Image of a High Tower at the Sundial Bridge
Posted on | August 14, 2010 | No Comments
Exactly one week ago, while doing the touristy thing with my family out in Redding, California and traversing the very European-looking Sundial Bridge, I came across a strange group of young, college-age Christians.
Sundial bridge. photo by Daniel Ramirez on Flickr
They introduced themselves very harmlessly, not soul-winning in the traditional sense of asking “Are you saved,” but rather asking about illnesses. One woman asked if the bandage around Zion’s knee was anything serious that was healing. (Nothing serious, just a healing wound that Zion keeps scratching.)
One man, who seemed to be the visionary, was telling us about the images he was seeing regarding us. To my wife, he said he was seeing a large word above her “Grace” — meaning in all her dealings with friends and family, she was a channel for God’s grace to their lives.
To myself he said he saw an image of a high tower, looking above everything. And that maybe in some way, I was helping my friends and family see their faith and their trials from a higher vantage point? That perhaps I was giving advice that helped them see from a larger picture instead of from the trenches.
Then the third person gave us a drawing of a Native American face, saying that he felt he was being asked to give this to us. We thanked him, of course.
And they said they were simply out on what they liked to call a “treasure hunt” and that we were the treasure — that they were simply going where they felt there was a need for healing or prayer. And that they’d seen some miraculous things happen on that same bridge in the past. Wheelchair-ridden people walking again, sick people healed.
Curiouser and curiouser.
4 Reasons Why Life is a Rollercaster Ride
Posted on | August 11, 2010 | 2 Comments
The last time I was on a roller coaster was in a small theme park in the suburbs of Metro Manila called Enchanted Kingdom. It was a short, rocket-themed coaster that surprised me by whipping us all backwards the same way we came. I didn’t expect the reversal and got so dizzy and pale that I decided to lay off the things temporarily. That was … probably about 9 years ago.
Then last June 27, we found ourselves at Six Flags park in Vallejo, California, braving the crowds with a one-year-old baby in tow, to get a glimpse of Shouka the killer whale, and to line up for the kiddie rides. My family was challenging me to get onboard the coaster so I picked the safest one around, the old, rickety wooden coaster named ROAR. I stood in line alone, rode alone, and was pleasantly surprised about how that one ride encapsulated how I feel about life right now. These 4 points sum up why I think life is pretty much a rollercoaster ride:
Old Woody Rollercoaster ROAR. Photo by david.nikonvscanon on flickr
1. It’s Got Its Ups and Downs
A valley precedes a hill. A down precedes an up. And there are always more waiting of both ups and downs. When you’re troubled about a trial, realize it’s all part of one swift ride, and that a triumph awaits in due time. It’s one difficulty in a dizzying sea of future and past victories. You will survive by God’s grace.
1 There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
2. It’s Over Before You Know It
At the end of the ride on ROAR, I seriously thought we were getting ready to go on a second, more thrilling section of the ride. Wrong. It was over too quickly. I wanted more but there was no more to be had. Woe to he who lives his earthly life without making it count for the glory of God.
3. Keep Your Eyes Open
Precisely because the rollercoaster ride lasts mere seconds, it’s a great waste to experience it with eyes closed. And yet isn’t that how a lot of people live in their daily lives? Blind to the truth, blind to the blessings, deaf to God’s call, deaf to God’s Word. In a parable in Mark 4, Jesus tells us that He is planting His word in our hearts so that it might bear fruit. May we be fertile soil that hears His Word:
4. It’s More Painful When You Struggle Against the Harness
My natural reaction at the onset of the ride was to struggle against the harness, to dig my toes into the floor, to wedge my knees as close to the edge of the car as possible in order to be safe. And it hurt. Because I felt every swift turn all the more. It took me a few seconds to realize that the harness would hold, and that I ought to relax and trust in the harness’ ability to keep me from falling. And yet, isn’t that what we all we do when we trust in our own power to get things done? We struggle and hurt ourselves trying to do it all using only human abilities. In the face of overwhelming circumstances we forget to rely on God’s power and His strength and His grace to get us through. After all, He is the Lord over all the earth. And to those who trust in Him, He is our stronghold, our refuge and our rock. And all we need to do is be still and trust in God.
11 Who says: “Be still and confess that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.”
12 The LORD of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. Selah
One Man Can Make a Difference, with the Lord’s Help
Posted on | August 10, 2010 | 2 Comments
ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE, AND EVERYONE SHOULD TRY. Photo by Ginnerobot on Flickr.
So it was with great surprise that I discovered one of my friends — a socially-conscious activist and perennial nonprofit employee/volunteer — suddenly deciding to take up the challenge of being an assistant secretary in the Philippine Department of Education. His email to our group of volunteers actually brought tears to my eyes. Not in any dramatic way, but rather because it was so full of hope while I was so full of cynicism and wasn’t even aware of it.
In the email, my friend promised all of us that as long as he was in the government, he would never steal, cheat or abuse the system and that he would put in every effort in order to make a difference. I ended up writing him an email response that was longer than usual. And decided to reproduce it here:
*
Dear R.,
You put me to shame. I have often said in the privacy of our home that anyone getting into politics of their own volition is corrupt, or will soon be corrupted by the system, or will soon be eroded by its culture of compromise and shortcuts. And you’ve just proven me wrong. I promise to stop saying things like that knowing there are a few good men and women out there trying to do good.
The Lord is wise in all his ways, and has put you in this new role for a reason: to do HIS work. Not your own work. And definitely not the work of those who would abuse the system for their own gain.
So you better live up to that promise of honesty, integrity and generosity because the Lord and all his beloved poor are counting on you — no, He’s ENTRUSTING you — to make a difference.
Today’s Gospel reading gives you a challenge:
You realize that this means you’ll also be crucified, persecuted and dishonored by the world, for doing God’s will? I think you already do. I think you’re already feeling a little bit of it. It’s not going to be easy. Following Jesus never is. But the promise is that God the father will honor you for following His Son and you will be with him in heaven at the end for fighting the good fight.
And today’s first reading also contains the promise that you will be given all you need to do the Lord’s work in this role:
6 Consider this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
7 Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
8 Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work.
Go to the Lord in prayer every day, every chance you get. Go to Mass and receive the sacraments as often as possible. These are your only defenses against the culture of compromise which I guarantee you will find in your new work. And depend on His grace, on His provision for the strength to make a difference. After all, for someone who created the Earth in 6 days, a dollop of forbearance and a generous serving of patience and integrity and justice … these are easy things for the creator of heaven and earth.
He will provide. He will strengthen. He will empower you with boldness. Just be sure to strive for holiness (be holy as He is holy) in order not to impede His working through you.
I promise to pray for you as well.
God bless your spirit of volunteerism.
Martha was Too Busy to Hear the Need
Posted on | July 21, 2010 | No Comments
On the drive to work this Monday, tuned in to Catholic radio, I heard Teresa Tomeo read a listener email. The listener was sharing what her parish priest had said in the Sunday homily about Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42). It was a beautiful reflection. One I hadn’t heard before. Which was why I took the time to write it down on an index card and reflect on it. The gist of that reflection was:
This was Jesus last time to visit with Martha and Mary and Lazarus before his crucifixion. And he knew this. What he wanted was companionship — that he could relax with his friends and share some time with them before the frenzy and the pain of his passion and death. Mary sensed this. She was sensitive enough to hear this and to respond to it by sitting at Jesus’ feet and giving him her undivided attention. She wanted to please the Lord and sensed that this was what he needed.
Martha on the other hand was busy in the kitchen, busy serving, busy being busy. While Martha also wanted to please Jesus, she was only listening to her own self — what SHE could do for him, what SHE could serve him. In being so full of self, she lost sight of what was truly being asked of her. To come sit and talk with the Master, to spend time with him. To be still.
Photo credits: Jan Vermeer – Christ in the House of Martha and Mary. Via Jimmiehomeschoolmom on Flickr.
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