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This morning we had our AMKPC Leaders' Prayer Retreat at TTC, and it was truly a time of refreshing.
Up super early in the morning to help prepare for the retreat, and basically the highlight of the day was a silent meditation walk that we'll take from TTC to the Singapore Quarry nearby. We'll spend some personal time with the Lord at the open clearing there, and then make our way back.
It'll be one hour of silence.
ONE HOUR OF SILENCE.
The amazing thing? .....EVERYONE was truly silent.
During the planning process, the pastoral team were kinda wary of people not being used to the idea of staying quiet for such a stretch of time, and they'd be fidgety or use the time to chitchat and stuff.
But by God's grace, the time spent was meaningful to all (we found out during the reflection sessions after that)
Perhaps I'll share with you what God spoke to me about in tml's entry. Today I wanted to use this post to share what Elder Lester shared with our group during the reflection session.
It really touched my heart.
He said that during the walk he kept looking at the trees growing all along the path. He noticed that the leaves on the majority of the trees had holes in them - either eaten by bugs or by diseases. The leaves were half-brownish, rotted, and some all shriveled up; at the point of falling off the branches.
But what struck him was that even though these trees had leaves that were full of holes, some were still flowering, some producing fruits; and they were all firmly rooted in the soil.
They were still alive.
And that's the story of grace right there.
WE are like those trees.
We are full of sinfulness and brokenness, resulting in holes in our individual lives.
But by God's grace, He enables us to flower, to be able to produce fruits and at the end of the day we are ultimately rooted in Him.
We are alive because of Him.
I love that. I love the fact that we recognize that we, like those trees, are not perfect. We are riddled with the sins of this world, but God STILL chooses to work in our lives. He brings about His glory through our imperfections.
Such amazing, amazing love.
