Year 2008 when I first joined the badminton tournament in my Alma Mater during our Intramural, I was a freshman back then and I don’t have any skills in badminton and all I have is a passion to learn. On the day of the tournament and without any expectations at all, I fought the good fight but just like any other game, there’s always a winner and the other one as a looser. Everything happened so fast because I’ve got eliminated on the first round of elimination. God knows my heart that I don’t have any hard feelings that time, I just enjoyed the game and gave my very best. But I hold on to that small thing called passion and I told myself that if today it was a defeat but time will come that it will turn into a great victory.
Six years passed and I never imagined that I’ll be able to continue my studies in that same school. 2014 Intramural came and for the second time I joined the same tournament but this time the school organized a two-part Intramural, one for the WEP (Weekend Program) Students or for those working students and the other one is for the regular students. I joined badminton on both Intramurals and humbly to say that I won three gold awards for different categories. For WEP Student Intramural I won two gold medals, one for Single Men Division and one for Mixed Doubles Division and for Regular Students Intramural I won gold medal for Single Men Division. With all that victories, I came into three realizations:
1. God’s timing is always perfect
The opportunity came in a way that I never planned. It’s been six years and the only reason why I want to go to that school again is that because I want to finish my studies but I never imagined that God will remind me of the passion that He puts in my heart six years ago.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” – Ecclesiastes 3:1
2. Don’t just wait, be Pro-Active
Yes, just like the title of this article, It all started with a passion and if you have that passion it will come naturally without trying yourself to become a better one. In the span of six years, I didn’t just sit and wait to gain skills but I made badminton as a hobby and I came to a point that I intentionally hired a personal trainer to learn more techniques.
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” – Psalm 32:8
3. Your today’s defeat is your tomorrow’s victory
Today, some of us are in the middle of nowhere, defeated by fears, afraid to let go, swallowed by their own brokenness, full of hatred and defeated by life itself. I don’t know what you’re going through but all I know is you just need to keep on dancing the rhythm of life. As the famous line says “Tomorrow’s another day”, Indeed! the day today is not the same as yesterday and God is using our today’s weaknesses to become our tomorrow’s strength.
“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” – Malachi 3:6
There you go! As a conclusion, let me leave this verse from Philippians during my quiet time when I wrote this article:
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:12-14
11/25/2019
There is a proverb
“Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
passion makes a man strong, dreamer.