Another Sunday in Ah Dih's Life

Its Sunday again! I just want to stay in and sleep through church service. But today, it's stronger than ever - that urge... Perhaps if I could just close my eyes for another 15 minutes, I'll be too late for the service...

I just can't get back to sleep. That voice in my head, asking me to get up and get to church. Is it really God? Must be that bothersome friend of mine... or do I really want to go?

Ok lah, no harm lah, go then go lor... anyway by the time I get there I would have missed worship liao, then can sneak in while the congregation is praying, then sneak out when they close in prayer after the sermon.

Church, so standard and boring one, five years ago like that, now still like that, no wonder I left lah... If not for this friend huh, say today got special service I oso dun care ah. Special youth service, what so special, go and see how "special" it can be...

Ah Dih makes his way to church for the first time after 5 years of backsliding. Having been conformed to the pattern of the world and seeking the "fun" that he felt was missing in his life when he left church 5 years ago. He had not given His life to be transformed by God.

Today, he returns, feeling inadequate, but the postcard handed over to him by his insistent church friend from 5 years ago seemed to promise a difference in today's service. Or perhaps the emptiness of his heart had pushed him back to where he KNOWS he can find meaning again. His journey continues.

Not bad leh the decor, wah got thermal scanner sum more, sure will not kena SARS lah like that. Wah, so happening one ah, so many nets hanging around one, want to catch me isit??

Aiyah, worship still going on ah, ***** LAH!! (5 yrs of backsliding) like that how to sneak in... wah, why the usher so young one, looks like 13 years old only leh?? Child labour??!!

Wah nowadays the usher not bad huh. Aiyoh so many people in orange. Eh, they are all so young. Oh.. these are the youths in the church, but that tall guy right in front looks older than my father leh... like that oso youth meh??

Ah Dih was 20 minutes late for service. By the time he got there, worship was about to come to an end. As he sat there at the back of the sanctuary, God was tugging at the ropes that bound his heart. There he was, watching a bunch of youths on stage, worshiping God with all their hearts. His cynicism gave way to a sense of emptiness, a vacuum in his life that seems to be magnified by the very presence of God all around him.

Why are they so happy singing this song? So what if Jesus is lifted high? I also know, I was like that before what!! Aiyah, two weeks later they will forget about all this lah... 5 years ago I... ... It was REALLY fun... ... Chey!! So childish!! ... But so joyful... I remember... how I wish... ...

No one really knows what transacted between Ah Dih and God that day. But many years down the line, a friend of mine told me about how his leader shared about a God of the how much more, of second chance fishermen and of a particular Sunday in his life. The Sunday which changed his life.

"But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found."