The adventure began after my family celebrated Father's day over dinner at Vivocity. The children went to the arcade to play MaiMai, their favorite music game. I went to the impressive Samsung store which featured their latest gadget - the Samsung Gear VR. They were hosting a competition of the game Anshar Wars which is a spaceship virtual reality shooting game. We thought our son Elston would love the challenge so we told them to meet us there after their games. All the children had a go with the VR game and Elston got 23 shots on his first try. Most of us can't do 10. The high score was 44 then and Elston has the confidence to break that score if he was given more practice. We encouraged him to go back daily to have a go at the competition. In the house, no one play games better than him. Elston went back the following day and did 35. He was sure that he could break 44 and on his third try, he did 55! It was an impressive score but soon the score was broken by another 16 years old boy. By Friday, the high score stood at 58. Another week to go so 58 is breakable for Elston. My wife bought me the gear VR as Father's day gift. On Sunday, Elston broke the high score again and set an impressive 61 which he thought could make him the winner of the competition. Things turned when my daughter saw the score being broken with an incredible margin of 12. 73 was the new high score set by the same boy. The whole competition now became the ring for 2 boys. Elston and the 16-year-old record holder. My son knew the game very well by now. 73 was mission impossible. He practiced diligently daily and take periodical breaks between. In the evening, the family started to show signs of despair. You know this by the questions we asked. Could it be the staff who got the timing wrong and give the other boy an advantage? Could it be there was a glitch in the game that the boy could hit a score much higher than usual? In any case, we told Elston that winning is not everything but giving his best is. I told him to have good rest for the day and to practice as usual the following day. It was Friday 2 days before the competition ends. We were working and we received a text from Elston that he did 65. That started the moment of breakthrough because he is now confident that 61 is not his limit. In the afternoon he did 69 and he was ready to go for the challenge. On Saturday 26 June 15 Elston set 74, one point above the former high score. It was a proud day for the parents as we move from the verge of giving up to a new level of celebration. Joy is different when you surfaced from a point of low. Saturday the score was unbroken and on Sunday, Elston did 74 again at 1pm. The game ended at 7pm and yesterday the organizer called to congratulate us. Elston emerged as the champion and won a Samsung S6 with the Gear VR. Elston ended up the happy winner but the family still felt sorry for the other boy who is as good a gamer as our son. (Samsung would you consider giving out 2 gifts?) I went to the extend of telling this story because it taught me so much about our spiritual journey. There are moments we are so confident and moments we are brought so low. Moments we felt confident and moments we felt anxiety. Moments we thought we are in a mission impossible and moments we felt we can conquer the world. All these bring us to higher ground with God. These are precious moments where we see God in different viewpoints. Apostle Paul summed up his experience in 2 Corinthians 6:1-10.

May we find strength in times of weakness and hope in times of despair. Remember Jesus. His grace can pull you through and bring you to higher ground.