Tuhan kiranya menghiburkan keluarga yang ditinggalkan. Tuhan kiranya hadir dalam peristiwa sulit yang dibuat manusia.
Dalam terjemahan ini, Lazarus yang meninggal dituliskannya: tidur/tertidur.
These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
John 11:11
Dalam ayat/kejadian yang berbeda ini (Stefanus mati karena dirajam batu), kata yang dipakai sama: jatuh tertidur.
And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Act 7:60
Dari kamus, kata “koimaō” bisa berarti “to cause to sleep, put to sleep”.
Kalau orang sakit lalu meninggal dengan tenang, kita bisa lebih menerima jika dimetaforakan: tidur. Tetapi jika orang meninggal karena dirajam, tapi juga dipandang dia ditidurkan, itu lebih luar biasa.
Kita percaya, saudara/saudari kita yang meninggal karena perang juga sedang tidur/ditidurkan. Tuhan kiranya menghiburkan keluarga yang ditinggalkan. Tuhan kiranya hadir dalam peristiwa sulit yang dibuat manusia.
Kristus yang pertama punya teknik magis untuk menarik hati orang, sehingga terpikat. Tetapi demikian juga kita bisa punya teknik magis untuk menarik orang lain.
Hubungan dalam Allah Tritunggal dari satu sisi bisa digambarkan dengan dansa/tarian di antara pribadi-pribadi tsb. Silakan baca dari artikel ini: Perichoresis – The Divine Dance of the Trinity.
Karena itu, ide tentang dansa/tarian, khususnya dansa/tarian kelompok sangat menarik perhatian saya, khususnya dalam aspek penerapan dalam hubungan antar orang dalam satu komunitas.
Hidup bersama dan kebersamaan dalam Kebenaran/Kristus adalah keseluruhan dinamika kehidupan dan misi hidup kita. Ada daya dorong, pertahanan dari kehancuran, inspirasi, visi, dst banyak hal indah. Di luar itu, waduh celakanya.
Berdua lebih baik dari pada seorang diri, karena mereka menerima upah yang baik dalam jerih payah mereka. Karena kalau mereka jatuh, yang seorang mengangkat temannya, tetapi wai orang yang jatuh, yang tidak mempunyai orang lain untuk mengangkatnya! Juga kalau orang tidur berdua, mereka menjadi panas, tetapi bagaimana seorang saja dapat menjadi panas? Dan bilamana seorang dapat dialahkan, dua orang akan dapat bertahan. Tali tiga lembar tak mudah diputuskan.
Pengkhotbah 4:9-12
karena Allahlah yang mengerjakan di dalam kamu baik kemauan maupun pekerjaan menurut kerelaan-Nya.
Fil 2:13
Tersedia daya hidup, daya dorong, kalibrator, sustainer, … yaitu Kristus sendiri sebagai Kepala.
Jika ada luka dalam hubungan dan dinamika itu, akan ada kesembuhan… dan seringkali memang perlu waktu. Tenang saja….
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Eph 4:16
Sebagai ilustrasi, bentuk “dansa/tarian” lain yang saya lihat misalnya aerial dance seperti di AGT berikut ini:
Suatu gerak langkah yang begitu harmonis dan hidup.
Banyak lagu pop yang berhubungan dengan dansa, misalnya: Dancing Queen, Sway, ….
Ini salah satu versi, dengan klip tarian
Ada beberapa kata dalam lirik lagu Sway yang sangat menarik:
Other dancers may be on the floor Dear, but my eyes will see only you Only you have that magic technique When we sway, I go weak
Make me thrill as only you know how Sway me smooth, sway me now
Kristus yang pertama punya teknik magis untuk menarik hati orang, sehingga terpikat. Tetapi demikian juga kita bisa punya teknik magis untuk menarik orang lain. Be a blessing.
Catatan lain dari sesi di JakTim, 12 Agt 2023: Catatan ttg Komunitas. Penjelasan-penjelasan dari catatan ini bisa dijelaskan di artikel terpisah.
You call out to God for help and he helps—he’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living. Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God.
Usai rapat Pimsubreg di Bandung 2-5 Sep, kami meluncur ke Surabaya/Sidoarjo tanggal 6.
Pertanyaan “berapa lama” tidak relevan… yang penting menikmati perjalanan dan aman. Titik kotak adalah perhentian (ada 8, termasuk 3 kali tidur, karena malam sebelumnya hanya tidur 3 jam)
Tujuan nomor satu adalah mengunjungi kel mas Jarot-Melva yang baru pindah awal tahun ini dari TBK. Jadi landing kami di Sidoarjo, tempat tinggal mereka (sementara). Dulu, Jarot ini kuliah di STAN Bintaro, tetapi rajin ke Depok, maybe tiap weekend ya, untuk PA, olahraga dan menikmati waktu dg teman-teman.
Tujuan kedua, yang sama dengan itu, adalah ketemu Yuli (Binus98)!!!! 🙂
Kapan terakhir ketemu? Tidak ingat, mungkin karena begitu lamanya… Yang jelas pernah ketemu di sekitaran Binus (tempat kuliah mereka, tempat kost si koko Jemmy -UI97- usai lulus UI), ketika saya antar Jemmy pindahan dari Depok ke Kemanggisan.
Kata Yuli, dia pernah main ke rumah kami yang di Beji Timur (itu berarti tahun dalam tahun 2001-2004. Yuli kuliah di Binus tahun 1998).
Makan nasi rawon yang terkenal, tetapi kurang recommended 🙂
Yang ketiga ini enggak sengaja. Rupanya Imelda Sitinjak barusan landing di Surabaya untuk studi S3 di Unair. Dulu S2 di UI Depok. 🙂 Begitu tahu dia di Surabaya, ya kami meluncur lah.
Bapaknya lagi di Siantar ini kayaknya.
Tampaknya anak-anak antusias juga. Tinggal bapaknya gimana nanti. 🙂
Rupanya Imelda sebelah rumah ama bos Handy-Endah ya… punteun….
Yang ini bonus, baru kontak-kontakan mendadak, beliau langsung menyediakan dirinya dikunjungi. Dan seperti orang Jawa klasik: suguhan ndlidir (mengalir), padahal suguhan dari tetangga sebelah (alias warung-warung)… siomay, gado-gado, rujak cingur.
Beliau adalah mas Kristyan, teman SMA yang belum pernah jumpa seusai lulus SMA. Itu berarti tak pernah jumpa fisik lebih dari 35 tahun! Sekarang beliau bekerja sbg dosen PNS yang ditempatkan di Univ Moestopo.
Demikian laporan singkat kunjungan teman-teman lama khususnya UI Connection di Surabaya/Sidoarjo. Maaf waktu singkat, masih ada kel Anung, kel Yudi. Nuwun sewu gak sempat jumpa.
Teman-teman lain di Surabaya, kami gak bisa jumpai, karena seperti kata mas Hari: kalau gak bawa oleh-oleh, enggak usah bilang-bilang!!! (sementara oleh-oleh kami hanya cukup untuk beberapa orang di atas :))
Pelajaran. Tanpa bermaksud menarik pelajaran, tetapi tetap saja ada pelajaran bagi saya. 🙂
Pertemuan darat adalah segalanya. 🙂 Banyak hal indah ada di sana.
Terlalu banyak koneksi hubungan kita, tetapi koneksi lokal (darat) adalah utama. Dimana pun saya pergi/menetap, apakah saya terhubung dengan komunitas tubuh Kristus lokal? (Apakah juga ada komunitas Nav lokal?)
Koneksi kita juga dengan semua orang yang Tuhan berikan di sekitar kita. Koneksi yang membuka kasih mengalir dan berkat Abraham sampai kepada semua orang.
Tuhan yang pada akhirnya kita tahu paling care dengan kita yang begitu unik dan mobile serta rentan (apalagi dg kejadian covid kemarin). Tuhan beserta kita dimana saja.
Pergumulan-pergumulan hidup kita adalah nyata: anak, karir, hubungan dengan teman-teman lama, dst…. Dengan segala keterbukaan dan keriangan, mari kita menyambutnya, melewatinya dan memenanginya. 🙂
You call out to God for help and he helps—he’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living. Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God.
I’d better focus on how to make these words a behavior or way of life in practical daily life.
I was born and raised in a non-Christian family, the fourth of five children. However, my parents sent their children to Christian primary schools because they wanted us to get a good basic education (at that time, which means Christian school).
While in Christian elementary school, I attended Christian religious lessons/class and of course also Christian worship and celebrations such as Sunday school, Easter celebrations, Christmas and so on. All my teachers and most of my schoolmates are Christians. I really enjoyed Christianity in my elementary school days.
When I graduated from elementary school, I asked my father for permission to still adhere to Christianity while continuing to attend a public junior high school later. At that time, I felt it would be difficult if I had to learn Arabic or read the Koran and pray that way. Of course, I didn’t tell my parents those reasons openly. Unexpectedly, my parents allowed and even supported me by encouraging me to attend Sunday school at the church near our house and bought a Bible for me. It seemed they wanted me to be a good girl, responsible for my choices and requests. Long story short, it was through Sunday school at the church that a few years later I repented, believed, and accepted Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.
Shortly after my conversion, while continuing to a public high school, I joined a Bible study group organized by the student ministry at the school. I was helped to grow in Christ by having a personal relationship with God through prayer, quiet time, and Bible study and so on. It is becoming clearer and clearer who Christ is according to the Bible and in my life. Truly my heart and mind were filled with such great joy and peace.
At the same time, there was a great feeling of sadness knowing that my family, especially my parents, who I thought were very good, loved me very much, even allowed me to become a Christian and were willing to attend the church building when I was baptized, actually being under God’s punishment because they had not believe in Christ. At that time almost every night I cried and as if arguing, bargaining with God about it. Until one day I got tired and gave up, surrendered, entrusting everything to God. That He and His words are “yes and amen”, unfathomable far beyond all my feelings and thoughts. My part is just to believe.
Aside from that sadness, the struggle that I experienced was the realization that when I was at home the words of God that I learned I couldn’t seem to be shared directly in words. My words may not make sense to them because I am a teenager, still young at home, so it is not appropriate for me to teach them or advise them. This made me feel guilty at first. At that time God helped me with understanding that my daily life is an open word that my family can read anytime at home. These truths really encouraged me to apply what I learned in the Bible to my daily life. Instead of me being busy looking for words to testify to them, I’d better focus on how to make these words a behavior or way of life in practical daily life, that they can see and read.
Within six months I was OFF from all ministry activities… It was like entering a period of “eating grass in the field”…
This testimony was prepared as an introduction to sharing lessons at ILG, June 2022, on the theme: Leading by Influence: Leading from Brokenness. Translated by Google, refined by -mostly- Elsa Siahaan.
In 2007 I was in great enthusiasm for the growing ministry, both local and regional and national ministries. By then I had been on the staff (with The Navs) for over 13 years. And in 2007 I was about to be 40, the age that is said: never dies… or like the Sia’s song: Unstoppable – like a porsche, don’t need batteries to play. 😊
At that time, during a final trip to Kuala Lumpur/KL in March 2007, as usual I visited one or two cities beforehand: Batam and Singapore. I traveled alone. It was in Singapore that my journey came to a halt.
—
While walking with a friend on Orchard Road (afternoon after lunch), my vision suddenly disappeared (I experienced a blackout), not dark but actually white. And I was about to fall unconscious, but was supported by the friend. Without heeding the traffic signs, my friend carried me across the road and we went into the nearest hospital: Mt Elizabeth Hospital.
My pulse/heart beat seemed very irregular and very fast, maybe 200bpm on average. That was what made me want to faint earlier, because the oxygen supply was not smooth. I was injected with medicine and monitored for 24 hours. About 5-6 hours later, my heart rate returned back to normal.
That night I was offered sleeping pills, but I didn’t take them, just because I’m not used to taking medicine. I’ve never been hospitalized before, and am the type who doesn’t like to take any medication.
I apparently couldn’t sleep that night which made it a long night and full of inner struggles. My mind drifted away to new things, some were the little things I have missed as the time went by. I incidentally did not bring a notebook, because I usually write down what I meditate on. Then the hospital tissue was the medium to write down the main thoughts that came to mind that night.
I was only hospitalized for one night where the next morning the doctor discharged me. The doctor said: you can go home, you can exercise again as usual, continue your trip, and so on. …. But I have become a very different person since then.
Thanks to you all. You are awesome.
I felt both unable to continue the trip to KL nor to return to Indonesia. I felt very weak physically, very down and a bit confused with my condition. Then I stayed with one family of Nav Indonesia alumni. My strangest condition at that time was feeling mentally down, experiencing fear and panic easily. At that time my friend was working (at his office), while I was at home alone… and out of panic, sometimes I called him at the office asking: when are you coming home? I felt that I couldn’t seem to be left at home alone.
In addition, I also felt physically very weak. Even going up and down the stairs was difficult/hard.
However, I realized that I had to go home. At that time I did not tell my wife in Jakarta the details about my condition.
The trip home at that time was the most difficult one among other trips. I felt so weak that I was not able to lift my own luggage, so I needed my friend’s help to check in the luggage. At CGK airport in Jakarta, two good friends were ready to welcome me and help me with my luggage (late mas Madyo, and bang Yona).
—
In Jakarta, I still often had a similar physical condition where my heart suddenly beat abnormally and rapidly, only to recover a few up to 5 hours later. I marked my calendar when the arrhythmia attacked, and how heavy. After weeks, months, the situation was getting lighter. But in one month, Nov 2007, another serious arrhythmia attacked again and I had to be hospitalized again for one night. But after that, I started to accept my condition and was ready with the arrhythmia even though it was severe.
Along with that physical condition, it felt heavier that my mental state was very down. Maybe I was not just burnt out… Maybe I was depressed, … but I didn’t consult a professional. There was no such mechanism at that time. 😀 So I had to face it by myself and felt that I was on my own. Within six months I was OFF from all ministry activities… It was like entering a period of “eating grass in the field”…
What had been said about me came true at once. I was driven away from people. I ate grass just as cattle do. My body became wet with the dew of heaven. I stayed that way until my hair grew like the feathers of an eagle. My nails became like the claws of a bird.
Dan 4:33
I used to live on the 2nd floor, but due to my weak physical condition, I moved to the 1st floor. My wife and son (at that time 12years old) were on the 2nd floor. I was mentally very weak. I could often suddenly cry for no reason, loud and prolonged crying… hours. (Now when I think about it, I’m confused about how I could be like that. 😀)
Visits from some friends didn’t seem to have a positive effect at that time. Sometimes I even refused to meet guests or even receive phone calls, because their words often stressed me more.
Those months were the time when I struggled with the difficult situation. Trying to find a comprehensive solution… physically, attitude, emotionally, etc… changing the pattern of life (exercise, food, etc.). Reassess attitudes and outlook on life.
