Thursday of the 4th Week of Lent
Exo 32:7-14
Jn 5:31-47
“I can see how headstrong these people are!”
As part of this year’s Catholic200SG celebrations, the ministries in CSC have been asked to take up one intercession slot each month, up to October, when we will do a month of rosaries. As the facilitator for the music ministry, we decided to take up the first Thursday of each month and I was nominated to lead off the first session, together with 3 of my other Core team members. This, in addition to a session in mid-March that my ministry is also a part of, together with 2 other ministries.
What began for me as a journey fraught with trepidation (it was a very busy two weeks prior due to us holding the first physical graduation ceremonies over 5 days in the last week of February), became a blessed journey of discovery as I learnt to ‘let go’ and not be distracted by the ‘to-ings and fro-ings’ in the group chat that was set up for this session. Having never led an intercessory session before, I truly had to entrust the prep and session to the more ‘seasoned hands’ I had chosen to be part of the team. And of course, to let God work His miracles in the lead up to it.
‘I can do nothing by myself’
My Lenten journey started off well, with mass on Ash Wednesday revealing a hurt that needed to be reconciled; and then this opportunity for Him to show me what it meant to truly be a servant leader. To allow those who are ‘headstrong’ to lead the way and not try to control them too much, but rather, to unite these people under one common mission and to help them focus on the Lord, rather than the petty human foibles that arise from the dynamics of having people from different ministries on the same team.
I had always heard of how so-and-so could not get along with so-and-so (for whatever reasons) and witnessed first hand the concerns and issues that arose along the way. I contributed my view that these were mere ‘disturbances’ and that we shouldn’t react unduly and pander to the emotions, but simply keep focussed on the outcome of achieving a few good practice sessions so that as many of us could attend as possible. And to leave the final session to God’s hands. While I don’t deny the value of experience, I suspect that sometimes, we may tend to over-plan and over-think things to the point of not letting God take over (if there is such a thing).
But credit to these ‘headstrong’ people who keep pushing us forward, for otherwise, I fear that I may just sit back and wait for something to happen. One of my Core team leaders recently remarked that I came across like Moses — reluctant and reticent; to which I replied, it was because our team had such capable leaders who had been steering the ministry for the last 20 years. I am truly thankful to be ‘facilitating’ a ministry where the combined experience and wisdom of the leaders far exceeds 100 years. I can only pray that God gives me the patience and humility to be a uniting hand, especially with other ministry leaders. This is the opportunity that presents itself as we journey as one family in the months ahead.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Desmond Soon)
Prayer: Loving and gracious Father, we ask for your mighty hand to guide us in all that we do, and to light our ways so that we can always turn to you in our times of need, knowing that You are there for us.
Thanksgiving: Thank you, Lord, for always being our true North.
OXYGEN 
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