Friday, January 28, 2011

The Most Scandalous Thing I Did in 2010

I brought beer to drink in class.

Every friday, we had the worst class of our semester. Every friday, we also had our weekly drinking sessions. At the same time.

I didn't think much of it. maybe once or twice, i did kind of think for a moment how this was slightly wild. but my conscience was never that much pricked. until a cute, conservative funny friend of mine chided me and mentioned that my whole class (save for the drinking gang) was shocked and that my prof had even told her prof who told her whole class.

-_-. Gone. Good christian girl reputation - GONE!

The topic came up today again, and today, was really my Turning Point in Jan.

You see, after i discovered i failed my driving test, i became overcome by this sudden urge to have fun and be happy. i went to the arcade, i urgently arranged for karaoke tml, i got excited about my drinking date tonight.

and im usually not like that, you see. well, maybe occasionally, when i feel down.

i just felt so carefree and slightly reckless.

i felt less bothered than usual in class about class participation and the prof not knowing my name.

i felt excited about having drinks with my friends after korean class.

and this is the weird thing you see... i usually struggle with hanging out with this particular group. coz i don't click with them very well. we're on quite different wavelengths.

but today, TODAY, i felt it was RIGHT to be with them. for one, my close friend in that group was the very first person i called when i knew i had failed my test and wanted company to just go CHILL.

while drinking, the topic about our scandalous beer-drinking incident came up again. i thought about it and shrugged it off. Good christian girl reputation destroyed or not, stumbling block or not, it was already done. Nothing i could do about it except not to do it again.

it's one of those days, that i spent with one foot in the Dark Side. where i'm straddling the middle ground of Enlightenment and Entrapment.

and you know, i don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. Today, for one of the rare few times, I was willing and able to spend time with these non-christian friends. I've been struggling very much to relate to them this sem, coz, i simply can't! they were too 'wild' for me.

but today, i wanted to be with them. i could relate to them. I knew they knew how i felt. I knew that today i'm feeling what they usually feel much of the time.

and it was a humbling experience. the failure, ah that one, definitely humbling. i already cheekily told God in my prayer before the test that i'm already very humble and He need not humble me anymore. Jokes lorh.

but the humbling experience was something else. I realized, after all this while, I am still just like any sinner or any non-christian.

today i was impulsive, proud, arrogant, ungrateful, selfish, self-indulgent, rude all rolled into one. And my friends were there for me. My non-christian friends were there for me to cheer me up. it was just so humbling. I think i've sub-consciously been approaching them from a moral high ground though i claimed to love them very much.

and my dear friend, the one i called, she is really one of my favourite ppl in school. at the bar, we sang familiar songs being belted out by the band to one another, a twinkle in her pretty eye, dimples deepening. She told me to drive like the car was falling out of the school the next time round and at the speed of a snail. that made me laugh and feel better immediately.

i was so sad when i found i had nothing to say to her this semester when i saw her again. and apparently, she had nothing to say to me as well. we awkwardly waved every once in a while. she was off laughing out loud and fooling around with 2 other more enthusiastic, bubbly and quirky friends of mine.

and there i was, conservative and quiet. it made me so sad to not be able to break the barrier
i think i had gotten all high and mighty without intending to. in my limited intellect, i was really at a lost of words as to how to relate to her and thus had nothing to say. i wasn't brave or faithful enough to believe she would accept me for who i was either.

although i don't agree with alot of things she believes or says. but i think i've always seen a little of me in her. and even more so now. We are all the same therefore We all have the same needs. We all need the Lord.

but the trick now is.. having the Right Godly responses to some of her beliefs or remarks. And how to naturally integrate that into conversation and how to approach it from a point of love and open-mindedness.

although i have another thing on my mind which i would have loved to type here, i think i would just end with some irrelevant lyrics:

"If i could change the world, i would be the sunlight in your universe. You would think my love was really something worth."

9 comments:

  1. After I stopped thinking so much about WWJD, I just went ahead and became a part of the fencing group and enjoy their company. And now I find myself in a peculiar situation.

    I had a fencing friend sit opposite me and say he's surprised to find out I was Christian.

    On one hand I really don't want to be high and mighty and inaccessible to non-christians. On the other hand, well... I don't know how to share Christ any other way. And before my new friend... I knew not what to say about my faith.

    (And Kimmy, it's okay to fail your driving test. God still loves you, mommy and daddy still love you, Cheryl still loves you, and I still love you.)

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  2. Lolol its perculiar isnt it! eh the fact that he doesnt know that about you doesnt mean ur not living a christian lifestyle. Ppl's mindsets are not often actively tuned to finding out what the other person's religion is. =) but now that he knows... Thats the difficult part! straddling the world and our Eternal Home!!! which i find hghly difficult. But im praying for increased wisdom and discernment in this respect. Will pray for u too! =)

    hahaha cheryl loves me tooooo????? YAY!!!!!

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  3. Yeah I'm not concerned about whether he knows or not by looking at my life... Actually no, I'm confused.

    We're supposed to live in a way that people see God through us. How do you do that without condemning the world and being all high and holy?

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  4. maybe love should be the first and foremost principle??? it's a universal language of spiritual origins.=) what do u think?

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  5. Yeah I do love you! Maybe you're not referring to the same Cheryl but I still love you! I always tell people that you're my best friend of two decades!

    So awesome! Drink beer in class! Haha nothing morally wrong about that, Jesus turned water into wine okay. I'd do that with you but I turn horribly red and get rashes everywhere so not very nice to keep scratching my butt in class. We can drink elsewhere! And don't worry about being on a moral high ground or not, I think some of my school friends don't really think I'm Christian either but saying you're Christian isn't about following rules, it's also about how you treat people. If you love them and they can tell you're sincere about that, they'll like you sincerely in return too.

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  6. ya lah it's you of coz dear. awww!!! yes bestie! sorry i didn't get to talk to u in church today.=( was busy hurrying here, there, everywhere (trying to locate uncle sam yun)

    thats very true. and you are the Queen of Nice. =) thanks for being 1 of my "teachers" in big-heartedness and compassion! you have no idea how a few of the simple things i've seen you do for ppl stay etched in my memory. LOVE YOU DEEEPP AND WIIIDDDEEE

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  7. I think I have attained enlightenment. It is found in the middle way.

    People should know I'm Christian, though I never try to force it on them. That way when I show love they know what my motives are. Last time I showed love when people did not know I was a Christian, and that lead them to think I'm awesome instead of my God being awesome.

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  8. COOL! but den... it can be potentially challenging because once they know ur christian, ur EVERY BEHAVIOUR IS WATCHED. but awesome. i like ur state of enlightenment. =)

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  9. I guess i'll let them watch. Like I think whether I drink or not is not going to affect whether they become a Christian. Not much at least. But whether I help them when they are down, and give them love when no one else will, that is more what they will remember christianity for.

    I attained that little state of enlightenment from watching this scene in a movie about Buddha. Heh.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDIG-C7pnmc

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