Several weeks when one of my elders preached on Sunday, I was struck by what he said about John receiving his revelation in Patmos and writing what was later called the book of Revelation. I saw that as an allegory of my own situation as pastor of a small church, not involved in any way with Seminaries except the one occasion which I went to teach an intensive course last July. I had my Patmos moment in that I could write when the Lord quickened and revealed to me His divine mysteries. When I was writing my commentary on the Song of Songs I was home most of the time except the couple of occasions where I wrote in coffee shops when we were allowed to dine in. I attempted to visit a local Seminary's library last August but I was asked to leave the premises.
I thought that strange since I remembered clearly that the day I visited the number of Covid-19 cases were down to a single digit. Yes, caution by all means, but when we are overly cautious then we freeze and can't do anything. "Those who watch the winds and the clouds will not sow" (Ecclesiastes). So I wrote and I wrote. It was my Patmos right in Kota Kinabalu, a location unknown for scholarly endeavours. Even one of the biggest printers in Kota Kinabalu had never seen the kind of books that I write which I believe to be scholarly and spiritually edifying at the same time. Having gone through the rigours of a doctoral programme in biblical studies in a University and publishing my monograph on Revelation that is cited by scholars throughout the world is to say the least, breaking the glass ceiling as far as a Sabahan is concerned. Can anything good come out of Kota Kinabalu? I might be in the wilderness and in the island of Patmos, but the Spirit of the Lord is not restricted in space and in time and He shows Himself strong to whomever who will trust in Him.
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