Running Season

October 21, 2007

In Hong Kong, temperature has dropped down, humidity eased up and there is a pleasant cool breeze when I get out of my apartment building.  Running weather is here, and today, I did my first run of the season.  Jogging through Bowen Road, taking in the sights of this busy bustling city, took me back to more than a decade ago when I first took up running and when I first really enjoyed living here.

Some of you may know, I am leaving soon.  This running season will take me to a long journey from Hong Kong to California.  I am keen to run on Bowen Road on Saturday mornings listening to a podcast sermon on my iPod and by January take jogs along the coast of the Pacific Ocean in one of the beaches of Orange County.

I have been accepted to Biola University (Talbot School of Theology) where I would pursue a Master of Arts degree in Biblical Exposition for two years.  It is located in a small university town called La Mirada which is in the border of Los Angeles and Orange County.

I am truly looking forward to this new season in my life.  I have so much hope for rest and renewal.  Though perhaps a bit shorter than Alan Greenspan's stint as Federal Reserve Chairman, my long career of being a Trader has blessed me in ways that is beyond my imagination and counting.  It has also taken me through a few financial crisis, but more importantly, several personal crisis worthy of Mr. Greenspan's memoir title- "The Age of Turbulence".  I am looking forward to a quiet, slow paced life in Southern California where there is plenty of space and sunshine.  Two years of feeding on Scriptures and like-minded fellowship, and live in a city where I have family.

"After that?", some of you have asked.  I give an uncharacteristic, "I don't know".  I am giving up a full, if not lucrative life here in Hong Kong, for the option of not knowing.  I am entering a period of learning and yet a season of not knowing.  I do not know what it is like not to have a good job and a great pay.  I do not know what it is like not to have the stress that comes from keeping that job.  I do not know what it is like without the company of friends you know for so long and fellowship that is so available.

But I do not mind not knowing, and perhaps only then I can do some discovering.  After prayerfully considering what God has allowed to happen in my life, what He has given me, and trusting Him in faith that He will be with me... I am running. "He knows".