*{my.decorated.words}*

Jika di artikel sebelumnya aku menggumam soal pergi menuju sel, perjalanan pulang dari sel merupakan suatu hal yang beda total. Tidak pernah ada perasaan rugi atau membuang-buang ‘waktu berharga’ supaya bisa menyempatkan diri mengikuti sel. Aku selalu pulang dengan dada yang ringan, perasaan terlepaskan dan kebahagiaan karena sudah memuliakan nama Tuhan. Puji Tuhan ya kalau begitu. Hahaha.

So now perhaps to our English-speaking friends I’d like to share a couple of Christian songs in Indonesian that were appropriately (maybe accidentally appropriate) chosen for the cell-group today. The words are completely touching and so are the melodious tunes. Search for them on Youtube if you’d like to find out more. They’re originally soundtracks from two different Christian soap operas on Indonesian television channels. They were aired during Christmas last year, from memory. My unofficial translations are alogside the Indonesian lyric.

Lagu-lagu yang sudah amat terkenal di bawah ini mempunyai lirik yang relatif cocok dengan Firman minggu ini. Bapa, sentuhlah hatiku yang keras ini, lunakkanlah dan ubahlah hidupku agar mengikuti rancanganMu. Hindarilah aku dari kehendak daging dan antarkanlah aku kepada kehendakMu. JanjiMu seperti fajar pagi hari ya Bapa. Tidak pernah terlambat. Dalam lika-liku kehidupanku kutemukan Engkau, sumber jawabanku. Engkau yang menjagaiku selalu.

Sentuh Hatiku

JASON

Betapa kumencintai                             Oh, how I love
Segala yang t'lah terjadi                       All that has happened
Tak pernah sendiri jalani hidup ini           Never walked alone in living this life
Selalu menyertai                                 Always by my side

Betapa kumenyadari                            Oh, how I realised
Di dalam hidupku ini                             In this life of mine
Kau s’lalu memberi rancangan terbaik     You’ve always given the best plan
Oleh karena kasih                               As a result of love

Ref:
Bapa, sentuh hatiku                            Father, touch my heart
Ubah hidupku menjadi yang baru           Change my life so it becomes new
Bagai emas yang murni                        As gold that is pure
Kau membentuk bejana hatiku              You form the vessel of my heart

Bapa, ajarku mengerti                         Father, teach me to understand
Sebuah kasih yang selalu memberi         A love that is forever giving
Bagai air mengalir                               Like flowing water
Yang tiada pernah berhenti                  That never stops

JanjiMu Seperti Fajar Pagi Hari

AFEN HARDIYANTO

Ketika kuhadapi kehidupan ini                                When I face this life
Jalan mana yang harus kupilih                         Which way should I choose
Kutahu ku tak mampu                                       I know I’m not capable
Kutahu ku tak sanggup                              I know I don’t have the power
Hanya Kau Tuhan tempat jawabanku   Only You Lord the place of my answers

Aku pun tahu ku tak pernah sendiri                I also know I’m never alone
S'bab Engkau Allah yang menggendongku     Cos’ You’re God who carries me
TanganMu membelaiku                                      Your hand caresses me
CintaMu memuaskanku                                       Your love satisfies me
Kau mengangkatku ke tempat yang tinggi      You raised me to a high place

Ref:
JanjiMu seperti fajar pagi hari             Your promise is like the morning dawn
Dan tiada pernah terlambat bersinar                And never ever shines late
CintaMu seperti sungai yang mengalir       Your love is like a river that flows
Dan kutahu betapa dalam kasihMu           And I know how deep is Your love

External Links:

Refleksi

Hatiku tersentuh hari ini. Bukan, bukan cuma hari ini. Lewat lagu, perayaan Gereja, prosesi Misa, Firman dan kesaksian orang-orang di sekitarku, Ia telah berulang-kali melakukannya. Kesempatan hari ini hanyalah salah satunya sejak masa natal bernaung. Hanya saja sifatku, sebagai hamba yang begitu lancang, menghalang-halangi terwujudnya niat yang terpendam ini untuk merefleksikannya lebih dalam lagi. Ampuni aku ya Bapa. Aku ini tidak lain hanya anak malas yang lebih ingin mencari kesenangan duniawi, lebih ingin memanfaatkan kemewahan menggiurkan yang tersaji di depan kedua bola mataku. Jarang rasanya aku memilih untuk bersusah-payah. Aku ingin gampangnya saja.

Pertemuan Sel

Aku sungguh ingin menuruti Engkau. Aku rindu dipelukMu. Aku tahu aku kangen dengan kasihMu yang amat memulihkan. Dan Engkau tahu ya Bapa, dengan tujuan itu aku hadir di sel minggu lalu. Lalu sekali lagi Engkau menuntun langkahku untuk hadir di sel hari ini. Perjalanan naik mobil menuju pertemuan sel memang panjang dan selalu saja dipenuhi pertanyaan batin. Ini sangat aku rasakan terutama selama liburan. Aduh Tuhan, kenapa aku mesti datang lagi? Tinggal tiga hari lagi aku sudah bisa lepas dari ‘kewajiban’ ini. Aku sudah di Indonesia. Mengapa Tuhan? Ya Tuhan, aku kan juga harus pulang cepat, adikku ada janji beli seragam. Sia-siakah ini? Roda kendaraan terus menggelinding sementara aku berdoa minta keyakinan batin untuk lanjut. Entah kenapa aku malas dan tak percaya diri. Aku tidak tahu kisah kebaikan Tuhan apa yang harus kuutarakan nanti.

Puji dan syukur kuhaturkan kepadaNya yang sudah mengantarku selamat sampai di sel hari ini, walau kebimbangan dan rasa tak percaya diri terus menghantui hanya beberapa kilometer menjelang keluar jalan bebas hambatan. Aku berterima kasih boleh memperoleh keluarga rohani di Perth, di mana aku bisa bersenda-gurau bersama sambil membagikan cerita-cerita serta pergumulan rohani. Aku yakin ini bagian dari jalanNya bagiku, dengan memberikan wadah untuk menyelami lautan Surat CintaNya. Di sini aku bisa menyembah Tuhan dengan lebih leluasa. Setidaknya kerinduanku sejak di bangku SD untuk masuk dalam mudika tercapai. Dalam sel, segala kekangan jasmani dan duniawi bisa terlepaskan selagi doa puji dan syukur berlangsung. Pengalaman rohani yang sungguh unik. Dapat kurasakan hatiku yang haus akan siraman rohani. Saat aku masuk Sel Theresa, aku merasa menemukan sel yang cocok buatku. Santa Theresa dari kanak-kanak Yesus, doakanlah  dan lindungilah kami senantiasa. Buat kami agar lebih mencintai Yesus, lebih ingin dibentukNya.

Pengharapan

Lihatlah pesan yang Allah, melalui GerejaNya, ingin sampaikan kepada kita hari Minggu besok. Aku tertegur ketika tadi bersama-sama membaca dan merenungkannya. Oh betapa indahnya! Apakah kalian khawatir akan masa depan kalian? Di tahun yang baru ini banyak sekali hal yang tidak pasti. Keadaan ekonomi yang terus terpuruk menyebabkan angka pengangguran, bahkan di Australia, terus menanjak, dan lain sebagainya. Bagaimana nasib kita? Khawatirkah kita akan masalah sekolah, relasi, residensi, atau ekonomi? Gereja Katolik optimis, seharusnya Anda juga. Simak potongan perikop bacaan pertama di bawah ini:

(Yesaya 55:2) Mengapakah kamu belanjakan uang untuk sesuatu yang bukan roti, dan upah jerih payahmu untuk sesuatu yang tidak mengenyangkan? Dengarkanlah Aku maka kamu akan memakan yang baik dan kamu akan menikmati sajian yang paling lezat.

(Yes 55:8) Sebab rancangan-Ku bukanlah rancanganmu, dan jalanmu bukanlah jalan-Ku, demikianlah firman TUHAN.

(Yes 55:9) Seperti tingginya langit dari bumi, demikianlah tingginya jalan-Ku dari jalanmu dan rancangan-Ku dari rancanganmu.

Nah, apa yang bisa kita petik? Kita harus hidup sesuai jalanNya dan percaya akan setiap rancanganNya. Dengarkanlah dan renungkanlah FirmanNya. Hidup beriman akan membuahkan penyertaan yang senantiasa. Tuhan menjamin ia tidak akan sia-sia (ay. 11). Mengapa kita harus takut akan masa depan yang tidak akan terwujud dalam 10 tahun apabila yang akan kita lakukan beberapa jam lagi saja tidak pasti? Berikut kutipan dari bacaan kedua:

(1 Yoh 5:3-4) Sebab inilah kasih kepada Allah, yaitu, bahwa kita menuruti perintah-perintah-Nya. Perintah-perintah-Nya itu tidak berat, sebab semua yang lahir dari Allah, mengalahkan dunia. Dan inilah kemenangan yang mengalahkan dunia: iman kita.

Beriman itu penting. Beriman menuntut lebih dari sekadar percaya. Iman juga menuntut keberserahan, keyakinan, kepatuhan, dan ketaatan akan kenyataan yang tidak kasat mata. Iman kita mampu mengalahkan hal-hal yang bersifat dunia! Tuhan pasti menyertai kita senantiasa dalam angin ribut yang akan datang. Amin.

Pembaptisan Tuhan

Hari Minggu lalu Tuhan seolah-olah menampakkan semuanya kepadaku. Saat Misa Kudus berlangsung aku serasa disadarkan kembali makna dari semua ini. Makna dan inti hidup serta tujuanku. Arah gerak dan fokusku dibenahiNya. Allah Bapa senantiasa merupakan pokok yang tidak tergantikan. Aku sadar, akan betapa lemahnya diriku terhadap badai godaan-godaan duniawi. Aku tidak akan mampu bertahan suci tanpa bantuan Tuhan. Malam itu aku berdoa memohon bimbinganNya.

Nah, setelah Hari Raya Penampakan Tuhan minggu lalu dan Hari Raya Keluarga Kudus pada beberapa minggu sebelumnya (Aku lupa, hehe), minggu ini Gereja merayakan Hari Raya Pembaptisan Tuhan. Semua itu belum sempurna tanpa pembaptisan. Pembaptisan adalah pokok upacara inisiasi iman Kristen. Pembaptisan adalah tanda lahir baru dalam kehidupan Kristiani yang juga baru. Di tahun yang baru ini janji baptis yang kita ikrarkan sejumlah waktu yang lampau, bahkan yang diemban wali baptis kita apabila dibaptis bayi, hendaknya diperbarui dan disegarkan kembali. Kita kembali diingatkan akan arah dan tujuan hidup kita. Bahwa kita semua sudah menerima anugerah dari karya keselamatan ilahi dalam Kristus Yesus dan oleh karenanya juga mendapat bagian dari kewajiban mengikuti Dia.

Bacaan Injil hari Minggu ini berkisah tentang Yesus yang turut mengantre untuk dibaptis di sungai Yordan oleh Yohanes Pembaptis. Alangkah mulianya Tuhan kita! Ia merendahkan hatinya sedemikian rupa sehingga juga harus dibaptis oleh seorang manusia pendahuluNya yang mempersiapkan kedatanganNya. Demikian juga segala sesuatu membutuhkan pengalahan diri. Kita harus mengalah akan aturan-aturan yang berlaku. Seperti aku dan kisahku tentang polis asuransi di artikel sebelumnya. Lain ladang lain belalang, lain lubuk lain ikannya. Seringkali kita harus mengalah tapi bukan berarti kalah. Kita tidak boleh angkuh.

(Markus 1:7b-8) “Sesudah aku akan datang Ia yang lebih berkuasa dari padaku; membungkuk dan membuka tali kasut-Nyapun aku tidak layak. Aku membaptis kamu dengan air, tetapi Ia akan membaptis kamu dengan Roh Kudus.”

(Mrk 1:9) Pada waktu itu datanglah Yesus dari Nazaret di tanah Galilea, dan Ia dibaptis di sungai Yordan oleh Yohanes.

Siapkah kita untuk menerima pembaruan janji baptis kita? Apakah iman kita masih setengah-setengah? Apakah kita masih terlontang-lantung dalam kehidupan duniawi? Ingatkah kita akan janji ilahi kepada kita? Apakah kita siap berserah kepadaNya untuk setiap pergumulan dan kekhawatiran masa depan kita? Berdoalah dengan rajin dan jangan pantang menyerah dalam memohon. Mintalah seperti seorang anak kecil yang tulus dan bersabar, sebab segala sesuatu akan terkabulkan dalam waktuNya. Tuhan memberkati kita semua di tahun yang baru ini.

Dan tolong diingat, bahwa aku menulis dengan gaya bicara seolah-olah berkhotbah seperti ini bukan berarti aku anak yang suci. Sebab aku bukan! Aku ini manusia yang rentan dengan segala kelemahan akan godaan konstan dari si jahat dan sering jatuh ke dalam jurang dosa. Jadi, mari kita sama-sama berjuang. Selamat menempuh tahun baru dalam Kristus Yesus, Juruselamat kita yang hidup dan berkuasa kini dan sepanjang segala masa. Amin.

Frankly, I’m still not in a good mood now. All because of one phone call in mid-afternoon. I realised where I am. And which rules I need to abide. And that there are boundaries. Rules are rules here in Australia, and bending them is one thing one cannot do with ease.

The title suggests this has something to do with privacy and indeed it does. If I were to be given the humble opportunity to change any Australian laws, privacy would be right up on my top 10 list. And don’t get me wrong, I am not here to discuss extreme cases whereby privacy is extremely important. Please consider the following cases:

1. Under their parents’ instruction (there is a permission and a family relationship here), one is to phone X insurance company with the good intention of finding out the reasons behind such a high increase in the policy’s annual premium. One is enquiring on behalf of the insured and is themselves secondarily insured within the policy. Every single detail needed for confirmation is in the possession of one’s hand. The mainly insured is currently overseas and so is unable to make the call themselves.
2. Under the authorisation of one’s daughter who is already well above the legal age, one is to withdraw from a bank a sum of money stored under the daughter’s account (again note the family relationship and permission). One has acquired an authorisation letter signed by their daughter. One is to withdraw the money at the bank, and is in the possession of every confirmation details needed.

Depending on your judgement of both cases you may end up thinking it’s already common practice and is well within one’s common sense that one is going to be denied access to necessary data of one’s relative despite the availability of either verbal or written permissions. Okay, that is fine. That might come as a result of having been living with strictly no-access privacy laws ever since you can remember. But for my family and I, including my other relatives, the legal issue here is just completely nonsensical. Your judgement might be affected by your culture, too. For example, and I am making a rough generalisation here, in Asian culture it is commonplace that wealth is shared in one’s direct family members. That especially applies to scenario no. 2 from above, implying that it is perfectly fine to share your money with your parents.

Long story short, my family and I have encountered numerous difficulties due to this single issue, amongst many. For us, living in Australia has been a never-ending rollercoaster ride, in that it is definitely guaranteed to challenge your outsider ways of thinking with unthinkable logic! That’s how I’m going to put it.

My tip, learn to practice enormous patience in dealing with conflicting logic such as this. For me, for someone who wishes nothing is impossible, it’s not so easy. I let go of all my patience-strangulation today on the phone. I should say that I am completely aware that it is not in my position to force someone to violate a law regardless of the absurdity. I just needed to cool down for the rest of the day…

The following are just a couple of videos I came across recently on Youtube that made me miss the country I was born in. Indonesia, I’m coming soon ^^ (still 6 days to go). Hopefully the time spent over there will be a good and happy one.

First of all, the new Garuda Indonesia theme song. It’s just one of those songs that leave you seriously trembling with excitement, and well might I add, pride. Just hope the airline will improve accordingly. For English version click here.

Then there is this Indomie song that combines traditional dialects. While not leaving you as trembling as the previous one, this is a jingle that’s stuck with me since childhood. Moreover Indomie is now famous all around the globe.

That’s it. More later.

Who’s looking forward to 2009? Everyone, right? Maybe not so for businesses. Well, whether you want it or not here it is right in front of our very eyes! Let’s face it: yet another year full of work and study. Let’s all hope and pray for another good and prosperous year for all of us, shall we? God bless us all.

How did you celebrate your New Year’s Eve? I spent it with my family in Perth, walking around the Northbridge area while having little snacks till they fill our stomachs to the max. Streets were closed and stages were set. Colourful LED screens flashed test runs of countdown timers and buzzing speakers announced test messages, while we waited till dark.

It was blazing hot outside and we needed to cool ourselves down with a couple of serves of ice creams. That was nice. By nightfall it’s gotten a little cooler with the breeze. We caught up with the beginning of the stage shows. There were dancers on stilts to entertain the public —well mostly the young adults— and not-so-surprisingly loads of police officers.

But we left, got in the car and started wandering around city centre to see what else is happening. Well, nothing much in this barren and deserted village of Perth. Looks pretty much like a dead town—and this is NYE we’re talking about! Dark, almost no cars. Except for some crowds around the stages and several pubs. Yep, gotta get used to this. It’s Perth. (Supposedly there was to be a little fireworks show in the city at midnight, but we’ve decided to attend the Midnight Mass at our parish, so, too bad!)

Okay, time for some interesting things we spotted last night:

All in all, we’ve gotten out nothing short of pure family enjoyment followed by a perfecto Midnight Mass! Oh, how nice to still be mindful of God on New Year’s Eve. The Mass was really beautiful.

On NY’s day, the Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. The title Theotókos has been used for Mary early on in Church history by our Church Fathers since at least 3rd century AD and written in their various legacy writings. It was finally affirmed formally at the Third Ecumenical Council held in Ephesus in 431 after extensive examinations. Jan 1st is also declared the World Day of Peace by the Holy See and all of these events in our liturgical calendar are there to remind us of the Christian messages for our civil year. Through Mary, we have received the Author of Life, the source of Salvation for the World, Jesus Christ.

How beautiful and deeply historical is our Catholic Church! I’m so grateful for all her beauty and richness in theology. Thanks be to God forever. The Catholic Church family still hopes and prays that one day all Christians will be together again in unity. In fact it’s one thing in the Pope’s daily prayer.

That’s all folks! Happy New Year! Hope your NY gifts were not animal droppings like some of these unfortunate people… What are your resolutions? What were your last year’s? Hope to be able to keep them for a year, hey? ^^

External Link:
  Info on the 8th Day of Christmas (Feast of Mary, Mother of God)

Surely it’s not your first lasagne Edward? How could you? Oh, no. Indeed it’s not the first one I’ve digested. It’s the first one I’ve ever cooked! By myself! Interested? Read on…

Here’s how you can make your own customised lasagne:

For those of you who found it hard to understand… Well you’re lucky today because I’ve prepared another simpler method to understand:

Understood it yet? No? Then you’re out of luck I’m telling you! But of course, like me, you can make a few improvisations of your own.

So here’s my first go at it and an insider look at my 3 hour worth of work! The beginning stages have been completed, finally!

The layering part was fun… except when you all of a sudden discovered a mistake (I’ll talk more on this later).

And before that happened you realised you’re out of meat!

And before that, you noticed you’ve got way too much…
béchamel sauce! o la la..

~o.O~

Next, of course you put them in the oven for way too long…

Well, here we go… it’s in the oven and whoops.. can you help me spot my mistake, Kids? Yeeess that’s right, G’Boy, Good Girl!

15 minutes later was when my suspicion got matured. The top layer of lasagne was not at all getting more malleable.. NOT melting! !!

Haha, and Kids, that’s the story of me discovering that you DO NOT put a layer of lasagne without a bit of meat and béchamel on top!

Haha.. too late, so it was time for the Chef’s improvisation…

I grabbed a packet of shell-looking pasta and started boiling it. Those I mixed with left-over meat and tomato paste to disguise their look and taste… and uhm.. I collected the dried lasagne from the top and started layering them as if it’s another pan of lasagne! My shell pasta became the substitute for the meat… Nice!

Except when you tried eating it later… The layers are way too crispy… Oh give me a break ~^.^~ It was nice though..

Result:
  The lasagne was too salty
  The improvisation turned out nice
  Crispy layers of lasagne was good
  Next time use less salt!
  It fed me well…

Comments:
  It took way too long to cook
  Meat was dried up too many times
  That’s when it got too salty
  So use less salt after each mix
  Nice Italian food…

And so that was it…! Me cooking improvised lasagne. I didn’t use yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and I changed white wine to Chinese cooking wine (How about that? A bit of Eastern touch to it…). I bought the ingredients in a rush and started cooking at 11pm-12am. Paused. Continued 11am-1pm today.

Stay tuned for another one of my cooking… Maybe.

One of the reasons for my past failures in maintaining a straight blog is the weakness that I have in facing a lack of trivial details in my previous posts. Now I’ve been learning to fade my perfectionism away a bit and try to be lax in obeying my own standard or perception of a ‘perfect blog’. I’m not gonna touch that previous post for anymore that 2 after-posting edits! No, 2 edits are enough! If they’re still not ‘perfect’ enough then I’ve decided to make an additional post on top of it. Like this one for instance. Hehe… am I smart or am I smart?

It’s really hard being a perfectionist you know. I was not born perfectionist, I can tell you that. But I’ve been training myself to be one! How sad? Well..not really I guess… Naturally I thought it was good being all perfect? Didn’t you when you were little? Oh come on… Hahaha.. Yea, so somehow or other I started putting my toothbrush and all the toothbrushes in a straight line. No, they can’t be slightly tilted.. Noo… I’d have to go back and fix things I put down if they’re not straight enough. Haha, so that’s how I started. I didn’t go on further really, apart from ‘perfect’ ways of doing things, like programming and assignments or wording of essays; ‘perfect’ choice of things, like this blog’s theme (which was chosen after about 17 hours of looking around the web). That’s all… Haha...

There’s been some benefits that I’ve gained along the way from being that way. But there’s also been some annoying moments. Like choosing a blog’s design and tweaking it for example. This one took me about 3 and a half days of decision making. Shorter than normally I guess… and I didn’t try making my own template this time!

I am moving away from all my perfectionism though… But I am choosing to keep some of the non-extreme ones that have brought me benefits in the past. So things like tedious editing of my essays are still going to be in place for quite a while .^^.

Let’s Get On?

Okay now after four paragraphs of introductory notes… we shall get on with what I was going to add to my previous post. Firstly it’s why I decided to give blogging another chance and lastly.. well, this last one’s already been mostly mentioned. It’s how long I spent modifying this blog before it’s ready.

Why I blog? Here’s a few reasons why…

  I’ve always wanted to keep a diary for future reference
  Many of my friends have already kept a running blog
  I’ve read lots of cool blogs & thought it’d be nice to keep my own
  There’s this new thing comin’ ‘round.. Windows Live Writer, YES!
  I wanna make sure my thoughts and reflections are documented
  I wanna make sure I start doing this before the end of 2008
  I want my whole university life well recorded
  Family reasons and for personal keepsake
  It is exciting to have your thoughts read by different people
  It’s just a thing that’s IN now .^^.

Apart from those, there are other personal reasons too. And uh, delving further into this whole keeping-a-diary thing, I’ve even bought a personal journal book for that matter, thinking that I might write my thoughts into it. Yeah, right… as if! To date, I’ve ended up leaving 197 pages blank. But the most important thing is that I’m more than happy to journey further into this blogging world! Yiihaa!! Go me!

Another thing that I need not mention is how long I’ve been preparing this blog for. Yes, yes… Three long days of staring into my laptop’s screen. It’s pathetic really. But here we are, 1000 pages of websites later, my blog is all setup and I’m onto my second original post of the year! The elaborate past was gone when the unpredictable future awaits. I’m ready now! Fire away…!!