Dear COA family,

Recently, I attended a 20^th anniversary celebration of the founding of St Andrew’s Autism Centre. It was a wonderful celebration of God’s faithfulness and blessing on that ministry for the past two decades. We, as a church, are also supporting this ministry through our financial contribution to the work of the ministry, which is immense.

Yet at that celebration, a word from the guest-of-honour Bishop John Chew struck me deeply. Bishop John Chew had been instrumental in the founding of the ministry by leading the Diocese of Singapore to embark on outreach work to people with autism. And he confessed this to the entire crowd (paraphrased):
“If I had known at the beginning how difficult this ministry would turn out to be, I would very well not have started this ministry.”

What an honest and true statement he made. As I looked back on our church’s and even my own life, I might not have started on things had I known how tough things would turn out to be. For example, if I had known how many sacrifices being in ordained ministry would entail, I would have thought twice about it. This is simply the weakness of our human nature in being prone to fear and insecurity and seek at all costs to avoid difficulty and pain.

Yet the Lord is merciful in dealing with us in this aspect. He knows our frailty as well as what is ultimately good for us. That is why God often does not reveal to us what is in our far future for our protection. He simply shows us the next step for us to take and calls us to step forth in faith and trust in him.

When God called Abraham, he simply gave him this command, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). The author of Hebrews explained, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). God only revealed to Abraham the next step he was to take. That was all Abraham needed to know.

As we seek God’s will in our lives, I believe that this pattern of God’s working holds true. He does not tell us what he has planned for our long-term future but what the next step for us to take is. After all, if we choose not to embark on that step of faith, we will never arrive at that future. And it will be futile for us to know whatever future that may be.

In the same way, as we enter our 73^rd year as a church, let us be faithful to take the next step of faith God has revealed to us. We may not know how the future will unfold. This is actually to our benefit; this is so that our eyes will only be fixed on Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). As our Good Shepherd, he will lead us to streams of living water that will refresh our souls (Psalm 23:3) and will strengthen us to do the good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

Revd Ian