The Great Pasta Sauce Workout

Listen to this article

Had a wonderful workout at work today, was doing weight lifting with none other than pasta sauce :) Yup, pasta sauce...

You see, a sponsor kept us in mind and donated like some thousand bottles (well, I don't have the exact numbers but remember kept making countless trips to and from the truck to unload the cartons for storage). It was indeed a great workout as the 15-20 of us heaved the load off the truck, loaded it onto the trolley, struggled with getting the trolleys with cartons and cartons of pasta sauce over road humps and drains, unloading them off the trolleys and stacking them up... all while in office wear! Yes, me and some of my colleagues were like in long-sleeve shirt and you can imagine how drenched I was in perspiration by the time I finished (and I had an appointment in the evening!)

But what really left a great impression in me is how everyone, despite being from different departments and being in inappropriate attire... all selflessly came down to help with the unloading... There is even one officer who was in shirt and tie and he came along to help as well and moved the stock together with us... really makes me glad to be amidst these people who are so passionate about doing God's work...

And guess what? At the end of the day, I was rewarded with a T-shirt for all the hard work (and considering I was drenched in perspiration beyond words). But the problem is...

It has these big big words printed on the front of the T-shirt, proclaiming "It is all about Jesus' Love". Now, I wanna express my love for God and our Lord Jesus but I tend to be a little shy when it comes to T-shirts with big big words... which explains why my Tees all have simple small logos or wordings... :) Well, it was either this or a perspiration-drenched long sleeve shirt and well, I chose the former... Was kinda paisay at first but I soon got the hang of it :) Was even thinking to myself: how could you! Proclaiming Jesus' Love so shameful meh?"

Today's devotion was on Psalms 118:15-24 on how we should rejoice even in times of trials and tribulations because of God's goodness and glory; because

"This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

As there was deep sharing among staff, I suddenly came across this verse in James 1:1-4 and shared with everyone:

²Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

It spoke about how we should also rejoice when (not "if") we face difficulties as this also helpes us develop resilience...

For the first time, I have also found courage to pray aloud in a group, Amen!, although still not very confidently... I have also commenced on my bible study with my new bible and I managed to finish Genesis 1... hahaha... a long way to go :)