Happy New Year. Be blessed and be a blessing!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Back To Square One

Have you ever seen a baby learning how to walk?
Have you ever seen a senior citizen learning how to use a computer earnestly?
Have you ever seen a patient learning how to use his arms again after an accident?

What do they have in common?
Well, they all learn something from scratch.

I myself learned something from scratch too yesterday.

On Sunday, I went for a blood donation drive in my church. That evening, I jogged for about 30 minutes and still I felt all right despite the 450ml loss of blood.

However, on Monday, I felt so dreadful when I went to learn how to swim. It was by far the most tiring exercise regime that I had ever gone through. It was tough and I was too proud to admit that I was just an amateur.

When I first learned photoshopping, I only read one tutorial and I tried to produce a magnificent piece of art. I failed of course. Nonetheless, I was still too proud to learn anything from my mistakes. I kept trying to improve my photoshopping skills without any tutorials. Indeed, I managed to do a quite decent piece of work in the end but it took a lot of trials and errors along the way.

As I jumped into the water, I could only think of one thing, "I'm going to master this in one day time." Then again, it was easier said than done. I drank a few gallons(exaggerate) of water into my lungs and nostrils. >___< I had to learn to control my breath in the water and to breathe using my mouth. My instructor taught me with great patient but I wasn't sure if I was patient enough to learn from the instructor.

At the end of the day, I did not learn much. I couldn't even float. However, I did learn an important lesson in life: humility.

There are times when we think that we are good enough and that we do not need any guidance from others. There are times when we tend to do things with our own strength and claim the success as ours. That was what happened to me. I forgot to ask God to provide me with a humble heart to learn how to swim. I didn't lean on God's strength to help me learn something new. I was too eager and perhaps, arrogant to learn something "trivial" as swimming when I could master so many other things. That ultimately led me to destruction as I didn't manage to master anything from my first swimming lesson.

I'll go to the pool later today and this time, I will be sure to pray to God before I go into the pool. I shall ask Him to give me a heart that is willing to learn from others. Without a heart that is willing to learn from others, I am sure that I will go nowhere.

I was pushed back to square one and started everything from scratch when I learned how to swim. Yet, I shall pray that God will sustain me through and give me a humble heart lest I claim this success as mine and not His. If anyone of you ever cross the same path as I do (learning something new), do know that God will always see us through in our journey of life. We just need to lean on His provision and He will deliver us.


Swimming,
Leen

Just a short notice here, do not try to donate blood at 1400 and then went jogging at 1900 unless you are absolutely sure that you will be all right. ^___^ It is safer to take some rest first before doing anything heavy.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Eileen!!!

Haven't been here for a long time.. Laughter Night 2? Sounds great! Will keep you guys in prayer. My 2nd semester has also begun yesterday... and there are many new things to look forward to.

Winter intake has brought about the influx of juniors and our CF (known as CCM - Campus Christian Movement) is anticipating the next wave of growth in size =) Somehow it reminds me of those days when we welcomed you all into CA... and I'm currently searching high and low for juniors whose cheeks I can pinch... haha...

Miss you guys!! And it is really a great joy to see how zealous each of you is for the sake of Jesus!!

Stand firm and stay strong!
Do keep our campus alive with burning passion for God & people... Cheers!

Love,
yuwan

P/S: How come I nvr receive CA T-Shirt when those in Perth have gotten theirs?

Shalini said...

Oooh....swimming....finally!

Good luck with that!

gloria :) said...

amen. very encouraging post. keep up the spirit!