Note to Self :)

You can never get tired of love, because if you truly, deeply, fully love people, there is no doubt that they will share it back, though that love will surely be transformed into something more beautiful. Love seems to be an infinite commodity. And you always have to place your heart where it receives the most love. Stretch the heart, because love will make it full anyway. :) 

Yesterday was truly, deeply, fully a revelatory event for me. I understand now the oft-used phrase: "I love because God has loved me first." Because how could so much love exist in the world if it did not come from an infinite source? Love is our first experience of our final destiny with God. Yesterday, I was overwhelmed with that experience, in the most positively profound way possible. Salamat Panginoon, pinaalala mo sa akin na it's all worth it. :D

Back to Basics

The past two months have been incredibly heavy, painful and difficult for me, like one looooooong long test and you can't find the answers. Or perhaps, you know the answers but you just can't write them down in the proper form to get full points. I've began to doubt myself again and when I do that, I feel guilty because I seem to doubt what God has in store for my life. 

One realization I've managed to get from the confounding combination of moderately difficult problems that I am facing right now is that I have a lot of growing up to do. But when you think about it, do you really just say I want to grow up and it happens? Because if it does, it's not working for me. 

I feel that this painful tunnel in my life will be longer than I would hope but, cliche as it may seem, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Because if there isn't, what a sad journey it would be. 

Then again, only in the darkest night when the moon is veiled and the clouds are gone do we see the beauty of the millions and millions of the jewels of the universe. It just keeps growing darker for me these days and the best thing to do perhaps is gaze at the stars.

"You will suffer the world. But take courage! I have overcome the world." - John 16:33 

Something to remember 18

"Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?" Jesus said to him in reply, "Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed him. After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the ehavens were opened (for him), and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove (and) coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." - Matthew 3: 13-17

People often ask why God chooses to not just change the world in just one flick of a finger. Why not eradicate poverty, hunger, sickness, death, evil, sin Himself? The question is not that He cannot do it, only why not? And I will not even try to guess at the grand plan of God but what is clear to me is that He calls us to be part of His work to do just this. We are that important to Him.

In the Baptism of Jesus, John makes a valid point: why should I baptize you when you should be the one baptizing me? It tells volumes of how much God wants us to be involved in His plan when at a glance, He can do a much better job alone.

The Baptism of Jesus is a testament to what can happen if we allow God to use us in His plan. Indeed, as we have seen here, He used John and He can always use us to glorify Him even more, to reveal Himself more fully to the world.

Something to Remember 17

Beautiful words of encouragement in these dark days of pessimism, doubt and despair, when it is so much easier to forsake the right for the convenient and the pleasurable.

"For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. Who [indeed] is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"
- 1 John 5: 3-5