In Him I Trust

Hey guys. I decided to write something for the blog because of many recent events in my life that reminded me so much about how God is so real to me.

I know I'm not the most Biblically sound person with lots of theological knowledge so I feel that the safest way to go would be just writing about my experience as it is. :)

There's a lot going on and I had many things on my mind. In April alone, I had lots to do with piano exam, basketball tournament, debate tournaments, sports day (training and making the mascot), etc... (cant remember the rest lol.) What worried me the most was not about losing or failing the exam, but more of how I was going to juggle all of them at one go. See, all these things need constant practise and training, and honestly, there's only so much you can do in school. There was two whole weeks where every day I was alternating between basketball practice and debate training because of the clashes. So at the end of the day, not only did I 'ponteng' trainings, I was completely exhausted and this affected my piano practices as well. Because seriously, after tuitions and all, who in their right mind would be so 'semangat' to practise piano for the next 3 hours?

With all these things bugging me, slowly I forgot about God and actually prayed less frequently as I should. Every night I would just crash in bed and sleep without even thinking of praying and thanking the Lord for the day.

So.. when I DID remember to pray, (FINALLY!) I prayed that He'd give me strength to get through this. Sure enough, it's May now and I'm actually alive. Because one thing I learned is that all things will come to past.

When the time came for me to go through these major events one at the time, every time before it started I'd say a prayer. First up was my piano exam which I wasn't very prepared for. I knew there was a chance I'd fail. But after that, it didn't matter anymore because I knew at least I tried and did what I could. (Results come out in a few months..!)

After that was the basketball tournament followed by the National debate championships at HELP UC. My debate team and I weren't very prepared either and I knew unless God wasn't with us, we wouldn't have done so well. In fact, I was told by one of our church friends that one of our opponents from Sri KL won some International tournament.. And I freaked out. It was scary wei! Before every round I'd run to the toilet (nervous!) and pray. Hoping He'd be with us despite our "not-preparedness" and placed my trust in Him, knowing that everything is in His hands. So it was definitely, insanely awesome cos we went on and won all four rounds, beating every school and ranked 2nd in the whole championship. It was crazyyyy but this time I did not forget to thank the Lord once more.

So I realised that relying on Him is the best thing to do in every circumstance. Despite the fact that we didn't win the Cup, (I actually cried...) we knew that we wouldn't have gone this far without God. And as disappointed as I was, I felt okay after that, and began to believe once more that all things ARE possible with him.

Isaiah 41:10 says "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

After all that was our school annual sports day which was a PAIN. I was put in charge of the school mascot and I agreed because the pengerusi promised that it'll be JUST the mascot and nothing else. But I should've known that whatever is said is pure nonsense. haha. Cos I ended up helping with the banners and cards and whatnot. Every single day I skip school (the whole day..) and stay in the Art room painting and painting. And because of this I couldn't train at all for the long-distance races I took part in while the other athletes are busy training every day. There was no way I could train after school either because of several other commitments.

So it was a relief to see BUBBLES (fr Powerpuff girls) turn out perfectly and walk around the stadium. But the nerve-wrecking part was the races. I knew my stamina was long gone since the road run and I could only look to God for help. The first one was 800m open (terbuka), I was worried that I'd do real bad cos it's very short for a long-distance race and most of them will probably run real fast. Before the race, as I stood there with 20 other athletes, crapping my pants, I prayed, not that the Lord will help me win, but be strong and outdo myself. so after both races, it was clearly evident that He was there because even I myself was surprised at the result. I don't know how to put this, but it feels as though he gave me extra strength or something to be better than how i usually am. Even though i used wrong strategies for both races (which cost me gold, stupid me, had to settle for silver), it's heartwarming and awesome to know that we can do anything with God's help.

This isn't some random post just telling and ranting all the stories of my life. i don't know if you guys thinks it's just a show-off. It's not. Honestly, none of this would have happened without Him. If this were last year or something and I was looking at these stuff, I wouldn't believe myself at all because this is NOT me. I can't do this alone. I'd be like, "yeah right, are you kidding me?!" So, all credits to the Lord.

So, what I've learned, I think is a valuable lesson to us all. Every single one of us. How often do we actually commit everything we do to the Lord? Even the smallest things matter.
I don't know what exactly happens in your lives, but whether it's another assignment, an exam, an upcoming gig, going for a trip... We should all live our lives according to Christ and always be reminded of how He needs to be, and is, the center of everything. Even if we forget about Him often (like I did), the Lord is so gracious and kind to forgive and always shows mercy. BUT we should NEVER take that for granted.

Everything that goes on in our lives, the Lord wants to be included and involved. He wants to be a part of it. But do we let Him? Even if at the end of the day, things don't work out exactly the way you want to, (nothing ever does) it's who you place your trust on that matters.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. ”

So, do you trust in yourself and your own capabilities alone, or God's?

Everything that goes on in our lives, the Lord wants to be included and involved. He wants to be a part of it. But do we let Him? Even if at the end of the day, things don't work out exactly the way you want to, (nothing ever does) it's who you place your trust on that matters. *Because if you start to trust the Lord and look to Him in all things, you'll see Him work wonders in your life like you could never imagine. And that's awesome, right? :)

- Jeana Joy

Images taken from:
http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showthread.php?t=236527&page=51
http://www.4catholiceducators.com/graphics/new_mark_10-27.jpg
http://kswpgoodfriends.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/trust.jpg