Louis Siow (seated, seen here with his MAP mentor Gordon Goh)
Growing up, I was placed under the care of my grandmother till I was 15 years of age. After my parents divorced, my time with my father was limited to weekends only. As such, I grew up trying to earn my earthly father’s love and approval. That translated into a similar view of Father God. My six-month journey through the Mentoring Aligning Process (MAP) has helped me reinforce my identity in God as His son. More importantly, my heart has been transformed by the truth that my performance will not alter Father God’s love for me one bit. I begin to rediscover and receive His love. Being in this community of like-minded Archippuses has helped me in my alignment check with God. It helped me realise the importance of hanging out with the right crowd. The MAP community is like a family to me. This family is a safe zone where we are able to express our struggles and misalignments. We learnt that we start with love. Our kingdom assignments must be out of a relationship of love with Father God. So as His son loved by Him, why should I struggle? God is love and because He loves me, He has assignments for me that will align and mature me even more into all He has created me to be.
When I journey with those with a sincere desire to be aligned, I find that I dare to be different, in that I do not conform for the sake of conformity. That I am not weird or odd when I seek God’s direction rather than man’s direction. Journeying with these ones who are serious about assignments also helps me pursue what God wants me to do, as I keep checking and aligning with these fellow Archippuses.
I find myself able to acknowledge my weaknesses that it’s perfectly normal to work from weakness rather than strength as it brings me into total dependence on my King and Father God. When I observe the community of Archippuses, I also find that each of us has a personalised call, a God-given kingdom assignment. We may be almost anonymous but we are known to God by name. We know that we have a race ahead of us to run, to fulfil our assignments.
Through MAP, I have also discovered that Jesus is my King. What the King says, goes. Hence my relationship with Him is not transactional. Yes, I can express my feelings and communicate with Him openly, trusting that He will meet my needs. But yes, I must also align with Him as my reference point and not expect Him to align with me. It is not my way or my timing but His timing, which is always perfect. As I know Him, I know He is in control of all things and I can entrust everything at His feet. After all He is my King and certainly He knows what’s best for me. And His love has won me over.
Dear Archippus…
Henson writes in Alignment Check, “Be wary of those who are all talk but have nothing to show for it. Hang out, instead, with those who are serious about wanting to know and fulfil their kingdom assignments. These may or may not be totally clear of their assignments yet, but they are willing to take steps to be faithful in their sub-assignments, allowing the Lord to lead them on their journey.”
Imagine a community of Archippuses journeying together in this manner! Are you connected with like-minded, kingdom people outside your local community?
About Louis
Louis is married to Cindy and they have one daughter Mona. He is an avid cyclist who “gave up six months of cycling to go through the MAP jouney”.