I was feeling down last week because I was dealing with some issues and concerns in my personal life. I decided to deal with it peacefully and to let these concerns be, simply because I'm powerless over them and it seems that the best thing I can do is to just wait and see.
I was at this state when my friend, Ken Noecker sent me a simple text message. Ken is a friend who never fails to amaze me with his friendship and brotherly love and his simple gesture of thoughtfulness would always make me feel that I am deeply loved by God. I believe that God did that on purpose. He sent people my way so I would know and feel that I am loved and cared for always. He uses people, things, situations, music, etc. so He could reach out to me and speak to my heart.
The Lord indeed is the ultimate source of my happiness and joy. At that very instant, I was led to reflect on the wisdom of finding true joy in God regardless of my state in life--married or single. Many single individual feel that being married will complete them but reality would tell otherwise. Being married won't guarantee you eternal happiness, there are pains and hurts that a wife cannot share to her husband (like the pain of childbirth, as a sister in community would put it). And I have met married women who would feel a void in their hearts at times despite the presence of loving men in their lives. This is because God alone could fill that void in our hearts that no one else can--not even the dearest person in our lives.
Again, I am not against marriage as I dream of being married myself. However, as a single person I think I have to learn to be content with what God has already blessed me with because I do believe that if I find it difficult to be happy while single, I am sure that I will have hard time finding happiness in married life.
So, I thank God for bringing joy and happiness and therefore, contentment in my life and I thank you for being His instruments of joy and love.
Note: Photo obtained from the web
Lent is here and as it has always been, God has something like an assignment for me to do during the season.
During one of my prayertimes, I found myself asking God what He wants me to give up for Lent. Without so much discussions/exchanges of thoughts, I believed that I heard Him command me to give up (just for this season) my Yahoo Messenger. Yes, you read it right. My yahoo messenger!
You see, YM is my way of communicating to a lot of friends and to special people in my life. It has become a source of happiness and joy to me these past months. I found it actually very life-giving and a good way to start beautiful and meaningful relationships. However, sometimes constant chatting can lead you to get so attached either to chatting or the people you're chatting with. This is not surprising; these things do happen especially when you allow them to happen. Not that I am worried or anything but I want to do something like a reality check. And more importantly, my heart somehow desires to just be with God during this time.
Through this simple act of sacrifice, I hope to spend more time with God especially during lunchbreak-- to be able to attend the Holy Mass rather than chat with my friends. Also, I plan to focus and give time to people, those I am not in constant communication with lately. I'm talking about my friends or people in my life who are not in my YM contact list. I've lost contact with them simply because I get to talk with my YM pals most of the time.
This is to me a tough decision. I am a person who values relationships and so, I feel sad just with the thought of being cut off from these wonderful relationships for a while. But just like a plant pruned to produce more fruits in due season, so are my relationships. They need to be continuously cultivated through this brief time of separation so they would grow stronger and more fruitful in the years to come.
My heart needs to grow in total dependence on God and His words during this time. I trust that His grace is more than enough for me so I can faithfully carry out my decision so He could work His will in my life and in the lives of those around me.
"Certain as the sun rising in the east" are beatiful lyrics from a song entitled Beauty and the Beast. These were also beautiful words spoken by the Lord one morning while I was on my way to the office.
You see, I have been struggling to believe His promises to me. Yes, I clearly understand His words and His promises but to believe that they would come true sometime in the future is another thing. My being in community, reading scriptures almost everyday and being with faithful people seem to fail me to trust, without any form of doubt, that He is really a faithful God.
I did not understand at first why God had to make His point that way. I realized later on that my thoughts and the things in my heart must have bothered Him that much to the point that He felt He had to use very concrete example to make me grasp the meaning of His faithfulness.
None of us would doubt that the sun will rise tomorrow or the next day or the day after next. All of us believe with conviction and certainty that there will be morning everyday. This is not something that we need to worry about that it just might not come or might get delayed in coming. No, definitely not. For sure the sun is up at a specific time of the day and this is a certain phenomenon; no manipulation is needed from our end for it to happen.
I guess, it is the same thing with God's promises in our lives. We can be sure 100% that they will come true. His promises will come as sure as the sun will rise every morning, every day without fail. We can even claim it now and just wait for it to happen because there is no doubt they will be fulfilled.
And so, during times when we are tempted to doubt His promises and when circumstances lead us to doubt His promises, we can always turn to God for mercy. Let Him shower us with His grace so that we might be able to walk joyfully side by side with Him all the days of our lives.
Psalm 145:13
"The LORD is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made."
Note: Picture obtained from the worldwide web
