Rewind

Just the other night, my cousin Danyl and I played Madden ’11 up until sunrise. It brought back old memories when I used to beat his ass in this game. Well, he won this time but the score was tight. Given the fact that I had no practice at all for years, it was an expected result. LOL. Anyway, I noticed and was quite amazed on the added feature of the game called, “REWIND”. It’s an option that allows you to rewind your last plays if in any case you’re not satisfied with them – giving a better chance for you to change or improve your game. Then it made me think for a second that it would be better if we can also have the ability to rewind things in real life, so we can make things better or perhaps, right in our own perception. I just recently experienced a setback in my life, and the feeling sucks. I truly believe in the saying that everything happens for a reason, that’s why I have always been ready for whatever. However, who likes failures? Who loves disappointments? Even though I already knew what to do, there’s still something inside of me that made me feel depressed. But then, I never let it eat me. I went back to my purpose – to live to please God… not myself; not others, only Him. These things have to happen. I have to experience pain, guilt, regret, disappointments, and failures – in order for me to understand how life works.

I pray that the God of peace will give you everything you need so you can do what He wants. – Hebrews 13:20

Life is not easy; it is a chock-full of challenges. You cannot do it on your own, so let Him take over for He knows what’s in store for you. No matter how vague your future may be, always remember that you are destined for greatness. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. God is in control… always in control.

Everything on earth has its own time and its own season

Everything on earth has its own time and its own season

-          Ecclesiastes 3:1

Yes, it is true. There’s no need to rush, for rushing things would only lead you to a much bigger problem. There are no shortcuts, detours, and u-turns to success and life. I can still remember all of endeavors that I’ve faced and luckily surpassed back then. Dang, there were too many of them to the point that I almost had given up; but God never left me, not even just for a second. Despite the fact that I didn’t usually ask for His help, He was so generous that He never failed to stay beside me. When I was down, He reached out His hand and helped me rise up again. When I was in doubt, He showed me reasons why not to. When I was about to give up, He gave me strength and the tenacity to continue fighting. He was there, and will always be with me.

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5-6).

I almost ended up in a different college back when I was in 3^rd year. I got a grade of 5 in my major subject, and in our school there’s no repeater or whatever, so the only choice was to transfer to a different school. I never thought that I will fail. I got way too overconfident of myself and didn’t focus on my studies well. It was really a disastrous event for me. I thought it was over for me in FEU, but then God came to the scene. When I asked for a rechecking of my grades, they found out that it was only a miscomputation. I felt so relieved back then, I called my parents, my tito’s and tita’s and thanked them for all the prayers and support. I thought that it was just a false alarm, but it wasn’t. It was a warning sign from Him and I didn’t respond well.

Despite what happened, I still lived in an easy, no-stress and egotistic life. Instead of focusing on what’s more important, I indulged myself on less significant activities. I’m not perfect… I commit mistakes; but I didn’t say I regretted playing Dota and hanging out with my friends. I also met a lot of friends just by playing Dota and had tons of wonderful memories with them, but it would’ve been better if I just prioritized them well enough so that there won’t be any potential problems. As a result, I failed my first take on NLE (Nursing Licensure Examination). I was stunned in disbelief and really never thought of failing that examination. There were so many things that were on my mind back then – a lot of Who’s fault, What’s wrong and Why’s this happening to me. Funny thing was it only took me about 30 minutes to jump from Denial phase to Acceptance phase of DABDA/ Stages of Grief. Funny yet amazing, even until now I’m still amazed on how God enlightened me that moment. I asked Him, and He gave me an answer. Again, having been overconfident and way too relaxed led me to lose focus on my studies.

After that, I said to myself, “Maybe this is not for me, or maybe this is not the right time; maybe there are things in my life that I have to fix first before I achieve this goal of mine.” So I moved on and tried finding out what was wrong and what was lacking. I worked in a BPO Company for around 6 months and learned so many things there. I went through tough decisions; I decided to forfeit my NLE last November 2009 believing I still have a lot of things to learn from work. I also chose to review here in Zamboanga for the past July 2010 NLE to focus on my studies. I learned so many things in my stay in ACS and ADZU review center, which molded me to become what I am right now. It took me almost a year to evolve and learn from all of my mistakes. 12 long months of waiting, learning, adapting and never giving up before becoming what I am right now, a full-pledged nurse.

I am quite excited for all the things that God has planned for me now that I’m already a Registered Nurse. I have this vision of myself in the future that I am teaching young minds and at the same time drawing them close to God. I know I can make a difference, because God is with me. Speaking of vision, I would just like to add something that I’ve learned from Pastor Rommel just awhile ago. In order for us to grow in our present jobs/works, we should have these 4 P’s: Presence of God, Pleasure, Provision from God, and Purpose. These 4 P's will help you excel in your area and at the same time nourish your relationship with God.

It is not easy and will never be easy to understand what’s in store for us, not unless you let God control your life. God has plans for you, and if you let Him sit behind the steering wheel, He will give you everything far beyond your imagination. Never give up on what you believe in and never let any distractions slow you down to your pursuit of happiness.

Testimony: God gave me trials and sufferings for me to be dependent on Him.

Life Lesson: God is never in a hurry, but He is always on time.

Godly Passion: Think Big! Do not settle for less. Have a bigger frying pan.

Good News: You were made for a purpose. 

God gave me what I wanted, but He didn’t let me get it my way.

God gave me what I wanted, but He didn’t let me get it my way.

-      Joyce Meyer

When I already finished reading the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, I started thinking about what’s next for me. Then a friend suggested that I should try listening to podcasts of certain individuals such as Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, etc. Actually I don’t have any idea who these persons are. LOL. All I know is that they are messengers of God, spreading the Good News worldwide. So I downloaded Joyce Meyer’s podcasts and suddenly got interested in everything she says (if you want to know how and where I downloaded it, just give me your e-mail address and I’ll send it to you).

Joyce Meyer’s message was entitled An Attitude of Trust and Patience. Honestly, those were the qualities that I don’t have. I’m not good at waiting. For instance, if we will be meeting in a certain place, I would rather tell you I’m already there even though I’m not so you can get your ass off quickly to our meeting place. I’d rather be waited than to be the one waiting, and that is one classic showing of how selfish I am, which is I’m not actually proud of. Well about trust, it is in fact not a problem to me… it is the other way around. After years of reflecting and contemplating, I finally found myself so hard to be trusted. LOL. Maybe it’s because I’m really good at reasoning, I mean sooo good. A friend of my father’s even told me that I should’ve taken Law instead of Nursing ‘coz I’m so good at it.

 

In one single event, the saved who are alive at Christ's coming will be caught up together with the resurrected to meet the Lord in the air. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord." - 1 Thessalonians 4:17

Christ is coming, and we don’t know when. All I know is that we should be focused on the mission He gave us. We don’t just wait until Christ’s return; we make use of the time He provided us so that in His return, we can say “Mission Accomplished.” This is where trust comes. We need to trust God, in every single thing that happens in our lives for us to accomplish our mission. Just by putting your trust in God, you can enjoy your life while He is solving your problem. Why should we trust God? I have three reasons for that:

1.      He is the omnipotent one

2.      He is the omniscient one

3.      He is the omnipresent one

He is the omnipotent one. He is our Creator, everything you see is made by God. He pulls all the strings of our lives. If you’ve watched the movie Bruce Almighty, there you will understand how powerful God really is.

He is the omniscient one. He is all-knowing. He knows everything that’s going to happen to us, every single detail of our lives has been already written down. He knows everything, and it is only Him that knows it all.

He is the omnipresent one. He is everywhere. He is the reason why we can fight temptations, feel safety and comfort, and make holy actions. Joseph experienced it. He had brothers who were jealous of him and sold him into slavery. Later he was lied against by Potiphar's wife; and yet "God was with him."

Then on Sunday I had the chance to attend at one of Victory’s worship services. That was my first time at Victory; again, my good old friend referred it to me. I didn’t know what to expect upon entering the center. I was just looking for a small group and hoped to find it there. Then I heard Pastor Ritchie telling something about Laying of Hands – more of like passing the torch or blessing someone. I enjoyed listening to his message, I felt like God was really close to me that time – like He was reaching out to me. Then every moment has just gone surreal. I cried… hard. That was the first time that I cried for Him, and it felt so great. I believe those were not just tears of joy; those were tears of guilt, confession, thanksgiving, and praise to Him. I felt like I’ve been healed from my pains, freed from my sufferings, and unloaded from all of my burdens.  

The day ended up so well; I met Pastor Rommel, who eventually adopted me to his small group, I found new friends in the likes of Ate Lei, Rence, and Joed, and I’ve finally found a family in them. I thank God for giving me this opportunity to do the things I want to do while waiting for His return. I want to thank Him for giving me another chance and entrusting me this very important assignment. As what Joyce Meyer also said, “Patience is not the ability to wait; it is how you act while you wait.”

PBPGINFWMY – Please Be Patient, God Is Not Finished With Me Yet. Don’t be in a rush. It will take a lifetime for us to fulfill what we are tasked to do. You will be taking a long journey to His salvation. Now be patient and have trust in Him, for it is the key to living a Christ-centered life. All along, I thought doing things in an old-Frankie-way was right; but then again, I was wrong. :)

Testimony:  Jesus led me directly to His path to Salvation.

Life Lesson: Patience is a virtue.

Godly passion: Your spiritual family is bigger than your physical family and in some significant aspects, it is probably more important.

Good news: Parousia- God also said the ever-great Douglas McArthur line.