Category: Journal

On Christmas Traditions, Typhoon Victims, and Being Still

Rhiza4 Comments

Exactly a month ago, we put together our little Christmas tree at home, and I think I may have said I was “excited” to post more photos. So much for my excitement. The month has been packed with so many things, and uploading these photographs was the first to be pushed down my list! Anyway, here they are, for traditions’ sake.

It’s our first Christmas as husband and wife, and I love that we get to start our own Christmas traditions. Last year, I had some instax photographs up on my Christmas tree, and this year, we decided to do the same. We picked some of our favorite photographs from the wedding and the honeymoon and printed them out with our Polaroid Pogo. It’s a cute little project, something we hope we can keep on doing for years to come.

On another note, I know it has been a challenge for our country to celebrate Christmas this year when Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City are still under the state of calamity. We don’t have a television at home and, quite honestly, my husband and I have only seen and heard so much. I know we’ll never really have a clear picture of what’s happening out there but our family feels somehow involved. My eldest brother is there since last week; as part of his job, he’s with the ABS-CBN Engineering Crew which covers the relief operations there. It’s our first Christmas Day without him, probably even New Year too. And so we had to let go of certain Christmas traditions this year so my brother can be where he’s needed more.

I look at Ate Imy (my sister-in-law) and Isaac and I imagine how difficult it must be for them to celebrate Christmas without Kuya. But then I think about the thousands of families in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan who lost their loved ones and friends over the flash flood, and how devastating Christmas and New Year must be like for them. As I stare at our Christmas tree here at home, my heart goes out to the victims of Sendong who lost their homes and didn’t get the chance to put up their trees this year. At the time of this writing, the death toll has reached about 1,500. This is even more tragic than Ondoy.

Suddenly, no personal issues or problems are too big.

It’s easy to question the goodness of God at a time like this, but words from the Bible pop up like bright stars in the dark sky: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9) God sees everything in a bigger perspective, and as far as His grand scheme of things is concerned, everything happens for a reason and for our own good. His ways are higher, we only have to be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10)—and believe that with all our hearts.

For the rest of us who are not in the center of this tragedy and are watching this from a distance, it’s our chance to help and make a difference. I’m not directly connected with any relief efforts for Sendong, but I think the surest way for our donations to reach Cagayan de Oro and Iligan is through Red Cross. We have 2 more days left before 2011 ends, let’s make it count.

On God’s Grand Scheme of Things

Rhiza5 Comments

It’s my husband’s birthday today/yesterday (today in New York, yesterday in Manila). I intend to post a longer blog with lots of photos as soon as I find time, but for now, a quick post before I retreat to bed.

As his birthday was about to end, my husband and I reflected upon the past year and how much has happened in such a short period of time. It wasn’t long ago when we would celebrate birthdays and monthsaries in front of Skype, opening our Fedex-ed gifts and finding creative ways to bridge the distance. Don’t get me wrong, we treasure those good ol’ days, we learned so much from them. But we cannot deny the fact that deep within our hearts we incessantly prayed for the day we would get to spend these special occasions together.

And now we’re here.

We had quite a lengthy prayer to cap the night, thanking God for blessing my husband 28 awesome years, most especially for the past year which was exceptionally beautiful. You bet there were tears of joy all over the place.

Chuck Swindoll wrote something that pretty much describes how it feels like, being in the center of God’s grand scheme of things:

Life is not based on blind fate or random chance. Everything that happens, including the things you cannot explain or justify, is being woven together like an enormous, beautiful piece of tapestry. From this earthly side it seems blurred and knotted, strange and twisted. But from heaven’s perspective it forms an incredible picture. Best of all, it is for His greater glory. Right now, it seems so confusing, but someday the details will come together and make good sense.

There it is—part of God’s perfect plan unfolding.

Those years spent apart were difficult, and there were a gazillion things we couldn’t understand (even until now). But as we witness God’s master plan unfold, it becomes clearer each day why God allows things to happen the way they do.

It’s not my birthday today, but it’s like I’m the one who was given such a beautiful gift.

It’s God’s love for us that causes Him to bring us to an end of our strength

Rhiza9 Comments

 

Sometimes, all you need is encouragement like this on a bad day week and you start to believe, without a doubt, that everything will be okay.

I don’t know what your intimidating giant is today. It may relate to your job, your roommate, or your school. Maybe it is a person, a lawsuit, unemployment, a disaster . . . maybe even your own partner in life. Perhaps it is some fear that is lurking around the corner, sucking your energy and draining your faith. God is saying to you right now, “All I ask of you is five smooth stones and a sling of faith. I’ll take it from there. You don’t have to wear somebody else’s armor. You just trust Me. And I’ll strip you down to nothing but faith, and then I’ll accomplish a victory where I’ll get the glory. But as for you . . . you trust Me.”

Perhaps you don’t know what lies across the valley. Maybe you can’t get a handle on what that giant is; but it’s there, haunting you. That uncertainty alone is a giant. But look at that worry in comparison to the Lord God Himself, and say, by faith, “The battle is Yours, Lord. It is Your battle. I lean on You. I give You all my weapons, all my skills, and I stand before You, trusting You.”

It is God’s love for us that causes Him to bring us to an end of our own strength. He sees our need to trust Him, and His love is so great that He will not let us live another day without surrendering our arms to Him, giving Him our fears, our worries, even our confusion, so that nothing becomes more significant to us than our Father.

Never, ever forget it: the battle is the Lord’s!

~Chuck Swindoll

God’s wisdom can sometimes be frustratingly incomprehensible! Frustrating, in a beautiful kind of way. Truly it’s in those hardest of days that He manifests Himself even more, because there you know that His grace is sufficient and your strength is not your own.

Words of Wisdom from my Dad

Rhiza5 Comments

There’s not a day that I don’t miss my Dad. It’s been four years since he went to be with the Lord, and things have changed a lot ever since. Losing a loved one, they say it gets better as days pass and you learn to cope and move on, and true enough, I’m not anymore a wreck like I once was. But there are days like the past few when I just long to sit with him, laugh with him, ask him stuff and pick his brain.

Last March 26 was Dad’s death anniversary, and in honor of the best dad/pastor in the world, I found myself on a trip down memory lane and flooding my Facebook page with his memories. And then I found this note, tuck in one of my old photo albums, written by my Dad with his swanky left-handed cursive.

It was from ten years ago (literally!), on my 18th birthday party, and it said:

“Anak, you’ve grown to be a very beautiful lady. Much more, a beautiful, fine and committed Christian lady. And you know how I love you so dearly. It’s my wish that you will always put God first in your life, love Him well and everything will be well.”

Needless to say, there was a lot of tears as I re-read Dad’s note, happy to have kept this remembrance of his handwriting, and his words of wisdom. Indeed, there’s no better person to hear those words from than this man who lived his life loving and honoring God.

Love Him well and everything will be well.

There it was, the answer to my questions. What would my Dad say about my getting married? Anak, love Him well and everything will be well. What about my dreams, Dad? Love Him well and everything will be well. What about my career? Love Him well and everything will be well.

It’s practically the answer to all the questions I could ever have! (My Dad is too smart! Haha.) And I’m more than honored to share my Dad’s words of wisdom coz I can’t help but think that someone out there may have the same questions as mine.

Friend, the answer is all in these 9 words:

Love the Lord well and everything will be well.

It was my Dad’s secret to a full and happy life, tested and proven. Let’s take it from him shall we? ;)

Thoughts About Packing and Pocket-Sized Mothers

Rhiza3 Comments

It’s hard to keep up with my life sometimes. I relocated from one apartment to another in the past 5 years faster than I could empty out boxes from my previous move, I would repack my bags even before I’ve fully adjusted to a new place, and I would say goodbye to neighbors, landlords, and caretakers before I’ve even memorized their names.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the thrill that comes with starting over, checking out real estates, holding a plane ticket in my hand, and being in places outside the comforts of my zone. It’s just that.. I’ve never really been anywhere that far. No matter how much I loved all my solo adventures, I’ve always found comfort in the fact that my mother is just in the next city, or that my travels don’t usually extend longer than just a couple of days.

And can I just say, I hate hate hate packing more than anything in the world?? Also, having to say goodbye to people I love. I wish there’s a way I could skip those parts. I wish I could just magically transport everything in my life and take them with me wherever I go. I wish mothers were like pocket-sized mirrors so I could take mine from out of my pocket whenever I start feeling lost, alone, and in need of directions. I wish there’s a way I could put all my loved ones in one place so I won’t have to pack, say goodbye, adjust and readjust all the time. I wish, I wish, I wish.

In a couple of days, I would start stuffing my suitcases again (when I just settled back home, ahh, the story of my life!). And while this is just a trip and not really a permanent change of address (at least not yet), my mind reels with all the preparations and adjustments and homesickness and emotional attachments that are going to strike me from all directions.

It’s tiring, all this moving around, and I’ve contemplated whether or not this is the kind of life that I wanted one too many times.

On the upside, I’ve somehow acquired skills that let me cope more easily whenever time calls forth big and small changes in my life. I’ve learned to acknowledge that all these years of temporarily changing addresses, and being in situations where I have to figure things out on my own, are God’s way of making me strong and preparing me for more permanent things.

You have no idea how much that excites me and scares me at the same time.

It’s always good to look back

Rhiza

Post script. Another reason why I will never regret blogging with my heart all these years. Here’s a snippet from a blog I posted just before I turned 22 years old, May 2005:

Often, I find myself holding my passport in my hands, smiling as I stare at my ID picture which is beaming right back at me, and thanking God for those days my prayers happened right before my eyes. I browse through the empty pages, believing that some time in the next five years, I’m going to have an Australian visa stamped right on its pages. And after a few minutes of enjoying the feel of its synthetic leather cover and its smooth pages on my hands, I close the book and put it in an empty box that I know will soon be filled with memories of more dreams and answered prayers. ;)

God took me this far. And I believe He’s taking me farther as He wills.

Barely three years later, I got an Australian stamp on my passport, and had one of the most life-changing trips in my life.

Not only has blogging allowed me to breathe a little easier in my happiest and most difficult of times, it has also served as my time machine, my portal to the past anytime I feel like wanting to get in touch with my younger self. Milestone after milestone, preserved on this little space in the web I can always access everytime I need to be reminded how God answered prayers in this life of mine.

And oh my wow. Has it really been 5 years since? Sometimes I have to remind myself that I’m 27 years old!