Nothing wrong with making a wrong turn

Today at youth, we talked about mistakes. How it can be your teacher and how it can be your downfall. Mistakes give us knowledge and wisdom. It teaches us to be humble. It gives us the heart to love the broken. It makes us strong enough to help pull up those who are deep in the murk. It leads us to the right path.

Mistakes, however, when done repeatedly is not only stupid but it's really... stupid. It hurts us and robs us of many many things. Need I say more?

People, however, tend to look only at the bad side of making mistakes. They then tend to lock themselves up and live safe lives. Safe and meaningless. They never actually learned anything.

What's the point then of living if you don't?

"This isn't the time to make hard and fast decisions; this is a time to make mistakes. Take the wrong train and get stuck somewhere. Fall in love... a lot. Major in philosophy, because there's no way to make a career out of that. Change your mind, and change it again, because nothing's permanent. So, make as many mistakes as you can. That way, someday, when they ask what we want to be, we won't have to guess... we'll know."

-Jessica, Eclipse

There's nothing wrong with making a wrong turn, at least now you know. Though, I should say, if you already know it's wrong... let's not be stupid and do it anyway. That's just plain... stupid. It's also a waste of time.

Well anyway, I'm off to live life. If I stumble over a rock and fall, then I shall welcome the bruises and stand back up again. Moving forward, I will no longer see the same rock. Though if I should see another, I know well enough not to stumble over it again. It's time to stumble over something else. Like flowers, maybe (if such are enough to make us fall).

Letting it all out

Last Thursday, I was a part of the "Kapihan with JCCI leaders Batch 4" and one thing I remember which they all consistently talked about was passion.

Last Friday, I was reading my "Daily devotions" and it was about finding your language, or to make it clearer... passion.

Today, I witnessed the life of someone full of passion at work (and not just literally).

These instances, and a few others in between, made me think about my post last 12-12-2009. I don't know if I was able to find my passion or if I lost it (assuming I had one already).

I think I stopped trying.

I guess that's one of the reasons why I felt exhausted (according to the JCCI leaders) or why I felt like I'm not in the right place (according to my Daily devotional book). It may all have been because of my passion.

I think what hits the most is the sermon last Sunday. It all boils down to my passion for God. I'm not going to lie, but I know that I hid it safely in a box somewhere. Which is wrong.

I want to open that box again, to let it all out.

Starting NOW.

Of postures and word vomits

Just spent my evening (yester...night) with two of my high school friends. We just realized that the last time we chilled or even just talked (virtually or not) was almost a year. Still, I love how we can still talk like we were just together the day before, like nothing changed.

We spent the first half of the night at Greenbelt and had the funniest conversations due to our inability to hear each other. There were just too many people in Greenbelt that time. The usual me then suggested that we go to Starbucks Dela Rosa then as I've grown to love the place so much. As of the moment it is one of my happy places. Finally, we had a decent conversation over coffee and a peaceful environment (which we totally disturbed).

I enjoyed our small time together and realized how much I missed them. I remember how my colleague got a quote from work today which said:

"If we don't spend regular, quality time with those we love including God, our relationships will be shallow, meaningless and unfulfilling."

We've spent so much time together before that our friendship grew roots which goes deep. That made us overcome the threat of distance. Still, as we were not able to spend quality time together for a long time, we actually knew very little of each other. I hope it would not lead to a time when our friendship will be considered "meaningless". We should see each other more often.

I am very thankful to God as He has blessed me much with true friends. Hope to meet up with them again; soon and with the others as well.

Tearing down walls

I was able to read back to one of my older posts about how we should start building bridges and stop building walls. That in every relationship, communication is really important. When we do communicate, we should do so in truth. Always being honest and not leaving things unsaid. Sometimes though, we usually tell others one thing and leave the rest behind. I tend to do the same thing when I talk with God. I usually talk with Him about the big things and leave the small ones, not because I think He does not care much about it, but because I feel ashamed that I would even open up those small things. I forget that He is the God of everything, big and small.

I always remind myself to just tell Him everything. So I do, and I just love the way He responds to it. I love how He is so hands-on and how He is so interested in every detail of our lives. I remember reading the book by Eric and Leslie Ludy "When God Writes Your Love Story", where they say that the most common misconception of most is that God does not care much about our love story. Totally the opposite. We were made to love. God loves us and He is very much hands-on when it comes to our love story.

So when I told Him my small concern, He reminded me of His promise and to whom I am talking to. He promised that He will answer all my questions and that He has prepared someone for me. One who will pursue me, who will delight in me, and will fight for me. One who will break all the lies the devil is telling me. He reminded me that He is at work, but that there are also some things that I need to work at as well. That I need to stop building walls and to stop building towers but to completely surrender it all to Him and to tear down the walls of my tower.

"Unless a woman realizes God’s call and promise to her, she can never understand a man’s call to her. And unless a woman surrenders her tower to God, He cannot fully save her from herself and the lies of the Devil." - Sean, God an You (The Story about every woman)

As we GO

I was reading an article about the "end times" and how we are getting closer and closer towards that moment. The article focused on the signs, all of which were prophesied in the Bible, and it challenged us to make a move. To stop being complacent and start running the race towards the finish line bringing more people as we go.

I realized then how much time I am wasting. Every second is critical, yet I waste it. Even if we say that we are busy, that should not stop us from serving god and sharing of His love. I remember when Ptr. Woody preached at LJBC about the "Great Commission". He said that it should be the "Everyday Commission"; that as we go we should make disciples. As we commute, as we work, as we buy or do whatever it is that we do, we should stay in the presence of God and we should make disciples. As we go about our usual business, we should remember to always be in God's light, so that when people see us, they see God.

We do not know the exact time when Jesus will return, but we know that He will return and so we must prepare. We must stop wasting our time and start doing what God wants us to do.