(Reproduced from an earlier blog entry written on January 22, 2006)
The sun was just too glorious to be wasted this morning, so I decided to drag my lethargic body outdoor and do something physically healthy.
The sun was just too glorious to be wasted this morning, so I decided to drag my lethargic body outdoor and do something physically healthy.
Taking a walk around campus is something I have long wanted but never had the time to do. When I was really doing it, the feeling was just indescribably relaxing. I had no particular thing urgent pressing on my mind. I could walk as long as I wanted, and the solitude brought a silence that induced flashes of memories both joyful and sentimental. I found myself thanking God not only for the joyful but also for the sentimental, because it's a blessing that I can have some things or people to feel sentimental about in the first place. I looked up at the bright blue sky, and for what seemed to be a truly enlightening moment I realized that life was indeed beautiful and that I was endearingly blessed as a child of God.
After walking two laps around campus, I popped into the gym and tried playing around with the workout equipment. It was quiet in there, with only a couple of people, so I could take all the time I wanted with any machine -- even though I hardly had the energy to take too much time on any one of them. But it was fun, learning how to play with those things without the pressure of someone disdainful gawking at you. In fact, the people there were delightfully nice. A brother who was milling around working on different machines smiled at me every time our eyes met. When I was trying out a machine that exercised my oblique waist muscles, a blond sister beamed at me and offered to demonstrate: "You know you could turn that thing around?" Her smile was angelic, and for a second there I really felt not only life but also she was beautiful.
You might not believe I spent a whole hour playing with the machines in the gym, but that's what I did. When I walked out, my Korean brother Joonsuk saw me and called me over. He was waiting for the weekly grocery-giveaway (which for some reason takes place at the gym -- the least likely of all places to give away food). Radiant with a smile, he reminded me that next Saturday he was making lunch for me at his place, followed by a game of tennis. Now it's not as if he has a whole lot of time himself: he's married, with two boys, taking 10 credit hours, working four days a week from 6-10 p.m. as a custodial worker. And this isn't the first time he's expressed such thoughtful hospitality to a single brother ...
Sometimes, God's love for us is just so subtle yet replete. When we learn to appreciate the beauty that we find in things and people, we simply have no reasons to whine. We might not feel our present circumstances are the happiest, but God never fails to remind us that His grace is sufficient for us -- if we bother to notice.
After walking two laps around campus, I popped into the gym and tried playing around with the workout equipment. It was quiet in there, with only a couple of people, so I could take all the time I wanted with any machine -- even though I hardly had the energy to take too much time on any one of them. But it was fun, learning how to play with those things without the pressure of someone disdainful gawking at you. In fact, the people there were delightfully nice. A brother who was milling around working on different machines smiled at me every time our eyes met. When I was trying out a machine that exercised my oblique waist muscles, a blond sister beamed at me and offered to demonstrate: "You know you could turn that thing around?" Her smile was angelic, and for a second there I really felt not only life but also she was beautiful.
You might not believe I spent a whole hour playing with the machines in the gym, but that's what I did. When I walked out, my Korean brother Joonsuk saw me and called me over. He was waiting for the weekly grocery-giveaway (which for some reason takes place at the gym -- the least likely of all places to give away food). Radiant with a smile, he reminded me that next Saturday he was making lunch for me at his place, followed by a game of tennis. Now it's not as if he has a whole lot of time himself: he's married, with two boys, taking 10 credit hours, working four days a week from 6-10 p.m. as a custodial worker. And this isn't the first time he's expressed such thoughtful hospitality to a single brother ...
Sometimes, God's love for us is just so subtle yet replete. When we learn to appreciate the beauty that we find in things and people, we simply have no reasons to whine. We might not feel our present circumstances are the happiest, but God never fails to remind us that His grace is sufficient for us -- if we bother to notice.
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