Thursday, September 17, 2009

It's not you, wait, it totally is!

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." -Darth Vader

Star wars is cool, Episode 4, 5 and 6 only.

Anyway, i find my lack of faith disturbing, or is it liberty?

A lot would say "have eternity in mind!" but what is eternity?
Some take the Christian faith too literal.
A friend told me that by 30 he'd wanna either be pursuing a PhD or end up in some god forsaken country doing some mission work, and hey, i'd say it's a good plan, but he told me that his church leader told him that it's too extreme and that maybe God wants him to find a middle ground.
That really pissed me off!

Why is it extreme? Who are you to use God's name in vain and dispense stupid advice to people?
This kind of people are the ones that should be condemned.
If "true" freedom is found in Christ, then how come so many are trapped in a metaphorical prison?

That's the problem, or one of the many problems, church leaders would say be united for the purpose of God and stuff, but all they keep doing is direct us to be brainless slave, to strive to keep us in a building, to make us work, make us do all things, without consideration of the fact that we are humans with some sort of FREEDOM.

Disagree? Yea, all of you probably disagree.

I say i wanna be a missionary, you people ask me to think thoroughly and go do something else first.
Then i said i wanna venture into the corporate world and work up the ladder, you people question me using God's name and asking if that is what God really wants of me.
Tell me, are you Elijah? Are you John the Baptist? Are you even the least in the kingdom of God? Who are you to say such things so loosely that can have detrimental effects on people?

Oh trust me, i still believe in God, i still proclaim i am Christian, and yes, you're right, now the you can put it against me the question, who am i to tell you any of this? For one, and the most obvious, this is my blog, i have rights to say things, 2nd, at least i have the balls to question such things, 3rd, i've witnessed too many fellow Christians being trapped into such thinking that their maximum potential is not realized.

In biblical accounts, most of the prophets died horribly, and they did things that are against conventional movements. So how did us Christians became this way?

I admit, i go to church, but not embracing, i believe but disappointed, i trust God but not His people, i smile but deprived inside.

If truly wanna break free, stop hanging out with Christians all the time.
I will end this entry with a loosely paraphrased quote from a friend, he said that Christians always plan their retreats and camps on long weekends such as this weekend's Raya celebration, then where comes the opportunity to be a friend to other people of different faith if any of them wanna invite us to their open house or celebrate together?
In that sense, we already..

Fail.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

choop

open house usually not during first and second day of raya... cos that one reserved for family...

by the 3rd or 4th day and beyond.. the church would be done with camp and all ready to attend open houses

-L- said...

Excellent observation.

That's all i can say, i don't wanna respond further unless i know who you are.

MF said...

u should've posted this before i signed up for camp!!! =P

siehjin said...

hi lordson =)

1. that pastor's advice to your friend was indeed wrong... UNLESS he heard a direct word from God for your friend, and was passing it on.

with that exception, i agree that it was stupid advice, asking your friend to limit himself and keep himself mediocre instead of daring great things for God's kingdom. rather the opposite of what i would have said, but then i am no prophet...

2. "church leaders direct us to be brainless slaves... (my paraphrase) they make us work for them and the church rather than for God."

concerning this statement, sadly i have to agree with you PARTIALLY... because there ARE some church leaders like that, darn it.

3. "i say i wanna be a missionary, you people ask me to think thoroughly and do something else first."

this is actually sound advice, provided the "something else" is something that would actually be useful on the mission field. in this sense, it would be a training or preparation for the eventual step of moving out as a missionary.

it also gives the potential missionary time to confirm God's call to missions for him/her, and to discern the specific details of that call. (which country, which people-group, to go as a traditional full-time missionary or a tentmaker or what, raise prayer support and finances, etc)

4. "Then i said i wanna venture into the corporate world and work up the ladder, you people question me using God's name and asking if that is what God really wants of me."

actually, this is a legitimate question... in fact it sounds like something i might ask.

to me, the question "is this really what God wants of me?" is a question that we need to ask ourselves periodically, if we are truly concerned with keeping in step with His will. of course this should not degenerate into neurotic self-doubt... but it reminds us that the center of gravity in our decision making should always be what God wants, not what we want.

there are a few ways to answer this question honestly... in your place, i'd probably say something like "i'm not really sure exactly what God wants of me right now, but while waiting to hear from Him, i think that working my way up the corporate ladder will help me gain skills and experience which will be useful to me no matter where He eventually calls me to be."

5. "stop hanging out with Christians all the time"

in this respect i must sadly confess that, as you said it, i Fail with a capital F. this is a good reminder to me, and i really need to do some serious thinking about this issue. working in full-time christian missionary means that i'm around christians 99% of the time. i'm not sure how i can change that.


haha what a long comment... hope my responses didn't bore you =P