Excelsior!

https://odb.org/2024/09/04/excelsior

Excelsior! Excelsior! It is latin for higher, meaning that we strive to do better and better, go higher and higher. Not only do we move on and don’t give up, but we want to progress further. We don’t look back and get bogged down by regrets and ‘what ifs’, but instead, we are driven by ‘what’s ahead?’ or ‘what’s next?’.

We could be in our middle ages (or young seniors, haha), or we may just be young adults, having worked for a couple of years. Whatever may be our age, there would have been crossroads where instead of turning right, we had turned left. We made a conscious decision to pursue medicine in university and not computer engineering, although we have a passion for all things computers. Usually, because of the law of supply and demand, we pursued the most difficult to get in course based on our excellent public examination results. Instead of pursuing finance, we read law, but we are now managing customer experience in a fintech startup. Or, because of the scarcity of opportunities coupled with lack of financial means, we ended up in the workforce after high school and missed out on tertiary education.

Or for some others, it could be that instead of serving God, we partied and enjoyed life to the fullest in our youth with all its decadence and now are catching up in ministry and spiritual knowledge and maturity, and thus lament the waste of our youth when we were strong and full of energy and vigour. We could have done much, much more for the Lord had we started earlier!

Whatever may be our past missteps, follies, or ‘wrong’ decisions, we know that we can not dial back time. Life is lived once, and time and tide wait for no one or as the saying goes, the ship has sailed on and left the harbour. Treat our past as stepping stones for our future in God and use our past misadventures as battle scars for our life in ministry.

For what lies ahead, be bolder to take steps of faith and to trust God more. The LORD is able to restore what the locusts have devoured (Joel 2:25) and make our life henceforth to be like trees planted on streams of water yielding fruit in season as the Psalmist imagined in Psalm 1.

Forget what is behind and look forward to what’s ahead as we press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, as Paul exhorts us in Philippians 3:14.

Have a good week ahead, serving God in whatever manner God has called us, everyone! Blessings to all and praises be unto the only one who matters and who has the words of eternal life! To Jesus Christ, our most precious Lord and Saviour, be all glory, honour, and praise!

(P/s note: I took a short break over the Malaysian Independence Day weekend).