” You and your husband, Cliff, are so similar and yet so different… There are times that you wish you could surge ahead while your husband wants you to stop… and just… ponder about God… Listen and submit to him, know that God has him put this man of maturity and stability in your life for a special reason.”
Some prayers that people pray stick in your head for a long time- this was one of them.
Just a day after a pastor at church had prayed this over me as words of loving advice, I found myself caught in an uncanny situation:
Cliff had really wanted to ride that morning. It was our last ride before we had to leave our bikes behind for Uganda. Thirty minutes into our ride, after a sinister series of clunking sounds at my rear wheel, I came to an emergency stop, nearly flipping forwards onto the ground. Cliff, far ahead, turned back to look for me.
My rear wheel podometer had come loose, and it was swinging into the spokes of my rear wheel, making it dangerous to ride on.
For some reason, I felt my ride was ruined and was discouraged.
“I’m going home,” I grumbled, “I’ll cab back or something. You go ahead and enjoy your last ride.”
Undaunted, Cliff chirped, “No worries, it’ll take 5 minutes to fix.”
We stopped by the side of the road, and a kind, old biker stopped for us, unravelled a plethora of tools before our eyes from his nifty toolkit and helped us fix the problem, under Cliff’s guidance.
Sometimes, don’t we let a little problem set us back by too much?
We carried on with the rest of our ride towards a beautiful part of the beach, and Cliff, perhaps sensing a little of my discouragement and dampened spirits, slowed down and said, “Let’s stop here.”
“What for?” I replied, “let’s go!”
Having just got my wheel fixed, I was raring to go.
Just then, the prayer on the previous day struck my head hard, and something in my spirit beckoned me to submit, and stop.
“Look at the sea, Wai Jia. It’s beautiful.”
He gave me a kiss.
It was. And in that quiet moment, I suddenly gained a greater revelation of that pastor’s prayer- that made me respect and admire my husband more than ever, for his quiet sense of wisdom.
After all, what’s the point in riding so far and so hard if we can’t even stop to savour the precious moments and celebrate the beauty in our lives?
One moment ago, I wanted to quit and go home because of a loose bit swinging from my rear wheel; now, I simply wanted to rush through the rest of the ride.
Cliff, a seasoned racer and an Ironman 2007 finisher, showed me, that perhaps, it is not in how fast we go, or in the stopping or going in life that decides if we win or lose or complete the race. Rather, it is the knowing when to stop and when to go again that helps us gain the most from our journey.
As we set off to Uganda, a foreign land that may be filled with unexpected situations, I am reminded, not to rush through our time there or to call it quits in an unexpected turn of events, but to be sensitive to the seasons and know when to go, and when to stop and savour time.
It was in the stopping that we chanced upon the kind old rider who helped us fix my bike and help us enjoy the rest of the journey. It was in the stopping that I could enjoy the view of the beautiful sea one last time, and feel a precious salty kiss on my forehead.
Thank you for showing me what it means to stop, and savour the moments in life that matter.
This season, what do you need to stop for,
to ponder upon and savour?
Hi Wia Jia,
I live in Cambodia and I think it is not by accident that I get in here to your blog but by God’s plan for sure, due to your story quite not far from mine. But you are walking further than me a head of several steps!
It has been so good to follow your blog (since i got to see the post from Praise Wedding page) and see what’s happen every steps of your life. It’s also an encouragement to me to see how God works in each of His children’s life, so powerful so wonderful and so lovely! I would still need to take more time to read yours from the very beginning but just want to let you know that you are a very wonderful woman of God.
May God continue to bless many others through you.
Lyda