Skip to main content

Reminiscing in Writing

A friend once told me that I should write more often my life lessons so that when I look back at this point in the years to come, I’d gratefully say, “God’s glory.” And I realized he’s right. In my years of keeping journals and blogs, I have often reminisced and reread God’s mercy and revelations that refreshed my soul in ways more than one.

So here I am, writing. Or rather, trying. The past year has been so full of lessons so drastic, deep, and life-altering. Every day offers new experiential knowledge of who God is and how insignificant I am before the Almighty Father. But also, things happen so fast, and these lessons have been spinning ever so swiftly around and about me that my writings couldn’t keep up with them.

A month ago, I went up to Tagaytay on my own for three days to have time to pause, reflect and meditate on all the lessons and occurrences the Lord is impressing upon me. (I’ll be sharing my raw writings in a different post.) I thought 2017 was a rough year. The days and months that followed proved to me one thing—Christianity is a journey exponentially increasing in difficulty. But it is also all the more abounding, overflowing, in grace and sustaining strength. I went up to have my personal retreat to take in all these truths so precious and to make sure my heart doesn’t forget—how easy it is for the heart to forget past mercies. What a shame.

I needed personal silence for me to seek God’s comfort in my life’s recent dark providences. Calvin passing away. An entire school year of teaching in a school physically, emotionally, and mentally drained and exploited me. Conflicts at home, issues with self, and challenges with friends. I thought I needed the silence because I needed comfort and soothing. God’s word directed me to a theme entirely different from what I expected.

He showed me with a fresh lens what He has been teaching me for years — that I must turn my eyes upon Jesus. All of my readings during that trip pointed back to one theme: if you love the Lord, you love His commandments. If you love His commandments, you love to obey.

No. Matter. The. Situation.

No matter what you feel. No matter what you think. No matter what other things you would rather do. No matter whatever other callings you would rather have been called to fulfill. My God is an exact God. His word will tell me what to do, and if I love the Lord, I would /love/ to keep His law. Not just obey Him but delight to do so. Not obey Him with a heavy heart, but with sheer joy and deep gladness.

The tasks at hand—in the church, at work, in the family—are all still looming. They are all as difficult, challenging, and terrifying as ever. But I love the Lord, and He is my strength. I love the Lord, and I love His commandments. And that is enough to get me through each task day by day, moment by moment until I finish this race.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Salvation Testimony

[I presented this testimony earlier this year to the congregation for an evangelistic night. An evangelistic night is a vesper service modified to accommodate the sharing of the gospel to unbelievers, and one part of it is the sharing of the members' testimony of how God saved them. I was one of the first ones to share.] A friend once asked me just a few months ago for my written testimony when I applied for this church. I didn’t think there was any problem, but when I thought more about it, I realized that my testimony I wrote for the church 6 years ago is not something I could share anymore. Not because my salvation story then wasn’t true, but because a lot of God-given, life-changing lessons happened after I was saved. I guess the first thing I realized is that testimonies are always changing because God never stops writing our story. For this afternoon I would like to share who I was before I knew God, what God did to save me, and what God taught me after being saved.
Post a Comment
Read more

Overfamiliarity Breeds Contempt

  July 8, 2021 | 11:15 AM Overfamiliarity breeds contempt. I don’t know why I feel this way, but I feel tired of being a friend and then being discarded whenever I’m not convenient to be around anymore. They don’t say it, but I think at some point everyone thinks that of me. When it’s limited slots, I’d be one of the first people to go. Excess baggage they’ve been just able to keep around the dock when the storm wasn’t hitting yet, but one of the first cargos to go when the waves become rocky. I don’t really resent them because I would also do the same to myself—throw myself out the window the moment I don’t contribute anything to the table if only I had the choice. Haha but I’m stuck with myself. But yeah, I feel like I’m that add-on friend people just befriend because anyway, I’m already there. I just happened to be in the same circle because a friend plus oned me at some point, and now they’re pretty much stuck with me. Arielle’s friend. Someone's church mate. Always s
Post a Comment
Read more

Faithfulness in the Lens of Genesis 24

    Faithfulness is denotatively defined as the quality of being steadfast in affection or allegiance; to be firm in adherence to promises or in observance of duty; to be true to the facts, to a standard, or to an original. (Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, n.d.) This term nowadays usually has the connotation of simply staying consistent with what one has originally said. Faithfulness, however, is not simply staying true. The word faithfulness is derived from the Hebrew word ‘e-meth— a word contracted from the Hebrew word ‘âman, which means to build up or support; figuratively, to render firm, to be permanent, or quiet.   Being faithful, then, according to its Hebrew origin, is about one’s trustworthiness. To be a faithful person is to have certainty in truth. In the Scripture, the word “faithfulness” appeared 75 times, with “faithful” appearing just about as much—78 times. If one searches for all the occurrences of the word ‘emeth in the original translation, one would see that
Post a Comment
Read more