Finishing the Race

Today in church, Uncle Rodney gave us the Sunday sermon. It was about Olympian. Weird topic for a sermon right? But it's related to "finishing the race" as a Christian. So I've learned that finishing the race is more important than being number one. It's more important than being the gold medalist. It's "to will one thing" and go forward to achieve the goal. We sang a new hymn this morning. There was a verse in the lyric that goes, Will Jesus said "Well down" or "Go away"? I pondered upon this verse when I did my Quiet Time just now. I feel guilty for sliding away so far you know. I used to read the Bible every single day and I will write down the verses that struck me most and tried to understand what it means and also write down my thoughts in my spiritual diary. But after I came to college, I stopped doing so. I even stopped reading the Bible. I read it when I feel like I want to. It's gotten pretty bad because I feel so spiritually stagnant. I used to make sure that I have my faith at the right place but even that didn't stay. Sad isn't it? I used to think I might end up doing Orang Asli ministry one of these days but where did the will go? I don't know. I also used to think I can be of some help in Children Ministry, and that didn't go as well too. I've been travelling back and forth from Malacca to KL. I don't even stay in KL church long enough to know people around me well. I told a friend from BSGC I feel lonely. He said, "Yeah... So anti-social". I guess I am not a social bug even though I can pretty hyped up in event but only with people I really know. Ask me to talk to a stranger. And I can tell you I can hold a melting candle longer than I can hold the conversation. I really cannot bring myself to talk to visitors that come to our church. I suspect Ah Hwei can do better than me. This is one area I have to work on and also to finish the race.YES! WE MUST FINISH THE RACE!

Anyway, back to the sermon. Well... I've always liked Uncle Rodney's messages because it inspired me. And as mentioned, I tend to stay awake in MGC rather than BSGC. It's such a big church and I always take the back seat. And today Uncle Rodney said something that triggered me to think. He said, "You can never feel the sense of belonging in a church if you come every Sunday, warm the seat and leave after that." Something along this line. I guess I am like that when I go BSGC. I feel very very overwhelmingly lonely that I just want to leave asap. It's not that the youths are not friendly. It's just that we don't really have a common topic to talk about that can keep us in a long conversation. If I go for Bible Study, then I tend to speak a lot more because we have a common topic.

Okay, back to the sermon. So Uncle Rodney told us a story before he closed in prayer. I will really love to share them with you.

There is this boy who asked his dad, "Dad, let's join the marathon." The dad, already aging and having heart condition agreed with him because he couldn't bring himself to say no. So they practiced together. And they went for the marathon. They finished second to last. Then after the first marathon, the son asked for more and his dad never said no despite his age and heart condition. Then one day, he said to his dad, "Dad, let's join the Iron Man Triathlon." For those who don't know, Iron Man Triathlon is a very gruelling race consisting of ocean swim, cycling and running. It takes a lot of energy and stamina to finish the race. But his father said yes. Below is the videoclip of the actual triathlon that they took part in. I will let it end my story. And the message I want to share here will be at the end of the video.

-chen-
[12.36AM]