The Miracle of Coincidence

Half of this week i spent it alone. My wife is back in Thailand to see our family there. Now i really realize the meaning of "it is not good for a man to live alone"!

On the day we left to the airport for her flight, i notice several stick outside of the house filled with nails. It looks like that this stick used to be an homemade clothes hanger that you stick it to the wall. Our neighbor seems to just dump it at the front of their flat since it was broken. A little bit annoyed, i asked Lerie "hey what do you think this stick are for? why our neighbor just put it here?" She just say "i dont know" and we left for the airport.

Now this evening i have a bible study appointment which i almost miss. Having used to be reminded to look for the key before leaving the house, i accidentally left my key in the house. As i went out from the house, i just remember that i left the key somewhere inside. I was so panicked and couldn't belief what just happen. Now like most door in HDB Apartment, the only knob for the door is inside the house. The only way to open the door from outside is with the key. There is no other way than that. All the window are tightly sealed with metal bar and since our house is at the 11th floor there is no way i can climb up trough the back door. To make the matter worse, the only spare keys that we have was with my wife in Thailand!

Just before i left the house, i stopped for a small prayer asking for God's guidance and protection for my trip this afternoon. The next second i got locked up.

All those judgmental mind blaming God start to appear in my mind. "God, how could you do this to me? I just pray few seconds ago to ask for your guidance and protection and look what happen to me?" I was so panic i couldn't sit and try to figure out how to solve this problem. I was thinking to go and sleepover at my friends house until my wife come but this sabbath i am going to preach and all my sermon material and my church dress are inside the house.

I was very discouraged so i sat at the door and pray again. "God, i dont know what happened but i need your help". I try to open the window, and push the grill but nothing move. Our window is the old style window which are sliding upward rather than side by side. I was thinking to take out some glassed any maybe by doing that i can slip trough but the grill are just too tight (that's what they made for anyway, to prevent people slip trough unless you are Harry Houdini i guess)
However as i try to flip the window, i notice that my key was a the working table beside the window. But my hand was not long enough to reach it. Most of the time, i will put the key on our bedroom and not on the working room. But somehow that day, the key "decide" to stay at my working room!

It is so close yet so far...

But then i looked to the left and saw that broken little piece of wood stuck with nails. The wood is just enough to slip trough the grill and the nail was made as the hook for clothes and for any other thing that can be hooked included a keychain ring!

Immediately i took the wood, slip it trough, and in a matter of second my house key is at my palm safe and sound.

Now if you asked an evolutionary psychologist, what the "moral" of this story they might say that it is the prove of our ancestry brain development of using tools back in the stone age. Our ancestor also looked around their environment, try to associate it with something they know before and create a new tools for survival.

If you asked an statistician, they might say that this coincidence can happen every 1/100 incident and somehow i fell into that small fraction where the chance is for me

But i am not an evolutionary physician nor mathematician. I am just a simple pastor who believe in God that are involved in every single part of my life even to help my when i am being locked up. This whole incident is just simply another miracle in my life.

How can the key was there, when it suppose to be on the other room all the times?

How can the wood are there when it supposed to be dumped?

Now i used to have skepticism regarding miracle, until i meet my father in law who always say "oh anoter mirakel" or " mirakel will hapen as long as you bilip in it" in his deep, heavy, visayas accent. Now i believe what he says is true even more.

I was complaining to God that why he let this thing happen just few seconds after i pray for protection, i didn't realize He already prepared the answer days before this incident happen.
Probably God was smiling, when i complain to my wife why this wood is here...

Now some might still feel that this is just a coincidence...okay...

just yesterday before this incident happen, i was thinking for a sermon illustration. (For those of you who ever listen to my sermon, i believe a powerful illustration is your own personal testimony and its proven true). Yet i couldnt find it...

and the theme of my sermon this sabbath will be : "God never makes a mistake when he is dealing with our life. He always gives us things at the right time and at the right place."

Another Coincidence?

Pastor and the Insurance Salesman

One new thing i learn in Singapore, that in MRT station there will be booth with people from insurance company, or credit card company will cheerfully approach you and asked for your civil status in Singapore ( Singaporean, PR, or Work Permit Holder), your monthly income, and whether you have credit card or insurance policy already.
At first i found this people are annoying and sometimes too pushy. But as the day goes by, and since MRT is my main transportation way in Singapore i start to feel sympathy with what they are doing.
Being as an Introvert by nature, its very hard for me to stand there and greet unknown people, let alone trying to persuade them for such thing. I've been involved with ACS with their health age promotion and i always find excuse for not be the one go out and asking people for their health status by sitting behind the computer act as the operator (and i have proven myself that i am good with it)
Because of this reason, i give my respect for what this Insurance/Credit Card Salesman do everyday at the MRT station.
So that's the beginning of my journey with this Insurance Salesman
I went back from SGH that day after visiting one of my church member hospitalized there. Now since my house is at Clementi nearby the AYE Line, the closest bus to my block is bus no.97 from Harbour Front. Now since Outram Park MRT (where SGH is) and Harbour Front is just one station away i think it will be convenient to just hop in to Harbour Front and eat my lunch there as well.
As i went down to the MRT Station, there are these people try to sell an insurance policy. I've mentally prepared to say "no, i dont want now, thank you" Now prosecute me if im am bad but i often use my "proffesional status" as a pastor to avoid this kind of people. My typical reason will be "i am sorry i am a pastor and i dont really interested in money or financial policy. The way we receive salary is different with other people so i dont think your promotion is for me" Most of the time these salesman will just say thank you, or give you that "ooooh" notion, or some even asked "what is pastor"
However that day, this particular salesman answered me with something i dont expect. He said ooh, you are a pastor i am a christian too! Well, that is very typical answer, but yet i found that this man openly claim himself to be a Christian. So he asked for my phone number and i give it to him. For me, when a person claim himself to be christian somehow my mind immediately shift to "pastor mode" and say that this man is one of your flocks, you need to minister him.
And that's when the phone start to ring almost every week. This salesman, try to make an appointment with me so he can give his what so called "financial advise". So yesterday we met for the second time and he explains how good his insurance will be and how it will help me in the time of trouble.
He keeps calling me with the name "pastor" but i think he forgot to realize that we are on the different spectrum of how we see the future. For him, future is unpredictable and therefore you need to make sure that everything will be fine for your family in case something bad happen to you his Insurance policy will be the answer to that. While me, on the other side teach that our life and future is in God's hand and faith is the only insurance you need to have knowing that God never loose control of your life. One is realistic, the other idealistic.
But then the conversation become very interesting for me when he start to draw my financial scheme. He said " now Pastor Bayu. You have drawn for me your monthly expenses. Now just in case, just in case after this conversation suddenly you got struck by a car and die. How your family will sustain their life? Now, what i asked for you is just to spend an extra hundred dollar every month and we will make sure that even when something bad happen to you your family will be in a good hands." This guy really listen to his trainer during his apprentice day i guess. He really memorized all those "persuasive psychology" theory
So i said, "Ben (his name is ben), i think you need to realize that both of us work on the same field. To persuade people. you with your product of insurance, and me with salvation. All this thing are just the same thing i tell people on the pulpit or at the street. For you, you call it "financial advise" for me, i call it "evangelism". Now you told me, that if after this conversation i got hit by a car and die who will supply my family need. But maybe i need to ask you the same thing. if after this conversation it is you who got hit by a car and die, are you sure you will have eternal life?" He was quiet for a moment, and smile and he said "wow, thank you for your honesty" so i said, "i really appreciate what you have tried to do, and i am sorry if i cannot say yes to your offer but at least can i pray with you" He was shocked cos i think he didt expect that from me. I said, "as a pastor, maybe i cant give you much but one thing i can do for you is to pray and to ask God to help you in your work. You should thank God you are still working! Isnt that because of God who sustain your life? knowing that 20.000 people are expected to lose their job this year in Singapore?" He just smile, and said "thank you, should i contact you again about two months later? maybe when you already change your mind?" i smiled and said "sure you can contact me" he still trying his best...
I think that is the reason why today's world look at religion on a very skeptical way. Because we are no different than an insurance company trying to sell their product to guarantee that our future will be secured. Therefore, there must be something better, something that we as a christian need to think so our mission to tell this world about Christ will not be viewed as just another "company" trying to sell their product for your future.
This is my personal view, but i think people who claim themselves as a chrisitian should be very careful to be involved in Insurance business because like it or not it will contradict with your faith. I am not an anti-insurance man. I do believe insurance is important but you need God's wisdom to guide you.
That small conversation with Ben the insurance man, reminds me that God is really in control of life and sometimes you really need faith to see that. I am as His hitman need to see that even more.
Anyway, i told Lerie why i keep saying yes to this man's invitation to meet him. Jokingly I said, he tries to sell me his product and i try to sell my product we'll see who will win"
to be honest i want him to know and be ready because Jesus will come soon....well like it or not i am a Pastor! =) an Adventist one!

Equality

Yesterday we went for a dinner in one of my friend's house. It was not only my wife and i, but also some visitor from faraway. As the dinner goes, some of these friends thew a racial jokes about a certain group of people. But then, she end it up with saying "but i do believe that all people are equal"
Now that statement sounds ambiguous to me. What does she mean by "equal"? Now dont get me wrong, but i have my own position on this equality equilibrium.
I dont belief in the term of equality that all people have the same right and status in life. That is just too abstract for me. In the real world like today, like it or not some people will just do better than other. Some people will just have more money than other, some people will just prettier than other. That is the fact of reality. Now if you ask me why, then i need to write another blog for it.
However, i belief that equality means, that those of us who are "prettier, richer, luckier" than other has the duty to treat those who are not as lucky as we are the same treatment we do to those are considered better than us. We have to look at them on the same perspective like when we look at people who are better than us. That is equality.
Equality means, we are willing to accept those who fail to reach out to our standard, and treat them as if they have reached that standard that we put.
That is equality for me...

God's Hitman

Its Saturday night and i am writing my blog...

Well yeah, i changed my templates again. I've been searching for Lilo and Stich one but couldt find it! But then "accidentally" i found this xml templates of Hitman 2 and i just fell in love with it.

As i try to view some templates, at first i found its quite ackward to have a "hitman" picture while some of my blog is talking about "God" - "Heaven" - and some other Christian jargon.

I almost tempted to change my templates, and try to find some other templates that are more "religious", and i did find some.

However, prior to writing this blog i had a conversation with my wife. About the label of "pastor" and the expectation that follows. Pastor somehow are expected to be morally perfect, physically perfect, always smile, always happy, and always available. We must wear certain dress, talk on the certain language, and behave on the certain way.

I know some of you who read this blog might not fully agree with me, so be it. But i believe that a man is a pastor, is actually beyond of his daily action. A true pastor is who they are inside. A true pastor is a man whose heart is filled with compassion for the people that God has trusted them with. A true pastor is a man who are willingly taking God's call even though they know it wont be easy. A true pastor is a man who will stick to their mission and assignment as instructed by their chief contractor.

True Pastor is a man whose heart is fully dedicated to serve his Contractor in any capacity that he has, in any portfolio he has, even in any career or uniform he wears and choose.

That is why, i think Codename 47 represent this more than a picture of a church with a man standing beside it and smile at you.

Those of you who ever play Hitman, know what kind of person Codename 47 is. This man is fully trained since young to be the greatest assasin the world ever see.

Often in his mission he needs to change his uniform and clothes to fit into the context in order to fulfill the assignment that he has been assigned to.

But more important than all of that, Codename 47 will stick to whatever mission he is assigned until that mission is complete.

I am also employed as an assasin, but not for killing human but to redeem them.

Therefore starting today, i will change the name of this Blog into God's Hitman. Yes, i am an Hitman for God. And i try to fufill that assignment by His power.