us, a power that can change a life, a power that can influence surroundings. If we want to make it useful in our hands, ask God to help us.

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SEE DEEPER

There is a unique restaurant that serves food for its guesses in the middle of darkness. They intentionally close the guesses eyes and shutdown the room light so that no one will see the food or other guesses, except the waiters.

Most guesses have difficulties in taking their food and bringing it into their mouths, and sometimes spilling out their food or drink because they definitely can't see a thing. They might be able to talk about what kind of food they're eating with other guesses but most of them feel amazed about how good a food taste when they can't see it. (The owner said that a food look/appearance can influence its consumer to create a certain perception about the taste. When people are blindfolded, they can't create any (negative) perception about their food except enjoying it. When their eyes are no longer functioning, the other senses will become sharper, including the tongue, so that it can taste food better than before.)

It sounds amazing to know that we can enjoy a more delicious taste from simple food when we are blindfolded. If it always works, I think I will keep my eyes closed every time I eat. But that is not what I'm going to talk about. Don't you think the same way works when we judge others. When we first meet people, we often try to make a prejudice about them through their appearance. We can easily decide whether a person is good or not through his look. Well, unfortunately the judgement isn't always right. We can do find a lot of goodness in people who don't look good. (I hope you can understand what I mean.)

Certainly, appearance is not a good standard in showing about people (although sometimes it can give us a right judgement, but the fact isn't always like that). We are demanded to see something deeper than just outer look. God can see whether someone is good or not, not from his appearance, but from his heart. (Some people perhaps will say, "But how can I see someone's heart? I'm not God!") That's why we need His wisdom to enable us to see what's inside someone's heart, and let us stop judging people from their looks.

"Do not judge a book from its cover!"

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UNIFORM OF AUTHORITY

Have you ever seen a police officer stood in the middle of a crossroad or a T-junction and managed a heavy traffic with his hands and his whistle? I believe you have. Don't you think it is something cool? A man standing in the middle of a traffic jam can control such number of vehicles which obey him so much? No matter how small or big the vehicle is, the policeman still rules. No matter how many those vehicles are, the policeman still the powerful one. No matter how big, fat, slim, handsome or not the policeman is, as long as he is wearing his uniform, he still be the man in charge.

But, have you ever seen an ordinary man stood in the middle of such road, acted like a traffic police, and was obeyed by all drivers? Some of you might have seen it, but again, it wasn't something common. The truth is no one will obey such person for they think that the man has no authority to rule over them, to decide whether they can turn, move on, etc. Even the man is big, muscle, handsome, or a policeman (too), without his uniform people won't listen to him. See... how a uniform has a great influence in giving someone authority.

The same thing is happening to us. We using to be ordinary people have received a great authority from heaven as children of God. God has justified us, He has given us cloth of justification, of holiness, by which we can come to His presence freely. He has empowered us to stand against the evil, to trample on snakes and scorpions, to overcome all the power of the enemies. It is a truly great authority. But, without the identity of God's children, without the cloth of justification and holiness, we are nothing, and we have no power over anything.

We, God's children, can only live by His grace and power. We do need Him more than anything in life, not only for this life, but also for the next life, for the eternity. Never deny Him or reject Him for He is the only one who can make us win. Please, never leave God for He loves you.

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DON'T REJECT IT

Have you ever won a lottery? Or a doorprize? Anyone who gets it must be very happy, right? But, unfortunately, not with me. It happened years ago when I was a kid.

I remember when I was in elementary school. A food product came and made a demonstration to our school. They held a doorprize and the first prize was a man bike. Each student and teacher got a ticket with numbers on it. And just like the other, I hoped I could take one of the prizes home. But I didn't hope to get the bike, because I didn't know how to ride a bike and was too afraid to learn to ride it at that time.

Until the second best prize, my number was not mentioned. I was a little bit disappointed. I decided to go home early (because we were allowed to leave school if we want to) when my number was suddenly announced for the first prize. I stopped walking. Being happy but also confused, I dropped the ticket in front of my classmate, picked it up and surprised this friend of mine by taking her ticket and exchanged it with mine. "Rin, you win it! It's your number!! You win the bike!!!"

***

It sounds silly, doesn't it? Yup, I gave my bike to my friend. Because of what? Because I didn't know how to ride a bike. Because I was afraid to ride a bike. Because I didn't want people saw me holding the bike on my way home without riding it, and knew that I was a kid who could not ride a bike. Huft...

God's blessings are prepared for all of us, His children. He will never hold it back when He thinks we deserve it. It's just that sometimes we become the side who screw things up. We do sin. We don't believe. We are filled with fear. All of these things hold blessings back from us.

Trust God! When He trusts you His blessing, He knows that you deserve it, or He wants to test You, whether you can be trusted with the blessing or not. Just believe that when the blessing comes, God will empower you to manage it. Don't ever reject the blessing, for it is God's trust to you.

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SACRIFICE

That girl was laid there, didn't move, didn't blink. She didn't know where she was, she didn't realize what's happening to her. She just stared at the sky.

She felt that she laid on something cold, something wet, something hard for her back skin. The wind breezed around her, touched her chicks and turned them cold. She tried to move her hand. It's difficult at first, but when she made it, she felt dirt, she felt soil.

She saw to the left and to the right, but she still didn't remember what had happened. She moved her body, tried to wake up. She felt dizzy, but she kept trying to understand the situation. She stood.

Not far from her, she saw her bike, broken, with no more form. She saw an old man, lying, not moving on the road side. She walked to him, but she suddenly realized that her right knee was bleeding. Ignoring the pain, she stepped closer.

She found him badly injured. She wanted to shout for help, but she found no one around her. She remembered that she had ridden her bike too far from her house to the hill next to the district. She remembered yelling to her mother because she didn't give her the doll she wanted. She paddled her bike with anger until she was almost out of her small town. She saw the image of the man in front of her, pushed her avoiding the main road to stay away of something. She tried hard to remember what it was, but she couldn't remember a thing about it.

The man had actually saved her from being crashed by a truck. The girl was riding too far until she didn't realize a truck behind her. The man didn't know the girl, neither did she, but he didn't had a choice. The only way to save her was by hitting himself to the girl, pushed her away of the road, while he might be the one who got hit by the truck. And it did happen. The man sacrificed his life for the girl.

Note:

God is just like the man. He sacrificed His life for us. No matter what fault we've made, He didn't thought another way but saving us, rescuing us, for that is the only way that we keep alive.

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WEAK LOVE

There was a woman who was falling in love. She loved her boyfriend so much, and she believed that someday they would unite as husband and wife. The man also felt the same thing for his girlfriend, until he decided to propose the woman to marry him. And, as what we've guessed, his proposal was accepted.

These couple had a very happy marriage. They filled their first years of togetherness by saying love to each other, sending gifts to each other at every special occasion, and other things a new couple usually do. Until that time came, time when those beautiful moments gradually disappeared. They started to get difficult to meet or communicate, because they were busy with their own activities. Finally, they felt that their love for each other had dimmed.

They decided to get divorce for they thought that it was the best solution for the cold love between them. They gave up on the marriage they'd been longing since they made a relationship. They forgot why they love each other so that they could easily end the love. They chose to fail their own promise at the altar. What a poor love, what a weak love.

Note:

We often hear how couples could easily marry, divorce, and remarry. We can never understand what's behind their doing since they have a lot of reasons to do so. But again, we are children in God; we will remember His Words that they who are united in Him can not be separated by men. These words are obvious enough in its meaning about how sacred and pure a marriage is. They who respect a marriage, will try to defend it no matter how hard it is. We can reason that our couple is no longer worth to call couple (husband and wife) for they have done painful things, terrible things. But, it should make us, children of God, to be more aware in finding our couple. Find the one who loves God and ask Him to show us the sign that they we love are really meant for us. It also should make us, children of God, surrender to God more than ever that we can't maintain our marriages by our own strength.

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DREAM HOUSE

There was a little girl who lived in a small house. From their very simple house, the girl often looked across the valley, where a big house with its golden windows glistening under the sun stood. The little girls thought that she would be very happy to live in the big golden window house. Although she lived happily with her loving caring parents, but deep down her heart, she could never wipe her dream to live in the big golden window house. She just kept her dream in her mind until she grew up.

Could not resist her obsession about the big golden window house, the young girl asked permission to her mother to see it. Trying convincing her mother, she was allowed to go and return before lunch time.

Riding her bike, the girl went to the other side of the valley. When she finally arrived at her dream house, she was very happy. But in the next moment she felt disappointed since the house was not as perfect as she ever dreamt of. The golden window in fact wasn’t made of gold. It was just an ordinary golden paint glowing under the sun. The house wasn’t also as beautiful as she imagined. It was a dirty and abandoned house; no one lived in it, no one took care of it.

When she turned her body to the valley, she saw her small house. From the place where she stood, the house seemed beautiful. She saw a place where she was born and raised with love, and suddenly the house seemed very interesting to her. Even though it wasn’t a big golden window house, she finally realized that it was her real dream house, a place where she could find the warmth of a family.

Note:

Sometimes we focus on something that doesn’t belong to us. We want it badly because we think it is much better than what we have now. We don’t realize that all this time we already have what we want, that everything we have is more than enough for us.

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TO BE NOTICED

A boy was highly concentrating. He was sitting in front of his favorite thing, television, and watching cartoon movies he liked.

Outside the house, his friendly dog, was waiting his master to come outside and play with him. He was waiting for hours, but the boy never came out or visited him. Finally, he decided to see and asked the boy to play with him.

Inside the house, the dog was trying to get his master’s attention. He walked here and there in front of him, but the boy didn’t even see him. He sat in front and set his eyes on him, but the boy didn’t even notice him. He stood and barked softly like a spoiling child, but the boy only focused on the movie.

The dog was very sad, he didn’t know what else to do to get the boy’s attention. He was standing in the doorway and watching his master, he felt sorry for himself because he thought his master didn’t care about him anymore. Finally, he decided a very difficult decision. He would go and leave the master, leave his master.

He walked into the cupboard under the stairs where he’s used to sleep, took a small suitcase in the corner with his mouth and opened it. He put his comb, snacks, and his photo with the boy in it. He saw every corner of his bed, the cupboard, for the last time, then he closed the suitcase and walked out carrying the suitcase with his mouth.

He saw his master who was motionless in front his television, yet, he really didn’t want to say goodbye; his master wouldn’t notice him anyway. So he walked by the door, with tears in his eyes.

Note:

The story shows us about the importance of communication in a relationship. Even animals want to be noticed.

We, today’s people, spend more time with technology than with human. We enjoy our own live with the gadgets, and forget that we have family, friends, and community who also need our attention. Above all, we forget that God gives us the Great Commandment.

Let us do not be blinded with technology and forget our real purpose in this world, for the purpose wants to be noticed right now.

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THE COOKY THIEF

A woman was sitting in the airport, waiting for her boarding time. Feeling bored, she opened her bag, took a newly  bought book, and read it.

Without noticing a sitting man next to her, she kept reading and eating cookies from a cooky bag between her and the man. Each time she took one cooky, the man also took one. Finally, still trying to concentrate reading, she said in her heart, “What is he doing anyway, this is my cookies. Eat it without asking permission?? Just calm down... be patient... Luckily I’m a good lady, if not, I might have punched his face.”

Letting the “cooky thief” in action, she tried to restrain herself from being angry, till the boarding call came.

After finding her seat, the woman wanted to continue her reading. When she opened her bag, she was startled. Held her breath, saw her own cooky bag, and said, “If these are my cookies, then who has the cookies I’ve eaten?”

How embarrassed she was. She just realized that she was the wrong one the whole time, she has eaten cookies which didn’t belong to her. But, it was too late... she couldn’t ask for apology  to that person.

Note:

We often judge people negatively, make a wrong prejudice, and even hate them without seeing our own mistakes. We should learn to be more humble, see our lives first before seeing others’.

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