By Dr Steven Chong
The winter season for my life arrived in 2020. It came totally unexpectedly and caught me and my family off guard. In just a few months after its arrival, my wife and I were trudging through harshness like we have never known before. The pain cut to the core and the darkness was overwhelming most days and nights.
2023 was the year where the situation for me had become the most despairing. I had slid further and further down the winter pit till I was at rock bottom and I knew I was trudging empty on many levels. I had felt as if my once-beautiful life of lego I had built over years had been dismantled down to the very base plate and not a single lego piece was left standing. I could only wholly depend on the love, grace and strength of God to get through those days and nights. I really felt like spending more time with Him so when a retreat opportunity came, I wanted it. What was more, the retreat was called a Breakthrough Weekend (BTW) by the Men4Men ministry in SJSM and that was really what I needed – a breakthrough!
And now in 2025, I dare say that Spring has come knocking… or perhaps even arrived! Over the past 3 years, I have gone back to the BTW year after year and God, in His faithfulness and grace, had made me see the themes of each BTW for me.
BTW #1 (2023) – Brokenness & Surrender
BTW was held in a tranquil, scenic resort in Johor Bahru’s Forest City and was about Coming Home (The Prodigal Son). This resonated deeply with me in my circumstances and I also felt a sort of homecoming back to knowing my Heavenly Father.
It was actually my first retreat but I felt very comfortable throughout. This is due to the effort of the Men4Men planning team and the values they espoused—that men are also vulnerable and that the gatherings are for us to be our authentic selves, weakness, tears, pains and all. It was really good that there was a firm and strong emphasis on keeping the gatherings a safe place. Allowing for such authenticity and shedding of our masks was very cathartic to many who attended. The non-judgemental environment, centred on the love and grace of Christ allowed many to encounter Jesus, cry out to Him, experience His love and embrace.
At this BTW, I surrendered my winter season to Jesus and asked Him to help rebuild me. A prodigal son had returned! At testimony time, I shared the vision that I was once a flying eagle which had become severely injured with raw scars and bloodied wounds and a pair of unflappable wings and crumbly legs. I was a limping eagle. Through this BTW, God gave me hope and assurance. I ended my testimony with a hope that one day, I would soar even higher because my wounds had been healed by Him and His wind currents lifted me up. But I also asked that my scars remain so they could tell others of His story.
BTW #2 (2024) – Gratitude & Healing
When BTW 2024 came, I decided to sign up again. Not a finance person, I was still wise enough to know that 3 days of time with my Creator is excellent ROI (return on investment) to be calibrated for 365 days of the year!
On the first day of BTW 2024, when I stepped into the hall, it hit me like a truck—that I was standing in the very same room where the eagle was limping just one year ago. But then, my circumstances had become much better and I was awestruck by what my King had done for me and my family in just one year! Truly, the eagle, while not fully recovered, was able to fly a little and walk more steadily. That moment, tears and praise flowed freely. I could see God’s rebuilding work on that lego base plate and it was good!
I encountered God many times during the BTW and one such time was during Silence and Solitude. The passage read was Mark 4:39 and Jesus uttered “Peace! Be Still!”. I felt hope and assurance rise up once again because “Still” was the song that God had given me one morning when I was in the pit some years back.
Over the 3 days, I witnessed how when men are willing to come to our loving God with no mask on, stripped bare to just be who He had created us to be, God will meet us and give us the portions we need. Once again, many brothers were authentically sharing, listening and encouraging one another. What a beautiful sight to behold!
BTW #3 (2025) – Gratitude & Obedience
I signed up for BTW 2025 because it has become my pilgrimage, a remembrance journey for me to retreat to my Father, spend time just hanging out with Him like how Mary dd in Luke 10:39. My experience and the rekindling of my spirit for Jesus in the past two BTWs had calibrated and recalibrated my life in between the BTWs, to walk with Him and in Him.
This time, the limping eagle was flying and wounds were healing, by His grace and power. This year, I had been pondering about a Kingdom Assignment and needed to be more clearly aligned with my King, so I brought that to the BTW. Once again, time and again during BTW, He spoke to me through various ways— Bible passages read, brothers’ sharing and even drawing and the Silence & Solitude again. I left BTW feeling refreshed, more aligned and certain. Thanks be to God!
I have learnt that God never wants harm to befall us but He sometimes allows it because He sees the beauty He is able to create out of the ashes we find ourselves in. And our loving God will never waste a wound we suffered nor a tear we shed. Having experienced God in such a deep and personal way, I am ready to move towards Obedience to Him.
To my Brothers in Christ, what is 3 days a year to seek Him, find Him and walk with Him for the rest of the 362 days each year? Wouldn’t it be awesome to hear Jesus tell us like how He told Mary, in Luke 10:42?
“… but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion,
which will not be taken away from her.”