Great Day, Sunshine!

Live each day with a purpose. Engage in various activities that fuel your interest. Make a difference in your life and in other’s. Do not monitor what others do. Just enjoy acting upon your personally determined purpose.

 

As long as the sun shines, the plants survive and serve their purpose. In the same way, as long as our hearts beat, we can move and make a positive difference of any degree. When we do good things, others who benefit from them, and even those who just observe us, find hope in us and through us.

We must be thankful everyday we are alive! We have our faculties functioning well. We can move. We can think. We can talk.

I am inspired by the living testimonies of our “these abled” brothers and sisters, who, despite their physical disabilities, manage to make a positive difference in their lives—and even leave an impact on other lives, without these special persons knowing it.

Some enjoy their gift of life by doing good in sports like in Paralympics. Others eke out a living to help their families by doing handicrafts, massage services, and even professional jobs inside the modern steel-and-glass skyscrapers. Still others serve the people through non-governmental organizations, governments posts, or self-initiated services—sweeping their surroundings, cleaning their houses, and the likes.

There are also those unsung young heroes who never let their poverty hinder them to reach for their stars with flying colors.

Yet, many of us so-called normal people complain about life, as if we have no power to change the status of our lives, or worse, as if we are not blessed.

So now, what makes the difference between these special people and us normal ones? Disposition! Because of their gratitude and humility, they give off more love, pronounced hope, and infectious joy.

They are grateful they experience the wonder of life and are humble enough to acknowledge their need for a God to strengthen them and other people to teach and assist them. They don’t compete with and envy their mates.

Instead of looking at their deficiencies, these special people are zealous to learn, willing to take challenges, and appreciate their circumstances. They accept their situations as they are and take off from there.

So to us born complete, let us not puddle ourselves with laziness, anxiety, or envy.

Do not stagnate. Achieve! Do not criticize. Inspire! Do not regret. Enjoy!

As long as you breathe, you have the power to maneuver your life to the direction you want to go. Even though going there doesn’t happen in a flash, you are guaranteed to benefit from a fruitful and joyful journey if you just wake up each day gratefully, pray faithfully, learn earnestly, work passionately, share cheerfully, decide justly, respond humbly, love genuinely, and go to bed peacefully.

We don’t have to be caught in a snag or to go through permanent challenges in life just for us to learn and appreciate the beauty and goodness of life.

Live each day with a purpose. Engage in various activities that fuel your interest. Make a difference in your life and in other’s. Do not monitor what others do. Just enjoy acting upon your personally determined purpose.

One day you’ll just be surprised how much you have learned, how far you have gone, how much you have improved, and how many people you have awakened, if not inspired.

Remember that each day is another day to live in the moment with our God, who provides us with everything we need. Just up to us how we will utilize our blessings.

Time is the only thing that everyone—regardless of abilities, race, sex, and social status—is equally blessed with. While you have time, utilize it doing the things that you love, maximize it for learning, optimize it for service that bears eternal good fruits, and spend it letting your loved ones know how much you love them.

Our general purpose: pass on the light of goodness God has planted in our hearts by utilizing them. Be a torch that lights up long-lasting hope to one life at a time.

Ignite the light in your heart. Bring light and warmth to the people you meet. Reflect Jesus to others.


Great day, sunshine!

Through the Lens of an Eagle

We don’t have to experience unfortunate events just for us to learn. Like an eagle, let us be vigilant and alert. Like an eagle let us be wise, soar above the storm of dangers and evils, and get a bird’s-eye view of what’s happening to others or what we hear from the news or what we read in the dailies and learn from them. Practice them.

With the recent crime incidents in the place where I spent my undergrad, now I feel like an eagle soaring through the field where the wild animals unexpectedly and bestially attack their preys.

On one hand, I am like an eagle able to ward off the hunters and just now observing the incidents from up above. On the other hand, I am still like any other bird that no matter how high I soar, I am still in danger of being picked on.

In a matter of five months, three grave felonies had been perpetrated upon promising students in my alma mater, to wit: robbery with homicide, wherein the victim had also been raped (Oct.2011); rape, wherein the minor victim had been raped to death by about five men (Feb. 2012); and attempted robbery and homicide, wherein the offenders, who failed to take money from the graduating student, took his life instead (Mar. 2012). Moreover, in the law school I am studying now, a freshman student also died due to hazing (Feb. 2012).

What rubs salt in a wound in my heart is the fact that the minor who had been raped was one of our Sampaguita vendor friends.

It broke my heart after knowing it was Cesil who had been raped and killed. Cecil was not a student at UP. She was a sampaguita vendor in the campus since she was a very young kid. Selling sampaguita sent her to school.


Cesil was the first kid I thought of when I heard the news, and I hoped so badly that it weren't her. Sadly, it was Cesil—the cute, timid, hardworking, sweet little girl selling sampaguita until 11pm just to go to school.


I suddenly remember the times they sang over the phone for my friend when I was asking for an apology, the times when she and Gerry would suddenly sit on my lap and tell me “ate wag maninigarilyo ibili mo na lang ng sampaguita okaya bilhan mo kami ng turon”, and the times when the sleepy Cesil would meet us by the steps of our school building and ask us to buy her sampaguita so she could already go home, and my last Christmas break and birthday when I bought food and shared with the sampaguita kids.

I believe it is important to stress the common knowledge that peril is ubiquitous, so we must really be vigilant, extra careful, and wise enough not to wear or bring things that will catch thug’s attention.

Last September an outlaw was able to open the door of the cab I was in when the traffic light turned red. He tried to grab my phone and threatened me that he would shoot me if I would not give to him my phone. Instinctively, I threw the phone on the side of the cab driver. He kept on threatening me that he would shoot me, we were just a foot or two apart. I prayed as I haggled to him. Saying a short prayer gave me presence of mind. Thank God seconds before the light turned green he left already.

Just last month, a thief got all our phones at home. I reported it to our building manager and to the police right away. Thinking about what happened, I am grateful my brother and I were safe, weren't hurt, and we don't have to resort to stealing just to get through the day. Perhaps, I will be receiving something better as a replacement—phone or something else. The thief may have benefited from his take-away, I don't know his needs at the moment... But I am sure, I will receive something better than what has been taken away!  I thank the Lord I don't have to beg or steal and for making me unworried about the mundane.

Law-breaking now happens inside or outside the house. Make sure you always have someone or something to aid you defend yourself. But it is always best to:

When at home:

         1.      Lock your doors, even just the grills or screen doors

         2.      Never open the door until you positively identify the person outside. Do not let stranger come in, especially if you’re alone. Courteously tell him to wait outside, and call up a guard or a nearby friend.

         3.      Have emergency numbers on your phone and post a list on the visible area in the house
   4.      Make sure everybody is in the house before you go to sleep, especially the minors. If someone of age is out, tell him to call up before going home and when he is near—not when he is standing alone by the doorstep.

         5.      Keep outside well-lit

         6.      Make sure you keep clubs or anything that you can use to defend you

         7.      Keep your composure and don’t show your fear

When outside the house:

         1.      Never wear nor bring things that are “hot” in the eyes of outlaws

         2.      Make sure you just bring enough cash for transpo and a little extra

         3.      As much as possible, have a companion or have a pepperspray (there are those which   look like a keychain, attach it in your bag’s clasp)

         4.      If someone grabs your bag, let go of it. Your safety is more important than your belongings (refer to No.1)

         5.      Regularly change your routes

         6.      If you’re alone, walk in well-lit and visible or busy area and don’t take short cuts

         7.      Make sure you know where you are going and never ask strangers, only true policemen

         8.      Exude confidence—walk tall and project like you know where you are going

         9.      Don’t be sympathetic to suspicious behavior

          10.  Never walk with earphones on your ears

       11.  Hold your bag tightly on your shoulder pointing to the sidewalk

       12.  Carry your bag close to you, with the clasp facing inwards, and pull in front

       13.  Check your things before leaving a place and make sure bags are zipped up

       14.  While walking, look at your shadow and the glasses you pass by

       15.  Always walk on the side opposite the flow of the traffic

       16.  If you think you’re being followed, cross the street. If you think you’re still being followed, confidently walk in a bit brisky manner across the street again. Then go directly to a public place or a crowd or a convenience store.

       17.  Don’t leave important documents and gadgets in your car

       18.  Make sure all doors are of your car are closed before rolling

       19.  Don’t hangout in your car for a long time

Many encounters with crooks are won even before they assault you through psywar. Maintain an eye contact and project that you’re not intimidated. Most likely they will back down since they know you are alert and you already recognize their faces. (Invoking Valid Self-defense)

We don’t have to experience unfortunate events just for us to learn. Like an eagle, let us be vigilant and alert. Like an eagle let us be wise, soar above the storms of dangers and evils, and get a bird’s-eye view of what’s happening to others or what we hear from the news or what we read in the dailies and learn from them. Practice them.

We don’t need to touch the boiling water in order to know it is hot nor dip in the icy water to know it is cold.

Be vigilant. Be prepared. Know the law and your rights. Pray for your safety.

Best Answers Do Not Always Come in a “Yes”

Once we already have those best things in life—whether we prayed for them or not—we just know that there they are. The feeling of joy is unexplainable, the peace of heart and mind is indescribable, your gratitude to God is unfathomable… you just simply know inside your tickling heart that “I know that I know that this is it!” 

When I was a kid, I dreamt a lot of both good and really-that’s-good? kinds of dreams. I prayed for some and daydreamt about the others.

Most of the time we think that best answers are only gotten when God delivers right in front of us what we pray for.

I am sure many of our dreams and prayers when we were in kindergarten changed when we graduated in grade school, then changed again when we graduated in college, and perhaps some also changed before we graduated from college, and thereafter.

Imagine if God immediately gives us what we pray for, especially those that we pray for at the height of our emotions… If they happened, perhaps, many of us are forced to like and accept the lives we once dreamt of or the person we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with or the things and people we wanted to have.

We are so lucky our Father knows what is best for us and He is ever patient waiting for the perfect moment to bless us the best things we deserve. While we, on the other side of the paradise, are impatiently urging God to immediately give us what we want.

I am at peace and secure knowing that my God knows me so well and clearly sees my mind and heart. Now, I confidently and gratefully accept His utter “No” knowing that He has something far better for me; His “Silence” knowing that He has best reasons why He is igniting my passion and thirst as I patiently and persistently wait for what I pray for; and His “Yes” knowing it is already His best time—that I am already ready and deserving to truly enjoy His prime cooking.

It is not only God whom we should ask whenever we pray for what we want… we should also ask ourselves if we are already ready to receive and handle the things we ask for. When we already have the things we so long desired, we must be feeling that bone-tickling, breath-taking joy.

I thank God He doesn’t take seriously all my dreams and prayers when I was a kid—to be a nun, a doctor, laundrywoman, BBQ vendor, tricycle driver, construction worker, farmer, flight attendant, and a supermodel… or else, I wouldn’t be His apprentice in His Ministry of Justice right now.

I am glad I received many of my childhood dreams. Some I prayed for, others arrived by surprise.

Those that I prayed for were to pass my college entrance exam in the prestigious university to make my mom, who is a professor, to be proud not only for her students but also for her own child; to become a broadcast journalist (it was being a disc jockey and news anchor that was on my mind), then God made me experience being a DJ, voice talent, and radio announcer and to write for national dailies; to have an exciting work in a corporate world staying in the office half of the time and in the field the other half, then God faithfully answered my prayer with bonuses of rubbing elbow with both local and international celebs, business tycoons, high ranking officials in the national government, and with unsung and modern heroes, and travelling across the country and staying in swank hotels for free; et cetera.

Others I obtained without even imagining of ever having them in my life. Among my surprise gifts is mom’s grade school graduation gift to me—my first motorcycle! At an early age of 10, it was as if I won the lottery. I also became a chess and tennis varsity of our school, when in fact what I only wanted was to enjoy playing as child and teen, respectively; to establish a service-oriented community-based sustainable project—an activity I enjoy and love doing; among others.

I am so grateful to those who helped me receive and enjoy my blessings, and of course to God for always surprising me with His “Yes”, in the same way as He answers me with His “No”

Surely there is a lasting diamond treasure God is forming inside us as He forms our character while He lets us ask hopefully, pray faithfully, expect joyfully, prepare ourselves excitedly, and receive gratefully.

That diamond is the virtue of prudence and patience. Prudence in knowing what God is telling our hearts—when to keep on and when to let go and let God. Patience in waiting while keeping a good attitude.

Let us not preempt God's design for us. Instead, let us make sure we know what we want, it is in line with God’s words, trust God’s best desires for us, and thank Him for His daily surprises.

Don’t cheat yourselves of God’s best for you. Submit to Him and trust His spring of grace—it is overflowing, undbounded, and limitless.

Once we already have those best things in life—whether we prayed for them or not—we just know that there they are. The feeling of joy is unexplainable, the peace of heart and mind is indescribable, your gratitude to God is unfathomable… you just simply know inside your tickling heart that “I know that I know that this is it!” 

No second bests and second rates… only God’s best!