And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”
John 2:10
God always saves the best for last, because He wants us to experience the good, the bad and the ugly first,
So that when we finally experience the best, we will know how to treasure and appreciate it.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”
I learnt something about insults.
People may often judge, abuse, and hurl insults at you. Sometimes straight in your face, but most of the time, behind your back.
I never let such things affect me, because I realized that you have to respect a person before you actually let their words affect you. If these people do not matter to you, then whatever they say will also not matter to you.
To put it simply, if you do not respect these people, their words will carry no weight to you.
And on that same logic, if you are actually affected by what they say, it would mean that these people meant something to you.
Perhaps that explains why the people whom you love the most, are the people who hurt you the most, because you let their words sink deeply into your heart.
“Go bang wall” is something that people will tell you in response to something stupid that you say or suggest.
Eg. In situations when the sky is dark, “Shall we go swimming?”
“You go bang wall lah! Going to rain already leh!”
But I, on the other hand, would like to look at it differently.
I think “Go bang wall” is rather encouraging.
Eg. You are interested in a girl but she’s totally out of your league. “I think I want to try.”
“You go bang wall lah! Her family damn rich one leh! And she only goes out with tall charming guys!”
Yeah, precisely my point.
You have to go bang wall.
If you don’t bang the wall, you won’t know if it’s going to break down or not.
If it doesn’t, you’ll get hurt and experience pain. Then you pick yourself up and move on.
But if you go bang wall, and it does break and it crumbles down, you know you have won a challenge.
Which explains why it’s called a breakthrough.
Because you need something to break through.
To be frank, I didn’t really train for 42km because all these while, I thought I was going to be running the 10km race. However, with less than a month to race day, my bib got swapped back to 42km.
I told myself to just do my best and besides, Coach told me to aim for 5 hours. I was honestly very demoralized because I thought he would at least tell me to aim for 4h 30mins or something like that.
So anyway, I decided to disobey Coach just this once.
I did my own pre-race prep and plotted out a rough gauge of my pace and expected timings.
I wanted to attach this to my singlet so that I could refer to it during the race, but the thought of not being able to hit 4:30 struck me and I didn’t want to embarrass myself, so I ended up not pinning this bib on my singlet.
I managed to start the race of quite consistently and I stuck to my timings.
I hit the 10km marker at about 1 hour, and hit the 21km marker at about 2 hours.
I hit the 30km marker at 2h 50mins, but I was starting to feel really drained. If I carried on at my current pace, I would be able to finish the 42km at approximately 4 hours flat.. But I knew that it’s out of my reach because the fatigue was really getting to me and I couldn’t sustain the pace.
So anyway, the beginning of the last 5km was to climb up the Sheares Bridge. It was torturous. The cramps started to get really bad and I started to walk and jog. I hit the 37km marker at about 3h 50mins and I had 5km to go.
I was suddenly reminded of Coach’s words. He said 5 hours, but I told myself 4h 30mins. With 40 minutes on the clock and 5km more to go, I had more than enough time.
I started to take things easy and continued aiming for 4h 30 mins, but guess what… I saw the 4h 15mins pacer about 20 metres in front of me, and I decided to chase after him. Battling the cramps, it’s gonna be my last 42km attempt anyway, so I just gave it my best shot.
Well, I guess my efforts paid off.
(The following is an essay for my school assignment. It’s really last minute work. Sorry for any errors because I rushed this out and didn’t have the time to proofread.)
Loyalty is a word that is so easily spoken yet difficult to demonstrate. One can be loyal to a broad range of things. For an example, patriotism showcases loyalty to country, terrorism showcases loyalty to one’s beliefs, and materialism showcases loyalty to matter. The list can go on but one thing in common is that loyalty involves total commitment, full devotion and personal sacrifice.
The best example of loyalty could be demonstrated through a viral video clip that had netizens abuzz. In the video, a young hooligan was taking his pet dog out on the streets when a rival gang assaulted him out of nowhere. The assault was so brutal that the young hooligan succumbed to his injuries and died on the spot. The dog remained unharmed. As the young hooligan lay motionless on the ground, the stunned dog continued to stay close by his side even as his blood was splattered across the road. Resting its paws on the deceased’s chest, the dog gave a gentle nudge and attempted to wake its owner up. Paramedics arrived soon after and wrapped the deceased up. The pawed-creature gave the paramedics a blank stare that displayed a frenzy of emotions and finally barked at them, as if saying, “What am I going to do now?”
With the deceased all wrapped up and loaded onto the ambulance, the paramedics shut the vehicle’s doors and drove off. The lost canine attempted to chase the vehicle but eventually lost sight of it. There, the video clip stopped playing, putting an end to the fine demonstration of loyalty through the showcase of the dog’s devotion to its master.
Correspondingly, in the rise of the recent slashing cases in Singapore, many concerned citizens became aware about the state of gangsterism locally. As police apprehended gangster suspects and their associates, an observation was made. Like the loyal dog that stayed with its owner to the end, the gangsters do not know what they are fighting for but still remained loyal to their gangs until the extent that they are willing to put aside their families and school commitments to fight for their disillusioned glory. They are totally committed and fully devoted to their gangs, and their participation in gang fights usually result in a personal live sacrifice.
Similarly, when we put this concept of loyalty in the exchanging of marriage vows, the newly weds make a public proclamation of their loyalty to one another. Their total commitment, full devotion and personal sacrifice can be summed up through the assertion that they will hold on to each other “for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.” This is a very integral aspect of loyalty because when the going gets tough, life often throws better options at us so that we could take the easier way out. It takes a lot of self-control and strength for a man to say “No” to his stunning and sultry secretary at work. To affair-proof his marriage and prove his loyalty to his wife, the man has to go through the test of loyalty. He cannot claim to be loyal and faithful to his spouse until he is proven loyal and faithful. This can be found out when there is no one else left in the office and his secretary throws herself at him, but he pushes her away and thinks about his ugly wife at home.
This test of loyalty, unfortunately, is not difficult to pass. All throughout history, there have been many examples of people who had taken the test of loyalty and failed miserably. Such examples included Judas, one of the disciples of Jesus. Even though he had been serving alongside with Jesus throughout His years of ministry and witnessed the many miracles that Jesus performed, Judas was tempted by the monetary gain that was offered to him in exchange for his betrayal to his master. As a result, Jesus was crucified and a new religion was formed.
White-collar crimes, such as fraud, are also another representation of failed tests of loyalty. By siphoning the company’s profit into one’s personal bank account, the employee has discredited himself as a loyal staff member and subjected himself into the arms of the law.
However, just like pride, honour and glory, loyalty is not forever. It will pass away with time. A man may reject an affair to be loyal to his spouse, but for him to continue staying loyal, that loyalty has to be sustained. Loyalty to his wife can be sustained by acts of kissing her affectionately every morning before he leaves for work and especially, pampering her with material gifts. Such acts demonstrate his total commitment and full devotion because all his money is spent on her and he cannot afford to stray away.
Although it is not easy to remain loyal, loyalty is still a virtue that everybody should uphold. Companies and marketing brands recognize this fact. It is not easy to retain customers in a competitive market where rival brands always have something better to offer. Therefore, customer loyalty programmes are introduced and returning customers receive incentive packages and privileges because the highest level of respect is reserved for loyalists who are totally committed, fully devoted and sacrificial even though there are better options.
Without loyalty, it is difficult to maintain a relationship regardless whether it is a friendship, marriage relationship, or a business partner relationship. It is through loyalty that trust is built and nurtured, and only then, the relationship can be preserved.
Last week, during cell group meeting, Chee Wei split everyone into groups and gave everyone a little task.
Each group was given dried spaghetti sticks, a long string, a roll of tape, and a marshmallow. The objective was to create the highest free-standing structure using the given materials, with the marshmallow at the top of the structure.
Everyone worked hard at the foundations, joining a lot of spaghetti sticks together to build a very strong base before slowly progressing to the top, and finally tried to balance the marshmallow at the top of the tower.
It seemed like the most logical thing to do but many of us failed at getting the structure to support the marshmallow even though the structure was able to stand freely on its own.
Chee Wei surprised us when he said that the same task was given to kindergarten kids. They, on the other hand, took out the marshmallow right at the beginning of the game. Their focus was on the marshmallow, and they joined the spaghetti sticks to the marshmallow to support its weight and extended its height from there. If it failed to support, they would try again and again until it finally could.
I did some reflections and felt that we are all ruined by our own education. Education taught us to always set a firm foundation before building anything else on it. Education taught us that a strong base is extremely important and should not be neglected. Education has limited us.
The kindergarten kids, on the other hand, having received little from the education system, they were allowed to freely roam and express their creativity. Hence, they were able to successfully build a tall free-standing structure which was able to support the marshmallow, because their focus was on the marshmallow and not the spaghetti sticks.
It’s true that education is important, but we should not let it limit our thinking.
For an example, a person who is highly education in Science, it is difficult for him to understand that God gives us dreams and visions. To him, the more logical explanation would be that we are just hallucinating.
The point is, children may not be as smart and wise, but they are not limited in their thinking and creativity, and that allows them to set their focus on the right things.
No wonder Jesus tell us to have child-like faith, because children will never see anything as impossible.
We are, afterall, human.
We are imperfect. We all make mistakes and we all have experienced failures.
Mistakes often fill us with regret and failures make us feel inadequate.
For some of us, whenever we think and reflect upon our mistakes, it causes us to hate ourselves and feel that we are undeserving of God’s love.
But every disappointment can be a new appointment.
Our mistakes and failures should not mark the end of the road.
Instead, they depict new beginnings.
A new beginning, a new learning experience, a new stepping stone.
The miracle is not that Jesus died.
The miracle is that Jesus died and resurrected.
Mistakes and failures may drag you down, but make a decision to turn them around.
Get back up and come back stronger.
Don’t ever give up after a mistake, or after 2 mistakes, or even after 3 mistakes.
Give yourself a second chance.
And a 2nd second chance.
Or even a 3rd second chance.
Because that’s what the cross is all about.
