I Will Rejoice

It's kinda cute that my day could be summarised orderly in 4 separate events, 3 of which were interesting meetings with people (: The following is gonna be an essay, so brace yourself if you're set on reading it.

1. Lunch with Anna
Talked about loads of things in those 3 hours. Exchanged lots of stories, LOTS! hehe (: It's really encouraging to find someone fighting strong in the spirit.Young as she is, she's going on passionate and adamant about making clear and good choices. The hurts are still there, and I can totally relate to some of those, and they're only making her wiser and purer in heart. Ian was telling me over supper 2 nights ago that you can tell when people make good choices cause their life shows it all (and, surely, vice versa). And I think, Anna, I'm really encouraged to find that you've been doing just that! I'm so proud of you! Press on yea? (:

2. IPPT
The following sums it all...
Sit-up: 40
Broad jump: 234cm
chin up: 8
Shuttle run: 10.2s
2.4: 11:39

Injured my knee after the whole thing. 2.4 was crazy I tell you... The moment I started running I was already half-exhausted cause of the static stations. When I trained on my own, I only did chin ups before I ran 3km or so. But I also did sit ups (which totally killed my stamina) and shuttle run. Felt like puking from the 5th round on. My pace was much slower that when I ran 3km! !!!! But for some reason, I finished on 11:39, just making it silver! And my 8th chin up was, I think, given by the PTI. Maybe he thought I really did have my chin above the bar when the machine didn't read.

I was kinda emotional about it, cause somehow it was in line with what God's been doing in my life this season. I'm struggling, like mad, but He will make sure I'll go through and finish well.

3. Church ppl @ Taka
After IPPT, went to meet some church peeps at takashimaya. There were Simon, Anton, Maryann, Tany, Sharon, Kelsie and Berakah. Was just encouraged to just join them for a while and just be amongst church people. In desperate times, simple gatherings like this reminds me of hope and love.

4. Dinner/Supper with brudder Fai
Final destination - Old Airport Road. Had a good long talk with him. Really privileged to have a caring and open brother with whom I can just talk to about life.


Summary
It seems clear that everything that happened today were a message of love and hope from the Lover. It can't be clearer that He's out to love me and set my eyes on things that are about hope. For too long the enemy has stolen my hopeful vision and has made me focus on darkness instead, which led me to experience a whole train of disappoints and hurts during this season. But, I know that a time is coming soon when I can surely say that God is my hope, and at every turn I will envision and declare His majesty, even in the uttermost depths of valleys.

On my way home, He brought me back some years ago when I said that I wanted to be like the Apostle Paul. And I've been receiving revelation about Paul, who had to deal with churches that were deeply rooted in sin. Surely he must have been hurt. He wrote scores of letters to those churches - in Corinth, Ephesus, Rome etc - to warn and point to the right things. He could have felt hopeless. I mean, people were having sexual relations with one another within the church! But he did not. Rather, he declared that his life was a drink offering poured out to serve God's people, and he still keeps his joy! Yes, I should bear a similar attitude, especially in this season. JYC will recover and shine.

300 years after Paul's death, his heartfelt letters were recovered to form a large part of the New Testament, which became the basis of Christian theology. Not only did his labour and suffering not go wasted, they impacted generations of Christians, and will very likely continue to impact God's people until His coming. God honours our sacrifices for Him (:

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life — in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.

- Philippians 2:14-17

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

- 2 Tim 4:6-7

Yes. I will rejoice in the fiercest of fights!