Last night, I saw my high school teacher’s Facebook status that no amount of self-hypnosis can make her like Mondays. It got me thinking that I used to love Mondays (because of certain pastor’s day off), but lately, Mondays have gone back to its old ways and habits that make me dread them again.

This morning, I was determined to like this Monday. I have a shoot this afternoon, a free lunch with Food Magazine, and I have a staff meeting this morning, and a free evening later that could turn out to be anything. But the Monday seems to be as equally determined to fight my happy perkiness by having a brownout at 4am, thereby ruining my plans of writing my article before I get to work, the ridiculous traffic all the way to Quezon City (it took me 2 hours and a half!), and an overdue article looming over my head.

But you know what? I still woke up singing (in my head) even as I was sweating. My cat is still sleeping beside me on the bed despite the heat, and that’s always a good way to make me smile. And I am reminded this morning of God’s consolation that brings joy to my soul (Psalm 94:18-19).

I texted some of my friends about seizing this Monday with rejoicing, including my highschool teacher who hates Mondays. I told her I’m trying to rekindle my joy for each day, despite the overwhelming circumstances. And she replied, “When you do, teach me how.”

So i’ve made up a step by step program to liking Mondays. I’m just making it up as I go along, but at least I’m road testing them already. hahahaha!

Step 1: Wake up singing. While this doesn’t come naturally, maybe with practice?

Step 2: Start with a declaration of praise, read your Bible (I like starting with Psalms in the day)

Step 3: Take a shower and dress your best!

Step 4: have a good breakfast ala carte! (from my friend Liza)

Step 5: smile. smile. and keep on singing!

Step 6: Keep in touch with God the whole day

Step 7: Make the most of every opportunity to make this day better for other people

Step 8: Always find something to be grateful about

Ok…. that’s it so far. But try it! If you have anymore suggestions on how to turn a Monday to an awesome day, leave it on the comment box below.

I hope you guys have an awesome great Monday with our awesome great God. May you be overwhelmed by His grace and extravagant love!

¹ Lord, you have been our dwelling place
throughout all generations.

² Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

¹² Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

¹⁷ May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us;
establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands.

(Psalm 90: 1-2, 12, 17)

I’m skipping the backlogged days (I’ve written drafts of the posts, but I’ll p0st them later), I just want to start the day with this prayer, a reading from my devotions this morning.

You know how it is when God’s Word just hits the spot– like you’ve just bitten into a soft burger bun and on to the actual burger itself– crusty on the outside but oh-so juicy inside– and the flavors burst in your mouth like warm, spectacular, comforting fireworks. That’s what Moses’ psalm was to me this morning. Talk about breakfast of the champions!

No, I’m still not feeling a hundred percent yet. I’m going to start driving again, I have to even if I still feel a little shaky. I’m praying that the nerves will steady once I get on the groove. It’s a long day ahead, that’s why I’m so glad for my spiritual breakfast.

That song got it right: “Everyday with you, Lord, is sweeter than the day before.”

Godspeed everyone!

My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
(Psalm73:26)

This day was hard, emotion-wise. Everything may have gone smoothly and on schedule, but my heart was stuck on the breakup once again. It felt fresh again, and for once, I was glad for the traffic jam that let me have a lot of time to cry and pour out my heart to God.

I complained and whined. I asked God why do I have to be the strong girl– a complaint that I’ve had most of my life. Why can’t I just be the regular girl who can cry and be weak and heartbroken? Then I was interrupted with the thought, “Who say’s you’re the one who’s strong anyway?” And who says I don’t cry and I’m not weak? Ok, so I may not be heartbroken, but why do I keep on acting like I am? And that shut me up for a beat. I stopped complaining for a while and took out my Bible (yes, the traffic jam was that bad). Turns out, Psalm 73:26 was part of my Bible reading that day. Touche, God. Well, of course I knew all along that it’s not really my strength, but God, I’m so tired.

I wonder if Moses ever thought of making his friends put his arms down because they were already asleep during the battle of Rephidim.

Thinking about it now, that day was a like a battle for me. And God sent unlikely (well, not really that unlikely) friends to hold me up. M, my unofficial cheerleader, just kept on assuring me that I was awesome– and if he weren’t gay, he would totally hit on me (haha!). And J, my chocolate bear– who knew what it’s like to feel one thing despite knowing what is right, and has lived with that struggle all his life with no end in sight– just kept on telling me to hang on and move forward in faith and hope. For what else can we do, when things are beyond our control?

At the end of the day, I found myself talking to another friend in her room while she struggled to hold herself together under the pressure of everything that she had to finish at work and at church. We shared our struggles and gave each other encouragement. And I prayed for her– something we both needed. She needed it because she was so stressed and lonely, and I needed to get out of my head and share the strength that I had been given to help out a sister.

Thank God for friends, Christian or not, God uses them just the same to comfort and to teach lessons that should have been learned several times before.

For some reason, I really thought that life would get easier during the 60-60 Experiment but then again, if my desire is to grow even closer to God and go farther with Him in our journey, that’s not exactly going to happen all the time, right? If I want to see His strength, He would have to expose my weaknesses. If I want to be healed, I have to show Him all my wounds. If I want to minister, I would do it with all transparency, because I’m a person saved and sustained by grace too. Kinda scary, right? But onward we go!

It all started with  a prayer on the way home yesterday. I was asking God to bless my plans for tomorrow (today) when I realized what I was doing and stopped. Then I just said, “What about I just go along with Your plans for tomorrow? What are your plans, Lord?”

Apparently, nothing like the plans I had in mind.

My plan was pretty simple and very official: leave the house at 9am, get to Alabang at around 9:40 to pick up garage sale donations from Alabang Hills, get on SLEX just in time for the colorcoding window (10am-3pm), pick up more garage sale donation from Rheea’s and then to the office for the meeting with the bosses at 2:30am. The 7pm, SAM team training at church. Turns out, God’s plans for me for Thursday didn’t include any of that.

This happened instead: Ninna took the car to Alabang for her very important appointment with a client, and I will just hitch to the MRT with mom and Sherie. I started feeling really sick. But I forced myself to get out of the house because I didn’t want to miss the meeting. If I was going to get sick, I reasoned, Friday would be the best day because all I had for that day was a seminar and a party I could afford to miss. On the way to the city, I was informed that they had moved the meeting to another day, so I didn’t have to go anymore. I ended up riding with my mom, sky and sherie to MOA and Manila, just finding a resting place where I could. I got back home at 5:30pm. Did some babysitting, and ended up (despite trying very hard to avoid it) sleeping at 11:30pm. I didn’t even get to write anything that day, except a few tweets and a facebook status update.

The thing about this day though was I got to spend time with my Mom, my sister and Sky. I also got to spend a lot of time getting used to my phone ringing every hour to remind me to get my bearings with God. Mom and I got to talk about her concerns in my growing involvement with my ex-boyfriend’s church, and I got to explain to her my reasons for staying. I also got to tell her about the 60-60 Experiment and encouraged her to do it; she got to tell me about my Dad’s concerns about money and retirement. I got to pray for my dad when my phone’s alarm sounded soon after that.

While I didn’t get the rest I was expecting, the day was a good break from my regular pursuits, and I got to spend a whole day with some of the most important people in my life. I haven’t been home most of the time for the past few weeks, and God gave me a whole day with just them and no work! And I suppose, in a little way, it gave my mom some assurance to see for herself that I’m doing more than just fine.

I know that God won’t necessarily give me a day off every time whenever I let Him take over, but Day 2 was a gift, I realize it now.

The 60-60 Experiment is basically taking a minute out of every 60 for 60 days to stop and be conscious that God is with me right now. Thus, knowing that brings me to the next thought, which is, “What is His will for me at this moment?” The whole point is developing a habit of communing with God minute-by-minute.

This isn’t exactly new. I’ve actually been doing this already, but it’s not like I’m conscious of doing it continuously. I’m sure, hours have passed that I haven’t talked to God (mostly while I’m playing Plants vs. Zombies. heh). For the 60-60 Experiment, I followed the instructions and set my phone to ring every hour with a reminder “Re: 60-60″ every hour for the next 60 days… well, only from 6am to 11pm. I should be asleep in between those times. hehe

If you’re doing this with me, it would also be nice to encourage other people to join you. My friends from the Single Adults Ministry (SAM) from WINmakati have agreed to meet for lunch every Sunday after the service to discuss about our own 60-60 Experiment experiences. If you don’t have a group, do blog or post a comment here about your breakthroughs.

If you’re just starting, here’s the Truth Thursday prompt to get you started. for your minutes, you can meditate on the characteristics of God… so the prompt for today is:

GOD IS…

INSTRUCTIONS FOR TRUTH THURSDAY:

1. Every Thursday, i will post a question or a prompt on this blog and participants will write something that answers the question or was inspired by it. (or post pictures or artworks!)
2. Participants who wrote something for that Thursday must leave a link on the comment box of that day’s prompt to let people know that they have posted.
3. TRUTH THURSDAY must be on the Title of your entry, followed by the question (so people will know).
4. This does not have to be emo– although these things tend to be a bit on the emo side, but TRUTH THURSDAYS are meant to be a fun way to bond through blog, and to get people writing and posting something meaningful and real. (disclaimer: this isn’t to say that you’re not doing so already!)
5. No pressure. Just be inspired and post something!
6. Be TRUTHFUL!

++++

So, about Day 1… it’s normal, except that my phone buzzes every hour to remind me. Since this has already been a habit anyway, it didn’t really break my stride. But I love it every time my phone rings with the reminder.

I attended the midweek service at WinMakati as usual. And I take the time to sit in my car for a few deep breaths and a prayer. This is supposed to be a secret, but since it’s part of the experiment now, I might as well share it… I’m always anxious and nervous whenever I go to church. Not because I’m not sure if I should stay, but it’s just part of the post-break up process, I guess… the dread. hahaha! But as soon as I’m inside and just hanging out, the nervousness go away and everything is all right in the world again.

Consciously praying more now also helps me see the need and be more sensitive to the need around me. Which is cool.

Ok, I’m sleepy and tired now, but I can’t wait for tomorrow. It has no mistakes in it yet.

i was a zombie at work yesterday (kahiya), still recovering from last week. I’ll blog about my marvelous week soon.

For the meantime, I want to tell you guys that I’m going on the 60-60 Experiment. I stumbled upon a book called Soul Revolution last week in OMF and browsed through it, getting that feeling that I usually do when I know I should get the book. Anyway, I bought it last night and just started on it before stopping to send you an invite to join me.

See, I’ve been a Christian all my life (and became a Christ-follower as well when I was eight years old) and every day since then has been a great and awesome journey. Well, I’m nearly thirty now (grabe no?) and I’ve seen God do wonders in my life and in other people’s lives as well. Every day, God’s been showing me just how much bigger He is compared to my concept of BIG (and I thought I already thought He’s BIG). Well, I want to see how much BIGGER He could get  but stepping it up with my faith even a bit more.

Anyway, I’m inviting you guys to do it with me. Can’t go on an awesome journey by myself right? Check out the website for more information on the 60-60 Experiment and let me know. I’ll be updating my blog as I go along, but it would be great to have some people with me so we can swap stories. Leave a comment and a link to your blog if you have decided to commit to this.

For the people who miss Truth Thursdays, I’ll be posting the questions and insights on Thursdays in lieu of our tradition so you can hop in.

Ready?

Back to work! It’s so funny how the line to the parking lot here in ABS-CBN is a whole block long when I got in! Normally, there’s still no lines at this time (9am). I guess, after Holy Week, everyone felt the work and deadlines piling up already. But I don’t want to leave Holy Week just yet for today’s reflection. After all, I was in camp for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Black Saturday.

So let me tell you about camp– we called it Re-Creation. Not just because it was at Caliraya Re-creation center, hehe. But we focused on the transformative power of Salvation. These kids are mostly church-grown and have been going to Sunday School, only a few of them know what it’s like not to be a Christian. Their age range is from 12-16, with the college volunteers (that I handled) are 18-24. In our small groups, I was surprised how most of them aren’t even sure if they’re saved or not. And despite the lecture sessions (we had four- rebirth, regeneration, refocus, re-creation), some of them still have the wrong idea about how they could be saved. I was rather concerned when my college volunteer small group leader confessed to her group that she’s “not saved yet, but in the process of being saved.”

I wonder if some of us still think of our salvation is like that.

Anyway, that was my cue to swoop in and clarify that we get saved when we repent from our sins and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the moment we do that– that’s when we receive salvation, then the sanctification process follows. (Of course, I didn’t use the technical terms.) Salvation is not a process of years, like a college course, where if we fail, we won’t get a diploma.

But ultimately, who am I to say who is saved or not? It’s between the person’s heart and God, right? But shouldn’t it be seen in our lives if Jesus is in it or not? What’s the use of a relationship with the God of the Universe if we’re going to keep it private or just scheduled on Sundays?!

So what do you think?

To some, God is discoverable everywhere; to others, nowhere. Those who do not find Him on earth are unlikely to find Him in space. (Hang it all, we’re in space already; every year we go a huge circular tour in space.) But send a saint up in a spaceship and he’ll find God in space as he found God on earth. Much depends on the seeing eye.

(C.S. Lewis)

I found this quote from C.S. Lewis’ The Joyful Christian just this morning and it’s so cool to see that even one of my favorite writers acknowledge Godspotting.

Yes, it does depends on the seeing eye. God is always there, His hand orchestrating things, even if we don’t understand what’s happening at first. I have to admit that there are really days when I’m too down or too busy or just too tired to muster up the energy to Godspot. Yes, sometimes it does require some effort, but there are days too when you just see Him there, right in front of your nose and there’s no denying it.

Yesterday was one of those days.

Yesterday was hard. I just got back from a relaxing weekend in Batangas and I get to work expecting that all the work that we’ve put in last week would be done– because we really should have been done already. But just as we were about to turn in the magazine for printing, one of the bosses of the boss intercepted it, didn’t like what she saw and now wants to do an overhaul.

And we thought we’re a week ahead of the deadline for the very first time. I thought I was doing a good job.

So… our deadline was extended so we can work on this issue some more. It’s really frustrating because we worked our butts off to meet their crazy deadlines and now looks like we’ll be late once more.

But on the train on my way home, I found myself, instead of complaining to God about my bosses, really joyful and grateful. Because, for some strange, and seemingly masochistic, reason I welcome their corrections and comments that require even more work and effort for us. Because I know that it will make for a better product. I guess once we’re past our automatic reaction and rejection to anything that requires more effort than what we’ve already put in, it’s by God’s grace that we can see beyond all the work to something really great coming out of it.

Plus, as a person who has a predilection to laziness, I welcome anything that keeps me from my just sitting on my ass all day.

It reminded me of how my parents used to expect and demand more from us because they know that we’re better than what we’re settling for. I’m glad that even as I’m now an adult, God’s still on my case, cheering and oftentimes pushing me to excellence, because He knows what I’m capable of. He’s the one who made me after all.

“I don’t want to go and see things that will make me change,” I heard one lady say in a video at the International Care Ministries dinner this evening. I think she speaks for most of us today.

As images of poverty and sickness flashed in half dozen projector screens in the Rizal ballroom of Makati Shangri-la, the irony was not lost to the audience, who were dressed to the nines, eating an expensive dinner. But, as Marietta Santos, the grand lady who had invited us there, said, “I brought you here so you would be aware of what’s happening, and to get you to help.”

photo by Jorem/Sheila Catilo for Moms for Moms

“I don’t like seeing these kinds of things,” I heard the lady mutter from across the table from me. I watched her as she just kept her eyes on the table while the rest of her friends murmured and gasped at how most of our fellow Filipinos live.

Even my stomach couldn’t help feel queasy at the site of the squalor people actually live in.

photo by Espen Rasmussen / Panos for MSF

I get overwhelmed whenever I see images like these. There are just so many people in need! How can I– or anyone– help them? Even with all the organizations, volunteers, donations, there doesn’t seem to be an end to the poverty. There will always be people who are sick, hungry, poor, with hands outstretched for help, any help they could get.

I work in a magazine that features luxury, high society, exclusivity and high-end goodies that only a few can afford. Most of the time, I find myself surrounded by these few people, with their shoes that I can afford if I don’t eat for a month, and bags that cost a year’s salary of a managing editor. It’s part of the job. At the other end of the spectrum, but still my job, I see the ugly, the poor and the broken in society. And I meet people who are helping, and looking for more people to help, other people.

I often make this half-meant joke, “Lord, can you give me enough money to give away?” But so far, still not much money is left to give away after the bills. I’m thinking that maybe God wants me to help in some other way.

Because why else would He make me see these things?

from my_sarisari_store.typepad.com

“What does God think about poverty and injustice?” I remember that question raised by a speaker in Station One last year. With so much in the world that is going wrong, God must want to make it right! But how? What is the church doing about it?

I believe that truth does not become really true to us unless it affects the way we live. Truth moves people– often out of our comfort zones and into a place that is smelly, ugly, and in need. So we see these people in need and we feel pity for them. But that’s not enough. That’s not true enough. We have to move. We have to do something.

But what can I do? I don’t have anything, I don’t have much money to give, I’m so busy with work and other things that  barely have enough to sleep as is…

Then God asks, “What’s that in your hand?”

——

p.s. I’m compiling a list of charities for people to donate to this Christmas. If you have a recommendation, just leave a comment below, preferrably with contact details, or even just a website. Thanks!