Stay Healthy, Stay fit

 It is with sadness that I heard that my cell group leader has to go for a heart by-pass. Thankfully, he discovered it early that whenever he climbed up the stairs, he experienced breathless.

To be healthy and fit, I discipline myself with proper sleep, rest, eat right and exercise. The most important thing is to listen to your body. Respect what my body tells me. When I am tired, I rest. Never over exert myself when exercising.

This week, things are much better for me and less stressful mentally and physically. My mind is more relax and so, with a nice weather, I am back to my running routine.

On Monday, I ran a distance of 8km in 44min+. Previously, I have run faster than this. But after a hectic month, it is best to listen to my body and do at a safer pace. I pretty much enjoyed the breezily run at the Pasir Ris Beach Park, which is near my house.

 

Yesterday, which is Wednesday; I decided to run 10km. After 3km of running, I feel great and so increase my pace and completed the run with a timing of 57mins. My target for a 10km run is about 55mins+. So, I need to slowly build up my strength and endurance in order to achieve this target.

Besides running, building power and strength are essential to stay fit. There are a few places around my house that are equip with exercise equipment. At the playground next to my block, there is a hand-rail calibrated to record the amount of power the user can attained by indicating with green LEDs. This is my favourite exercise. By using both hands to rotate the hand-rail at my maximum speed for a power of 100KW, I usually try to do it for 100 rounds. After a short rest for 2-3 minutes, I repeat it for another 100 rounds.

 

I just discovered that besides the running trail at Sea-Shell Park, there is also an area with equipment for exercise – cycling, paddling, lifting, and stretching. I just tried the cycling this afternoon and it’s was strenuous.

                                                                                                                                   

Time to keep healthy and fit. Don’t wait till the body breakdown and medical problems surface. Prevention is always better than cure! So, now I am praying for my cell leader that he would be cured after going for the heart surgery and get the heart by-pass done safely.

Agape

Bunny In our family

 Taking care of our Dewy Bunny has taught me many things of rabbit and also about life relationship.

Dewy is a very sociable. She likes to roam around the house freely. Since young, she has been living with us and always feel as part of the family. On most days, she would loiter near me even as I was doing my chore or work. Sometimes, she fall asleep beside me, which is quite rare as that is her most vulnerable time of being preyed upon. Trust has been build up through the years and she is comfortable with me.

Dewy always show appreciation when we give her treats. She would run in circles and even make a few turns happily as she took her treats or pallets. That is her way of showing gratitude. Her actions always remind me to be grateful to others.

Sadly, I was careless and accidentally kicked onto Dewy left hind leg. She suffered a broken bone and we sent her to Beecroft Vet & Emergency Hospital for surgery.

Thank God, the surgery went well and we brought her home the next day. To prevent her from jumping, she was kept in a cage. Being a sociable Bunny, it sort of affected her badly. Unable to roam freely, we lost her appetite and my daughter massage her stomach and feed her with medicine. After much care taking and prayers, she recovered and we decide to put her back to her usual place and allow her to roam the house again. And so whenever she is out of her place, I will look out for her to make sure she will not jump about.

The vet removed the bandage after 1 week. Thankfully, she did not scratch the wound. This week, she has improved a lot. She is back to her old self of roaming around and being restless.

It’s a long journey for her recovery. Beside caring, feeding, and playing with her. Much prayers are needed. This accident has taught me to be more careful as I move about and always watch out for what I do. All actions have consequences. And much lessons to be learned from mistakes – painful lessons. L I also learnt a new thing about rabbit – they eat their wet poop but not the try poops. Thank God that after the surgery, she is able to bend inwards and do that.                                                                                     

Agape

How God answers my prayer!

 The words on the signboard says it all. It just answered what I have been praying for all night!

I had another stressful week!

To seek release, I just felt an impulse pushing me to get out of the house after clearing all the dishes and dinner. Where that impulse come from? I don’t know.

This prompted me to go for the night prayer walk around the estate. The nostalgic feelings of those days when I spend quite a good time at night praying and walking. Then came COVID-19 and this halted for more than a year.

The weather was hot for the 2 past nights. But that does not deter me. My mind was filled with sadness as I think of our bunny who was not feeling well after her surgery for her fractured left hind leg. There were gas in her stomach and she totally has no appetite for 2 days. She looked so weak and was suffering badly. And so I spend a good fair bit of time praying for her recovery and also for my family. We need God’s healing, assurance and protection for any fatality.

When praying, the mind can be tricky at times and prefer to think negatively, especially when our dependent is now fully on God. Yes, I was asking myself what can be the worst situation. I was thinking of death. Would such a thing happened to her? I told God I will submit to His Will and humbly accept what He had install.

Just as I was thinking of this, I saw this signboard ahead of me – “No Time To Die”. It came as a strong rebuke to my prayer. I instantly felt God was chastising me over my prayer. And I lacking in faith in HIM? He is a loving God, “Ask, and it shall be given unto you!” There is no time to think about dying. Instead, I should be focusing on being alive. Well and strong! That is then I knew that my prayer for bunny is granted. She will be well, gain her appetite and alive and agile.

As I reached home, I saw her beginning to eat well.

Today, she is not only full of appetite, she is running around, even with her injury.

Sometime, God can answer us in mysterious ways. He speaks, but at this moment, He led my eyes to see what He want to tell me – signboard like this can be useful tool for Him too!

Now, I learn another way how God can speak to me - surrounding scene and His prompting.

Agape

Place of Solitude & Solace - Pray

What a tough week it has been. :(

A heavy burden that I am bearing.

Last Sunday, I accidentally knocked on my home bunny and fractured her left hind leg. Feeling very sad this whole week, Will tell you about how bunny is coping in my future post

Going to my place of solitude, to spend time with my Heavenly Father, to pour out my grief and to hear from Him. I have come regularly to this quiet place to pray, to reflect and to hear the voice of my Father. It is the place where I encounter HIM.

Jesus’s place of Solitude

This is the park just across my house, a quiet and shady park about 400m in circumference planted with tall trees, mango trees and coconut trees. Every time I walked up the steps of this Sea Shell Park, I would be reminded of Jesus going up to the Garden of Gethsemane, a garden planted with olive at Mount Olive in Jerusalem and there He spent quiet moment in prayer. What was Jesus’ prayer like? How did the Father speak to Him during those time of solitude and prayer? As busy as the Lord was, He has always put solitude and prayer as priority. He prayed early in the morning before dawn (Mk 1:35), he prayed after a busy day of teaching and feeding the 5000 (Mk 6:46) and most of all, he prayed the whole night while others were sleeping before his crucifixion.

 

What I encounter through Prayer

As for me, many a time when I pour out my emotion of sadness and anxiety onto Him, I am assured that He cares for me (1Pet 5:7). Also, I like to come up to this park to pray as the place is shady and windy. With the wind come also the peace of God flowing towards me.

There are times when I heard God telling me to wait as I prayed for a cell member who was suffering from cancer. To hear Him say WAIT, I remember Psa 27:14 “Wait for the LORD, be strong and let your heart take courage. Yeah, wait for the LORD” To wait means to keep praying. Then came the good news from that cell member who told us about the miracle healing!

There was a frightening kind of answer I got from God some years ago while praying for someone who is suffering from cancer. A cell-member was asking for prayer for his son-in-law. In one instance, as I was praying for this sick brother-in-Christ, I heard God telling me that he will die. It was frightening to hear such an answer in prayer. I also felt God wanting me to stop praying for him. After a year or so, he indeed past away into glory land.

 

What Prayer mean to me

Prayer is not so much about I wanting my way but willing to follow God’s way. So, when I start praying, I will always pause in the midst of my prayer and try to hear what the Holy Spirit is telling me how I should pray. I believe this is what the Bible calls – “Pray in the Spirit”. To pray in the Spirit then is to pray what the Holy Spirit want me to pray. What if we can’t hear what the Holy Spirit is speaking to us as we pray? Yes, sometime God remains silent. He usually does as He want our companionship. Then keep praying as what comes to your mind. God delight in hearing us pray and so by keeping silent, we continue to pray until He speaks. We need to pray, pause & hear, pray, pause & hear … It takes patient (Love, Joy, Peace, PATIENT, ….) even in prayer. This is best done in solitude (alone, with God) and not in group prayer. This is also where I sharpen my spiritual ears to hear from God.

 

 

And so, as I leave the Sea Shell Park, I always sense an unspoken shalom peace flowing within me. A tough week of burden can also be make light.

^{Matt 11:28} Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

 

Are you still bearing your heavy burden? Cast them all to God in prayer

Agape & Shalom Peace

Weathering Life’s Storm

 How the mightiest have fallen!

While going to the market this morning, I saw the tallest and strongest of all the trees in the Sea Shell Park (Opposite my house) uprooted and toppled due to the rain and storm last night.

These trees were planted since the park’s inception in 1994 – a good 27 years! They have withstand many storms and strong wind. Today, they meet their demise, I wonder why? And so I started to do some investigation and went up the park.

On closer check, the 2 fallen trees are still healthy. The workers has sawn them up into pieces. Their trunks still look strong and no sign of rottenness. And it’s not easy to saw the strong and healthy trees compare to rotten one. No wonder so many workers are needed. And take the whole day to remove them. So, it is not the health or age of the trees. They can continue to grow for many years. There are also many strong trees in the park still standing well. Why did these 2 trees fall?

The strongest tree at the entrance of the park

 The fallen trees are the planted at the edge of the slope! The soil must have eroded quite badly and the roots has no more gripping power to hold their weight.

Second fallen tree

 Staring at the fallen trees, a few lessons came to my mind:

While it is important to stay healthy, it is also equally important to have strong foundation. The soil that it is planted must not erode or soften when rain and storm come. In life, we need to develop strong life’s principles – integrity, moral values and upright character. Without which temptations and tribulations will uproot us. Not only that, the foundation of this life’s principle must be built on good soil – Biblical principles. Regular Bible reading is like doing self-check on the soil of which our life’s value are planted. Is there any erosion taking place during life’s encounter daily? The workers came only after the trees have toppled. If only they come regularly to check the soil and improved on them, the trees would still be standing strong!

Secondly, why did the park attendants plant the tree at the slope of the park? Shouldn’t they all be planted at least on flat ground, inside the perimeter of the park? This bring me to where I stand as a Christian. Am I standing “inside” Christ, my Lord or outside at the slippery slope of His influence? The phrase “In Christ” suddenly give me a better understanding as I watched so fallen trees planted on the slope outside the perimeter of the park! They are not “in-park” so to say.

John 15:1-5 “Those who abide in me (Christ) and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me, you can do nothing.”

 

As I continued to stare at the worker going through the tedious task of clearing the sawn trees and loaded them up into a truck, I wonder whether they were going to burn them.

Cut-up trees loading into truck

Then John 15:6 popped up my mind: “Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned”

As I left the park, I am asked with this important question: “Am I rooted in Christ such that when life’s storm and rain hit me, I can still stand strong, rooted in good soil and Biblical values?”

Yes, and also doing regular soil-checking of my life through Bible reading and meditation.

Are you rooted in-Christ too?

 

Agape