Raya Revelations from the Toilet

It's the beautiful season of Raya! I went for a bit of Raya visiting yesterday, and it was all really nice. Pretty houses and really, really good food. So after a day of going around, I went back home, did a bit of revision, and went to bed...

... Cue me waking up at 1:30 a.m. and running to the toilet like it was the only hope for my living. My stomach decided to rebel and lose the weight gained from Raya visiting I guess :-( Fair enough! After moments of suffering, I once again went back to bed for some rest.

... Cue me waking up again at 5:00 a.m. with excruciating stomach cramps and groaning my way back to the toilet again, thinking I should just put up a tent in the bathroom and sleep there for convenience' sake. Very well, I took the suffering like a man! A really wimpy man! But I digress.

Of course I commanded the pain to leave, and the viruses and bacteria to die and cast themselves off into the very depths of hell from which they seem to come from. But multiple times, nothing happened, and I was like why, God, why! I don't want to go through this nasty ordeal! I want to be heeeaalleeedddd~~. And suddenly a small lightbulb ding went off in the middle of all the crap (literally! Haha okay I'll stop now) and that small Voice said, Sometimes purging is needed for you to get better. I paused for a second there to think. It seemed like He was talking about more than just my body's rebellion to really delicious curry. So I sat on the thinking chair (Hahahahaha), thinking, thinking - And I think I got it.

Recalling my previous episodes in the toilet, what I was going through now really wasn't so bad. Because previously, all my food poisoning cases had me wanting to commit suicide in the toilet cause it was that bad and I really couldn't take it. And those were the times where I was healed immediately as well. However, this time, it wasn't that bad and I could handle it, I just wanted immediate relief because I wanted to get back to bed and sleep. Besides the 'God won't put you through anything you wont be able to withstand' meaning, there was also the, 'God supplies all your needs, and not all your wants' meaning going on. Along with that, one thing I learnt was that all of us need to go through purging in our life, to get rid of the dross and reveal the silver. Its the discipline of God, refining us, so that we come out cleaner. Like how my body was responding to whatever bad thing I had ingested and was trying to purge my body of it, our spiritual lives also have to go through purging to get rid of worldly habits and all the whatnots we have accumulated in our lives. It might be messy, and most certainly painful... But the holiness we learn from it is worth it.

It was like God was saying, no, I'm not going to take away the pain just right now. You need to see that purging needs to happen every once in a while - But I'm always here, to see that what you go through won't be more than you can handle.

So that was my Raya revelation, and how God can turn a case of food poisoning into a lesson for me. :-)

"... Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the Lord." (Isaiah 52:11)

I was standing on the edge on a high rock, like part of a hill and He was next to me. Before me was an entire landscape of life. Trees, houses, mountains, roads, buildings, rivers, seas, stretching over the horizon. It was unending. There was a straight, narrow road in the middle of everything. Just a road, clean and straight, passing through the landscape. It was unending as well. And He was standing next to me, one hand on my shoulder, the other hand outstretched towards it all, as if it were mine. This was the road He would travel with me through, through every single situation and experience. It was narrow, but it was straight. This was the road for me.

With His hand outstretched, I had the feeling that this was my life. This is going to be my life, my future. It was a landscape I have never seen before, buildings I have never seen, scenery I have never seen. And that is the road that He and I are going to take together.

"I am for you," He said, "Seek me, and I will bring you to places unknown." Bringing me to places I could never have imagined. Bringing me to places I do not know of.. He's leading me.

I don't know if it was a vision, or a revelation, or anything intensely spiritual. All I know was that while worshiping, God spoke. For me, this is a confirmation that He already has a road set out for me. Albeit narrow, it is straight, and this is the road He has planned.