Monday, June 30, 2008

The fullness of His blessing


It might sound like an echoing of one favorite preacher's most recent quote but, like Jerry Savelle, I do want to have the fullness of God's blessing. My small mind doesn't naturally dwell on what "fullness" means. I assume I already know what full is, as opposed to what is not full. But this is probably where the actual smallness comes into play: we assume that we know what God has in store for us; we believe that we, in our boxed concept of human intelligence, know the boundaries that fullness satisfies.

The amazing revelation is that, apart from supernatural understanding, we can have the whole thing, the beyond-every-imagination kind of God's fullness. When we come to know and believe that He is who He says He is and that His Word is alive and real and as faithful as He is, then we will know that the fullness of His blessing is already here even before our mind can conjure its depth and meaning.

When I experience His light in the same arena as that of some of our own time's honorable men and women of God, I thank Him for such a wonderful blessing and for the chance to know more about Him. Even a brief glimpse of His blessing stirs up faith in my heart. It is a spiritual privilege to know Him in the same light as our precious leaders, to see the magnitude of His love for us, to believe that His purpose is to abundantly bless us beyond any measure.

I sometimes think: Why is it that He leaves it up to us to lean on faith so strong, to not even doubt that everyday brings immeasurable, limitless, surpassing blessings? It is up to us to receive, and not doubt. When His Handiwork in our faithful hearts becomes the wide-open door to His blessings' full manifestation, His Glory shines...

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Turning another digit towards a long life



We all have birthdays every year, unless you're a leap year celebrant; which means that another year older takes a lot longer than the usual. My turning another digit happened just recently. I distinctly heard the drop of another number, much like New York's countdown annual ball drop; another move of the hour hand to declare the end of another history or another beginning; another statement: I am not my old age anymore. As a matter of fact, I represent another digit, a new and higher number.

And in fact, I refuse to use the word "old" anymore. What is "old" anyway? Your pair of old sneakers might be old to you, but looking good to me - well-cared for, had a lot of miles to it, developed some character, a vintage. So when I wake up from now on, I decide not to be old, but to move healthy, blood-pumping digits toward a long life: to be well-cared for, gain more mileage, insurrect character into anything lackluster, be all the vintage I can be!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Irreplaceable



It's funny how we all have those little quirks and ways about us that become like our own seal or brand; this same brand that sets us apart from anyone else. I wonder sometimes if, from the time I was in my mom's belly, these same quirks had already started to grow to become a permanent part of my dna.

I already knew that God created my inmost being and that He knitted me together in my mother's womb. What fascinated me was that He made me so different from my own family, from my own friends, even from strangers that there is not one person in this world that could be identified as my own self. Just me. And then this singular person developed quirks and nuances that added more layers and fabric to my being, to say the least.

I am enamored and awed and completely out of words.

basically Yours

Convivially, I should attend to all the comments and e-mails that I get when I tell everyone my most private thoughts and, oh, my weaknesses even. But there is a small chance that a lot of people will bump into my own quiet place.

Simply, I don't advertise it, I don't really share it with just anyone, I don't even tell my immediate family about it. I don't even talk about what I really do on a day-to-day basis, or what, quote-unquote, achievements in the bubble-world out there I snag, or how much I do for this and that which, ideal-worldly, merits accolade and, yes, some kind of vertical trophy or something thicker than a cardboard to stuff into some Office Depot certificate frame.

So what is the purpose of this? At first it was just my way of exercise: a sort-of platform to air out what bogs my head when I think, or when I want to say something to someone close but couldn't because it's not appropos at the time or that it's simply immature to even utter, or when I feel like the flow is within me and I want God to be in the know like I am in the know of what's going on in my head, or just to be in the same page with God, because as we all know we aren't always in the same page with the Almighty. It is my own quiet place to be me - suddenly, internally, vocally, artistically, whimsically, stupidly, spiritually - from all adverbial vantage points thesaurus has already, previously factored as a word.

Besides I just am done with the ex-crap, for lack of a better noun, that came with my in-and-ex-baggage I now refer to as pride. It was the stupidity of pride and the ingenuity of embellished prejudice that prevent one's lowest self to be thrown in the air and left to be picked up by a Power stronger and higher than itself. Holding tight to a configuration of self, or the idea of self, is plain stupid in my spiffed-up notion of wisdom, which happens to be the kind that originated from my Maker.

See, I am nobody special to a lot of human beings, but I am special especially to my Maker. This alone, now, gives me peace. He knows what I am doing at all times. I don't really have to announce to Him what my heart's desires are, because He knows me inside and out. But when I blog here, when I use this platform to cry out to Him, it's as if He is right there, ready with His keyboard, ready to respond and comment, or not respond and comment, ready to understand everything I say, ready to forgive me for the foibles that I say in-between-the-lines, ready to decipher the in-between-the-lines before they even come out of here. He is ready for me at all times. He always says, I'm basically yours, my love.

Many times I ask myself: Why do I bother or not bother? Why is it that I am compelled from the deepest recesses of my heart to talk to Him? I don't even seem to exist for any other reason, but to exist for Him. But there is where I could be wrong: He made me for something and that something is so close to me now, just as far as I could stretch my arm. I could smell the purpose. I could even feel the static that creates a whizzing noise when the thin spark implodes. It is here, my purpose. Tapping on my heart, it is here. I am to do what I am supposed to do.

You know what I say to my Maker? Now I say, I am basically Yours, my Maker! Do with me what You will for me to do.

--June 11, 2008, Year of New Beginnings