A Piece to Discard

The call to forge on ahead has been clear, in the midst of some recent doubts and discouragement. We sang this song at church today. It’s one of those songs that’s been ‘oversung’, so much that I’ve gotten sick of it. But then due to the circumstances surrounding me, it’s become so meaningful again:

All that I am, all that I have
I lay them down before you O Lord
All my regrets, all my acclaim
The joy and the pain, I'm making them yours

Lord I offer my life to You
Everything I've been through
Use it for your glory
Lord I offer my days to You
Lifting my praise to You
As a pleasing sacrifice
Lord I offer You my life

Things in the past, things yet unseen
Wishes and dreams that are yet to come true
All of my hopes, all of my plans
My heart and my hands are lifted to You.

Datuk Dr Alex Matthews preached about presenting our bodies as living sacrifices to God from Romans 12. We ended with this hymn, another one of my favorites:

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.

Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.

Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.

Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.

Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.

Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.

Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.

Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.

Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.

But in Romans 12:3-6, I think God showed me something that I need to let go, one of the pieces that I need to leave behind as I carry on – that ‘I know more than you’ kind of attitude. Pride. It’s the same thing again isn’t it? Over and over again. When will it ever end?

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. ~ Romans 12:3-6

This phrase by Datuk Alex struck me: We are all born disabled. Yes, no doubt fearfully and wonderfully made, but nevertheless disabled. And I would assume that God did it on purpose. None of us are perfect. None of us is good at everything. That is why we need one another in the body! No one is better than the other! Stop thinking that you are better than the others, Kevin!

I finally met my friend Mohd Elfie at Midvalley after church. I enjoyed spending those moments with him at McDonalds, chatting and updating each other on our lives. We went to MPH to look at some books. I told him that I would bring him to the SUFES bookstore one day, since he seems to be really interested in Christian history and they have a large collection of reference books there.