What’s more fun than bowling? Bowling with your CG!
The game today got me thinking – a lot. I see this as part of a continuous process that God is showing me all the signs I need to see, like Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty.
After a few months in anticipation, the CG once again go bowling. The last time we did this was back in Sep 2012, before Wei En went to UK.
This time, we invited Wenda’s husband, KC and also my colleague, Simson.
And boy, the fun we had. KC is the champion. Last round, I started my game with a turkey. This time, my score was abysmal. Adding a 3rd game did not get me into form. I did manage a strike though – that’s how bad I was.
Everyone got at least a strike. No one has to lose sleep. 🙂 There were 11 of us. We played 2 games and 7 of us wanted a third. We cheered each other up and gasped when that lone pin refused to fall. I think we were the noisiest.
Long ago, I read from a magazine that people who likes bowling like to play fair.
Many of us had the same problem – we aimed at the middle pin (pin #1) but the moment the bowling ball left our hand – more often than not – it went into a different direction than we wanted. And the result is – it didn’t hit our intended target. I guess those who spend a lot of time with the hoops can relate to this. You wanted the basketball to get into the steel ring and make a whoosh sound. Instead, it bounced off the ring, the board or went out of bounds without touching anything but air.
In the 3 games I played today, I struggled to hit the crucial pin #1. I also struggle to get the ball to go where I wanted it to go. I will not tell you now that I represented my school back in Form Four.
I am thinking of what Paul said in Rom 7:15. Here’s Rom 7:14-16 in the Message.
I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?” Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.
Paul was obviously NOT talking about poor hand to eye coordination in those of us who are more athletically challenged. With practice and couching, most people can improve their game. Paul was talking about the battle waging in our mind. Our life and our Christian walk is nothing but a constant, conscious and deliberate choice making process. How we wish we can get prayer for and be “automatically holy” for 1 week. There, God, I have been prayed for. And the pastor prayed for me. It’s powerful. I can do no wrong in 7 days. I can go auto-pilot.
It doesn’t work that way. We have to make our own choice. That thing is not acceptable. Yes, so? Will I be a sad panda for the rest of the day and show my sad face to my loved ones? Or do I do what I can and if I cannot change it, brush it off and keep the joy and peace in me?
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes. – Charles R. Swindoll
René Descartes might have a different idea when he said I think, therefore I am (“cogito, ergo sum). To a certain degree, we are what we think.
I guess it could be hard for people to relate to a piece of land today, where we plant and harvest. Almost everything we have is in the cloud. It’s “always” there. It doesn’t get rotten. That land needed to be tended, the plants watered / protected before it can be harvested. Yes, we need to harvest it. It’s part of the job. Today, we have a much shorted attention span and patience. Not many are interested in hard work especially when it’s a LIFELONG process.
But we do need to work hard. Every second of the day could present a choice we have to make. And making the wrong one “just this once” could be all it takes for us to unravel the very foundation of our morality and send us down a road where coming back is hard and painful if at all possible.
The struggle to get a strike in bowling also reminded me of what Pastor Chris Kam shared about Psalm 127. Our children are like arrows in our quiver. One day, we will shoot them. Before that day, we will teach them the way of the Lord. Once the arrow leaves our bow, we can only pray it hits the target. We no longer have control.
So, parents. Have you hugged your child(ren) today? Do you kiss them before you sleep?
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