First of all: announcements before I forget:
Looking back, it’s been another awesome year…we still exist! We still have a place to train at! We’re all relatively healthy and can do kihon and kata! Praise the Lord! In addition, three of our sempais made it to the shodan level this year, two experienced senseis try to come when they can, to share some of their knowledge with us, and Trisha made the transition to sensei via her starting of a solid karate ministry at her Bible College. When each of you look back on 2005, I pray that when each of you can reflect on a year of progress in spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical strength and growth. Remember, it’s less about the size of the improvement, then it is about the direction and trend of the changes. Then, take it a step further and apply the positive trends and changes to your overall life. With these in mind, look towards the new year, 2006 (as you inevitably will) and spend some time thinking about how you will make it a better, fruitful year, not just for yourself, but for others.
We all realize that our mortal time here on earth is limited…we have a beginning and end. Within that interval of time called our lifetime, there is a small subset, which is karate training. Each of us has only a finite number of times we will be able to attend training. For some, it may be in the dozens, for others – hundreds, for a few dedicated, younger folks – thousands. Only the Lord knows when your last training session will be. As in life, as in each new day, attend training with the realization that it is an opportunity, it is a gift, it is what you make of it.
For those times that you can’t make it to one of your wonderful training opportunities, here’s a site that I recently discovered, which contains excellent reference information on Shotokan Karate: http://www.i-clps.com/karate/
It was created by a relatively young Shotokan instructor, Cory Searcy, who happens to be in the same general line of work as Sensei Peter and myself…he’s an environmental engineer.
2 thoughts on “Reflections on 2005”
Hey Wes, it works both ways…we are so glad that He brought you back safely from a year in Iraq. It’s a blessing to the ministry to have your and the other sempais’ presence at training. The synergy that comes from training in fellowship is awesome…you folks truly are each others’ “spotters”.
Wow! This is very sobering! When I think that I only have a finite number of workouts left… it is very motivating! The Karate Ministry has been such a blessing to me! It has humbled me, provided me a way to express myself through movement, and to have fellowship with other believers. I thank God for every karateka!