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11/29/2021
Does God Care? After Black Friday, I stepped on my talking weighing scale, and her voice taunted as she announced the dreaded news. I racked up pounds the same way I loaded my plate during Thanksgiving meals. It will be Christmas and New Year's day in less than a month. Meaning, I might acquire the snowman's shape after the holidays. We all expect to gain weight over the holidays in our blessed country and plan on dropping them after the season. But the dynamics changed in the so-called "new normal." What do you do when the food you stock up on holds you hostage during the lockdown? When regular walks to the parks and gym sessions are replaced by virtual activities? It was midyear when I realized that the drier didn't shrink my clothes. Instead, I gained twenty-plus pounds. I set a small goal of dropping five pounds each month so that it would be achievable. The first months were successful until my weight plateaued. I tried eating a balanced diet, exercising harder, skipping meals, but nothing worked. For a season, I've been prepping grilled chicken and spinach meals. A saying goes, "You become what you eat." Grilled chicken had been my staple for so long that I once dreamt I'd grown feathers. On one occasion, while mechanically chewing spinach leaves, a graphic picture of me with horns, walking on all fours and bleating like a sheep etched itself on my mind. "Is it really too hard to lose weight?" my mind despaired. "Not unless you're a glutton," my soul retorted. Or was that the devil's voice? "That does it," I cried and consulted two close friends who bragged about dropping fifteen pounds through intermittent fasting."  Intermittent fasting, rather starvation, did work. After all, the Bible says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst." But after a no-holds-barred vacation at my brother's, which highlighted an endless buffet of food and gossip, I gained twice the pounds I lost. I was back to square one. I looked up experts’ advice. Professionals say my age has slowed my metabolism down. Or I need to eat according to my blood type. Or this diet is better than whatever I'm doing. As a matter of fact, after trying almost everything out there, only my wallet got skinny!
At the brink of despair, I finally brought my concern to the Lord. Isn't it funny how even the most aged Christians (counting years, not maturity) treat prayer as a last resort? We usually take a problem to God when all things fail. He's like that lifeline friend we call on game shows. Why do we look to God as a desperate remedy instead of our ever-present help? Because we don't treat God like Father. We call Him Heavenly Father, but we forget God cares so much that He even knows the number of hairs on our heads. If we believe in our hearts that He deeply cares, we will go to Him for everything and anything. As a kid, I asked Dad to help look for the pen I misplaced or why my puppy wasn't eating – I'd ask about everything that could be insignificant to adults. And, my earthly father didn't mind helping and giving advice. In the gospels, Jesus says: "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God." I don't act like a child of the Kingdom when I presume God should not be troubled about my plateauing weight or socks I couldn't pair because He's fixing global issues like the Afghanistan war and the pandemic. I turned to experts and friends before I consulted God. I've forgotten what it’s like to have a father who cares. Most of the time, we relate to God like a boss rather than as a father. We're aware of God's attributes and characteristics in the same way we know our boss' resume. We generally go to our boss only for work-related concerns. On the other hand, when we’ve developed an intimate relationship with our authority, we can enjoy a casual conversation about how the sweet potato we had for breakfast is causing bottom burps or discuss other personal issues. Christians lose sight of knowing and enjoying an intimate relationship with God. We feel obliged to read the Bible, pray, go to church, and we succeed at looking like a Christian, but not becoming a child of God. What we do to achieve maturity eventually becomes routine, or sometimes, a burden. Thus, we end up working for our salvation instead of receiving grace and trusting Him. Today marks the beginning of advent, a time for recollecting the first Christmas, resting on our Lord's promises, and preparing for His second coming. Two thousand years ago, God sent His Son so we can not only be reconciled to the Father, but be His children. No formula or checklist could transform our hearts from being spiritual orphans to children of God. A good start would be to meditate on what marvelous love the Father has extended to us that we're called children of God! Are we getting to know Him as Father? Are there any blessings our Heavenly Daddy wouldn't gladly and freely give us since He didn't spare His only son? What are some seemingly insignificant troubles you don’t normally turn to God for that He would love you to trust him with?
11/21/2021
The Secret to Peace and Joy"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV  Restless sleep, stress eating, tension, weariness, existential crisis: These past two years, people everywhere, young or old, are experiencing these symptoms.. It’s called anxiety, the general and safe diagnosis for the troubled soul. Unlike the past, vacations and retreats aren’t enough to restore and sustain a sense of peace anymore. I believe anxiety is the covert pandemic – the unnamed and insidious rider on the coattails of modernization and the killer of our hearts. Anything that disturbs the heart affects our being. This is why Solomon said, Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. (Proverbs 4:23 ESV) The problem of the heart is the heart of the problem. As I reflect on the upcoming Thanksgiving season, I began to understand why an attitude of gratitude is God’s will in our prayers and petitions. Gratitude is the mother of all virtues and the heart is the fountain from which all issues of life spring. If the heart is pregnant with gratitude, one day, it will birth peace and joy. The children of gratitude go hand in hand as most siblings do. Peace is the guardian of the heart and joy, the sustainer. It’s not really a secret. Having a grateful heart leads to peace and joy. Why did this truth elude my focus? Because I used to be holier than thou in terms of being thankful. Then these verses, like a mirror, showed I have a very low TQ or “thankfulness quotient.” Consider my state of heart in these situations. A few days ago, the funeral home called to inform us that Maxi, our bulldog who recently passed, was ready to come home. I felt offended knowing that they were referring to Maxi’s ashes, not the dog. Later that day, my husband handed the plaster mold with his paw print. I burst into tears. The offense turned into bitterness. I questioned God, “Why did you give Maxi if you’re taking him anyway?” Then my mind flashed scenes of Maxi and me together. Every day with Maxi: playing, sunbathing, sleeping. Maxi dappled the past three years with silliness, wackiness, stubbornness, and affection. Those three years would have been colorless without him. The precious memories tilted my frowning lips into a smile until I breathed a prayer,  Meditating on the verses in Philippians and looking at other Bible translations, I grasped how prayers with thanksgiving will shift one’s focus from worries to the person of Christ, the embodiment of peace. It’s not what we lost or didn’t have that makes us anxious. It’s those things we do have or have been given that we’re not thankful for. Jesus Himself nurtured a grateful heart. In the gospels, notice how our Lord, before He performed a miracle, mostly thanked the Father first in His prayers. Look up the feeding of the five thousand, the four thousand, and how Jesus called dead Lazarus to life. A thankful heart could well be the secret to miracles! Imagine how things would change in my life.
As a person who’s blind using a screen reader, I have a lot of system issues at work. My typical reaction? You guessed it. I complain, grumble, and even loathe work. Suppose I were thankful to the Lord for the opportunity to work from home for one of the top twenty Fortune 500 companies. In that case, I’d look forward to every workday. Instead, I work for the weekend, counting down days as they get closer to my time off. If my mother were alive, she’d remind me of the millions of people who didn’t have a job and those who had to toil under the sun for a minimum wage. And here I am, feeling entitled like a brat. Whenever my alarm rings, I start whining about not having enough time to sleep. If I were thankful for another day that I’m alive, I’d spring on my feet and praise God for His mercies for a new day. At mealtimes, I often crave “fresh lumpia” (eggrolls), “palabok” (a Filipino noodle dish), or “lechon kawali” (fried pork belly), instead of what is on the dining table. Take note, this happens even after we’ve prayed for the food. Often, saying grace before a meal is merely a habit instead of a heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving. I’m like the Israelites complaining about mana in the desert. I would have been one of those killed for being ungrateful. As Thanksgiving sets off the holiday season, let’s put Philippians 4:6-7 to the test. If we begin every petition by praising God for what we have, not only will we not be anxious, but we’ll also be blessed with the peace and joy God promises. Who knows, that negative comment you receive on social media won’t cause anxiety because you’re thankful for who you are, not comparing yourself to others. ` Let’s be thankful together and share our victories to increase our TQ (thankfulness quotient).
11/14/2021
Will this Variant kill us?"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Revelation 22:13 NKJV  COVID-19 got my entire family early this year. Thank God we all made it alive, and as of today, feeling restored. We're grateful that our experience wasn't as horrible as we thought and that we can make light of our stories. During that time, we couldn't taste or smell. Once, my daughter and I argued whether we were eating "Adobo" or "Sinigang", two famous Filipino dishes with drastically distinct flavors, only to find out it was Filipino pork stew. We called steam-inhalation therapy sessions, a ghost conference; five people with white towels pulled over their heads sit around the dining table. We ran contests for who sneezed the most or who piled up the most tissue with snot. Our house was decorated with boxes of tissue, hand sanitizers, masks, and orange peels. In the end, our Covid-19 episode confirmed that laughter is the best medicine. But, don't be mistaken, we don't want to go through it again. So, I freaked out when I heard about Delta a few months later, imagining it might get us good this time. Then my sister in the Philippines called. "What, there's a Lambda Covid variant now!" I reacted to her news. Who thought this virus would run the course of the Greek alphabet? My sister wasn’t quite in remission after her cancer treatment, and her immunity was compromised. With all her symptoms, she might have been COVID positive, possibly with the Lambda. Helpless, I ended the facetime call. Variants of negatively charged emotions clumped in my heart ready to explode like an atomic bomb. I feared for my sister; well, honestly, I feared primarily for my family and myself. Initially, I thought the world population would be subject to the survival of the fittest, but COVID-19 casualties had included some of the healthiest individuals I knew. Is it just a numbers game? A squid game perhaps? Would we be all dead when the Omega variant comes? That is if natural disasters don't get us first? As a Christian, I'm not afraid to die. I know my destination is heaven. But I also don't want to pass away anytime soon, and I'd like to play with my grandbabies someday, if possible. Well, almost two years have passed since COVID-19 changed humanity’s landscape of “wellbeing” and the definition of “normalcy.” Two years could be enough time to be conversational in a new language, read about twenty-four books, or finish projects. But our COVID-19 story took a plot twist. After Covid-19 ravished the world with millions of deaths, permanent disabilities, and diminishing global economic circumstances, vaccines are finally developed. We hoped vaccines would put an end to the plague, but its effectiveness or consequence is just a new research area and another discussion point in social media. After taking the vaccine, many stay well, some became dysfunctional, and others have died. Meanwhile, the rest are sitting on the fence, waiting for more reliable information. Unfortunately, there's no clear answer to how we can be protected from COVID-19, its Variants, and the vaccines. To stay locked down or to open, to mask or not to mask, to get vaccinated or not… What vaccine is best? Whose advice do we take? Even Christian leaders are divided by opposing views. If no one knows the truth about the virus, its origin, and its transmission, then no one can be sure how to be safe. The anxiety from uncertainty over this life-threatening condition is a killer more potent than the virus itself. If we succumb to this fear, we will lose the battle. It's dishonorable to die without fighting. So the best immunity against this fear is to take heart. No wonder God's first words to His people when He appears in times of trouble is, "Fear not." Today, more than ever, we need to be aware that God is our ever-present help. As a young girl, I was into reading suspense and mystery books. When I was at the climax and couldn't contain the excitement, I'd turn to the book's final chapter to read the ending. The habit may be a spoiler alert, but it's a perfect solution to the anxiety that Christians suffer during troubling times. The last book of the Bible reminds us of how this story will end. Jesus speaks "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Revelation 22:13 COVID-19, its Greek alphabet variants, and the vaccines can’t stand up to the Creator, Healer, Redeemer, Savior, and Lord of all. Sickness may kill our physical bodies, but one day our Lord will defeat death -- the final enemy. I believe God is using this pandemic to shift our focus from the confusion and chaos of this temporal world to the peace and perfection of our heavenly home. Let's turn to our Lord's truth and promise. So whenever you fear the havoc of COVID-19, declare the Greek alphabet of who Jesus is; the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. What are your Covid-19 experiences?
Share how you are overcoming your fear of the pandemic and the vaccines. How has God used this evil for good?
11/7/2021
When You Feel Maxed OutAnd he said: “Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” (NKV) Job 1:21  God’s gift for my hard work, Maxi joined our family the same day I was promoted at work. It didn’t take a belly rub to get this English bulldog laying on his back and rolling in joy. Since then, I was never alone, even in the toilet, since he would groan outside the door till I let him in. The clicking of his nails on our wood floor tailing me had become a reassuring background. To shadow me was one thing, but to obey commands was another for Maxi. Bullheaded yet princely, he tested the fruit of the Spirit whenever rules were set. The couch was for people, and neither was it a face towel. No table food! It might cause you allergies. Stay! We can’t take dogs to all our appointments. Don’t pivot on your bottom to get something; you need to stand and get to it. Walking is something you do, not watch. Doors are built to close rooms so don’t whine about it. Clipping nails is part of grooming. You need to chew food, not gobble it down. Maxi taught me to win the battle of the will through firmness and gentleness. But we threw away these rules the day Maxi had to cross the rainbow bridge. Maxi had been battling allergies, ear and eye infections, and later, seizures. Strong-willed, he wouldn’t give up the fight until we saw he wouldn’t benefit from his suffering. Two months short of his eighth birthday and three months after my next promotion, we took Maxi to a pain-free home. I treasure Maxi’s memories and the most important legacy he left. Every day, hours before my alarm, Maxi’s guttural cry would wake me. Choosing to ignore it, I would turn up the volume on my Audio Bible app, but his cry would always prevail because of its distinct quality. Grudgingly, I would rise to let Maxi into the bedroom and go back to sleep. Then, two thickly padded paws would be planted on the side of our mattress. Pretending to be asleep, I wouldn’t budge. Maxi just needed to sniff our presence. As quietly as this fifty-four-pound bulldog can, he would land his paws back on the floor, curl up beside the bunk and snore away. Our presence is Maxi’s joy. If only we could be spiritual bulldogs, always seeking our Father’s presence to gain the fullness of joy. You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalms 16:11 Two years ago, I wrote this for Homeboy, our pug, Maxi’s little big brother. Dog is man’s best friend. Maxi and Homeboy are as different as water and air. But they have a common purpose in life; to be with their master, and that makes them a best friend. Our Lord says:
“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. - John 15:15 NKJV Our dogs didn’t have to work for our unconditional love, they simply trusted us with their lives, and with their death. Do we trust our Father the same way? What lessons have you learned from your pets? |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
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