To be a better me

Sitting behind me in the bus this morning were an old man and a young woman. The old man asked the young woman what time it was. She took her mobile out of her handbag and said "It's 10 to 9". He thanked her and told her how efficient it was nowadays where everyone has a mobile and no need of watch.

Later on, he continued the conversation by asking her whether she watched the Beijing olympics. They chat for a while on how glamorous it was. The conversation switched to paralympic after a while. Apparently she didn't watch the paralympic so the old man started telling her a 'lil bit of story.

He said "There's a young man who won the gold medal in butterfly stroke swimming championship. And guess what, he has no arms!". The young woman was surprised and so was I. I was trying to imagine a butterfly stroke swimmer without arms back then. "Moreover", he continued. "... that swimmer is a record-breaking machine. Everytime he race, he finished the race by few seconds faster."

I won't qualify myself as a sport person but I do know a few seconds difference does matter in sports. But what I do not realise before is the effort to attain those few seconds. For this man who has no arms (after doing some research I then know his name is Igor Plotnikov) to actually become faster by seconds must've meant sweat and tears. Not mentioning his opponents are those who are disabled but still has their arms attached.

How about us then? How much effort are we willing to put to be a better person? To change ourselves is surely a great challenge for anyone to take. Yet Christians swore themselves to be just like Jesus. Now, what have we done to be closer to that goal? Can we put more effort to gain a 'lil bit more patience? Are we willing to die to our flesh to be a 'lil bit more compassionate to those difficult people?