The Why Me Attitude

This morning, a friend sent me a very inspiring story of a man named Arthur Ashe, the first African-American male to win a Grand Slam event (click on the word if you happened to be one of those sport-blind-nerds and had never heard of a Grand Slam event before). Anyway, the story was worth reading and sharing, so I thought that the blog needed a little update. Especially after I made a promise that I was going to update this blog more frequently (3 months ago).

Arthur Ashe, born on July 10, 1943, was a seven time Grand Slam finalist with three champion titles and four runner-ups. Many critics and sport commentators named him as one of the greatest tennis player of all times. But tennis wasn't his only fight in this world. He was also known for his role as a civil rights leader, especially on Apartheid issues.

Around 1983, when he was undergoing his second heart surgery, he apparently contracted HIV during the blood transfusion. This illness later led him to his deathbed.

Now, the story got interesting when one of his fans wrote him a letter asking something like, "why did God have to select you for such a bad disease?" His idol was the great tennis player, the respected activist, the pride of America, the inspiration for the Afro-American youth. It was unthinkable for anyone that he should receive such treatment from God. If anything, he should be rewarded for his deeds rather than be punished with HIV. Remember, in the early nineties, AIDS was far more scary than it is today because of the lack of information for common folks and people with AIDS received far worse treatment from the society as compared to today.

So the man, in his fifties at the moment, answered,
"listen, 50 million children around the world start playing tennis,
5 million learn to play tennis,
500,000 learn professional tennis,
50,000 come to the circuit,
5,000 reach the Grand Slam,
50 reach Wimbledon,
8 reach the quarterfinals,
4 to the semifinals,
2 to the finals.
When I was holding the cup, I never asked God, 'why me?'
So why now in pain should I be asking Him, 'why me?'"

This kind of faith reminded me of the faith of Job. As we all know, Job had a very bad day at the moment his wife came to him (probably remembering how devoted Job was to his God but yet this kind of misfortune fell upon him) and said, "do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!" Just like Ashe's fan. And there, we witnessed Job answered, "shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?"

God is good all the time. May this story be a blessing for us all.

Been A While...

It's been a while since my last post. Of course, I know that it's not like I have tons of follower waiting for a new post or anything, but still, it's been a while.

Well, I write. Usually I talk. But on occasions when there's nobody around listening or when I feel that written words can convey more than spoken ones, I write. Sometimes in Indonesian, sometimes in English (which I believe is a more comprehensive language). I've written more in the past since the era of the old word processor king Word Star 3.3 to the true type font era of Word Perfect until today when you write everything the Office way. I've had my share of storing my writings in 5.25" diskettes which were later replaced by 3.5" diskettes and later in hard disks and I've had my share of losing many many files along those changes as well. But all of that didn't matter. What I really want to say is this: I write. And I hope that my writings have somehow blessed somebody's life along the way, even if it's just one.

So far, there were only 15 posts prior to this one with the first post being some kind of a preface and the other 14 are impersonal faith related articles with some being published in a local church bulletin. And so I guess, I'll relax my rules a little bit and make this blog a bit more personal hence enabling me to update it more frequently (because I DO have a personal life) but I will still retain the spiritual values in most of the posts because that's what drove me to write this blog at the first place. In the end, I hope that somewhere between the words you can find something that enriches you.

So without further ado, I announce the relaunch of chiawono.blogspot.com ~ Life Is Too Short ~ God Is Too Kind ~ and may this blog serve it's purpose to all of you. Come by to visit often.

Thank you and God bless you.

PS: If you happen to have a Google or Blogspot account, please be kind enough to follow this blog. If you're a movie fan and you want a different kind of review of just want to discuss the movie, go to chiawonomovietalks.blogspot.com sometimes. I also write about places I've visited at chiawonotrips.blogspot.com (but at the moment there's only 1 post about a very fine dining place).

Fun Facts #2 - Keluarga Daud VS Keluarga Goliat

Fakta menarik lain adalah bahwa adik dan kerabat-kerabat Goliat dari Gat yang merupakan keturunan raksasa juga tewas oleh Daud dan orang-orangnya (2 Samuel 21:15-22; 1 Tawarikh 20:4-8).

Berdasarkan urutan kemunculan di kitab 1 Tawarikh, inilah pertempuran yang terjadi:

1. Sibkhai, orang Husa, melawan Sipai atau Saf, salah seorang keturunan raksasa. Pertarungan dimenangkan oleh Sibkhai dan orang Filistin di Gezer ditundukkan.
2. Elhanan bin Yair (Elhanan bin Yaare-Oregim) dari Betlehem (Kota Daud) menewaskan Lahmi Goliat, saudara dari Goliat, yang gagang tombaknya seperti pesa tukang tenun.
3. Yonatan, keponakan Daud dari kakaknya, Simea, melawan salah satu keturunan raksasa yang memiliki enam jari pada masing-masing tangan dan kakinya (sehingga total berjumlah dua puluh empat). Keturunan raksasa tersebut melakukan kesalahan fatal dengan berani mengolok-olok orang Israel sehingga harus bernasib sama seperti Goliat, mati di tempat.
4. Abisai, anak Zeruya, melawan Yisbi-Benob, seorang keturunan raksasa dengan tombak tembaga seberat tiga ratus syikal. Abisai meraih kemenangan mutlak walaupun Yisbi-Benob sempat mengira ia akan berhasil membunuh Daud. Kisah ini tercatat di kitab 2 Samuel.

2 Samuel 21:22 akhirnya mencatatkan kesimpulan cerita tersebut sebagai demikian, “Keempat orang ini termasuk keturunan raksasa di Gat; mereka tewas oleh tangan Daud dan oleh tangan orang-orangnya.”

Fun Facts #1 - Pedang Goliat

Kita semua tentu tahu bahwa Daud mengalahkan Goliat dengan menggunakan umban dan batu. Daud tidak mengenakan baju jirah atau membawa pedang, tetapi maju dengan kuasa Allah Israel. Kita semua mendengar kisah hingga batu yang diumban Daud melesat tepat mengenai dahi Goliat dan menyebabkan Goliat kehilangan nyawanya.

Bagi yang teliti membaca kisah yang tercantum dalam 1 Samuel 17 ini tentu mengetahui bahwa Daud kemudian mengambil pedang Goliat dan menggunakannya untuk memenggal kepala Goliat. Daud kemudian membawa kepala Goliat kembali ke Yerusalem tetapi meninggalkan pedangnya di medan perang (1 Samuel 17:51, 54). Kelak pedang ini lalu dikumpulkan dan dibawa ke Nob dan ditaruh bersama-sama dengan Efod (baju yang dikenakan Harun dan para imam) di Rumah Allah.

Setelah berpisah dari Yonatan, ketika Daud sedang melarikan diri dari Saul, secara "kebetulan" ia lalu tiba di Nob. Di sana, pedang Goliat yang dikalahkannya lalu akhirnya kembali kepadanya (1 Samuel 21:9) dan menemaninya dalam perjalanan panjangnya melarikan diri dari Saul dan membebaskan orang Israel dari orang Filistin.

Berapa banyak senjata hasil rampasan perang hari itu yang dibawa dan disimpan di Nob? Ternyata hanya pedang Goliat tersebut. Sungguh suatu "kebetulan" yang mengingatkan kita bahwa pada awal pelariannya, dalam kondisi lapar dan tidak bersenjata, ketika Daud memilih untuk datang terlebih dahulu ke Rumah Allah meski akhirnya hal ini membahayakan dirinya dan orang-orang di sekitarnya, maka Allah menghadiahi Daud dengan senjata terkuat yang disimbolkan dengan pedang Goliat tersebut. Suatu simbol bahwa di masa lalu, ketika seluruh Israel gemetar, ketika suara sombong Goliat menggelegar di langit Israel, maka seorang anak muda muncul dan berkata,

"Engkau mendatangi aku dengan pedang dan tombak dan lembing, tetapi aku mendatangi engkau dengan nama TUHAN semesta alam, Allah segala barisan Israel yang kautantang itu. Hari ini juga TUHAN akan menyerahkan engkau ke dalam tanganku dan aku akan mengalahkan engkau dan memenggal kepalamu dari tubuhmu; hari ini juga aku akan memberikan mayatmu dan mayat tentara orang Filistin kepada burung-burung di udara dan kepada binatang-binatang liar, supaya seluruh bumi tahu, bahwa Israel mempunyai Allah, dan supaya segenap jemaah ini tahu, bahwa TUHAN menyelamatkan bukan dengan pedang dan bukan dengan lembing. Sebab di tangan Tuhanlah pertempuran dan Iapun menyerahkan kamu ke dalam tangan kami."

Itulah senjata terkuat Daud. Itulah senjata terkuat orang percaya. Amin.

What If There’s Only One Left?

Spoiler Alert: Be careful, what you’re about to read may contain spoilers to the movie: The Book of Eli.


It happened that I just watched one of the newest movies around the block called The Book of Eli. The movie told a story about a man, Eli, on the last part of his 30 year journey to the west to deliver the last known copy of the Bible (apparently the KJV). Long story short, the world suffered from a war (somehow related to the Bible) and later all the Bible in the world was burnt to ashes and only one copy remained. Of course, there are several major and minor bad guys along the movie trying to take away the Bible from him and he fought them off one by one using a combination of “protection from the high” and a menacing martial art.


Since I was not doing a movie review, I wouldn’t go at length on the (quite many) biblical references in the movie, but I would say that this is not a religious movie. In fact, I would say that the part that the Bible took in the movie was similar to the lost ark or the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones movies.


But nonetheless I felt a trickle in my mind tonight so I wrote this up. The big question in the movie was, “can Eli make it to the west and deliver the Bible?”


Halfway down the movie, while the actors were killing each other using guns and shotguns and grenades and bazookas, I realized that I already knew the answer to that question. Not because this was a Hollywood movie where 99% of the protagonists finished their jobs and kissed the girls, but because I remembered what two of Jesus’ disciples wrote in two different occasions. Of course, you’ll fine the other authors of the Bible wrote on this topic as well, but I guess two would be a sufficient ignition for us to study further on our own later. And by the way, just for the sake of the fun fact of the movie, I’d quote them in the KJV.


Matthew in his lengthy yet marvelous reportage of Sermon on The Mount, quoted what Jesus said regarding the Word of God. Matthew 5:18, “for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” For me, it’s just wonderful. It’s like a double guarantee. If any part of the Bible’s going to vanish, then first, you’d have to wait until heaven and earth passed, and second, you’d have to wait until all the Word be fulfilled.


And then (of course) there’s Peter. I Peter 1:24-25, “for all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withered, and the flower thereof falleth away; But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” The Bible that we have today, that preached to us about God and Jesus and Holy Spirit, is in a totally different dimension from us. The Bible endures for ever (and ever). For Jesus Himself is the Word and He is the first and the last. And Jesus was preached unto us and we can be totally sure that Jesus would be preached from Jerusalem to Judaea to Samaria and to the uttermost part of the Earth. I believe God wouldn’t settle for less.


Well, in the end, the assurance that the Bible won’t vanish shouldn’t make us feel secure in any way that make us appreciate (and read) the Bible less. Remember, there were and there could be more times where people would crave for the Word of God but they didn’t receive any. The Bible and our history spoke to us about this. And remember, the Great Commission, the base of evangelism and discipleship, was not just a show in the Bible. It was meant to be a serious duty and we’re on a tour of duty even now. So, stop slacking and go preach the gospel.


Editor’s Note: this particular doctrine on the preservation of God’s Word can be further discussed under the subjects of the doctrine of the Bible, the infallibility and inerrancy of the Bible, the canonization of the Bible, and the authority of the Bible.