Praying for our Leaders

Lately, apart from constant challenges from work, I experienced a foretaste of what it was like to be a target for bad publicity. It was a mixture of fear, anger, injustice and a great burning desire to set things right. However, people in general give more credit to “an apparent” victim, rather than question about the real truth that lies behind.

In fact, I have to some extent lost faith in our local media and reporters. I know that this may not apply to every reporter, but sometimes, reporters are only reporting selective facts that a certain party would like the public to know. Never mind about accuracy and the other side of the story. Forget about verification of facts. The important thing is to get the story on the headlines and the nine o’clock news. Little considerations are given on the repercussions involved.

I suppose such are the news that would sell. Now that I have the sacred opportunity to be standing on the other side of the balance, I realised that readers and viewers have both been fooled. It was also at this time that I caught a glimpse of how Jesus must have felt when his own people turned against him and misunderstood him. It was an awful lingering feeling that made blue sky seemed dull. It behaved like a shadow that followed me wherever I go, except that this shadow was constantly throwing false accusations at me!

Suddenly, I realised how wrong I had been, when I too was hurling stones at our politicians and leaders, whenever they were “caught” doing something questionable. It was definitely easy for me to criticize, to judge and to form a seemingly right opinion. My dear brother recently reminded me with this timely advice “Be part of the solution in our society and our country! Don’t criticize our leaders but pray for them! We don’t know the full picture of what went on in their lives, but regardless, they need our prayers! Its easy to just stand there and judge but it would take someone with a bigger heart to pray.”

“I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior”1 Timothy 2:1-3

New Supplier, New Challenges

Recently, I have been quite preoccupied with problems encountered at work. A few months ago, I was given a proposal to change our existing internet provider to a new player in the market. As we have been facing many unresolved problems with our current supplier, the opportunity to consider an alternative was like a breath of fresh air.

After much praying and seeking the Lord, I felt that we should give this new player a chance. This would involve considerable risks on our side as more than half of our customers will be utilizing the new services provided and I am sure that there will be oppositions from them. Therefore, as with every new venture, I expect some teething problems but not to the extent that I had perceived. Soon, I was informed that students had been complaining about us on their blogs and facebooks. Complain forms piled up quicker than we could resolve them. Efforts to resolve complaints had been futile. Advice from the new supplier didn’t work.

Not long after that, I found myself awake at night, chasing endless trains of thoughts. At one point, I even thought that I had heard God wrongly about taking up the proposal. A few nights ago, I was going through the same roller coaster ride when out of nowhere, I could hear a still small voice telling me “Fee, why don’t you talk to the supplier again, telling them that you can’t seem to implement their internet service?” “But Lord, that’s not within their scope of service, I will be asking them for an extra mile, which they might not give due to legal implications. But I guess there is no harm trying.” I replied.

The next day, I called T and explained to him again, that we are facing more problems that we could handle. Almost immediately, he said he would bring his technicians and troubleshoot the problems with us. The team came yesterday and went on to investigate the connections at some of our problematic houses. Throughout this time, I prayed that this group of experts could identify and solve the issues at hand. Then to my greatest relief, at the end of day, they came back and informed me that there were some cabling problems, which needed rectification from their side. Therefore, not only did they help me resolve at least part of my problems, but they have also agreed not to charge my company for this entire period until the cables had been rectified! In addition to that, once they have resolved their side of the issues, they would come back again to help us look at our problems!

Well, I think that is a great milestone for us and for the team to take this extra mile, I have no doubt that there is divine intervention behind! As expected, I slept like a baby last night!

 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.  (Psalm 23:6)