Learning from Joseph's life

This was my message to about fifties high school students last Saturday in a service. I told them that they (and I too) can learn many things from Joseph's life.

From my observation, Joseph's life in the Book of Genesis can be divided into four phases. The four phases are:

• Joseph in his father's home
• Joseph in Potiphar's house
• Joseph in the prison
• Joseph in Pharaoh's palace

In each phase, we can pull similar threads about Joseph's outstanding characters. I see eight of them.

• Joseph feared God. It seems that he fully realized the omnipresence of the LORD. This was apparent from his definite stand agains the daily seduction of Potiphar's wife. I know it must be very hard to bear for a normal man. She was very likely a beautiful woman since Potiphar was a high official.
• Joseph was a man very faithful and dedicated to every responsibility given to him. Potiphar must be a crazy man in trusting nearly all his possessions to a man who can not be trusted with small things. Joseph must had been successful in doing jobs from his master, starting from daily small ones up to those with higher level of trust. Joseph a trusted man can be found in every phase of his life and the Bible give us the key to it: the presence and blessing of the LORD in everything he did.
• It can be predicted that Joseph was a man who loves to tell the truth. Telling lies must not be found in his dictionary.
• Joseph took great cares to people he served. See how he treated the two Pharaoh's official in the prison. He asked what their problem was and he was insterested to know so that perhaps he could help them. He was generous in offering help.
• Joseph was a forgiving person. Prejudice is far from him. See how he showed no doubt in doing his father's order to see his brother eventhough he must know that they hated him so much. Spending years in palace did not change Joseph. Notice how he treated his brothers when they came to Egypt for foods.
• Joseph was a clever person too. He not only used opportunities, but he also created them. He asked the official to remember him after telling the meaning of his good dream. Anyway, Joseph was still a normal guy. Who likes to be in prison all time, eh? And see when the Pharaoh asked him only to interpret the dreams, Joseph also gave additional advices that paved the way for him to be raised from rags to riches and fame! He walked another mile by giving more than expected.
• Joseph was a man of remarkable persistence and endurance. He spent a long 13 years in Egypt before hailed as king. It was not found in the Bible that he grumbled. Instead, it seems that Joseph just received the unfortunate conditions and worked the best he could do for his masters who eventually loved him.
• Joseph was a man who achieved true meaning of success in life. He finally became a great blessing for so many people, not only the Israelites and the Egyptians, but also people of all nations which future was determined by the stock of food in Egyptian barns built by Joseph. He fulfilled God's amazing masterplan designed for him before the earth was created.

Is it possible to be a 21th century Joseph?

Again, about effective meeting

In the last three weeks, our faculty meetings were better and more effective than before. I learn more about conducting effective meetings as follows:

• Two key people in a meeting are the chairman and the secretary. The chair leads the meeting and moderates discussions. The two roles should not be give to one person only.
• Important data to get from a matter: define what it is: a problem, an announcement, an order, a command or a joke? If it is a problem, then what is the real problem? What re the alternative solutions? What is the final decision? What is the action to be taken? When must it be accomplish? Give specific deadline? Who will do it? Give specific names. Never move to new topic without clear anwers to those questions. The minutes must document these impotant data.
• The chairman must have enough courage to terminate misleading discussions or interrupt someone who's talking too much and too broad than the focus, even the one is someone with authority. Of course, tactfulness and wisdom are crucial here. The chairman must make sure that the focus is maintained.
• The chairman is the time reminder. The chairman must strive to stick to the agreed time when the meeting must finish. Meeting is important. But too many unfruitful meetings make people crazy.

Have a nice meeting!

About trusting people

I met new people this week and we shared a lot about starting a movement for the good of our regency. But I still fell uneasy about something. It seems so hard for me to believe in people I just know. I need time and proofs that they are worth my trust. For me, my trust is very valuable and therefore I don't give it to anyone as easily as giving candy. Whenever I trust someone, then s/he should understand that it is a responsibility. So, when anyone I trust and then let me down, I don't think that I will trust him/her anymore.

What about me? I learn that I myself should take other people's trust to me very seriously just like what I hope from them to my trust. Anyway, perharps I should learn to give chances, even second chances just like what my Lord Jesus did to Peter and also me, the greatest sinner on earth.

That crazy teleconference

I read a report about the remarkable cost this republic had to pay for the teleconference service so that the president could lead meetings with his ministers in only one week. It is said that it was much more than the fund prepared to subsidize hundred thousands poor people living in thousands poor villages. Why should we pay so much money for a technology used only for hours rather than for feeding our own unfortunate families for months? I really don't know what's in their minds...

Why was teleconference chosen for just leading a meeting in Jakarta from the US? Isn't there any much cheaper technology yet effective and reliable? Why don't they use VoIP for example? What is the real importance that they should see each other? Don't they know that the voice is much more important as long as it is the president himself speaking? Do the president not have pretty good telecommunication experts who still have common sense and courage to speak and give the best option?

I don't know and I'm getting more and more apathetic. I think I am getting more unsure that SBY's administration fully cares and loves their people and their country....

Energized again

I feel in high spirit now. Why? I do because...

• Tomorrow is the first day of the new academic semester. I'll start teaching again and teaching students is one of my favourite activities, of course, with good preparation.
• This is the first time I am appointed as advisor for 25 students of the new inducted class. I am glad. They are like members of my new small (no, big) group. I want them to perform better than other students.
• I get a new computer set: a brand new PC with better specification than my old one and a TFT monitor! Wow, it's much clearer that the CRT one.
• I've finished washing all my dumped dirty clothes for days.
• The job training, final project, inauguration and commencement were over. Anyway, a new start always raise new hope in me to start better, just like every new morning.

O God, please help me by the power of your Holy Spirit.

Working in team

I worked last night finishing some materials for graduation ceremony which is held today. I worried I wouldn't make it because I started to work quite late, at 5 PM. Somehow, some of my colleagues showed up and they helped me. We had a big trouble with the laser printer. Had it not worked properly, we would have worked until the sun shows up in the morning! After spending about two hours trying to keep on working with the troublesome printer, at last my friend could find the solution. After that the printer became our best friend. If it could talk, it would cry out since there were so many pages to be printed. While we worked, someone came and made statements to us that demoralized us. I knew the message was good but the way it was said was not wise and well-thought. Well, we still could control ourselves and continue to work. Finally we finished all of the tiresome job at 1 AM, finding each of us still in one piece.

What did I learn from it? Here are they.

• Never get ashamed to ask for help from your friends and colleagues. If they truly are, they will try to help you. Do the same also to your fellow friends. That's teamwork. Working in team will maintain the spirit of the members tougher against all kinds of troubles.
  
• One person will never be a team. Egoism and individualism are sometimes good tools to kill yourself, especially when the work to do is so big and complex.
• In job with many phases, get used to starting and doing each phase as well as you can. Although it may seem foolish, you'll reap the benefit of it later. Committed to excellence means committed to take care of details perfectly.
• I learn that a good leader should acquire the skill of keeping the spirit of his men as high as possible. A good team leader must be a master of motivating his team members. The means of it are numerous. Be creative to find or create them.
  
• One amazing tool to boost the motivation of people is to express a healthy level of appreciation. Anyway, there are times when critics should be given but always make sure to precede them with appreciations.
• I learn that in everything two things should be noticed carefully: the message and the way the it is communicated. Fos us as Christians, sincere message is a must. But many times the biggest problem is the incorrect and unwise way to communicate it. Passing good intentions and messages in a nice and friendly way needs a lot of practice. But you'll never know the good it will bring you.
• The nice way to do a boring and repetitious job is to do it together and in FUN.
• There is no advantage of grumbling. It won't solve the problem. Not only you'll waste time, you'll perform worse and finish later.
• I learn the benefit of making good documentation of the process in doing things, especially software. The help file of the printer driver software was very helpful. I also learned again the true usefulness of RTFM (Read The F*cking Manual).
  

Envy can be good or bad

Envy, in a healthy dose, can be a good friend to boost our spirit to perform better. But if it exceeds the healthy limit, it can be a devil. Sometimes I envy my colleagues and friends (or younger ones) who can perform better than I do, live more productive and healthy life, or have things I am looking forward to having. But the question arised is why should I envy them?

I learn some important lessons about this.

• You've gotta be focused on your own priority. It is so easy to follow people doing things which are enjoyable to do but not essential. Remember. You have a very short life. Just focus on your own mission, focus on your own strengths. But be glad to the achievements of others. They deserve your appreciation.
  
• Sometimes this principle is found useful: MYOB, Mind Your Own Business. You can expand it to almost all aspects. It can be MYOL (Mind Your Own Life),MYOP (Mind Your Own Project), MYOC (Mind Your Own Course), MYOF (Mind Your Own Family), MYOH (Mind Your Own Health), MYOx (x can be anything).
• Instead of being envy, its more healthy to be happy. Yeah, to be happy with good progress made by our own friends. Laugh and smile as long as you are not taxed for that. But please always remember to be yourself.
• Ask yourself: what happen with me? why can't I perform like them? Do I give my best or am I undermine my own potentials to grow?
  
• Accept that each person is created unique. There is no one who is same like you. The key to happiness is to be able to happily accept ourselves with all the potentials and weaknesses, to be able to happily pay respect and to maintain good relationship with others, and to live with God-pleasing contentment.
• The most important thing for me to do on earth is the works God wants me to do and finish. If I want to find approval and honor, seek it not from men. You'll sin by then. But seek it only from God. Your job is not to make people envy you, but to make them glorify the LORD.

Oh, boring administrative tasks...

I've spent several days to produce something which includes creative design and also boring data entry and editing. I have been doing it by myself because I love the design part but I hate the menial administrative stuffs. Tonight I was told by someone a great idea which I have been so foolish not to even think about it: GETTING SOMEBODY ELSE TO DO IT! In this case, I can empower my idle students who can be made interested to the job I'm doing.

I wonder how such a simple but brilliant idea was not even thought of by my neurons. From this moment on, I learn something very important. I HAVE LIMITED TIME AND ENERGY YET SO MANY IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO. I HAVE TO MAKE SURE THAT I WORK ON THINGS WHICH ARE CHALLENGING, SUITABLE TO MY CAPACITY AND GREAT FOR IMPROVING MYSELF. WHENEVER I COME TO BORING ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS WHICH UNDERVALUE MY VALUABLE RESOURCES, THEN I GOTTA FIND OTHER PEOPLE TO DO THEM. IF NOT, PAY THEM. I'D BETTER LOSE MONEY TO BUY TIME AND HIGHER ACHIEVEMENTS. MY BRAIN AND BODY ARE WORTH MATTERS OF HIGHER IMPORTANCE AND VALUE.

THE KEYWORD HERE IS DELEGATION.

My reflections on Mandala Tragedy

On the morning of September 5, 2005, a plane of Mandala Airlines carrying about 120 passengers including the Governor of North Sumatera failed to take off, fell to the highway of Jamin Ginting Padang Bulan Medan and exploded. At that hour, I was taking a shower in the bathroom.

Here are some of my reflections on the tragedy.

• Anyone who says that our future is absolutely in our own hands is absolutely wrong. It is God who holds our future. Planning without praying has little meaning.
  
• I will die someday, sooner or later, even tomorrow and an hour to come. Not only me. Everyone is. The question is how this fact affects how I live my life.
  
• It is not important how long you live. The most important is how you live and what you live for.
• It is not important how and when you die. The most important is what you die for and where you go after you die.
  

KNA: Lessons from Dr. Isabelo Magalit's Sermons

Opening Service (Matthew 5:13-16)

• What is the perfect role of Christians in the world? To be salt and light of the world.
• The Greek word for "blessed" in the Beatitudes is makarios. Its best meaning is "to be the object of God's favor."
• How the characters in the Beatitudes influence the society for good is explained by the two metaphors, salt and light.
• Salt referred here is salt taken from the Dead Sea which is different than that produced from the ocean. It is gravels and limestones with NaCl. When it is watered, the NaCl will dissolve into water and leave only the gravels and limestones. The form before and after the NaCl has gone are the same, but it is not salty anymore. That's why it's used for filler in the roads to be trampled.
• Christians can be like the salt. Their physical forms do not change but their "saltiness" has gone.
• Mr Bel prefers the role of preservative of salt to flavor. That's the most common use of salt at the time of Jesus, especially to preserve fish.
• Three qualities of salt as preservative: 3P
  
• PECULIAR: the salt is different from the fish. The salt must be different than the fist to be able to preserve it.
• PURE: a little pure salt is much better than much unpure salt. It describes the role of 24/7 Christians.
  
• PENETRATING: the salt should be distributed not only on the surface of the fish, but also everywhere inside it.
  
• Like the pure salt with great preserving effect, Christians do not have to be majority. What Christians should become is an OVERWHELMING minority.
• Christians should be everywhere. An ubiquitous Christian.
• Three D's of light:
• DIFFERENT: we serve the world best when we are different that it is.
• DISPLAY: light must display deliberately!
• DEEDS OF GOODNESS: why can night clubs be found in dark places? Because what people do there is evil.
  
• The challenge is to be human as anyone else yet a different one.
• Christian life is not difficult. It is IMPOSSIBLE without the power of God. (Griffith Thomas)
  
• What are the good deeds? All kinds of good works, especially which man can see clearly so that the glorify the LORD.
• If the population of Sodom and Gomorrah was 50,000 then all it took to save the city was only ten believers, a 0.02% of the total population. Roughly, about 6% of220 millions Indonesians are born-again Christians. It's much more than 0.02%.
  
• The question: why is it not influential enough?
  

First Exposition on Nehemiah (Topic:Who is Nehemiah?)

• Who was Nehemiah
• He is a cupbearer of the king
• He is a patriot / nationalist
• He is a man who knew Yahweh his God as the God of heaven and earth, the God of Covenant, and the God of history
• He is a man of prayer. Prayer, not planning and strategy, was always his first response to problems and troubles.
• He is a practical visionary. He was not a dreamer. He worked his dream. But dreaming is important. If you don't dream, how will you make your dream come true?
• He is a biblical reformer
• He is devoted to duty. He is perseverent.
• The question: WHO AM I?
  

Second Exposition on Nehemiah (Topic:Who is Yahweh?)

• Sinful nature is no good enough reason for rationalizing disobedience. Sinful nature is like earth gravity while the power of the Holy Spirit is like the power of a space shuttle rocket.
• Who is the perfect mediator between the Arabs and the Israelites? A diplomat whose father is an Arab and mother an Israelite. Who is the perfect mediator between God and sinful men? God in human flesh, Jesus Christ.
  

Third Exposition on David's Fall

• Idleness is the devil's workshop.
• Temptation may seem innocently enough when it comes.
• Any sin, especially adultery, leads to hipocrisy.
• Everyone is temptable and everyone has their own price (maximum resistance to sin). Yet there is no irresistible temptation.
  

Kamp Nasional Alumni 2005 (KNA 2005)

I thanked God for allowing me to participate in Kamp Nasional Alumni (Alumni National Camp) 2005 which is a national program of Perkantas. It was held from 1st to 5th September 2005 at Toledo Hotel, Tuktuk, Samosir Island of North Sumatera. There were about 250 participants from nearly all provinces and islands in Indonesia. This was a grace of God for me in which I was resfreshed and reminded on the roles and vision God has planned for me to take part in the building of my nation Indonesia. Through the sessions especially the plenary ones, led by the renowned Dr. Isabelo Magalit and Rev. Mangapul Sagala, God teached me many important things so that I may live my life as an alumnus to bear much fruit for the glory of God.

I'll write a series of blogs on what I learned from KNA. Each of them will be under the topic KNA2005.

Tuktuk: A nother side on Christianity in Toba Hinterland

I was told this story by Pdt. Bonar Lumbantobing, a professor at STT HKBP Siantar. It is interesting to see how the Holy Spirit has been working for Batak people. This another side of the story was not likely known by many of us. So here is the story.

Long years ago, Toba hinterland was a secret paradise. A map of Sumatera made in 1805 by the British pictured the Sumatera we know today except one thing: there was no Toba Lake there! At that time, the surrounding tribes like the people of Aceh, Melayu and Minangkabau have been adherents of Islam but no people have introduced any religion to the pagan Bataknese. It seemed that the Toba hinterland was absolutely isolated and the people who lived there loved the fact.

The Batak people really admired their living place and did good efforts to kept it unknown from outsiders. Anyway, Junghun, a Dutch adventurous anthropologist was one of the first foreigners who found the way to enter the paradise. He studied Batak cultures, including the traditional letters. He documented his research and got out of the area.

We move to Minangkabau. Imam Bonjol was a strong ruler at the time. He had a mission to islamize all Sumatera and he planned to bring his indomitable troops to conquer the beautiful land of Batak which has been known since Junghun. He did it ruthlessly. Many people were killed and many women were raped by the Bonjol soldiers. They built Sigumpar as the center of prostitution, Sipoholon as the center of weapon logistics, and Pearaja Tarutung as the place for keeping salt. The three formed the power of Bonjol: women, weapons and salt. Not long they suffered from cholera and many Bonjol men died of it. This made them resigned to Sibolga. It was said that they abused Batak women to carry their materials by running to Sibolga in Eve's costume! After the retreat of the Bonjols, the kings of Batak, led by Sisingamangaraja, gathered and made and oath to kill anyone trying to enter their land to preach any kind of religion. They closed themselves from the outside world. People at Sibolga heard about this and they were afraid.

Now we move to USA. A Baptist church in the United States searched maps for places in the world whose people have never heard the Gospel. They found out a newly disclosed territory in a map produced by Junghun where Batak people lived. They sent two young missionaries, namely Munson and Lyman to go there. Apparently they arrived not in Sibolga, but in Barus, an old port city in the west coast of Sumatera. No people in Barus was aware of the political changes in the land of Batak. So, both young agents of God directly marched to enter Toba hinterland. Had both of them landed in Sibolga, they must have been warned about the great danger they were to face. Munson and Lyman came to a village called Lobupining. Knowing their mission and the oath, the villagers then catched and brought them to an open village fair. The two young men were killed. It was said that the villagers bite (not eat) their flesh as a lethal reminder to anyone who thought of trying the same thing the missionaries did.

The terrible news was finally heard by the church who sent them. They cried on hearing the story, especially the two mothers of the young martyrs. One of them prayed, "O God, if I had another son, I would sent him again to the Batak land." The prayer was heard by God and not long after the tragedy, a son was born, but not in the USA. He was born for a Christian family in Germany and he was named Ingwer Ludwig Nommensen.

The next story about Nommensen can be read in books about him and his ministry among the Bataknese.