“At once they left their nets and followed Him” – Matthew 4:20
This verse struck me hard as 10 wheeler truck hitting a 2-foot brick wall.
How crazy can these two fishermen be, huh?
Imagine yourself buried and busy in a mountain pile of works and somebody not from your department passed you by and invited you to go down the office and help him in his own paper works. I bet your replies will vary from the subtle “you’re nuts" comment to the loud exclamation “scram dude, stop bugging me". “The nerve of that guy", you whispered without even looking as he continues to move away.
So what was it about Jesus that made Simon and the other disciples simply drop down whatever they are doing and, without any question asked, decided to follow Him.
I have a personal theory.
I think Simon and the rest of the disciples have been yearning all their prior years on how to make their life worthwhile. They have been thinking of how can their remaining years be significant, with a purpose higher than just tossing the nets to catch fishes. They have love inside their hearts and they wanted to share them and put them into good use.
The problem is, nobody believed in them.
And here comes Jesus with the calmness and aura of God suddenly stopping by in front of them and without any introduction or asking their qualification, invited them to become “fishers of men".
Jesus believed in them.
And they believe in themselves.
The goods news for us is…..JESUS ALSO BELIEVES IN YOU AND ME.
So when are we going to drop our nets and follow him to be fishers of man, to be salt of the earth, to be that tiny spark to light the dark?
The answer lies in our hearts.
God bless.
2008/01/29
2008/01/26
How to Prevent Stubborn Stains
This morning, I totally forgot my fried fish with high flame and the result was a smoke-filled kitchen. There was an unpleasant stench all around the house. The poor fish was charcoaled burned on one side and the stainless steel frying pan was unable to live up to its being stainless since the scorched fish parts and burnt oil are now stubbornly stuck into the surface. The cold winter and lacking running warm water from the faucet made the task to clean the pan tricky and painstakingly slow.
Boil water. Add dishwashing soap. Scrub hard.
I needed at least 3 cycles of the mentioned steps before seeing the stainless surface again.
And just for good measure, I scrubbed hard again after cooking another breakfast dish for myself.
I’m glad I was able to get it back to its old shiny pan.
Let us realize that we are like dirtied frying pans every time we sin. Our clean and “stainless” image starts to get tainted which if left unchecked will become stubborn stains that are difficult to scrub off. The foul-stench of our sinfulness lingers unless we allow ourselves to be cleaned at the soonest time possible. And the worst unthinkable is that we begin to get use to being dirty and eventually hide away from any form of cleaning and seek acceptance from others with the same dirt and filth. We slowly lose our very own image.
So what should we do at the first instance of dirt in our lives?
The answer is – let ourselves be cleaned immediately to avoid it from becoming a stain.
Seek reconciliation with God through holy confession.
Do not hesitate.
Do not delay.
Do not doubt.
It is God’s wish to clean us, to make us shiny as He envisioned us to be at all times. God will rejoice with heaven every time we are made clean because God wants us to keep representing His unblemished, untarnished and holy image.
God bless.
Boil water. Add dishwashing soap. Scrub hard.
I needed at least 3 cycles of the mentioned steps before seeing the stainless surface again.
And just for good measure, I scrubbed hard again after cooking another breakfast dish for myself.
I’m glad I was able to get it back to its old shiny pan.
Let us realize that we are like dirtied frying pans every time we sin. Our clean and “stainless” image starts to get tainted which if left unchecked will become stubborn stains that are difficult to scrub off. The foul-stench of our sinfulness lingers unless we allow ourselves to be cleaned at the soonest time possible. And the worst unthinkable is that we begin to get use to being dirty and eventually hide away from any form of cleaning and seek acceptance from others with the same dirt and filth. We slowly lose our very own image.
So what should we do at the first instance of dirt in our lives?
The answer is – let ourselves be cleaned immediately to avoid it from becoming a stain.
Seek reconciliation with God through holy confession.
Do not hesitate.
Do not delay.
Do not doubt.
It is God’s wish to clean us, to make us shiny as He envisioned us to be at all times. God will rejoice with heaven every time we are made clean because God wants us to keep representing His unblemished, untarnished and holy image.
God bless.
2008/01/23
Prayer for Parenthood
Parenthood is a partnership with God....we are working with the Creator of the Universe in shaping human character and determining destiny.
We are labourers together with God (1Corinthians 3:9)
I felt awkward (and in all likelihood looked funny) wearing the green hospital suit they provided but I couldn't care less. However, my focus was what's going on inside the other room.
A bit worried.
A bit scared.
A lot of excitement.
A lot of thanksgiving.
A lot of pondering.
A lot of wondering.
"Sir, you may come in", a nurse casually called my attention, "It's time for baby-out".
With my chest pounding and breath hanging, I entered the delivery room and saw my wife half-awake and groggy while being given the caesarean section. I tried my best not to catch a glimpse of the on-going operation otherwise the doctors would have to deal with another fainted patient. I can handle seeing reel blood but I was never cut out for the real ones. This obviously explains the awkwardness of wearing hospital suit meant for doctors and nurses only.
I held her shoulder and kissed her forehead.
This is it.
The doctor winked her eyes signaling me to prepare my camera.
And in one ultra careful swoosh of a moment, there was our fragile baby upside down full of milky fluids.
There were a few seconds of silence and his loud cries started.
Waaah.
Waaaah.
I still cannot understand how such a small mouth produce such a loud shrieking high-pitch voice.
(Later I read that the new-born's cry is, physically, meant to induce the baby's lungs to function and is, emotionally an expression of stress of being disturbed from his only known home for the past nine months – his mother's womb.)
While the nurses were busily cleaning, warming and weighing Zek, I gazed at him and realization struck me.
I am now a father and what a beautiful son has the Lord given me.
My eyes moistened in utter thanksgiving to our Lord for our wedding gift that we have waited for four seemingly-endless years.
We kept our faith and everything happened in His appointed time.
That day was the single most concrete testimony to His faithfulness to us, to look after the fulfillment of His plans for my wife and I.
The thought hasn't really sunk into me yet when I started busying myself shooting some photos of him while intently checking his condition.
"Two hands, five fingers on each hand. Two feet, five toes on each foot. Two ears, two eyes, one nose", I eagerly counted each facial features and body extremities as my wife reminded me during her pre-natal check-in at the hospital.
We are labourers together with God (1Corinthians 3:9)
I felt awkward (and in all likelihood looked funny) wearing the green hospital suit they provided but I couldn't care less. However, my focus was what's going on inside the other room.
A bit worried.
A bit scared.
A lot of excitement.
A lot of thanksgiving.
A lot of pondering.
A lot of wondering.
"Sir, you may come in", a nurse casually called my attention, "It's time for baby-out".
With my chest pounding and breath hanging, I entered the delivery room and saw my wife half-awake and groggy while being given the caesarean section. I tried my best not to catch a glimpse of the on-going operation otherwise the doctors would have to deal with another fainted patient. I can handle seeing reel blood but I was never cut out for the real ones. This obviously explains the awkwardness of wearing hospital suit meant for doctors and nurses only.
I held her shoulder and kissed her forehead.
This is it.
The doctor winked her eyes signaling me to prepare my camera.
And in one ultra careful swoosh of a moment, there was our fragile baby upside down full of milky fluids.
There were a few seconds of silence and his loud cries started.
Waaah.
Waaaah.
I still cannot understand how such a small mouth produce such a loud shrieking high-pitch voice.
(Later I read that the new-born's cry is, physically, meant to induce the baby's lungs to function and is, emotionally an expression of stress of being disturbed from his only known home for the past nine months – his mother's womb.)
While the nurses were busily cleaning, warming and weighing Zek, I gazed at him and realization struck me.
I am now a father and what a beautiful son has the Lord given me.
My eyes moistened in utter thanksgiving to our Lord for our wedding gift that we have waited for four seemingly-endless years.
We kept our faith and everything happened in His appointed time.
That day was the single most concrete testimony to His faithfulness to us, to look after the fulfillment of His plans for my wife and I.
The thought hasn't really sunk into me yet when I started busying myself shooting some photos of him while intently checking his condition.
"Two hands, five fingers on each hand. Two feet, five toes on each foot. Two ears, two eyes, one nose", I eagerly counted each facial features and body extremities as my wife reminded me during her pre-natal check-in at the hospital.
Everything was normal.
Our baby is a bouncing healthy boy.
One last photo with the new mother and baby Zek was carried away in his bassinet for follow-up checking and milk-feeding in the nursery room.
Today, January 24 was that day exactly 4 years ago.
The miraculous gift of life was repeated when our baby Maia was born January 5 last year.
The joy they have brought into our home is beyond description.
Our baby is a bouncing healthy boy.
One last photo with the new mother and baby Zek was carried away in his bassinet for follow-up checking and milk-feeding in the nursery room.
Today, January 24 was that day exactly 4 years ago.
The miraculous gift of life was repeated when our baby Maia was born January 5 last year.
The joy they have brought into our home is beyond description.
The closest adjective I can think of now is - Heaven on earth.
Prayer for Parenthood
Oh heavenly Father, make us a better parent.
Teach us to understand our children,
to listen patiently to what they have to say,
and to answer all their questions kindly.
Keep us from interrupting them or contradicting them.
Make us as courteous to them as we would have them to be to us.
Forbid that we should ever laugh when they displease us.
May we never punish them for our own selfish satisfaction or to show our power.
Let me not tempt them our children to lie or steal.
Ang guide us hour by hour that we may demonstrate by all we say and do that honety produces happiness.
Reduce, we pray, the meanness in us.
And when we are out of sorts, help us O Lord, to hold our tongue.
May we ever be mindful that our children are children and we should not expect of them the judgemt of adults.
Let us not rob them of the opportunity to wait on themselves and to make decisions.
Bless us with the bigness of heart to give them all their reasonable requests and the the courage to deny them privileges we know will do them harm.
And fit us, Oh Lord, to be loved and respected and imitated by my children.
Amen.
(This beautiful prayer came from a religious website. My wife printed it and we have been praying it ever since)
Prayer for Parenthood
Oh heavenly Father, make us a better parent.
Teach us to understand our children,
to listen patiently to what they have to say,
and to answer all their questions kindly.
Keep us from interrupting them or contradicting them.
Make us as courteous to them as we would have them to be to us.
Forbid that we should ever laugh when they displease us.
May we never punish them for our own selfish satisfaction or to show our power.
Let me not tempt them our children to lie or steal.
Ang guide us hour by hour that we may demonstrate by all we say and do that honety produces happiness.
Reduce, we pray, the meanness in us.
And when we are out of sorts, help us O Lord, to hold our tongue.
May we ever be mindful that our children are children and we should not expect of them the judgemt of adults.
Let us not rob them of the opportunity to wait on themselves and to make decisions.
Bless us with the bigness of heart to give them all their reasonable requests and the the courage to deny them privileges we know will do them harm.
And fit us, Oh Lord, to be loved and respected and imitated by my children.
Amen.
(This beautiful prayer came from a religious website. My wife printed it and we have been praying it ever since)
2008/01/20
Prayer of a Father and Husband
I'd like to share a prayer taken from a Pauline's pamphlet that Fr. Adams gave away to the couples during the Renewal of Marital Vows ceremony within our Sunday mass. It has been an annual tradition for Fr. Adams to do this and many married couples always look forward to this event, including me and my wife.
Prayer of a Father and Husband.
Dear Jesus,
I place myself in Your presence.
I put my whole life at Your disposal.
I acknowledge my shortcomings and failures.
I give up my pretenses and excuses.
You lived among us and experienced a family.
You shared the Father's love.
You showed us how to be obedient and dutiful children.
Today, my Lord, with Your blessings and guidance;
I renew my marital commitment:
to love my wife until my last breath,
to serve and not to abuse,
to cherish and not to forsake,
to be faithful and not to betray,
to forgive and not to accuse,
to protect and not to hurt.
With Your grace, I also renew my obligations to my children:
to take care of them as to give them a better future,
to share my time as to let them feel that I love them,
to give my love as to provide them a worthy life,
to show them good examples as to rear them as worthy children.
And for these, my Dear God, I humbly seek Your blessings.
Guide us against all harm and secure us from any danger.
Let me live longer for my children.
Let me be strong to work in view of their future.
Make our house also Your home.
Live among us and stay with us, Dear Lord.
May we live united as a family like the Holy Family of Nazareth.
AMEN.
Prayer of a Father and Husband.
Dear Jesus,
I place myself in Your presence.
I put my whole life at Your disposal.
I acknowledge my shortcomings and failures.
I give up my pretenses and excuses.
You lived among us and experienced a family.
You shared the Father's love.
You showed us how to be obedient and dutiful children.
Today, my Lord, with Your blessings and guidance;
I renew my marital commitment:
to love my wife until my last breath,
to serve and not to abuse,
to cherish and not to forsake,
to be faithful and not to betray,
to forgive and not to accuse,
to protect and not to hurt.
With Your grace, I also renew my obligations to my children:
to take care of them as to give them a better future,
to share my time as to let them feel that I love them,
to give my love as to provide them a worthy life,
to show them good examples as to rear them as worthy children.
And for these, my Dear God, I humbly seek Your blessings.
Guide us against all harm and secure us from any danger.
Let me live longer for my children.
Let me be strong to work in view of their future.
Make our house also Your home.
Live among us and stay with us, Dear Lord.
May we live united as a family like the Holy Family of Nazareth.
AMEN.
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