New Changes in Life

It has been a while since I last write about my own experience and post it here. In the course of 6 months, a lot has happened in my life. I moved back to Indonesia since mid of January, and immediately started my teaching role at the Jakarta Theological Seminary, only two days after my arrival. The result was predictable, I was late, I arrived at 8.45, while the class should have begun at 7.30. That was the first new role. This new teaching job requires a lot of energy too, I had to make new syllabus, attend faculty meeting, prepare the new website and journal for the seminary in my role as head of publication and information unit, and prepare teaching materials on the subject of introduction to western philosophy and social theology.

The second change was arranging the wedding. I arrived in January only to prepare my wedding on March 31st. I had to deal with details of the biggest day of my life so far and had to do it within less than 3 months. Invitations, souvenirs, event hall, rings, rundown of the church service, guests, etc. Well, you what the drill is. Arranging the wedding was actually minor compared to the preparation of mind, soul, and body of the my fiancee and I to take this voyage of being together until the rest of our lives. This was a huge change.

The third change, was about my father. He was sick and that was before the time of the wedding. He was sick from last year, and the doctors treated his appendix. Later on they found out that he has gallstone, so we decided to treat his gallbladder. Afterwards his prostate began to create problem as well. So, the family had to cope with his condition. One of the reasons why I decided to go back to Indonesia was because I had the feeling that I have to take care of my dad. He was not yet sick at the time I felt the urge to accompany him. Now, after I returned here I know why I had the urge of doing so. This was and still is the third change.

The fourth change was about coping and reintegrating back to Jakarta life stye. I realized that some things have changed since I left Jakarta more than 4 years ago. I had to cope with the crazy traffic, public transportation, food, etc. I will share this experience in a series of articles of Reintegration to Jakarta category on the right side of this blog –>

The fifth change was on being a husband. I have different status now. The biggest change that I felt is that I have to discuss and negotiate all the things with my wife. It takes time to combine our rhythm, but it is a never ending process, I guess.

Those five changes existed in the midst of other responsibilities in my life, i.e. teaching, preaching, meeting old friends, and organizing. There are times when I felt all these changes are too overwhelming, and they influenced my performance in work and personal relations. Sometimes I felt like I want to have some time off for myself and not having to care about the others.

Now, I am really glad that I can reflect and found God actively working in all those changes. I prayed really hard during the last five months, harder than any other times in my life. I felt God’s presence in supporting the family and me. There were times that can be defined as God’s direct intervention, a sort of miracle if you want to call it. My wife Dorta, helped me a lot in going through all of these changes. I am extremely grateful for the help of my brother and his wife, and also my sister in the preparation of the wedding. Some students were also eager in lending their hand and I thank them for that.

I learned a lot in the short course of time. The biggest lesson I had is about learning to admit that I am not in control. God is in control when you trust Him to be in charge of your life. The changes helped me to grow, spiritually and mentally. I guess there are many people out there who have to deal with changes in their life. The biggest challenge is to admit that we are not in control, the more you resist, the deeper you can fall down. Let God be in control, and all we have to do is to enjoy the ride.

June 13th, 2012.

Viewed 36826 times by 4480 viewers