Stuffs

By Mario Wahyu Prabowo

Peace be with you, wherever you are at the moment.

Yesterday, I was blessed to have the opportunity to join the Firebrandz’ worship night. It was wonderful, the music, the people, everything. Solemn, yet joyful. Simple, yet so meaningful. It was wonderful!

The thing that I remember the most from the event is the part where we wrote down the things that hold us from God, the things that have been keeping our distance from Him, our sins, our fears, our desires. It’s amazing how at first I thought I wouldn’t have written a lot, yet as time passed by, I ended up adding more and more stuffs to my paper. Stuffs that I didn’t really notice before, stuffs that I realized but had forgotten, stuffs I thought were irrelevant and stuffs that I thought were already gone. All the “stuffs”, all the “baggage” that have been dragging me down from getting closer to Him, from completely trusting Him and from truly loving Him.

The whole session almost passed just like that, with me stuffed up thinking more and more of my “stuffs” to write down. Then I remembered about the question my group discussed in bible study the night before. In Exodus 3:6, when God said to Moses: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob”, what was His purpose? Why, after 400 years of being still and silent, He suddenly popped up and told that to Moses, to His people? Why, when His people most certainly already forgot about Him, about His promise, and worship other Gods instead, that He decided to come up and say those words?

Then an answer came to my mind, almost as if God answered the questions Himself. What He wanted to say to His people is: “You might have forgotten, but I haven’t. You might have forsaken Me, but I will never forsake you. I love you, My child, and I will never leave you. Trust Me.”. On and on, His answer kept repeating in my head.

After writing down all our “stuffs”, we then put them in a basket in front of the altar and lift them up to God, asking Him to take them away and free us from our “stuffs”. I might forget about that though, maybe in a year or two, or even in a few days, I might go back to those “stuffs” and break my promises with Him. But He won’t forget. All the things we have said in our hearts, all the things we asked Him, He’ll remember all. Even when we forsake Him, He won’t forsake us. He won’t leave us, even though what we have done, what we are doing, or what we will do break His heart. For we are His children and His love for us is unconditional.

So let us pray together, I'll pray for you and you pray for me, that together we can learn to love Him unconditionally as well, to keep humble and trust Him completely, and to keep our promises to Him. To make Him a bit happier, and to repay His kindness after all the pains we have caused Him. God, please hear our prayer. In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.