Morning Thoughts
She is popular. I could confidently say that 95 percent of the student
population of that SDA campus know her (The unknowing 5 percent being
the preschoolers and kids from the elementary and highschool). Her
popularity is not based on her looks nor her wealth but because she is
radical. Working under her supervision for two years, it was
interesting to witness how radical she could be in a supposedly
Adventist environment.
People
talk about her and marvel at her guts in sharing her faith in an
"irritating" sort of way. I’ve heard stories of her banning karaoke in
social functions (and karaoke being the top 5 entertainers in a social
function, Pinoy style), banning the non-Adventist construction workers
to smoke on and off duty (as long as they were on Adventist ground),
visiting the same workers in their make-shift houses in the campus and
checking to see if they are not desecrating the Sabbath, banning
radio–pop or classical mostly on class trips and engages the students
to sing hymns instead all the way to Manila, refusing to eat out on
those class trips (eating out being one of the major highlights on
those trips) and bringing a big pot of bean paste and wheat bread
instead on the van, banning the official campus choir to sing in church
because their uniforms were too revealing, discouraging make-up
(lipstick, eyeliners, lip gloss–you name it), catering faculty
meetings with raw, tasteless food, and discouraging the other faculty
members to eat what they brought for lunch because hers were so much
healthier, discouraging opera songs in the voice majors’ repertoire…
and the list could go on and on and on.
Truth be told, I am
one of those people who would make snide comments of how radical she
is. My daily conversations with people of the same "beliefs" would
often find her ‘antics’ entertaining or irritating, depending on the
occasion if we were directly affected or not. She was an icon, and we
would have private nicknames for her, or quote her ironically on more
than one occasion.
Interesting how I suddenly have vivid images
of those times while reading a passage from EG White’s Great
Controversy p. 46, "Their [early Christians] blameless deportment and
unswerving faith were a continual reproof that disturbed the sinner’s
peace…they were a terror to evildoers wherever their character and
doctrines were known. They were hated by the wicked…It was for the
same reason that the Jews rejected and crucified the Saviour—because
the purity and holiness of His character was a constant rebuke to their
selfishness and corruption."
Whoops, I can hear myself quoting Judas Iscariot, "Is it I, Lord???"
I
have actively discussed her ‘faith-sharing’ style with many of my close
friends, and often, we would come to the same conclusion
(friends—correct me tho, if I’m wrong), that there was nothing wrong
with her beliefs, that she is highly commendable for doing what is
right, but that her ways of sharing it is a turn-off, especially to
those who might still be considered ‘weak’ in the faith, that instead
of leading them to Christ they come to view it in a legalistic manner,
that she insists on her way of doing it regardless of how it might hurt
feelings.
But who am I to judge? Who am I to underestimate the
powers of the Holy Spirit to work on someone’s heart? Aren’t we all
commissioned to spread the gospel? Besides, have I made any conscious
effort at all to share and verbalize it? Or, am I satisfied with just
using my musical talents and let the Holy Spirit do the rest of the job?
(This entry remains un-concluded, and is open for any of your violent or pleasing reactions.)
