Of Peter Crouch and Never Say Die

Last Saturday was a memorable day.

No, it was not my birthday. No, it was not me getting an A for any of my subjects. No, it was not me completing a paper. It was the celebration of Peter Crouch's first goal.

Many of you may have known my weakness to football. My legs will start going wobbly when I think about missing out a 'live' football game. Last Saturday was no exception as I watched Liverpool demolish Wigan 3-0 at Anfield. What makes it more special is that it was Peter Crouch who finally scored. After 22 continous football games, equivalent to 24 hours, the lanky striker scored and the Kop roared. I shouted, and woke my wife up on an early Saturday morning. I cannot help being happy for that courageous lad, who never gave up but believed that one day he will 'break the duck'. He did not once but twice.

That is a worthy attitude in Crouch, not only because I am a Liverpool fan but because of the self-belief that builds upon the trust and faith people have in Crouch. As I thought about this, there are 3 simple lessons to learn.

First, never say never. A striker will eventually score. The goal will eventually be achieved. The target will eventually be reached. It is a matter of patience and diligent waiting. Second, faith. We need to learn to believe that it is possible. Though I am wary of building up egoistic confidence, I think it becomes more meaningful when you are doing it in the midst of such wide support when everyone believes in you. It makes achieving something for yourself as achieving something for others as well. When one can achieve a personal conviction with an eye to encouraging others, I think it is a worthy task. Finally, do not be discouraged. Hebrews 11 has a long list of people who kept faith despite not seeing the results soon. We need to learn to press on, regardless of the results. That act of pressing on will bring us at least a step closer to the goal. Like Paul, we need to leave aside all that hinders us, and press on towards to goal, the calling set out for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

kianseng

How to Create PDF Documents?

Ever wondered how to create pdf documents without having to shell out large $$$ to buy the Adobe Acrobat suite of software? Not that I discourage anyone from buying from Adobe. It seemed to me as plain silly to buy the whole suite just to get one small feature of the whole software. As long as you are using MacOS or running OpenOffice software on Windows, the ability to create pdf is already built in. For those of us without such programs, especially Windows users, you can check out the following.

Here are some useful links to the free downloads.

1) http://www.cutepdf.com/
2) http://www.gohtm.com/convert_pdf.asp (online)
3) http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/ (Recommended)


There are several others but I think the above should suffice.

ks

Snow! plus Reflections on the humble Tree.

Snow came early to Vancouver. It is nice to see the flurries of white coming down on the whole neighbourhood and blanketed much of the lower mainland.

It is a nice change of scenery to move my eyes from the computer and books to marveling at how miraculous nature itself is. The same tree showed at least 4 different displays of colours over a calendar year. how it adapted to the seasonal changes proved its resilience.

There is much to learn from a tree, one of my favourite nature sights. In the Spring, the leaves and flowers gushes out as like time waits for no man (er tree). In Summer, the tree maintained its shiny glory, providing much shade for the hot and thirsty people taking a break from the summer heat. In Fall, the tree began to get ready for the long weather and the leaves turned golden yellow. By Winter, all the leaves would have been shed and the tree starts to conserve and wait for the right season.

We should learn to anticipate changes like the tree. Otherwise, we will not be able to survive the seasons of life. People has said that 'luck' is when opportunity and readiness meet. The Scriptures exhort us to be prepared in season and out of season. For what? To share the hope that we have in Christ.

kianseng