Tag Archives: In His Steps

The 7 People of Lamentations

Here’s something I learned last Saturday at the SFC Metro Manila Leader’s Assembly (MMLA). The theme of our community for this year is “My portion is in the Lord, says my soul; therefore I will hope in Him.” (Lamentations 3:24) and everyone’s been talking about this ever since some big things happened in our community. Kuya Cocoi was the worship leader last Saturday, and in the middle of the worship, he talked about the book of Lamentations. Lamentations is a book in the Bible full of just that: lamentations. It’s a long list of complaints that the Israelites (God’s chosen people) to God. Inside this book, Kuya Cocoi gave a list of seven people of Lamentations, and they are:

The Seven People of Lamentations ((To read through the entire explanation, read this entry))
(From SFC MMLA, 5/19/2007)

  1. The Guiltless One
    – those who feel no need to repent
  2. The Stiff-Necked One
    – those who persist in their infidelity/sinfulness
    – they think that their sin is not that serious and fail to think that any sin, no matter how small, blocks God
  3. The Impatient One
    – they repent, but they do not pause to learn the lessons God wants to teach
  4. The Shallow One
    – takes repentance forgranted, keeps on repeating the same sin, undermining repentance
  5. The Comfortable One
    – no problem with obeying God, but cannot appreciate the need to be purified by fire through trials and even persecution
    – to lament is to have a posture where we reflect on the purpose of God.
  6. The Clueless One
    – those who do not understand the concept of command responsibility for collective guilt
    – we are one body in Christ, we are a part of one community and we should not be apathetic.
  7. The One of the Other Side
    – the attackers

What’s even more interesting about this is that even if it classifies the Israelites of the early time, this could very well fit these times. Each of us could be one or two of them. Sometimes we even shift from one kind of person to another.

Who are you among the seven people of Lamentations?

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Virginia Tech Massacre

Back when I was serving in YFC High School Based, our program head, Kuya Noli, told us the story of why YFC HS Based is very important. Kuya Noli often related to us the story of the Columbine High School Shooting, where after the event, a dad of one of the victims was present at some sort of conference about it discussing why it happened, and he spoke up: Because God has been taken out of the schools.

Hearing about the Virginia Tech Massacre reminded me of Columbine, and reading about what happened, seeing news about it brings tears to my eyes. There are many possible reasons why this happened; people could debate over the killer’s background, his attitudes and whatnot, but I think — and I know some of you might not agree with me — that the reason this happened is a God thing. Or lack of it. Not that God wasn’t there or He let this happen because He wasn’t looking or because He wants to punish people because no one is noticing Him, so He took the side of the killer in this event…rather, it was the lack of actually living out God’s love.

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A Friendly Reminder

Here’s a little bit of comfort from my morning prayer time (I finally got to do it again before I got to work — Yay!), which hit me hard, after all the er, complaining I did for the past two days.

The clinging of the women is symbolic of the way in which we can cling to comforting things in an unhealthy way such that they stunt our growth as Christians. The nature of Christian life is that God wants us to be always moving forward. He is not interested in us becoming comfortable in one way or another with our present faith experiences as He knows there is always so much more for us to receive from Him…clinging is usually symptomatic of the desire to remain static and not to accept the challenge of letting go in faith and trusting that we will be able to make the next few steps of the adventure of lifeI will have to get better that letting go of controls in my life and trusting that God will lead me to the right and best place for me.
– Fr. Steve T.

I know this already, but as usual, little old weak me needs reminding from Someone who definitely knows better. Thank You.

By God’s grace, I will live through this. I will cling to nothing else but Him. This is my Great Adventure.

Happy Tuesday everyone. :)

Eggs and Bunnies on Easter

Will asked something about the relationship of eggs and bunnies on a Christian holiday, Easter, which celebrates Christ’s resurrection. I never really thought about it, really. I have to admit that I’ve participated in Easter Egg Hunts (not winning anything, though) but I’ve never had an Easter chocolate bunny (is it really that good?).

Thinking about it now…what does eggs and bunnies have in connection with Jesus’ resurrection? Did bunnies show up when he got out of the grave? Was their main course eggs? Why?!

Okay, I’m exaggerating. Anyway, I looked up some information regarding this on one of my favorite Catholic resource websites, LifeTeen.com ((If you want to learn more about the Catholic faith, visit this site! They have easy to understand articles and answers to basic questions a Catholic or a non-believer (I think) would ask.)) and found exactly what I needed. Click on the link to read Mark Hart’s very interesting analogy with all these “symbols” in Easter and Jesus’ rising from the dead. :) Enjoy and be blessed. :)

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Skimming the Surface

Observation is a more powerful force than you could possibly reckon: the invisible, the overlooked, and the unobserved are those that are most in danger of reaching the end of the spectrum. They lose the last of their light. From there, anything can happen…Lives altered forever by you, by the simple effect of being present…by entering the light, by joining the dance.
– Mrs. Landing God, Joan of Arcadia (source: Television without Pity)

Can I just say that I’m sick of this layout already? I look forward to the upcoming Holy Week break to get working on a newer (and less pink) layout. Something that will last longer, yes?

The quote up there is from one of my favorite Joan of Arcadia episodes, the one where God told Joan to ask Ramsay the bully to the dance which put her life in danger but saved a lot more people even if it meant Ramsay had to go to jail. Joan thought she failed, but God told her otherwise, saying that she did exactly what He wanted her to do: to be present. To observe. To see things and notice the unnoticed. In this episode, viewers are taught how valuable our presence is.

Something hit me last Friday, hence the semi-emotional cryptic entry. ((Which wasn’t so cryptic according to some of my friends)) Yes, it’s about work and it basically made me want to get out of here — and I mean ASAP. What I mean with “here,” well, it’s for me to know and for you to find out. Ask me, I might just tell. Might. :p

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What Happened When I Was Fifteen?

Again, thanks to Rico for the idea. :)

Fifteen years into this Earth caught me in my last year of high school. Junior year ended okay, but I was ready to leave school for a summer filled with lots of YFC activities. Unlike my other friends who went for summer review classes for college entrance exams at AHEAD, I went off to different YFC activities all summer. I went to Cebu for the 8th YFC International Leader’s Conference, to Bataan for the KFC International Kids Village, led different youth camps, and had everyday bonding sessions with my YFC friends at this house. This was undoubtedly the busiest summer I’ve ever had, and most summer days weren’t spent at home. I would wake up at 10, go out at 2 and go back at around 10 to 11 at home. I did this every single day until the summer ended.

Then came senior year in high school, which is the best year I’ve ever had in high school. I was all set to make the most out of it since it’s my last year in high school. I could say that my section, St. Paul, is the best section among all, but of course that’s subjective. :p Our senior class was bonded mostly because we lost two of our classmates early in the year. They were caught with liquor during our field trip, and they were expelled. :( We promised our adviser that the remaining 33 in our class would all graduate together, and after that we were all doing our best to help each other up. :) And come graduation day, all 33 of us marched onstage proudly, remembering two of our classmates who didn’t make it with us.

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What Happened When I Was Five?

In connection to my upcoming 21st birthday, I’m going to do a Rico Mossesgeld (haha, hi Rico!) and answer the same questions he answered in his blog. Except of course the twenty-five thing since I’m far from that age. ;)

So now…What happened when I was five?

I just finished kindergarten, and now moved on to Prep. I was a talkative kid, as always, and I found out that I was actually quite, well, smart. I skipped nursery, yes, but I remember being down because I didn’t get any award during recognition days during Kinder. But why was I there, anyway? I don’t know why.

Anyway, during Prep, I made some good friends in school — Patrese, Jessica and Michelle. I considered Patrese as my best friend but we had this weird friendship: we’d keep on having little “fights” and we won’t talk to each other, but then we’d become friends again. There was a time when we’d bring toys to school and she’d have the “better” ones, but I usually don’t mind. There were also times when we’d send “hate mail” to each other. How? By coloring really ugly colors (black, brown, gray, and other colors that are not our favorite or do not match) and give them to each other. :P

Prep was the year I discovered that I was smart, as I mentioned earlier. Modesty aside, I found myself following the lessons easily, sometimes even getting ahead of the teacher, especially in Language subject. I was afraid of making mistakes though, or admitting to them. Like one time, we were doing this art project with egg shells. We were supposed to make an egg shell mosaic with our name, and our teacher lent us different colors of oil pastel (Craypas). She told us not to break the Craypas since we would return it, but as luck would have it, I broke mine in two. I never returned it, even if our teacher kept on calling for it. I think my teacher knew it was with me, but never asked. ^^; Was that stealing? I didn’t mean to, I promise. I was just ashamed to return a broken pastel (even if others broke theirs).

I remember performing for this Christmas dance in Prep, as well as this flower dance during the school’s Foundation Day. I was a good student (still am, I think), and I do think my teacher liked me then. :D

Oh, I was also a sickly kid — always getting fevers, asthma attacks and whatnot. It’s a miracle I managed to stay on top of the class. Remembering this made me see how God has been faithful to me ever since I was a kid. :) Praise God for that.

Tomorrow, we talk about being ten. ;) I’ll try to post some pictures of me when I was five and ten and so on, but let’s see. :) 11 days to go!

Woven Together

Every tear you cried dried in the palm of My hand.
Every lonely hour was by my side.
And every loved one lost, every river crossed—
Every moment, every hour was pointing to This Day…
I’ve been longing for This day!
The Martyr’s Song, Todd Agnew

Do you believe that everything that happens in your life happens for a purpose? Not only the big things, but also the little things. As in why you picked the clothes you wore, why you ate that lunch, why you woke up at this specific time and had to be in this specific place at this time? I’m not saying that everything is predestined and that we being controlled, but simply, God is in control. And no, predestination and God being in control is different.

How do I explain this? When we say predestination, whatever we do, whatever choice we make, we will end up this way. It’s like you’re driving in a straight road and no matter how much you turn your steering wheel, you’re still on the road. That’s predestination. God being in control, however, is like you driving, and there are different roads you can turn to. You may choose whatever direction you want, and on the way, there are different road signs posted for you. They may be good signs, warning signs or even full stop signs, but in the end, you still have the choice if you would continue to drive through or not. All roads in this part lead to one end, which is God’s will for us — if you stay on the road that is. But the last part is for another post, so I won’t elaborate.

Oookay, I think I kind of got lost with the entire predestination thing, but digressing now. There is a purpose for everything. There’s a reason why you’re your parent’s kid, why you study in your school, why you’re working in your job, why you’re friends with your friends and all that. Even the smallest, seemingly insignificant things (why you ate what you ate for breakfast) has a reason. Interesting, eh?

Okay, make it more like amazing. I still find it hard to believe that God actually took the time to put everything in place in my life. It may seem messy to me at times, but the way we think isn’t always is never the same way God thinks. It’s just really amazingly wonderful how someone as great as He is would take the time to notice someone as insignificant as I am.

Why the sudden thought? I realized how much He has ordered the things around me to be like this lately and I’m in awe. Like how Shifting Sands by Caedmon’s Call played in my iPod in shuffle mode during the time I was feeling so down and confused and guilty for displeasing God. Or when I feel down and hopeless about this certain state of my life and then I see something that reminds me of His promise. Or when I feel so unappreciated, and then someone gives me a compliment. Or how He urged me to take the leap, and then help me see my situation differently that I learn to like it. Or how everything fell into place at one project at work. Or when I was feeling annoyed yesterday and a friend posted a comment about how anger affects our faith. Or how the homily for today’s first Friday mass spoke directly to me, about how I must only concentrate on pleasing God. Or how I was made to stay late in the office but in turn, brought home a big Toblerone bar from our boss.

Or like earlier today, on my way home, I was squeezing in the jeep beside this guy when another woman squeezes in between us, stepping on my toe in the process. I was kind of annoyed (again, oops!) at her because I wanted to be nearer the door but I let it go. As we were nearing our village’s gate, the guy beside the lady who squeezed between us stopped the jeep and got down, but his other seatmate grabbed his arm and asked him to return whatever it was he took. Turns out her bag now has a hole, whereas it didn’t have a hole earlier. The man, annoyed, looked at her and said he didn’t do it and then went down the jeep in a huff. Thankfully, nothing was taken from the girl. I got off at our village and when I was about to ride the tricycle, I realized: it could have been me. If the lady hadn’t squeezed between us and stepped on my foot, I would be beside the guy and he could have taken my phones (I had three extra handsets in my bag for a weekend testing) or my iPod. I could’ve gone home with a slashed bag, if that lady hadn’t stepped on my foot.

Wow. I was hit by how God fixed everything. You may say it’s all just a coincidence, but I believe that coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous. God winks, as we like to call them.

Amazingly wonderful awesome God. Even in the smallest and seemingly insignificant things, He is there. He’s woven all of these together to bring about a colorful thing we call life. :)

Before I go to bed, here’s a poem I got from this website, for all of us to think about:

My life is but a weaving, between my God and me.
I do not choose the colours, He worketh steadily.
Offtimes he weaves sorrow, and I in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent and shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful in the skilful weaver’s hand
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.

Happy weekend, everyone. :)

MUfHH: Are You Ready to Be Offered?

My Utmost for His Highest (abbreviated to MUfHH by yours truly) by Oswald Chambers is one of the devotionals I read every morning during my prayer time. I love it how Mr. Chambers (or as I like to call him, Pareng Oswald ;p) can be so profound and direct at the same time. Sometimes his reflections can be a bit deep and most of the times they pierce straight into the heart and soul, but they are great insights nonetheless.

Anyway, from time to time, I’d be sharing some of the reflections that can be found in this book in this blog because the messages I got there are just too valuable not to share. :) They’re the kind of things you read that you want to highlight all over because hit you straight on. In common language, swak na swak. :P And here’s today’s reflection, which definitely hits the spot.

ARE YOU READY TO BE OFFERED?

“I am already being poured out as a drink offering.” 2 Timothy 4:6 (R. V. Marg.)

“I am ready to be offered.” It is a transaction of will, not of sentiment. Tell God you are ready to be offered; then let the consequences be what they may, there is no strand of complaint now, no matter what God chooses. God puts you through the crisis in private, no one person can help an other. Externally the life may be the same; the difference is in will. Go through the crisis in will, then when it comes externally there will be no thought of the cost. If you do not transact in will with God along this line, you will end in awakening sympathy for yourself.

“Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.” The altar means fire – burning and purification and insulation for one purpose only, the destruction of every affinity that God has not started and of every attachment that is not an attachment in God. You do not destroy it, God does; you bind the sacrifice to the horns of the altar; and see that you do not give way to self-pity when the fire begins. After this way of fire, there is nothing that oppresses or depresses. When the crisis arises, you realize that things cannot touch you as they used to do. What is your way of fire?

Tell God you are ready to be offered, and God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be.

* February 6, 2007 reflection from My Utmost for His Highest, emphasis mine.

This particular reflection reminds me of God.com by Alexander Langteoux, and Elijah’s sacrifice on Mt. Carmel (more to this on another post). This reflection obviously does not give a picture of a happy kind of faith, where one gets what he/she asks for in prayer. At first, our spiritual life would start like that, until God tells you it’s time to mature. And that’s where the struggle, the confusion and the sacrifices come in.

I think this is what most people avoid in their spiritual life, the one that comes after the initial wonder of discovering who God is. After a period of “bliss”, God brings our faith into a deeper level. This is the time when God asks one to do two things that I think are the hardest things to do: to let go and to trust. You may say that it’s easy to do that, like the way you let go of a top that doesn’t fit you anymore or the way you trust a friend by telling him a secret. But what if you have to let go of someone you loved for a long time because the relationship isn’t working out? Would you be able to let go? Or what if you had to tell your friend something about your past that you are so ashamed of, one that could potentially destroy your friendship? Would you be able to trust your friend even if he urges you to do so?

For the past few weeks, I’ve been learning that faith is hardly comfortable at all. It’s easy to tell God that you have faith in Him but to really put it into action is hard. To let go of yourself and to trust in Him fully is never comfortable. We tend to think that when we put our lives in God’s hands, our lives would become easier and it would be smooth sailing all the way. But it’s not. One of the major things we have to learn about believing in God is that it requires sacrifices. Although God loves just just the way we are, if we really want to follow Him, it would require sacrifice on our part. We cannot follow Him and our selfish desires at the same time. As we grow in our faith, we have to let go of our other baggages and learn to trust in Him. We have to let go of our former selves and trust that God is in control, that He won’t let anything harm us.

It may sound easy as I write it and you read it, but actually trying to live that out is, well, hard. I’m still struggling with this, and just as when I thought all my selfish parts have been “burned”, as Oswald Chambers said, I find out there’s more. The more you truly believe in Him, the more you — the selfish, conceited and nasty you — are destroyed to make room for the new person He is making you to be. This is the fire that comes to our lives once we decide to truly follow Him, the fire that burns not us, but the selfishness that lives within us.

I know this sounds all negative and all, but look at the last line of the reflection: Tell God you are ready to be offered, and God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be. Think of your deepest, greatest and most wished-for dream, the one that makes you sigh and say, “Someday.” Think of your sincerest hopes, the ones where you say, “I promise to be good if only this would happen to me/if only I could get this.” Now think of that, and think of what you will do when you fulfill those dreams, those hopes. Think of the joy you felt on Christmas morning as a kid, and multiply that a thousand fold. That is just a taste of what God has in store for you, for me, for us. The pain that you and I experienced, am experiencing and will experience as the fire refines us is nothing compared to what He has in store for us after.

Letting go. Trust. Sacrifice. JOY. Are you ready to be offered?

Have a nice day, everyone. :)