don't let time be your missed opportunity

i heard it said that there are two ways to measure time, chronos and opportunity. chronos is greek for time. opportunity on the other hand is not as precise and as easy to measure. it's perspective really. everyone wants to maximize their time and become an effective time manager. seminars and books have been written about time management, yet the reality is that everyone is given the same, finite time in a day. so what is there to manage? what would make more sense to "manage" would be tasks as there is really nothing you CAN do about time. what you choose to do, one over the other... that is what you manage. when you choose to spend your time doing something, it's at the cost of not doing something else (or at least at that time). this "task" is what i call opportunity. if i really want to live my life to the fullest, it's not by managing my time better, but about making the most of every opportunity. someone said of mother teresa (one of my personal hero), that "everything she did was an opportunity to love." her time was measured by how well she loved.

in light of this perspective, i can't help but regret over my most recent missed opportunities (to love). in mumbai, while sitting in traffic, a little boy appeared out of no where tapping on my window, asking for money for food. it was a split second decision, but rather than quickly rolling down the window and pulling some money out, i managed to justify that this will just draw more people into traffic. the other very vivid missed opportunity was just last week, on my way to work. it was raining and i had my umbrella with me. i saw an old woman about to walk past me. what i noticed was her battered umbrella. the metal rims were broken and it barely covered her. she was wet and getting wetter. she walked past me and the moment was gone. it was another split second decision. my instint was to give her my umbrella and yet my rational was that i would be wet going into work. surely, she didn't have to face the same crowd... right? and yet those two faces are still a picture book in my mind of very real, missed opportunities. i think about people that don't rationalize their behavior but simply love, boldly and radically, at any cost to them. those are my heros, ones that don't measure or count the cost.

opportunities to love, to be generous and compassionate are everywhere if i would only but look up once in awhile from my own self centeredness; unlike time, it's endless and "favors... those who are prepared (to love)." "...and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing..." (1 Corinthians 13:2).

4 months?!?

holy cow! what a slackard! it's been 4 months already since my last blog and soooooo much has happened! since november 25th, 2007, i went home to LA for the holidays, went snow boarding in mammoth, got sick, came back, went to hong kong, tokyo, and MUMBAI! my first trip to india and it was amazing! hope to go back soon. it's definitely a place where anything and everything goes. as a developing city, you see the old and the new colliding in the most interesting and sometimes inconvenient way, but all heading towards a dynamic progress. it has a tremendous energy, something is always going on, constant movement on the streets and you become a part of it. the food was fantastic! i'm in love with the northern indian cuisine, and yes, some very good looking bloaks out there!

S'pore on the contrary is a peaceful exchange to mumbai - quiet and highly developed, boring in comparison but you can let out a big sigh. i'm discovering more and more idiosyncracies about this place, for example, people have an amazing ability to walk in slow motion but still cut you off in an instant. and what's up with decaf??? it's more difficult to get a cup of decaf here, and not only here but in tokyo. walk into any starbucks in tokyo and ask for a tall decaf and inevitably the barrista politely request that you wait 10 minutes extra. considering i make "coffee nervous," i never take the leisure offer.

i am trying to play tennis when i can, IF i can find someone to play with. also thinking about taking up wakeboarding (that should be interesting). found an awesome church with great people in Spore called every nation church singapore, and someone in the church that offered to teach me to play the guitar! yes, alot has happened in the 4 months that i have been blog-less.

today is easter, i am reminded of the GREAT EXCHANGE, one where we exchanged a King for a criminal, His life for mine, when heaven opened up and invited us in.