Today in a particular way, I woke up feeling like I didn’t want to do anything. I woke really early in the morning ‘cause I had to go to school early… and just found out that I didn’t have the minimum intention of doing anything. Somehow, I ended up heading to school. Thanks to Miguel that called me to offer me a ride, to beg me to allow him to take me to school, to give him the honor of taking me, was the reason why I went to school… hehehe. If it was not for that, I would have stayed home.
The day didn’t start that well… I got late, reason for which the engineer didn’t allow me to attend the class and kicked me out. Satan (for all that people that is not related to my college context, Satan is how we call this engineer… he is not a bad person but he is very strict!) imparts really good classes, but never let anyone go inside the classroom if it is late. Without feeling like doing something, I went to the 104 (a room that has become very special to me, I don’t know why…) to try, even if I didn’t feel like it, to take advantage of my free time.
So… For not making it to long… The afternoon of this day was something completely unexpected to me. I was thinking in spending Valentine’s Day with my friends in Antigua. However, I was not feeling right and as I already said, I wasn’t feeling like doing something… We went to have lunch with Miguel and afterwards I was planning to go back to Antigua. But I didn’t happen that way… While we were having lunch, we were seeing some funny systems engineers (my friends of course!) play Basketball. It was funny to see how bad and clumsy they were. Once I joined them, I think I got the prize to the worst Basketball player of all… ^_^ .
We finished having lunch and then Miguel and I joined the game. We joined the same team that by the way, it was the one losing. I think the score was… 2.393493E12 to 4!? I can’t even remember. I just know we were losing BIG TIME! Then my friend Tuxtor started complaining about the teams being unbalanced, so that we needed to redo the teams… something that never happened. But, we decided to start the game again with the same teams. And as you could expect, we started losing again… but… after a while, everything changed a lil’ bit. We all started to have a better attitude. I started to cheer up everybody. My team would keep the ball most of the time (we were losing, remember??) but we never scored. I think that reason was because our aiming skills sucked and we were aware of that… so we knew that we would never score, even before we even tried… that’s what I think. But everyone started to have a better attitude, we stopped caring if we were going to win or lose, we started to have fun… I think both teams did the same thing… just enjoy the game. But the interesting thing is that, with the change of attitude… something else changed… we started to have faith that we would score, started trying to do things right and at last… the score changed too! We tied the other team and at the end we won the game… just for 2 more points! It was a great teamwork and a great game. But… what do I want to tell you with all of this?
First, I had a great time that afternoon. I had lots of fun and my mood changed completely. It was different to how I was feeling when I started the day. I remember that when we were done, I was heading towards where my stuff was… And then I looked at heaven, took a deep breath and while I was admiring the landscape, I thought: “Thank you Lord, because even though I was not in a good mood… you allowed to enjoy this day in a way I never expected… Thank you, because despite I’m going through a hard time in my life… you grab my hand and you walk with me and you fill me up with peace…. Really, I appreciate it…”
Second, when I was coming back from picking up my stuff… I saw all of my buddies, my friends… sitting there resting, teasing Max and Tuxtor, all of them completely exhausted, after I don’t know how much time we haven’t exercise at all… for living this sedentary life due to the career. I looked at heaven again and thought: “Thank you Lord… for all those wonderful people that surrounds my life… Thanks for Miguel, Daniel, Saulo, Tuxtor, Max, Peter, the black Alex, Monte, Gabriel, this guy which everyone was calling Toad, and for some others I didn’t know well… I’m grateful for the lives of each one of them, and the influence that they have in my life…”
Third and I think it was the most important thing that thought me a lesson today… Even if we were losing and we were feeling frustrated… we didn’t give up… we changed our attitude towards the game, we changed our way of thinking. And even if we won just for 2 points (which I scored by the way… ^_^ … and the fact the in the previous game, they were beating the crap out of us… hahaha!) we all felt good. I felt good. And it’s because that’s the attitude for this life. Many times, things don’t work out as we expect. Many times our projects and plans fail. Many times… we don’t feel like keep fighting. I myself face that dilemma every day… And I have lost lots of battles… Sometimes, it has been even worst… I have quit before I even try… But somehow, my Father has always been there to lift me up, to give me the strength that I need to fight, to help me change my attitude and to help me see things in a very different way. He inspires me. He helps me to be persistent, to not give up to anything and even if I know I have failed Him many times and that there will be many times when I will fail him again, He will always be by my side. Sometimes I’m stubborn, sometimes I don’t want to accept things as He sees ‘em… but in the end, I always end up accepting that He was always right. Because He is the only one that is perfect, because only He knows what is better for me. Nobody else knows. This reminds me the words of Paul in Philippians 3:12:
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
I also like this one at Isaiah 40:31:
…but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Today has been a great day. I have learned a lot. I hope this wasn’t too long. I hope that if you are reading this, you could make it up to here… hahahaha. I hope and I ask God that this can be as useful to you, as it was to me… even if it is in a slightly way… Thanks for reading.
Till the next post!