Pride comes before a fall
I don't think I have told you about my recent fall while ice-skating. It could have been avoided for sure.
Here is the story. I found myself volunteering to take the young people ice skating. Hey, “Why not be the Hero?” for a change, at least the Lord showed me to do this for them, not the kind of thing I would normally do, due to the time limits involved in my work, but making their day could make a big difference, as there was no one else available, so I decided to take them to the ice skating rink. Not a bad experience considering the hot summer we are facing 35-40 to be in a cool, I mean cooler environment. All is well so far, and after a couple hours of ice-skating, I decided to be a bit bolder and go further. Mind you I am not an experienced skater and only skated a few times in my life, the last time was a few years back. But the music on my earphone was tempting me to go faster and I wanted to experience the thrill of going faster, forgetting the “safety rules” that come with “when you are getting older” and not so experienced. Truly I wasn't trying to show off to anyone how good or fast I could skate, except maybe that I see now to myself, proving there is no limit to what I can do, hee.hee.
So I started to go a bit faster and it was fun to skate to a fast tempo, except that I am not an expert and one must expect to fall when taking chances and falling on the ice is not so fun if you are older. Fall did come, and miracle of miracle I didn't injure myself badly, my body went into a shock and for a few seconds I was a bit breathless and taken back. My pride was wounded, I managed to pick myself up and skate a little longer though with a few bruises and a sore shoulder.
To say the least, it was a bit of a reality check, what was I doing? And why? Afterward while meditating about it the verses came to me “pride comes before a fall and let no man think too highly of himself.” Was I perhaps exceeding the boundaries of my faith, it wasn't reckless faith but foolishness and lack of prayerfulness, ice skating fast is different than running or swimming fast. Being older has its new rules and guidelines too, you may fall but it's harder to pick yourself up and heal than when you were a kid or a teenager, falling is part of life when you are a kid, and you even learn to walk as you fall plenty. But with maturity, I should know better not to take risks that are not worth taking, or if I take risks, let them be calculated and prayed through risks and worth taking.
I will go ice-skating again I think, it was fun, but I won't go fast for sure, and come to think of it, there were a few older people skating too though most were young folks, most of the older ones were going rather slow, except for one expert Canadian ice skater who grew up skating before he could walk almost, even he was wise enough to skate at a moderate speed. I should have taken the hint for sure from my peers. Pride got the best of me and I fell. Praise the Lord though, for all the good lessons, I wouldn't have learned if it hadn't happened, I am making the most of it hopefully before anything serious can happen in the future.
I am rehabilitating myself, these last few days walking instead of running and swimming slowly. My shoulder is still in a little bit of pain and stiffness, but it's getting better by the day. I am hoping and praying to run and swim again as usual in a few days. Let nothing stop the man of faith but I pray: “Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me” (Psalms 19:13)
Monday, March 30, 2009
Pride comes before a fall!
Pride comes before a fall
I don't think I have told you about my recent fall while ice-skating. It could have been avoided for sure.
Here is the story. I found myself volunteering to take the young people ice skating. Hey, “Why not be the Hero?” for a change, at least the Lord showed me to do this for them, not the kind of thing I would normally do, due to the time limits involved in my work, but making their day could make a big difference, as there was no one else available, so I decided to take them to the ice skating rink. Not a bad experience considering the hot summer we are facing 35-40 to be in a cool, I mean cooler environment. All is well so far, and after a couple hours of ice-skating, I decided to be a bit bolder and go further. Mind you I am not an experienced skater and only skated a few times in my life, the last time was a few years back. But the music on my earphone was tempting me to go faster and I wanted to experience the thrill of going faster, forgetting the “safety rules” that come with “when you are getting older” and not so experienced. Truly I wasn't trying to show off to anyone how good or fast I could skate, except maybe that I see now to myself, proving there is no limit to what I can do, hee.hee.
So I started to go a bit faster and it was fun to skate to a fast tempo, except that I am not an expert and one must expect to fall when taking chances and falling on the ice is not so fun if you are older. Fall did come, and miracle of miracle I didn't injure myself badly, my body went into a shock and for a few seconds I was a bit breathless and taken back. My pride was wounded, I managed to pick myself up and skate a little longer though with a few bruises and a sore shoulder.
To say the least, it was a bit of a reality check, what was I doing? And why? Afterward while meditating about it the verses came to me “pride comes before a fall and let no man think too highly of himself.” Was I perhaps exceeding the boundaries of my faith, it wasn't reckless faith but foolishness and lack of prayerfulness, ice skating fast is different than running or swimming fast. Being older has its new rules and guidelines too, you may fall but it's harder to pick yourself up and heal than when you were a kid or a teenager, falling is part of life when you are a kid, and you even learn to walk as you fall plenty. But with maturity, I should know better not to take risks that are not worth taking, or if I take risks, let them be calculated and prayed through risks and worth taking.
I will go ice-skating again I think, it was fun, but I won't go fast for sure, and come to think of it, there were a few older people skating too though most were young folks, most of the older ones were going rather slow, except for one expert Canadian ice skater who grew up skating before he could walk almost, even he was wise enough to skate at a moderate speed. I should have taken the hint for sure from my peers. Pride got the best of me and I fell. Praise the Lord though, for all the good lessons, I wouldn't have learned if it hadn't happened, I am making the most of it hopefully before anything serious can happen in the future.
I am rehabilitating myself, these last few days walking instead of running and swimming slowly. My shoulder is still in a little bit of pain and stiffness, but it's getting better by the day. I am hoping and praying to run and swim again as usual in a few days. Let nothing stop the man of faith but I pray: “Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me” (Psalms 19:13)
Monday, February 16, 2009
The Feast
It's a time of fasting, of spiritual retreat, so I won't be posting during this time, except for this poem:
The Feast
I am so glad for all the Word
A special time to sharpen our Sword
When I can search deep inside my heart
Lord, am I truly doing my part?
It's all so clear
Yes, my Dear
I need more of You, more of Your spirit
To bend, to yield, that's going to be quite a feat
All I can pray
Make me more like your love
to go, to stay
Be moved, fly as a dove
Fill me
Take me
But Never leave
To you I will gladly give
My all
Please, hold me lest I fall
Every day I will pray
so I can flow
And Your spirit glow
Many to You will draw.
I will look into your eyes
Your spirit in me will rise
I will hear the Lost, and their cry
so many who agonize and die
Let my tears
wash their fears
Let my love
Your divine love
Bring them
To Heaven
You have given me riches and treasures untold
But this is not for me to keep and hold
I would die if I were to keep that spiritual gold
The wealth and training must be shared and told
Gladly I will go and find one faithful man
Give to him and share all that I know
So he can be part of our spiritual clan
In the spirit, he will change and grow
Many others, Your truth he will show
Let this fire go from heart to heart
May I never fail to do my part
When all know you, I will rejoice
Because they will love you and hear Your Voice.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Will you be my Valentine
Will you be my Valentine?
(Dedicated to my wife)
My desire through all the year
is to be close to you, my dear
and bring to you love and good cheer
A vision of love for you so clear
On this special day
A thousand words to say
I love you more and more
Praying for you
In all that you do
He will give you
All your heart's desire
His love in your heart
For Him to be on fire
And may I do my part
To give you Jesus' love
and support you in prayer
and problems through Him to solve
For you to be there
A friend so fair.
One with you in Jesus always
All of my days
Monday, February 9, 2009
Cool Running -Exercising
Cool Running -Exercising
I have never been much of a sport type person and mostly exercising mostly as a survival skill because I knew I needed to to stay healthy. It's been quite recent over the past years after moving to a new house right in downtown with a lot of pollution that I took on a more systematic approach to do exercise bike or steps yet without much enjoyment and only 30 minutes or so per day.
The turning point to having more exercise was when I moved to our new house where the surrounding is more pleasant and streets more trees. I had never been jogging or running much except some in my teen years. So I started slowly 2 kms a day, and build up gradually, the build-up and increasing of the running distance was challenging and fun because it was a challenge and something to go beyond what I had ever done and after a few weeks I was off to running about 9 kms in an hour mostly every day. Just a week or so ago I did my first 20 Km 1/2 marathon, and wasn't even sore from running.
"Let us run with patience the race that is set before us" There are so many spiritual parallels to running and to the course of this life but one thing I started to like about exercising is like everything you can build up to it and change and form new habits. That in itself was super encouraging not to speak of the highs that one feels while running or exercising, it gives a boost and releases much tension. Added bonus were for me to combine exercising to having a bit of meditation, prayer time and memory review on MP3, so it wasn't just a physical work out but giving me a spiritual break and a chance to get away and fill up spiritually as well and keep up with my spiritual work outs too.
While I am still running, I have started swimming as well combining both like 4.5 Km and 1 Km swimming.
It takes bit of an effort when one is tired at times but I have never regretted taking that time for working out, the benefits physically and spiritually are always there. I can't even think of a day without exercising, and if it's getting towards the end of the day and I haven't exercised I start feeling this pressure in my head.
The irony of this is that I have waited till being 49 years to start this, well I don't regret anything but it seems like I missed some of these blessings by not starting earlier. and it's never too late. I am looking forward to the day of running a marathon or swimming for a couple hours, though I only have the time for an hour for now except for the once a week extra. It's fun to go beyond something that you have never done, it's beating your own records and it feels great too.
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