In my last sharing, we talked about our need to embrace discomfort, We also discussed the first suggestion on how to embrace discomfort, which is identity.
The other suggestion is awakening. What is meaning of awakening. It is a state of realising the importance of something in your life. Awakening can bring about change and direct our lives into a positive direction. For example, when we realize the importance of our health, we start eating healthy and living healthy lifestyles.
When we realize the importance of financial management for our retirement, we plan our wealth before we retire. Many retired pastors often complain that the diocese has not taken care of them in their retirement. In all fairness, how is it possible for the financial resources of the diocese to take care of the lives of all retired priests? Assuming that the average age of a pastor is 85, that means that the diocese must take care of each retired pastor for 20 years of his or her retirement. Is this possible? The Malaysian government is currently discussing the gradual abolition of civil service pension benefits. How can our dioceses afford what even the state finds overwhelming? Unfortunately, many pastors are totally unawakened to the fact that they need to learn to manage their finances position and plan for their retirement. What is the point of many pastors, after their retirement, taking their grievances about the difficulties they face in life to the diocese, putting the blame on the diocese and complaining that the diocese has not taken care of them?
The consequences of not being awake on life can be very serious.
The Church must awaken its members to the fact that they are disciples of Christ. They cannot just believe in Jesus, but they must follow him and become his disciples. Being a disciple of Jesus means that they must have a Christian lifestyle.
How to bring awakening?
1. To bring awakening in the church, pastors must first be awakened, especially the new generation of pastors. Awakening among pastors must come through more sharing and discussion among pastors. This is what I have been trying to do. The purpose of my blog is to share with more people, especially pastors, through the sharing of words.
2. To share the idea of discipleship continually and consistently with members of the congregation. I have been sharing the importance of discipleship from the pulpit until the members have implicitly accepted discipleship and unknowingly participated in it. Only when they are involved can they awaken through the training programme and begin to embrace the life of discipleship. If they are not involved in discipleship, it is very difficult for them to wake up, because the philosophy of discipleship is very difficult to explain in a few words and a short period of time.
3. We must be clear that getting people to wake up is a long-term endeavour, and the only way to have a long-term impact is through constant sharing, not giving up, and not focusing on short-term benefits. But this is a very difficult task for modern people. We have become accustomed to being quick and wanting to see immediate results in everything we do. When we are sick, we go to the doctor and take the medicine once and then we ask to be cured immediately. If we are not cured, we will criticise the doctor for not doing a good job and ask for another doctor. Therefore, we are not very interested in things that take a long time to cultivate, and we consider them to be inefficient and a waste of resources.
How do we bring about awakening? The simple answer is to keep sharing for a long time endlessly. In this way, over time, the concept of discipleship will become embedded in people’s hearts and bring about awakening.