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| We didn't know it then but this was the last Bright Lights meeting! |
Bright Lights has been such a big part of my life ever since we started in Singapore over 8 years ago. Back then, Bright Lights meetings used to be over 5 hours long! So it is not surprising that planning and coordinating meetings took up a good part of my week. Even so, it was so enjoyable and I learnt so much that all the effort hardly felt like work. I loved the new girls that we would meet, the leaders I got to work with, and eventually the friends that became so dear. Looking back, I definitely wouldn't trade those times for anything!
Over the years, things changed. Some girls moved away, some girls got "too old" for Bright Lights, some girls pursued "broader" paths, but the saddest thing of all to me was seeing girls get "too busy". Messages unreplied and promises to come unkept...yet all the while, everyone continued to affirm how important Bright Lights was to them and that it should keep on going. It became clear that the issue was as Charles Hummel noted in his booklet "Tyranny of the Urgent": "our dilemma goes deeper than shortage of time; it is basically a problem of priorities".
As the group size dwindled, it became clear that questions had to be asked. Did we need to change something about the way we were doing things? Or was it God's will that the group be small? Or was this a sign that we should stop meetings? Whatever the answer was, I knew that I should not be influenced by sentimentality for a ministry. Bright Lights is a great ministry but God's work is not confined to an organisation. Since our allegiance is not to one ministry but to serving the Lord, it seemed that sometimes the ending of a ministry might bring greater fruit and more opportunities as opposed to keeping to status quo.
And so, yes, we ended Bright Lights meetings here in Singapore. I was sad with how it had to end, a little anti-climactic and announced over a whatsapp message. It's easy to buy into lies that a successful ministry is one that has the longest history and hence the ending of Bright Lights was my failure. But I know that these thoughts are not true because all ministry is the Lord's, not ours! So I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store next, and most importantly, I'm glad to know with certainty that God is in control and He will guide us each step of the way.
"I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth." - 1 Corinthians 3:6-7This blog might stay dormant for a while but you never know what's next...cause there's no such thing as "the end" with our Lord, only new beginnings! :)
