Life challenges us...
To see beauty amidst imperfections.
To answer hate with love.
To feel joy despite the tears.
To be at peace in the midst of chaos.
To glorify in our sorrows.
To be grateful in the presence of pain.
To realize the necessity of suffering.
To exalt Him in moments of tribulations.
Live with Contradictions
Posted: July 11, 2011 in love, random thoughtsTags: glorify, hate, joy, love, pain, suffering, tears
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Songkran Festival: more than just the water fights
Posted: May 20, 2011 in travelTags: Buddhist New year, Pha Yao, Songkran, Thailand
This is a long overdue post but might as well share to you how I participated in Songkran- a festival celebrating Buddhist New Year every April 13 to 15 of each year. Songkran is famous because of its water fights. Tourists all over the world would come to Thailand to experience it. As for Thais, Songkran is more than just the water fights as I had observed when I went with P’Tao, one of my colleagues at work and who was also a former FK participant, to her hometown in Pha Yao, Northern Thailand.
1. Going home and Reunions: Most of them would book as early as December for their tickets. Since Songkran is almost a week long activity, they grab that opportunity to go home to their respective provinces. Fully booked is a word that is commonly used during these days so better book early if one plans to go outside Bangkok and it is good to note though that Bangkok will be free from traffic on these dates since most of the people are out of town. Of course, going home means they get to be with their family and friends. So the holiday was spent with reunions as they catch up with everyone and visit their relatives.
Posing for a photo with P'Tao's home and her family.
P’Tao’s home is situated in a peaceful town near a mountain. Her niece owns a bike which I borrowed to go around the town. Since it was a small town, people know each other so when they saw a newbie like me, they asked whose wife I was (LOL!) .
2. Drinking and Party Galore: My friend said that one of the things reported during Songkran were the accidents that happened and if injuries/death toll rates increased or decreased as compared to the previous year. Accidents were usually made by drunk drivers partying away, mostly in their motorbikes. Sadly, the phrase “Don’t drink and drive” is not taken seriously especially during festivities. No worries though because our group took it seriously.
CHOK DEE! A Thai word that means cheers! But I also like saying CHAI YO which could mean a lot of things like pleasure, gladness, success, unity and happiness.
3. Honoring the Dead: Thais would make an altar displaying the photos of their dead loved ones. Beside it is a basin/cup filled with water. They would then get a flower, dip it in the water then use it to brush the photos of their dead relatives after saying their prayers and doing 3 wais (WAI is the act done when they put their hands together and bow their head – this is also done when you greet and saySawasdee).
The photo of P'Tao's parents.
4. Paying Respect for the Elders and Monks. Thais would also visit their elders to pay their respect. In one afternoon, we gathered in the front porch with a gold plate in the center. An elder man (their uncle) chanted a Buddhist prayer as everyone did a Wai. People gathered around then placed their money on the gold plate – this is to help their elder relatives who can not work anymore. P’Tao’s family also prepared meals and woke up early to go to the temple and offer them to the monks.
5. Fundraising for Temple / Community Programs: They also held different types of activities in order to raise money. Some provinces would have pageants, muay thai competitions, eating contests etc. As for P’Tao’s hometown, they held a disco night beside the temple. A high platform was set-up with disco lights and decorated with colorful papers hanging from the ceiling. The locals will then have to purchase a 100baht dance ticket as an entrance fee for the dance floor. Others can also sponsor a round of dance by paying more and her family and friends can all go up and dance. Of course, I danced with them in the tune of local songs. The elders would make these ethnic dance moves which are somehow similar to the ethnic dances of Northern Philippines so I didn’t have a hard time following the steps.
Yep, this is my hazy photo as I was doing a crazy dance move.
5. Cooking local cuisine: People in Northern Thailand is used in eating sticky rice accompanied by Namprik – mostly spicy and salty dishes made from meat. Namprik somehow works like a dip of the sticky rice. The family would gather on a mat with the food on the center. A container of sticky rice would be on the side and each one will just have to get it using their hands. The sticky rice would then be rolled and dipped on the Namprik. A platter of vegetables was also present as it soothes the mouth from the spiciness/saltiness of the Namprik.
6. Colorful clothes: Since Songkran is a festivity, one must celebrate it wearing festive colors. Most thais would buy colorful and flowery clothes to wear during this time. I also want t wear one so P’Tao and I went to shop for some clothes at the nearest shopping area (which was 45 minutes away btw).
Lots of colorful choices!
7. Finally, Water Fights: Khao San road in Bangkok is the most famous place to celebrate Songkran for foreigners. Since it was just a small and narrow road, people would just have to walk, get wet and make others wet. As for the other parts of Thailand, locals would use their pick-up trucks, the back is then loaded with a big basin filled with water and people would stay on it armed with their dippers. At first, I wanted to have a water gun, too, but I realized water guns were no match to the dippers. The kids and I prepared a mixture of talcum powder (one in white and the other in pink) and water. We then splattered it on the Pick-up truck before heading to Kwan Pha Yao.
Preparing for the water fights. The pink palm prints were mine. 
Kwan Pha Yao is one of the largest lake in Thailand thus it was a good place to celebrate Songkran since people can refill their basins with water from the lake for a fee of 10baht. We were not spared from water fights though on the way to Kwam Pha Yao. In front of the houses, large basins were also filled with water and people would wait for passers by who were a willing bunch of wet victims. Others would even put ice on the water, so you will just experience a chilled shock as you are splashed with cool water that all you can do is scream. That was the reason why our throat hurts after the Songkran Festivities.
WET and HAPPY! (no chance to actually take good photos with the constant splashing of water)
Originally, splashing water during Songkran was meant to wash oneself from bad things and misfortunes- as a Christian, this is also a reminder of how we baptize ourselves with water to symbolize our purification and more so to be cleansed by Jesus, the living water. I am reminded that despite the different beliefs, people have this underlying need to be cleansed, to start a new (remember how New Year is always a way for us to make those resolutions?). Well as most festivals in any religion, the spiritual aspect is mostly overseen and festivals morphed into mere pageantries.
The most decent photo I was able to take.
For additional information, I got this from this site: April 13, the beginning of the festival, is called Wan Sang Khan Long. Northern Thais believe that on this day they should clean their houses, wear only new clothes, and pray that bad luck and karma resulting from bad deeds during the previous year will not follow them in to the New Year. On the next day of the celebrations, April 14, people should only speak positively and pleasantly; if they become angry or unpleasant, bad luck will follow them throughout the New Year. April 15, the last day of the festival, is called Wan Paya Wan, “The Great Day”, during which all people should pray, make merit to their ancestors, and visit their elder relatives in order to ask for forgiveness and blessings for the New Year.
- Sunset at Kwan Pha Yao. I like the hazy effect created by my damp lens.
My New Reality
Posted: May 11, 2011 in FAITHTags: accomplishments, God, Jesus Christ, new reality, work
My 10 months in Thailand proved to be more than just learning and sharing in terms of my work and personal growth. As I’m going through the last few months of my posting, I realized that it was also a spiritual journey that made me see a new reality and live that reality.
At the start of my posting, I was so pumped up from our FK prep course. My battle cry is “CHANGE” be an agent of it. But as my posting here progressed, that drive slowly went downhill since the change that I hoped I can contribute were not going on a pace that I envisioned it to be. I was disappointed but I continued on and went even as far as planning on the things that I will do when I go back to the Philippines. I scribbled on my notebook about my plans. I was hyped again from envisioning ways on how I can affect change in the society.
Little did I know that I was going into dangerous grounds. I was blinded by the things that I already did and what I can still do. I prided myself with my accomplishments. I celebrate when people tell me how pleased they are with what I have accomplished. I was ecstatic when people approved my ideas.
Given with much time to reflect, I eventually saw the lies. It was a humbling experience and a liberating one to strip myself off from those lies and accepted the truth that my life is NOT about me and what I have done. My life is about who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for me through the way of the cross. This is my new reality. It even redefined my view of success – success that is not based on finances, positions, or other measures that Forbes Magazine would use to measure the wealthiest people in the world. A journey with Christ is wealth in itself.
Therefore, I do not seek approval from others because God already approved me through Christ. I do not pride myself with what I can do but rather on what Jesus Christ can do through me. I am not here to please others but (in the words of CS Lewis) please the One whom I am created to please – and what would please Him is following His commands of loving God above all and love others as I love myself. Loving others in this new reality has taken me into a new level of trying to see God’s image in them despite our differences – which really stretched my understanding and patience (but I still pray for more understanding and patience!). Truly, I could not have done it by myself but by the grace of Jesus, I now can!
And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. ~ Colossians 3:17 NLT
I represent!
I now leave you with this song… definitely, there is a new way to be human!
Broadcast 21 March 1944, BBC Home Service Radio
Part 1
Part 2
Transcription:
In these talks, I’ve had to say a good deal about prayer. And before going on to my main subject tonight, I’d like to deal with a difficulty some people find about the whole idea of prayer. Somebody put it to me by saying: “I can believe in God alright, but what I can’t swallow is this idea of Him listening to several hundred million human beings who are all addressing Him at the same moment.”
And I find quite a lot of people feel that difficulty.
Well, the first thing to notice is that the whole sting of it comes in the words “at the same moment.” Most of us can imagine a God attending to any number of claimants if only they come one by one and He has an endless time to do it in. So what’s really at the back of the difficulty is this idea of God having to fit too many things into one moment of time.
Well that, of course, is what happens to us. Our life comes to us moment by moment. One moment disappears before the next comes along, and there’s room for precious little in each. That’s what Time is like. And, of course, you and I tend to take it for granted that this Time series — this arrangement of past, present and future — isn’t simply the way life comes to us but is the way all things really exist. We tend to assume that the whole universe and God Himself are always moving on from a past to a future just as we are. But many learned men don’t agree with that. I think it was the Theologians who first started the idea that some things are not in Time at all. Later, the Philosophers took it over. And now some of the scientists are doing the same.
Almost certainly God is not in Time. His life doesn’t consist of moments following one another. If a million people are praying to Him at ten-thirty tonight, He hasn’t got to listen to them all in that one little snippet which we call “ten-thirty.” Ten-thirty, and every other moment from the beginning to the end of the world, is always the Present for Him. If you like to put it that way, He has infinity in which to listen to the split second of prayer put up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames.
That’s difficult, I know. Can I try to give something, not the same, but a bit like it. Suppose I’m writing a novel. I write “Mary laid down her book; next moment came a knock at the door.” For Mary, who’s got to live in the imaginary time of the story, there’s no interval between putting down the book and hearing the knock. But I, her creator, between writing the first part of that sentence and the second, may have gone out for an hour’s walk and spent the whole hour thinking about Mary. I know that’s not a perfect example, but it may just give a glimpse of what I mean. The point I want to drive home is that God has infinite attention, infinite leisure to spare for each one of us. He doesn’t have to take us in the line. You’re as much alone with Him as if you were the only thing He’d ever created.
When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you’d been the only man in the world.
Now, I’ll get back to my main subject.
I was pointing out last time that the Christian life is simply a process of having your natural self changed into a Christ self, and that this process goes on very far inside. One’s most private wishes, one’s point of view, are the things that have to be changed. That’s why unbelievers complain that Christianity’s a very selfish religion. “Isn’t it very selfish, even morbid,” they say, “to be always bothering about the inside of your own soul instead of thinking of humanity?”
Now, what would an NCO say to a soldier who had a dirty rifle and when told to clean it replied, “But sergeant, isn’t it very selfish, even morbid, to be always bothering about the inside of your own rifle instead of thinking of the United Nations?” Well, we needn’t bother about what the NCO would actually say. You see the point. The man is not going to be of much use to the United Nations if his rifle isn’t fit to shoot quickly. In the same way, people who are still acting from their old natural selves won’t do much real permanent good to other people.
Let me explain that.
History isn’t just the story of bad people doing bad things. It’s quite as much a story of people trying to do good things. But somehow, something goes wrong. Take the common expression: “cold as charity.” How’d we come to say that? From experience. We’ve learned how unsympathetic and patronizing and conceited charitable people often are. And yet hundreds and thousands of them started out really anxious to do good, and when they’d done it, somehow it just wasn’t as good as it ought to have been.
The old story: What you are comes out in what you do. A crabapple tree can’t produce eating apples. As long as the old self is there its taint will be over all we do. We try to be religious and become Pharisees. We try to be kind and become patronizing. Social service ends in red tape of officialdom. Unselfishness becomes a form of showing off.
I don’t mean of course that we’re to stop trying to be good. We’ve got to do the best we can. If the soul’s just fool enough to go into battle with a dirty rifle he mustn’t run away. But I do mean that the real cure lies far deeper. Out of our self and into Christ we must go.
The change won’t for most of us happen suddenly. And I must admit that for most Christians it will only be beginning to the very end of our present lives. But there are some in whom it goes further, even before death, far enough for you to see it. There very faces and voices are different. When you meet them, you know you’re up against something which, so to speak, begins where you leave off; something stronger, quieter, happier, more alive than ordinary humanity.
Now that’s just where Christianity, as I think, has the real answer to a question a lot of modern people are asking. Everyone’s heard of evolution, how man evolved from lower types of life. And people often ask, “What’s the next step?” “When is the thing beyond man going to appear?” Some imaginative writers even try to picture what the next step will be like, but they usually end in nonsense about men with six arms or wings or something of that type.
But the Christians think those people are on the wrong tack. The next step has already appeared. The next step is from being mere creatures to being sons of God. The new kind of man appeared in Christ, and other new men, little “christs,” already to be found sorted here and there about the earth.
We Christians don’t call it “evolution” because we believe it isn’t something coming up out of blind Nature but something coming down from the world of light and power and knowledge beyond all Nature. But if you like to call it “evolution,” do. The next step is here. You can become one of the new men in Christ if you like. Or, if you prefer, you can refuse the step and sink back.
Now if we take the step, it involves losing what we now call our “selves.” That doesn’t mean that all people who accept Christ are going to be exactly like one another. I know it sounds as if it did. If there’s one Christ, and He’s to be in us all, actually replacing our personalities with His own, what difference will there be between us?
Now here I’ve got a rather difficult thing to say. On the one hand, it isn’t true that we shall lose our personal differences by letting Christ take us over. On the other hand, I don’t think Christ can take us over as long as we’re bothering about what will happen to our personality. Let’s take the first point first.
If a person didn’t know about salt, wouldn’t he think that anything with such a strong taste would kill the taste of all the other things in any dish you put it into? We know, as a matter of fact, it brings out the real taste.
Well, it’s rather like that with Christ. When you’ve completely given up your-self to His personality you will then, for the first time in your life, be developing into a real person. He made the whole world. He invented it as an author invents characters in a book, all different men that you and I were intended to be.
Our real selves are, so to speak, all waiting for us in Him. What I call my “self” now is hardly a person at all. It’s mainly a meeting place for various natural forces, desires, and fears, etcetera, some of which come from my ancestors, and some from my education, some perhaps from devils. The self you were really intended to be is something that lives not from nature but from God.
At the beginning of these talks, I said there were personalities in God. Well, I go further now: There are no real personalities anywhere else — I mean no full, complete personalities. It’s only when you allow yourself to be drawn into His life that you turn into a true person.
But on the other hand, it’s just no good at all going to Christ for the sake of divinity or for a personality. As long as that’s what you’re bothering about you haven’t begun, because the very first step towards getting a real self is to forget about the self. It will come only if you’re looking for something else. That holds, you know, even for earthly matters: Even in literature or art, no man who cares about originality will ever be original. It’s the man who’s only thinking about doing a good job or telling the truth who becomes really original — and doesn’t notice it. Even in social life you’ll never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking what sort of impression you make.
That principle runs all through life from the top to the bottom: Give up yourself and you’ll find your real self. Lose your life and you’ll save it. Submit to death, submit with every fiber of your Being and you’ll find eternal life. Look for Christ and you’ll get Him, and with Him, everything else thrown in. Look for yourself and you’ll get only hatred, loneliness, despair, and ruin. Source: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/cslewisbeyondpersonality.htm
The Judas in Me
Posted: April 22, 2011 in FAITHTags: death, faith, forgiveness, God, Jesus Christ, Judas, love, sins
Judas believed and followed Jesus, he saw Jesus performing miracles from feeding thousands, to driving out demons, to healing the sick and disabled and even raising the dead. He was there when Jesus preached parables that speaks of God’s Kingdom, of how man should live their lives. Judas shared treasured moments with the Son of God, physically! But after everything that he had seen and experienced, he still betrayed him in exchange for 30 silver coins.
Tonight, I wailed upon my realization that just like Judas, I, too, betrayed Jesus despite experiencing His presence in my life.
It has been 8 years since I accepted and begun my personal journey with Jesus. But those 8 years were also marred with my Judas episodes, episodes of my betrayal. I betrayed him in exchange of my own versions of the 30 silver coins. My 30 silver coins of disobedience – of clinging on my pride. My 30 silver coins of disobeying His words. My 30 silver coins of giving in to my sinful desires. My 30 silver coins of relying on my lofty plans for my life. My 30 silver coins of basking in my achievements. My 30 silver coins of rejecting and hurting people whom His Father also created thus He called as brothers and sisters. My 30 silver coins of not fully trusting him with my life’s decisions. Ah! My 30 silver coins that in those moments I treasured.
Yes, I am flawed and imperfect. My acceptance of Him 8 years ago meant the death of the old me. I did gain ounces of knowledge and hopefully wisdom along the way and I am closer to Him now than I was before BUT the fact remains that I also gained 30 silver coins.
Despite my betrayals, Jesus never failed to let me know how much he loved me. He never failed to make me realize that His love is not dependent on me, whether I love and follow him or not… He first loved me (period). He loves me even as I hold on and enjoy my 30 silver coins.
The only humane analogy that I (we) can grasp is that of a lover being betrayed by the one he loves in exchange for someone else – being rejected in exchange for another. The pain is unexplainable even by the most excruciating physical pain that we can experience. Human’s reaction would be an instant flow of HATRED – we can almost hear our hearts literally break into pieces as our thoughts begin to think of vile words towards the person who betrayed and caused us that much pain. Some even go to the extent of revenge. A that moment, we feel life leaving us, at the onset of the pain our sights are darkened and so are our hearts.
The difference with Jesus is, he never felt hatred towards us. After he was crucified, the first thing he said (just imagine the pain after being pierced with nails and also the amount of strength needed to even speak) was: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) Surely, those words can only come out from a man who truly know what it means TO LOVE. His unmeasurable love for us trampled any amount of betrayal that can make him say: curse them! kill them! I hate them! May they suffer as I did! No, no, no… instead he asked God for forgiveness in our behalf. He interceded for us (for me). He embodied our sins by his death and by that death paved the way for us to be with the Father again. Only by the perfect blood sacrificed by Jesus that we are able to come before the Father. That cross is not only a symbol of Jesus’ death but also of His love that unto this day is being offered to us.
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. (Isaiah 53:5 NLT)
Oh Lord, forgive me. I am so sorry for my 30 silver coins. Oh Lord, forgive me.
Throwing away these 30 silver coins, I pray that you will guide my step and strengthen me to not exchange you for them. Your love saved me from my sins. Your grace covered me.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 NIV)
***
After posting the blog link in Facebook, Kuya Jaime Hernandez commented:
“Judas betrayed Jesus and Peter denied Him three times. Judas killed himself but Peter led the first century church. Both of them knew Jesus and heard the same message. What’s the difference?”
The DIFFERENCE lies entirely on how these 2 apostles viewed Jesus in terms of their sins.
Judas was filled with remorse when he saw that Jesus was condemned. He returned the 30 silver coins to the Pharisees, who did not want to take it back, so he just threw it in the temple then went on and hanged himself. Certainly, Judas was blinded and only saw his sin, that after all the time he spent with Jesus, he was not able to believe Jesus’ capacity for forgiveness.
Peter on the other hand wept bitterly. He repented. Peter believed in the power of Jesus’ love. Like Peter, we must also understand that Jesus love covers a multitude of sins, God extended His grace to us through His Son and with that grace, we live to glorify His name and share the good news to everyone else.
Sub-creators
Posted: April 7, 2011 in FAITHTags: daniel reeve, j.r.r. tolkien quote, lord of the rings, middle earth map, sub-creators
We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed only by myth-making, only by becoming “sub-creator” and inventing stories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall. Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbour, while materialistic “progress” leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil.
~ from the Architect of Middle-Earth, J.R.R. Tolkien
A map of the Middle-earth by artist Daniel Reeve.
