The Feast of Hajj

(Photo taken from The Malaysian Insider)

Idul Adha (atau di Malaysia dan Singapura, Hari Raya Haji, bahasa Arab: عيد الأضحى) adalah sebuah hari raya Islam. Pada hari ini diperingati peristiwa kurban, yaitu ketika nabi Ibrahim(Abraham), yang bersedia untuk mengorbankan putranya Ismail untuk Allah, akan mengorbankan putranya Ismail, kemudian digantikan oleh-Nya dengan domba.

Translation to English: Idul Adha (or in Malaysia and Singapore, Hari Raya Haji, in arabic: عيد الأضحى) is an Islamic feast. This day commemorates the event of sacrifice, when prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), who was willingly ready to sacrifice his prince/son Ismail for Allah, was about to sacrifice his prince/son Ismail, He provided a ram in place of him.

"Feasting is associated with sacrifice."

That's one of the few profound statements I've included in the paper I'm working on for finals (well, you may not think it's all that profound, but I do). Love what I'm learning while writing this paper.

Dec 7 is the day of Hajj for Muslims around the world. There are: sacrifices, symbolic stoning of the devil, sermons on Mt Arafat, slaughtering of animals for the feast. The imagery of this Islamic feast isn't dissimilar to Jewish feasts. Feasting is both a portrayal and prefigure to the Kingdom of God. It plays a part in missio Dei.

On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine 

- the best of meats and the finest of wines. 

On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, 

the sheet that covers all nations; 

he will swallow up death forever.

[Tuhan ALLAH] will wipe away the tears from all faces; 

he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth.

The LORD has spoken.

In that day they will say,

"Surely this is our [Allah]; we trusted in him, and he saved us. 

This is the LORD, we trusted in him; 

let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."

~ Isaiah (Yesaya) 25:6-9 with al-Kitab equivalent

Thorn.

The single common denominator of men and women who achieve great things and make history is a clear, central sense of destiny.

1) You step into your destiny every time you listen to what your heart carries.

Your heart carries crazy passions and ambitious dreams - raw, unjaded, of another 'world' -  stuff that are beyond yourself.

Knowing to live without these dreams is to not live at all. Being awakened to dreams deep inside is to be ALIVE to Possibilities, Potential, Potency of focus, Power of the Divine.

And Poverty of the self.

2) Because you also step into your destiny when you look in the mirror of reality.

Knowing to live out these dreams is to come to terms with your humanity. Your mortality. Your humanness. Your...limitations. The chasm between you and what you dream.

Pick a dream you've always had. Something you pray for, wish for. Hope for.

Don't you feel so alive when you dare, even for a few seconds of the day (preferably more!), to imagine that dream? To wonder, get curious?! The what-ifs. And your heart beats faster just thinking about the possibility. Oh, man! All that I imagine would happen when I dream what God + me + the world looks like. Change. Revolution. Destiny.

And then, you hit the ground. Feel that thorn in your human flesh.

Don't you feel SO handicapped? So inept??

"That's not gonna happen."

"Maybe someone else."

"Impossible."

"I don't have what it takes."

"It's just a dream."

BUT HE SAID TO ME, "MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU, FOR MY POWER IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS." THEREFORE I WILL BOAST ALL THE MORE GLADLY ABOUT MY WEAKNESSES, SO THAT CHRIST'S POWER MAY REST IN ME.

(2 Corinthians 12:9)

So tonight God spoke to me about this. 

Whatever your wildest dreams, go for it. Be the weakest possible, in the sense of fully experiencing what it means to be like Paul. Feel pain because you can't do it? Good!

Paul and his thorn. 

• If you dream about being the best teacher to urban kids, be the weakest best teacher.
  
• If you dream about starting the most amazing shelter for the homeless, be the weakest lover-of-the-homeless.
  
• If you dream about making history as the greatest architect ever, or the 'awesomest' philanthropist, or the craziest inventor, or the loudest remembered mime actress, BE THE BEST WEAKEST ONE.
  

I wanna be the weakest leader, simply in following the Strongest Leader of them all, in the most intimate way possible.

I wanna be a history maker, just walking side-by-side with the One who writes my history, where my future lies. Your future lies in your past. In the past, He found me in my weakness. My futility of self-effort. My brokenness. My insufficiency. My mortal limitations.

Why lose the magic of that brokenness, if that is where God meets you?!?

Carry passions and dreams in your heart with an ever-present THORN.

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

May we always be found lesser so that He may be more.

May we walk in deeper weakness so that His greater power may take over .

God's POWER + our POVERTY + the world's POSSIBILITIES

It is good to be ambitious. Learnt that from Oswald Sanders (and many others).

It is good AND godly to be ambitious AND inept. Weak. 

Unwillingness to be weak = Imperfect power of God.

HIS POWER IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS.