The Varsity Christian Fellowship organisation holds a bible study session with the cell group leaders from the various faculties of NUS forthnightly. This is to prepare the cell group leaders with knowledge of the materials to lead their respective cell group sessions.
For Central Bible Study this week, we went through the passage of Daniel 1. The focus from Central Bible Study session is different from Professor Thio's bible study session on the book of Daniel. The emphasis is on application to student life.
As narrated in chapter 1 of the book of Daniel, Daniel and his friends had been exiled to the kingdom of Babylon and were made to undergo education relating to Babylonian culture. They were also subjected to a dietary regime of royal food as part of King Nebuchadnezzar's plan to nourish them for the responsibilities of the Babylonian administration. Daniel and his friends however refused to partake in the consumption of the royal food as they did not want to defile themselves. They opted for a substitute diet consisting of vegetables instead.
As can be seen from the actions of Daniel and his friends to refuse the royal food, Daniel and his friends had made a resolute decision to act in a manner that upholds their faith in God in the midst of a foreign culture. Likewise, the issue that was brought up for this bible study session was how Christian students can live out their faith in a world that does not acknowledge God. One of the objective of the bible study is to get Christian students to reflect on what meaningful issues he or she can stand up for.
It got me reflecting as to what issues I have stood up for in life. I do wish to help the less fortunate in whatever manner I possibly can. I mean, I would donate in the tin cans of those secondary school students I see doing their CIP rounds in public for some charitable cause. I would feel sympathetic to the handicapped baskers and elderly destitutes selling tissue papers and give them some money. Other than donating to the less fortunate, I also try to be environmentally friendly in my consumer habit, such as refusing the plastic bags which the stallholders have the custom of placing my drinks in. I once wrote on the comment page on the tabloid portal STOMP putting forth my view against the xenophobic comments that I see levied by my fellow Singaporeans on mainland chinese. I try to adhere to copyright laws as much as possible, but this is truly difficult. On my part as a law student, I volunteered to help out in some pro-bono activity at the legal clinic during the semester break.
A church friend of mine who is also my law school senior once highlighted one such other social cause that I could advocate. It is the plight of maids in Singapore. The working conditions of maids in Singapore isn't too admirable. There was no legislation granting maids days-off from their job. My church friend suggested that one way in which I could help these maids is by writing to the Straits Times forum petitioning the Ministry of Manpower to mandate a one-day rest day in a week for maids. I suppose there has been some recent development in this. I would have to admit though that I didn't take up the initiative to write in to the Straits Times.
I am also reminded during my reflection of the importance of the various vocations in the legal fraternity to society. Lawyers, Judges, and Academics have their respective parts to play for the effective functioning of the justice system. It is easy for one to lose perspective of the purpose of the vocation that one is training up for amidst one's studies. I am not sure whether I will eventually serve in a capacity of a legal profession. I do pray oftenly that God would give me the necessary wisdom so that I may be able to do well in my law studies. However, it seems that I have yet to get a hang of law school. Perhaps it is God's will that I should not be given the necessary qualities to do well in law school. I do hope that God has a will for me to do well in life, even if I should not do well in law school.
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