keep believing

I’m at home now, getting stuffed with all the food that I’ve been deprived of for 6 months and doing pretty much nothing else. I’m glad I chose to go back home though I had to squeeze the time for it. After so much travelling, getting overwhelmed again and again by too many things, seeing and experiencing so much, this simple quality time with family, just being at home, enjoying the company, not doing anything, becomes so meaningful. I don’t even feel like going out for shopping or stuff like that. And this actually turns out to be more satisfying than taking too many pictures in foreign places (to be fair, I had a lot of fun, probably too much of it). I’ll sure miss travelling, but I guess I’ve had enough. I’m still looking forward to Bali though. For the company ;)

And FYP is calling me. Urgently. Sigh.

The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love to God begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them. It is God’s love to us that He not only gives us His Word but also lends us His ear. So it is His work that we do for our brother when we learn to listen to him. Christians, especially ministers, so often think they must always contribute something when they are in the company of others, that this is the one service they have to render. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking.

Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking when they should be listening. But he who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either; he will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God, too. This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and in the end there is nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words. One who cannot listen long and patiently will presently be talking beside the point and be never really speaking to others, albeit he be not conscious of it. Anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own follies.

- Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer