My time in Singapore was not what I expected it to be: building a lot of connections, finding ministry options to serve, being somewhere involved and busy, witnessing miracles and experiencing God in new ways to name some of my expectations.
But God showed me that my thinking of this time being wasted was wrong. He used exactly this month to prepare me for things to come in the next 4 months in Asia and even further on when I’m going to be back home again.
So one day I was sitting in public on a bench. People were walking all around. I went to God with my frustration of ‘What am I doing here?’. For me it’s hard to not feel a purpose in what I’m doing. On one hand I guess because I was raised this way in western culture. On the other hand because I’m by nature a driven person, I like to have responsibilities and work to do, even my free time is usually full of appointments and get-togethers with friends.
So I pondered this question of ‘What am I doing here?’ before God. These are my journal notes of what God revealed to me:
We can only expect to be understood by our neighbor when we try to understand him first.
Example of Paul in Acts 17, 16-23
Verse 23 says: “[…] for as I was walking along I saw your many altars. And one of them had this inscription on it – ‘To an Unknown God’. You have been worshiping him without knowing who he is, and now I wish to tell you about him.”
Many of us don’t see and listen to understand but they listen to answer. Nowadays, where everyone is individualistic, it makes a difference to focus on our neighbor and not on us. To see and to listen. To show interest. To give up our own right. To find common ground with everyone.
Paul says in 1.Corinthians 9, 20-23: “When I am with Jews, I become one of them. When I am with those who follow the Jewish laws, I do the same, even though I am not a subject to the law. When I am with Gentiles who do not have the Jewish law, I fit in with them as much as I can. When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone so that I might save some. I do all this to spread the Good News, that I might share in its blessings.”
I am here to understand, to see, to taste the culture for that I am able to serve the people the best. And I am getting prepared for going back home where people don’t ask. I am here to pop the bubble of evangelizing in third world countries where people are hungry for God and to get back to the reality of figuring out how I can be a witness back home.
God is saying: Look around, that’s where you are coming from. And that’s where I will put you back.
He is preparing me here in Singapore for greater things to come I can’t see now.
The questions I’m asking myself daily:
– What do I understand today from this culture?
– Have I learned something new how I can let my light shine?
First, I realized a lot about the shame-honor-culture. People want to keep their face. It’s all about honor. Better you have a Rolex watch on your wrist everyone sees and live in a shabby place no one can see. They have a hard time accepting gifts in front of others because they don’t want to be in need in front of others.
Second, I started a list of how I can encounter people in westernized world:
– Let your light shine through a big smile
– Let your light shine by saying hello and thank you to strangers
– Let your light shine by offering something to someone unexpectedly
– Let your light shine by knowing someone’s name
– Let your light shine to the forgotten in the society
– Let your light shine by offering your help
– Let your light shine by having time for one another
–
–
–
First, it was no wasted time in Singapore because I could learn a lot through watching and being around the people there. I became sensitized to that different cultural heritage. And second, it was no wasted time because God will put me back in that likewise western culture where I can let my light shine in other ways than what the past six months of the race taught me. God used my time in Singapore that I can understand to be understood.
Understand to be understood might mean to become like a child 😉
