Spirituality

I attent a lecture on Wednesday night with family at Trinity Methodist PJ on 'Heart and Soul of Spiritual Foundation'. It was given by a humble midwife who has got a doctorate in bible studies. Every time I go to Trinity Methodist PJ, it reminds me of my home church in Penang, Trinity Methodist Penang. What's the reason? I can see aunties and uncles, I can hear people speak in  Hokkien. 

Anyway, Dr Voon started off the lecture asking the question 'What is spirituality?' I was thinking it has to do with who are we, how we behave, etc. Her definition is outward expression of the inward belief system that defines who we are, and it governs what we do. Don't you find the definition is sooo complete? I can't wait to agree. Spirituality is one of the popular topics these days. 

If we talk abt Christian Spirituality, we can't run away with Trinity and she showed an illustration of father, son and the Holy spirit in a value chain-liked picture. 

The most important bit of the lecture was when she shared about the composite dynamics of spiritual formation that consists of formation, conformation, information, reformation and last but not least transformation. These composites give us the idea to answer how we're formed basically. To understand all these 5 composites, I shall attend the next 5 lectures in the coming weeks.

I came to realise that I love such lecture, to understand who am I, how come I'm formed this way, what should I do to improve myself, etc. No doubt, holy spirit works within me to guide me in my life everyday. But, I'm different from others. Some may say god creates everyone to be different and there's a purpose why  you are created in such way. 

Personally, I think my past has played an important part in how I behave. In other words, it is conformation that plays a big role. Conformation includes what we've encountered in the past and lessons that we have learned. When I was little, I was more comfortable to spend time with my cousins of my mom's family because I was babysit by my aunty and I called her Yee-Ma. I didn't quite comfortable to speak with my cousins of my dad's family. I think that could be due to age gap because I'm the youngest in the family. There's nothing much to talk about when we have such a big age gap. Another thing, I reckon I was such an introvert, I didn't like to talk. But now, I think I'm pretty extrovert. I share and I voice out, I shall not allow people to assume. I also enjoy catching up with my cousins (both my mother and father's families). Age gap is no longer the excuse. I found that everyone needs to make an effort. Come to think of it, I reckon I wouldn't have changed without going thru all incidents. I also encountered various shameful ocassions and I told myself that the experience is terrible. I don't want to impose that on others. 

There's a chinese saying 'Learn as you lead your life till it ends'. During the lecture, Dr Vonn also shared that there's this saying 'World is a transit for home', our eternal home is heaven. We are reminded to love our neighbours once again. Dr Voon made a joke saying some people believe that you'll sleep right next to the person you hate when you go to heaven. Hence, learn to love.