Appreciating the Good Times

I've recently discovered how important it is to celebrate and appreciate the good times in life, how vital it is to stop and smell the roses. Unfortunately I only received this revelation after I went through a really difficult time. I can't help but think that if I'd only listened to my parents and learnt to rejoice in the good times maybe I wouldn't be where I am today. What I would give to return to the good times and live them out with the knowledge that I have now. Why then didn't I listen to my parents? Why couldn't I see the wisdom in their words? What's so special about going through difficult times, and how does going through difficult times make me appreciate the good times? I now find myself having to admit that I didn't listen to my parents because I couldn't foresee the consequences of my actions, and I couldn't see the wisdom in their words because I'd never experienced those consequences. Experience is my teacher and experience has taught me well. It is this experience that encourages me to make a change, to grow, to mature. It also allows me to stop and reflect on where I've been and where I'm going. Finally, experience eradicates denial and reaffirms reality. Although learning through experience is painful, I believe is necessary if I'm to continue in my journey to become the person Jesus is calling me to be.

Life isn't fair, it's sad but it's true, and as a result I'm going to go through tough times, and it's through these times that I grow. Even though difficult times are just that, difficult, they are also times to be glad because I'm growing, and thus I'm becoming the person Jesus is calling me to be. I've learnt that to truly appreciate and celebrate the good times in life I've needed to have let the difficult times grow and shape me. In other words, I need to mature and grow through the negative in order to truly appreciate and celebrate the positive. It's only as I continue to grow in Jesus that I begin to find myself both celebrating and appreciating in more and more good times both by myself and with others, and that in turn makes life more satisfying. Who could not celebrate every living moment if they knew that even through the difficult times they were becoming more and more the person Jesus is calling them to be?
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Standing at the Crossroads

I played basketball tonight and we lost by four points. I choked; I had the ball under the ring with twenty two seconds remaining in the game and I failed. I didn't miss the shot; as a matter of fact I didn't shoot at all, rather then shoot I decided to pass the ball out so that my teammate, Nathaniel, could put up a three. I thought that if he nailed the shot we could reclaim the ball score two more points and win the game. Good in theory but I was unaware that in the spilt second that I had decided on this course of action Nathaniel had moved. Only after the ball had left my hand did I realise the error of my ways. The opposing team took full advantage of my mistake, retrieved the ball and went on to win the game. What makes it worse is that the end result would have been different if the purpose of the plan I had created was to win the game. I didn't create the plan to win the game; I created the plan to get rid of the ball, I was sacred. I didn't want the ball, in short, I choked. I failed not only my teammates but myself. I failed myself when I let fear take me in and be my master. I had the ball, and therefore I had control over the game, I had the power to win the game, and I choked.

Throughout my entire life I have failed consistently to grab a hold of greatness and run with it. I had the skill and the talent as a teenage to become a professional sportsman in whichever sport I choose to take on. Instead of living my dreams, I have spent my life being frustrated with myself because of my inability to overcome the pressure associated with being a professional sportsman. In a nutshell I'm a choker. I could, until his recent U.S. Master win, associate myself closely with Phil Mickelson. I, like Michelson have the talent and the skill but I just can't seem to convert that into a victory.

So what happens now? Am I destined to live in a constant state of frustration? Will fear forever control my life? Is it possible to overcome the past twenty one years of failure? Do I have what it takes to let go of the past and take control of the future? Only time will till for I have dreamed of working for MFB (Metropolitan Fire Brigade) for some time now. I really, really desire to be firefighter, I believe I would be real