My morning lessons ^.^ (a friend's testimonial)

Hi gals,

Just wanna share one funny exp. I had this morning, agak panjang, tp just read it when u have the time & the mood yah J.

It all started when I got the urged to skip out from the office, and I chose MMC as my destination, skalian ngambil cream muka baru yg ditawarin sm dokter di MMC (scr jerawat gw lg gak sopan bertengger dgn indahnya di tip of my nose-merah matang dan siap dipencet) *cuuuzzzz…..

Eniwey, stelah puas berbasa basi busuk dgn org2 MMC, gw reluctantly balik ke kantor, sambil menumpang si burung biru. Pembicaraan awal gw dgn si bapak driver mrpkn perbincangan std : menginformasikan tempat tujuan dan mendiskusikan jalur terbaik yg harus diambil.

Namun, ada satu hal yang menarik perhatian gw di burung biru yg gw tumpangi itu. Ada2 gelas air mineral diselipkan di belakang kursi penumpang yg ada di depan gw. Si bapak driver itu dengan ramah dan sopannya berkata : “mba, kalau haus, silahkan loh diminum air mineral itu. Gratis. “

Mendengar kata2 itu, gw terdiam bbrp detik sambil berusaha mencerna dgn benar, jgn2 gw salah dnger lg nih, dan untuk keduakalinya si Bapak driver itu meyakinkan gw bahwa air mineral itu memang khusus dia sediakan untuk penumpangnya, menurutnya itu salah satu pelayanan yang bisa ia berikan pada penumpangnya.

Banyak yg menanyakan kepadanya (tmasuk gw) apakah tdk rugi memberikan air mineral gratis spt itu? Yg gw salut adalah jawaban yg keluar dari mulutnya: Nggak mba, saya percaya kalau kita terlebih dahulu memberi, pasti deh kita menerima, gak musti dalam bentuk yang sama, tapi dgn berbuat kebaikan, pasti saya akan menerima kebaikan juga suatu saat nanti. *dzink* (lgs
berpikir mbri lebih-an yg banyak utk taxi fare-nya).

gw tertohog sambil terkagum2 dgn bapak ini, pria yg mgkn in his late 30s, perawakannya kurus, dan yg gw perhatikan dari pantulan kaca spion, sinar matanya yg ceria yg memperlihatkan kumpulan kerutan di sudut matanya setiap kali dia tertawa, serta his bone structure yg tdk mirip dgn bone structure orang2 Indonesia(baca:pribumi) pd umumnya. Hidung serta ruas2 tulang tangan dan kakinya, menunjukkan ada “bibit bule-nya” nih orang J.

Ternyata ia baru saja menekuni profesi driver burung biru selama 2 bulan belakangan ini. Sebelumnya, dia adalah driver di Deplu untuk selama 13tahun, dan sudah seringkali mengantarkan tamu2 negara maupun para duta besar. Menurutnya, dia “dipaksa” berhenti dari Deplu karena dia mengalami kecelakaan parah, hingga kepalanya hancur (menurutnya, di batok kepalanya, ada besi yg menggantikan beberapa bagian yg remuk) ; dan sempat koma selama
1 bulan. Tidak ada yg menyangka dia akan hidup through that, but miraculously, he lived.

Dia menguasai 2 bahasa asing dgn fasih (inggris & belanda), bhs Inggris dia kuasai dari hasil pendidikan formal, dan utk bahasa belanda, ia kuasai hy karena mrpkn bahasa sehari-hari yg ia gunakan di rumah bsm ibunya (his grandma was originally from Holland), dan karena kemampuannya berbahasa belanda itu jg, skitar 2 minggu yg lalu, ia mdptkan bonus 100rb dari
penumpangnya yg mrpk org Belanda (krn ia mengantarkan mrk & mjd guide dadakan utk turis2 blanda itu mngunjungi oud Batavia), dan ia dah dibuking oleh turis2 blanda itu sabtu ini utk mngantarkan mrk ke Bogor, mngunjungi Istana Bogor.

Asli sangking kagumnya, gw banyak terdiam saat mndngarkan cerita dr si bpk driver itu. Kata2 yg sempat kluar di mulut gw cm : ooooh…aaahhh, ohyaaa???
WOW!!! Lalu??? Hebaaat… waaaahhh……wuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiih…………*ngangamode
sampe gw brasa tnggorokan gw kering krn klamaan nganga*

It was suatu perjalanan yg sangat singkat utk cerita yg sangat menarik.
(except expressions2 gak penting gw itu yah)

Pas si burung biru tiba di lobby starbucks, pengen rasanya gw meminta dia utk memutar mobilnya dan mengantarkan gw ke oud Batavia, sambil mendengarkan cerita pengalaman hidupnya itu. Tp sayang, tumpukan email dan kertas2 kerjaan sudah berteriak di kuping gw dgn lantangnya. LSatu hal yg lucu saat gw selesai melakukan pembayaran, gw sapa si bapak dgn
namanya (August A.K) , “dank jij well August, tot ziens” dan si bapak itu hanya tertawa sambil berkata : nama saya teh Agus mba, itu mah cm ejaan warisan dari Oma saya. “Hartelijk dank non, Tot ziens”



*gracias*

The Worker’s 23rd Psalm

The Lord is my boss, and I shall not want.

He gives me peace, when chaos is all around me.

He reminds me to pray, before I speak in anger.

He restores my sanity.

He guides my decisions that I might honor Him in all I do.

Even though I face absurd amounts of e-mail, system failures, copier jams, back-ordered supplies, unrealistic deadlines, staff shortages, budget cutbacks, red tape, downsizing, gossiping co-workers and whining customers,

I won't give up, for You are with me.

Your presence, peace and power will see me through.

You raise me up, even when the boss fails to promote me.

You claim me as your own, even when the company threatens to let me go.

Your loyalty and love are better than a bonus check.

Your retirement plan beats any 401K, and when it's all said and done,

I'll be working for you a whole lot longer!

(Author unknown)

A few hours before Jakarta's Birthday

Terispirasi karena banyak yg bertanya mengenai kondisi gw. Thanks everyone!

Karena tugas jam 10 malam, gw memutuskan utk brangkat dr rumah (di Sunrise) skitar jam 21.00. Gw naik bis kopaja 88 (Kalideres-Slipi) di Daan Mogot, duduk di deretan tengah. Terus pas deretan belakang kosong, gw pindah ke belakang. Dgn maksud, lbh banyak kena angin dan karena kaki gw panjang, duduk pun jd lebih lega (baca : slonjoran).
Setelah perempatan lampu merah Tomang, naik 3 orang-yg-mnrt feeling-gw-adl-copet. Gw ga bs gambarin ciri2 mereka krn penerangan pun tdk mendukung utk bs melihat mrk dgn jelas. Satu orang duduk di deretan belakang, dua orang duduk di deretan depan. Abis itu, satu orang pindah juga ke deretan belakang. Kasak kusuk nanya ini itu ... Gw tetep cuek. Pas mereka mau merubah posisi duduk dgn tujuan "mengapit" gw, gw bilang aja dgn cool "Wah mesti turun neh ganti bus". Gw pikir dlm hati klo gw tetep di situ kayaknya ga' kan bagus. Sblm lampu merah Slipi, gw dah turun. Tepatnya di halte ex-Gedung LIA. Krn situasi di daerah perempatan Slipi rame bgt klo gw memutuskan utk turun di Slipi yg ada malah gw jadi diteriakin maling dan bisa runyam. Kalo berantemnya ga masalah *sok bgt* Cuma efek di hari-hari besok. Siapa tau mereka preman2 Slipi. Kan gw lewat tiap hari.

Thanks God I am fine and now it's time to sleep. Selamat ulang tahun, Jakarta!

Moral dr pengalaman td malem : just calm down, jangan sotoy, better avoid it ....

Are You in a Position to be Blessed?

When I was a boy growing up in the Deep South, I occasionally went fresh water fishing in the bayous near my home. As directed by the more experienced fishermen, I learned to cast a top water fly close to the appropriate target in the hopes of attracting a large mouth bass; likely under a low hanging branch or fallen tree. Over the years, I was as successful as my companions and considered myself an able fly fisherman

Many years later, I moved to Georgia, near the Florida border. As I met new people, I noticed that many of my friends had large stuffed bass on their walls, much larger than those I had caught in my home state. Soon I had the opportunity to go fishing with a friend from church. This older gentleman, an experienced and successful angler, used an entirely different method than I had learned. Rather than casting flies on top of the water, he used sinking lures that he cast near the bank and retrieved rhythmically, raising and lowering the lure in the water as he reeled it in. Sure enough, that morning he caught a prize bass.

What I discovered was that, despite years of fishing, I didn’t know much about catching the big ones. And to top it off, I had not been fishing in the best place! Let’s just say that, in Georgia and Florida, five to ten pound bass are much more common than where I come from.

I am reminded of the story of a young man who needed a job badly. Day after day, he prayed for something to show up in the mail, but no offer came. He was just about flat broke when he cried out to God in anguish, pleading for a job. Suddenly, he heard a voice, clearly and distinctly: “Fill out an application and send it in.”

My point is that we need to put ourselves in a position where God can bless us. The scriptures offer numerous examples of saints whom God instructed to move to a place of receiving.

If you visit any warehouse, you’ll notice that there is both a receiving dock for incoming freight and a shipping dock for outgoing packages. Why? Simply because the receiving dock is organized and prepared to receive goods and then process them. If inbound cargo were to arrive at the shipping dock, it would disrupt the flow of materials.

Are you expecting goods but working some place other than the “Receiving Dock?” And, if so, have you thought about relocating to a place where God is more likely to bless you? God’s children need to be prepared to receive.

If you are a gifted mathematician, shouldn’t you attend MIT, Stanford, or a similar place where the instruction you need is offered? If you want to learn Italian, shouldn’t you consider a semester in Italy, where the finer points of the language are used? To carry the point to the obvious, if you want to swim, find a pool and jump in.

The scriptures contain many examples of God instructing His children to go to a place of blessing. In 2 Timothy 3:16, The Lord tells the thirsty Israelites to “Make this valley full of ditches.” In other words, prepare to receive what you want: water. If they had not prepared, what would they do when the water arrived?

In John 21:1-6, Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, James, and John had been fishing all night without anything to show for it. In the morning, Jesus told them to “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get plenty of them!” (Living Bible) They simply needed to obediently put themselves in a position to be blessed. If you have a fear of failure, just remember that you’re not responsible for the outcome, you’re just responsible for obeying.

Acts 1:4 tells us that the apostles were to wait in a particular place, Jerusalem, for the blessing of the Holy Spirit. “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise ….”

You may feel that where you are is really not where God wants you to be. A good indicator of being in the wrong place would be an unhealthy emotional climate, where your skills are not used fully. You may decide that you would be better off elsewhere, perhaps in a place more fitting with Christian values.

As the bride of Christ, you should “fit in with your husband's plans.” (1 Peter 3:1, The Living Bible) Accept that God wants to fulfill His purposes in your life, including giving you the desires of thine heart. (Psalm 37:4) Then, actively cooperate with the Lord about getting to the place of blessing. Like Paul, Timothy, Mark, and many others, be a fellow laborer with Christ.

“And if you do as I say in this letter, then you, too, will be full of joy, and so will we.” (1 John 1:4, The Living Bible.)

Source: By Curtis C. Mosley © 2003
http://www.livingthesolution.com/positiontobeblessed.htm

Don't be an avoider!

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature am a slave to the law of sin.
—Romans 7:21-25

At times, most of us avoid doing what we instinctively know is good. It’s funny how this works: We avoid things that could benefit our lives and run toward those things that could be destructive.

For example, many of us know we should be eating more nutritious foods to benefit our health, but we avoid the discomfort of changing our habits of cooking. Or, some of us know we need to exercise more, but avoid the discomfort of having to change our schedule in order to do so.

When it comes to spiritual disciplines, like prayer, studying the Bible or meditating on God’s Word, we often avoid doing what we know we should do. In all areas of life, too often we seek the things that can hurt us and while we should embrace the things that can benefit our lives, we don’t.

Somebody once said to me, “The things we avoid are usually the things we need to embrace.” I’ve thought about that quite a bit, and I agree with the statement. The Scriptures are our guide in this area. The Bible is clear that we should be doing everything in our power to embrace those things that will bring God’s blessing into our lives. For example, the Apostle Paul said both “Flee temptation” and “Whatever you do, do all in the name of Jesus.”

Now is the time to take a strong stand against those realities that can damage your life or detract you from experiencing the purposes of God. Resolve not to be an avoider. Don’t put off anything that could bring you closer to what God has in store for you!

Seeking and looking

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 2:1-5

I realize I am guilty of looking but not really seeing. Right in front of me, God’s wisdom sits like jewels of heaven ready and waiting to be captured and used. Too often, I “drive” through life not looking left or right but speeding ahead to my next stop. If we aren’t looking carefully, we’ll miss all God has. Wisdom is often found amongst things not easily seen, yet right there all along, to be discovered when you seek it. Today, be reminded that Jesus said, “Seek and you shall find.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

Have a blessed day!

The Passion of God

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us

Romans 5:8

Personally, I have a passion for backpacking-vacations, my hubee Tepho, my Performing Arts team, my DATEr, walking on the beach, and off course God. Sometimes I will spend 3-4hours per day for practise, or work extra days to afford a vacation on the beach in Bali and I will not miss Naughty Nuri's. Passion usually involves a deep love and a deep sacrifice for something or someone.

What's your passion? What do you think about during the day and dream about at night? What are you willing to love deeply and love sacrificially?

I wonder for a moment what is the passion of God. Then the answer comes to me. You and I are the passion of God. God has a one-track mind. He loves me. He created me. He gives me life and breath. He brings me new life through the sacrificial death of Jesus.

With His love and His Holy Spirit, He passionately pursues me. Isn't it nice to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you are loved with the passion of God?