The Beautiful Game

I'm talking about football (SOCCER) of course. If you've been totally blur, FIFA World Cup 2006 Germany will be held in June this year, Arsenal & Barcelona are in the UEFA Champions' League Final and I support Manchester United, which happens to be the world's most well supported club. But there's one or two things we could learn from football, which I was pondering upon this few days as the Barcelona-Milan match was on yesterday morning (OK, ya, I slept at 5 a.m. yesterday, but you could only envy a person who's on vacation).

First of all, football (as also in life) does not escape God's will. I don't know how this would make sense at all but God's will seems to be such that, though you're the better side, you sometimes lose. Look at Villareal v Arsenal. Look at how many chances the 'yellow subs' (Villareal) had. The penalty. The free kicks. The chances... It is within God's will that some players suffer defeat though they play the best; while others win though they're not as good as the earlier bunch of 'lads'. Kinda like life, ain't it, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose- no matter how 'good' or how 'on-guard' you are. God's will is above all. The good news is God's will always is acted in the "Love-Holy" symphony, and we'll all rejoice where we're heading to regardless of our circumstances now.

Secondly, no matter what position we are in (Goalkeeper, defender, striker etc.) we all play crucial roles in the 'Team of Christ'. If you watch more football than just World Cup, Scoring is just one thing about football, there's also the other thing called keeping the opponent from scoring, feeding the striker, and so on so forth. But well, you guess it, that is true also for the Christ's body (for example, what Paul wrote). May I go as far as saying that the coaches, manager, and kit manager (as in the person who organises the jerseys) also play important roles...

Anyways, back to the Barca-Milan match, some pretty impressive display of football were played by both sides and the commentator was excellent (he even criticized the commentator in front of him for being too judgmental). The best teams in Europe (rpobably the world too). The best commentator ever, in my opinion. In Christ, let us also strive to be the best, and in Christ, one thing is for sure, we're always Barcelona (for that match, I mean) --- we're in The Winning Team.

To the best of us, Joga Bonito (Play beautiful) :)

AMEN.

Great is Thy Faithfulness, O God my Father

This is my overdue entry.

But the message is always applicable anytime - God is Good.

Well, I guess we're all forgetful people but He reminds us constantly of His goodness.

Especially during the storms...

Seriously, the rough parts of my life cannot be described as storms as it would be injustice to those whose suffered much more than me, though I believe that God give each their own measurement of storm to mould His children.

Well, the above were just some random thoughts anyway. But this entry is a thanksgiving. Thanksgiving that God has once again parted the Red Sea of Exams and I've once again passed. Praise God. Someone said, behing every successful exam, there's a story (I think I created that but it's true for me anyway). My story today is how I passed my Equity & Trust paper.

Don't get the wrong picture. Equity and Trust is not difficult. It just has a zillion case and a zillion brain cells to die for. Owing to my lack of effort throughout the semester, I revised it during the last week before the exam. And that week was the KDU CF Easter Week (which I will come to later). And so came April 12th 2006. The day I might have to live in infamy. I had not sleep the previous night and I really thought I smelled burnt fried brain cells that morning as I travelled to the battlefield. Somehow as I open the notes for "last-last-last-minute" revision I managed to forget all the cases (they can't seem to register, get the picture?)... and as anyone would, I panicked.

I studied awhile and suddenly this thought came to me. i think it's probably some testimonial about some other students who experienced similar situations, or it's God speakin' into my heart. The thought was to stop the memorisation and start praying 15 minutes before I go into the exam hall. I had half an hour before the exam to get some cases to try preventing a flunk. So I was experiencing what Henry Blackaby would call a "crisis of belief". And well, I stopped and prayed. The prayer was something about parting the red sea. After that, the rest was really, HIStory.
...
...
(I passed and did quite well)
Now I'm heading to the desert/ or more optimistically, promised land :p
...

Now I back tracked a little to 3 (THREE) days before my exam when te KDU CF Easter (cum talent time) took place. It was a blast for most people and many came. But what I would really thank God for the CDPC worship team and my CG (Koinonia) for the many helping hands, without which it would not have been what it had been- spectacular. But of course, Jesus made it meaningful... And much more so, He was there with us, because though there were controversies about some of the performances (the talent time were open to non-christians too), the worship and the preaching must have planted seeds into the hearts of some, if not all. This was my earnest prayer, and I know God answers prayer.

Thanksgiving aside, I must admit I am still weak, I sometimes fall, and I need grace. And God is merciful in His act of drawing me close to Him. To God be the Glory.

So God is really good, faithful, merciful. My life would be meaningless without Him, as well as this blog (in case some are still wondering why notweak.blogspot.com) always has God.

I conclude with

Yet there is one ray of hope: His compassion never ends.
It is only the Lord's mercies that have kept us from complete destruction.
Great is His faithfulness; His lovingkindness begins afresh each day.

Lamentations 3:21-23 TLB