What Does It Really Mean to Be Blessed?

A letter to my friends and supporters in November 2017

We typically associate “blessings” with “health and wealth”. Some time ago, I raised the following question in my small group, “When bad things happen to you, does that mean that you are not blessed by the LORD?” Little did I know that I had to answer this question in real life.

Some of you may have heard that one of my bedrooms in my HDB apartment caught fire in late August. No one was hurt but that room was totally gutted. The other rooms and their contents were covered with soot and wet with water. After the fire, one of my neighbours placed a mirror facing my main door, probably to reflect or deflect “negative energy” coming from my apartment. Was the fire a blessing?

In Deuteronomy 28:1-2, God’s blessings would come upon those who obey Him. The blessings include prosperity in children, livestock and crop (28:11). A few of my friends had said, “Alan, you are truly blessed” with a wife, two sons, two daughters-in-law and two lovely granddaughters. In the area of wealth, I will say that I’m not rich but the LORD had provided more than enough for me and my family over the years. For all these blessings, I’m thankful.

The greater blessings from the LORD are spiritual (Ephesians 1:3). In May 2017, as I was mediating upon Eph. 1:3-14, I was inspired to diagram God’s blessings.

But is the fire a blessing? My biggest challenge from the fire is not dealing with my loss and the upheaval to our lives but dealing with my own responses to people around me - specifically my wife and my mother. I was irritable and unkind in my words. Someone wrote, “While the fire has burnt your flat, it tries to burn your soul ...” My irritability was my blind spot and the fire shone the light on it and revealed its ugliness. I was disappointed with myself. I drew comfort that God’s purpose in choosing me to be one of His children is that I may be holy and blameless to His glory (Eph. 1:3-14). By God’s grace, I’m chipping it away. Yes, the fire is a blessing!

It may be ironic or timely that one week before the fire, I penned the following and use it as my email signature: "Grateful to God that I am NOT what I can be; thankful that I am what I could NOT be; hopeful of what I will be."

Here are the other benefits of the fire.

Our HDB apartment is covered by fire insurance for damage to internal building structures, fixtures and fittings provided by HDB. This means that we will be getting an apartment restored to its original conditions, in other words, a new apartment.
My wife and I have the opportunity to work together to furnish a new home just like newlyweds. We have yet to move in but she said that the new furnishings are more functional. We had lived in the apartment for six years and know what furniture works or does not work for us.

We will probably live in the new apartment for slightly more than a year before we leave Singapore for missions in early 2019. My wife plans to resign at the end of 2018. Next month, we will be taking an exploratory trip to Laos as part of the process of seeking God’s guidance as to where we can best serve Him. Pray for us to find a ministry that meets our passions. My wife wants to work with underprivileged children while I love to teach the Word of God.

This plan means that I will be leaving CEF Singapore by end of 2018. I am given the responsibility to promote a new initiative – Sunday School Outreach (SSO) – the vision of seeing Sunday School beyond a nurturing ministry of children of their church members to include an outreach ministry to children outside of the Church. Like an orchestra, this outreach will require different church members playing different roles. Please pray for me to lay a strong foundation for SSO before I leave.

Thank you for reading and praying.

Alan S.L. WONG

Postscript: We are also blessed with concern, support and help from family members, our small group members, friends and our Church