What I learnt at LifeGroup today.

There was a dinner at the nearby coffeeshop. I went not without trepidation today because I knew it was going to be awkward without Chee Keen there. I wonder how I will survive LifeGroup when he goes to Scotland? I went anyways. And you know what? It turned out to be quite alright. Sure, I had to gobble my fried rice as fast as I could as they were already finished with their dinner, but everyone was friendly and cool. Now, why was I afraid?

The lesson of the night was basically about the Holy Spirit. Pastor Norman touched on the Spirit being our Counsellor, and also being God. He also spent quite a lot of time explaining about tongues and the controversy behind it, which was really illuminating. You know, I never realised that all the answers were in the Bible all this while! If you ever wondered if everyone could receive tongues, if you should be speaking in tongues in church, if tongues even exist, it's all there! 1 Corinthians 14. Check it out.

Anyways, what I really took back was actually from the sharing by the rest. I guess I shall skip right to what my takeaways were, because what others shared are supposed to be confidential.

Basically I began to see that Ma's nagging about my spending nights out was probably more out of worry than a desire to control my life. All these while, I felt really frustrated because I really didn't know why they were blaming me if I did nothing wrong. Well, I guess worry doesn't really work that rationally. It's true that my staying out late would logically cause them to worry.

Then there's the issue with spending. I have tried to keep spending at a minimum, but I guess it can appear that I spend beyond my means because I wanted to go overseas? I initially convinced Ma because I realised I will not get to go anywhere for the rest of my uni life except for the student exchange because basically it's time to chiong internships. Well, I guess she forgot about it. And I guess it's difficult to understand why I would want to go to Vietnam? That part I haven't really understood yet.

Anyways! I learnt that I should have more patience and understanding to see things from the perspective of others. I also felt convicted that I should be more gentle with my words too. Somehow I have become quite quick to come to conclusions about people, and that's really not right. Where's the long-suffering kindness? That's something I have to learn all over again I guess.

Another takeaway was to make more space for God to work in my life rather than have the mentality of having to strive to make it in university. You know, it's so easy to fall into the mindset of wanting to do anything to snatch any possible mark in my modules so that I can get a higher CAP score. And as Chee Keen rightly put it, there's nothing wrong with it. But I really want to learn to prioritize God as first in my life before studies. That means making more space for him, trusting him to be for me, and relying on His Providence in times of need.

Yup. Thank God I went for LifeGroup!