peace . love . joy

The songs we sang once, some time ago, five years to be exact, started playing on my Windows Media Player. And what was supposed to be background music, meant to keep me consciously in the present so I can revise for the exams without too much drifting, kind of like the ambience music just before the movie begins and you, the movie-goer, are reading a magazine, became the emotion-tugging soundtrack music. The movie had begun unexpectedly, without those anti-climax ads they screen just before the movie, Poot Mai Koi Geng, Roo Mai and Yorm becoming the vital musical accompaniment to the silent montage of short clips and stills from our trip to Udon Thani, Thailand, in the theatre of my mind.

All of a sudden, I am reminded of the people, the smells, the sounds, the weather, the animals...And I miss it all very terribly.
I miss the confusing muddle we found ourselves in, trying to remember all the mono-syllabic names of the children and youths and adults.
I miss the little girl who strangely took to me so quickly, even though I did nuts.
I miss struggling with the language.
I miss painting beams and laughing as we contributed to the manual construction of a new church.
I miss balancing bowls of steaming noodles on a red plastic tray as I walk up the sandy slippery slope to help serve lunch.
I miss all the faces as the tongue is surprised by the puny but ridiculously hot green chilli padi that had escaped the eyes' notice.
I miss the smell of morning wafting through the wired mosquito net on the window.
I miss the black fighting chickens.
I miss the orange sandy road.

But you know what really unsettled me?
I missed telling them why I came.
I missed telling them about Jesus.

'Jesus said, "Leave her alone.
Why are you troubling her? She did an excellent thing for me.
You will always have the poor with you, and you can help them anytime you want. But you will not always have me.
This woman did the only thing she could do for me; she poured perfume on my body to prepare me for burial.
I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached in all the world, what this woman has done will be told and people will remember her."'

~ Mark 14: 6-9

People will remember her, He said. Notice she will not be remembered for who she is, we don't know really, where she came from, what she does for a living, the sins she was convicted of, her family, we don't know. Instead, she will be remembered for what she has done.

She is remembered for what she did.
We remember her for what she did.

I guess in our society, with this big emphasis on being "free" which entails some notion of always being able to have "fun", everyone wants to be that someone who loves to have fun, that someone whom everyone loves to be around because there's never a dull moment with him\her.
I think there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think Jesus Himself loves to have fun. He loved to go to parties. He loved to go for dinners.

But here is the possible difference between us and Him (possible in that we are lacking in this, not that this reason might not be true):
He went realising each moment that He was on a mission.
He never lost sight of His purpose.
He prioritised, always having at the forefront of His mind and always did first His goal of Salvation.
He was, is and will continue to be remembered for what He has done. For fulfilling His purpose and mission.

So when you walk on the streets, go to school, go to work, serve in church, go for social gatherings...
When you are at home, watching TV, listening to the radio, latched onto the internet...
When you wake up, realising that each day, no matter where you are or what you're doing or whose company you're in, is a mission day...

And you meet the different people...
Maybe you'll never meet them again in your lifetime...
Maybe they'll be there for quite some time yet...

What do you want them to remember you for?

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