Live With Your Windows Open

Having a tinted car has its advantages. Aside from deflecting the sunlight, let me share how it helps.  First, it allows me to sing and play “air drums” to the beat of the music I play.  I can do that because no one can see me, because of the tint (Ok, for those who know me now you know what I’m doing as my car passes by!).  I can also wear anything I want – a crumpled shirt, shorts with holes in it, when I pick up the kids.  As long as I stay in the car it’s fine, since no one can see me!  Another advantage – I can give a reckless driver a “dagger look”, and be so confident to do it, because I know he can’t really see me!  Of course it doesn’t make it right, that’s why  after I do that I ask forgiveness from the Lord.  The thing is,  because I know the car is tinted the boldness to do it is there!  In some places, like Manila, a dagger look can really get you into trouble, even get you shot.  Here where I live it can get you into an argument, and maybe even a fight.  That’s why a dagger look can have its consequences.  Because of the tint I fall to the temptation of reacting in the wrong way.

It’s that last example that checked my Christian walk today.  Yesterday the car air-conditioner broke down, and since I did not find time to have it fixed today I had to drive with the windows down.  As I was driving a car coming from a side street to my right turned towards the road, and even if the driver saw me coming she did not slow down!  So I had to press hard on the break as the car turned right beside me.  I was about to give the “dagger look”, when I realized my window was open!  And so, at just the right time, when the car was right beside me, I gave the driver a smile!  Hahaha!  In my mind I said “Whew!”.  It was a “half smile”, but at least it wasn’t the dagger look!  It was my wife who noticed that the driver was a woman, and also noticed that she was waving apologetically, probably realizing that it was her mistake.  Whoa…imagine if I gave the dagger look!  I would have felt guilty.  What is worse – imagine if the person knew me, and knew that I was a Christian…a Pastor even!  My testimony would have gone down the drain!  It’s a good thing I was smiling!  Sort of…

I quickly sensed the lesson God was teaching me at that moment.

1 Peter 2:12 NASB  Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

As Christians it is so important for us to be living life “with our windows down”!  Yes, we do have our bad days, and there will always be times when we will have friction with others.  But our lives speak of our faith and our desire to follow our Lord.  How we react, and respond, to these things speak to others about what is in our heart, what we believe in, what guides and shapes our life.  We claim to have a Savior who saved us from our sins, and we claim to believe in a Lord who is continually cleansing us from our everyday sins and conforming us to His image.  Do our lives show it?

So, keep those windows open…and live the life that we know our Lord will be pleased with, and a life that is a blessing to others.  There is no tint that can cover the life that we live, the life that we show and share with others.  By God’s grace may we always allow our lives to show the goodness and righteousness of our Lord.

Matthew 5:16  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Back to Instant Coffee

There’s nothing like the taste of brewed coffee.  I don’t drink it, though, like the “real” coffee drinkers do.  They drink it black, so that they can really taste the freshness of the ground coffee beans.  But I enjoy drinking a freshly brewed cup.  It’s really different.

That’s why I was so excited when my two sisters gave me coffee for Christmas.  One was Japanese “Drip On” coffee.  You open the sachet and out comes something that looks like a tea bag, but with ground coffee inside.  You place the contraption on top of the mug and you pour water on the bag, and it drips down into the mug for a fresh cup of coffee.

My other sister got me a one cup brewer, together with 18 days old coffee beans.  Haven’t tried it yet because I want to finish the Japanese coffee first.  But it’s next in line, and I’m excited to try it.

But it’s funny how recently I’ve been looking for the taste of Nescafe’ Classic instant coffee.  I know true coffee drinkers will be ridiculing me and telling me off that instant coffee is not real coffee.  But, for some reason, I was looking for the usual taste of Nescafe’ classic again.  Because of all the stock of brewed coffee I had at home, plus the convenience of having a coffee presser, I stopped buying instant coffee.  Even before my sisters gave me coffee for Christmas someone had given me a bag of Starbucks coffee!  And so I finished that first, then started with the Japanese coffee, while the 18 days ground coffee is waiting for me to taste it.  But honestly, my tongue was looking for Nescafe’.

And so I bought a pack this afternoon from the supermarket.  As I was preparing a cup after dinner, I asked myself if it was the convenience of it being instant, or the taste, that brought me back to Nescafe’.  My answer – the taste.  I was just longing for the taste of Nescafe’ that I have been so used to, that I have been drinking ever since I started drinking coffee.

You see from time in memorial Nescafe’ has been the coffee served in our family house.  My parents drank Nescafe’ every morning.  My first cup of coffee was Nescafe’.  Of course having brewed coffee was always a treat, and enjoyable.  But Nescafe’ was always there.  I think I have gotten so used to it, that my taste buds eventually long for it.  I guess when you’ve tasted and enjoyed something for so long, you just have to go back to it.  So, for the meantime, it’s back to Nescafe’.  The ground coffee will just have to wait.

Psalm 34:8  Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

It’s interesting how God described our experiencing Him as tasting.  God cannot just be a concept, a theology, or a belief in our minds and hearts.  He has to be Someone we taste, someone we experience.  As the psalmist says in Psalm 34:8 – Taste and see that the Lord is good!

But tasting God’s goodness takes a step of faith.  We need to set aside all other things, or other sources, of goodness, of pleasure, and allow our lives to have a taste of what God can do.  It takes a step of faith to believe that God is alive, and that He can really satisfy as much as He says He can.

John 4:13  Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
John 4:14  but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

In this passage it’s about drinking, about quenching thirst.  When we drink the water the world offers us, it doesn’t really quench our thirst, does it?  It just moves us to have more.  And we end up dissatisfied.

But the water God gives us truly satisfies.  It’s a water that wells up to eternal life.  And it’s a water that quenches the thirst of our hearts, not our flesh.  That’s why it truly satisfies – because when the heart is satisfied, nothing that the body looks for matters anymore.

Oh to have a taste of the love, the thirst-quenching life of the Lord, poured out in the cross of Calvary when He died for our sins, and continuing today because He has risen from the dead!  Oh, to enjoy His ever satisfying grace, love and faithfulness…just like my instant coffee.  And even more.

Isaiah 45:22  "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.”

Living a Good Eulogy

I officiated in a burial service today for the father of a church member who passed away just last December 31.  We sang a few songs, shared God’s Word, and then listened to friends, loved ones, and family members share their eulogies concerning the deceased.  Officemates, a neighbor, a “kumpare”, a niece and his daughter stood up one by one and started sharing about what a great officemate, friend, uncle, husband and father he was.  And though they were sad that he had gone ahead, and that they would not see him anymore, yet they were joyful that now he was with His Creator, in a “better place”, eternally enjoying the presence of His God.

While listening to the eulogies, it got me thinking – “I wonder what people will say when I’m gone”.  I don’t want to sound morbid, or inconsiderate, but that’s what I was thinking…what would my fellow pastors, church members, Christian friends, family members, and my immediate family say?  As imperfect as I am I did hope, in my imagination, that my friends and family would remember the good things in me. 

And it made me think – I better make sure that I live in a way that people will see the good things in me!  What I want people to say about me when I’m dead will all depend on how I have lived with each of them.  I pray that as I walk by God’s grace everyday, allowing Him to change me and mold my character, other people will be recipients of good eulogies for me in the future!  Better than that, I do pray that people will see that it was not me, but God, who molded and formed the Christ-like character that He took hold of me for.

Makes for a good new years’ resolution, doesn’t it?

Proverbs 22:1  A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.

Ecclesiastes 7:1  A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth.

Wasting Away but Being Renewed

2 Corinthians 4:16  Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
Our latest Christmas vacation made the verse above more real to my heart.  Both my parents are diagnosed to have Alzheimer's, although my Dad’s condition seems to have plateaued.  We would have the same conversation though every 2 or 3 minutes, asking me the same questions over and over again.  I squeeze in a little spiritual insights now and then, but most of his questions are about me, my wife and the kids.
My Mom’s condition is different.  Her vocabulary is depleting, and she cannot finish a sentence because she cannot remember the words she wants to use.  All throughout my stay she seemed to know who I was, but on the day we left she turned to me and asked “are you my son, or my brother?”.  Most of the time she would call me “Toto”, which is both the name of her brother, and a common name in the Ilonggo dialect.  She passed around a notebook to my kids, asking them to write down their names so that she would not forget who they were.

It was hard to see them this way.  It was equally hard for my two older kids who grew up with good memories of their grandparents.  It was sad to know that we would not be seeing them as they used to be.

Life changes.  Our bodies change.  In fact, they’re deteriorating.  And no matter how many herbal or natural vitamins we may drink, or place in our skin, the inevitable is happening – we are wasting away.

Of course I didn’t have to visit my parents to realize this truth.  Every new ache and pain that I feel in my body moves me to pray that it is just something minor.  Of course every time I get a good blood pressure reading, or a positive blood test result, it moves me to thank the Lord for His faithfulness.  But I know that I’m not as strong, or as healthy, as I used to be.  And they remind me of the truth of 2 Corinthians 4:16 - Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

It was a chance for me to have a family talk with my wife and kids about what is happening with my parents.  What we are seeing is what happens to each one of us.  Even though I pray that I may not go the same way they are experiencing now, or have a grave disease or attack in the future, yet one thing is for sure – our bodies are wasting away.  And so, what should we be concerned about, more than our bodies?  Our inner lives. 

We do not live forever. Our bodies wasting away remind us that we are not going to be keeping our bodies, or living in this earth, forever. So what gives us hope? Our inward lives. “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
2 Corinthians 4:18  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

How is our eternity set?  Through our believing in what Christ Jesus did on the cross for us.  Many Christians look at Jesus on the cross and wonder what He was doing there  Why did He have to suffer?  He did it for us...in our stead.  The pain, and punishment, He bore on the cross was payment for something that we sinners owed Him.  To believe in Christ as our Savior, as the One who paid for our sins, sets our eternity with Him.
John 3:16  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:17  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:18  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

What about our “new year’s resolution”?  What did we pray to the Lord for this new year?  Was it about something external, something we want to “see” or gain materially, physically or externally?  All of us, including myself, have that tendency to fix our eyes on what is seen, on what is temporary, for it gives us some sense of joy, fulfillment and happiness…temporarily.  What our minds and bodies do not tell us is that we are wasting away, and we need to focus on things that are unseen, what we will enjoy eternally – our hearts.

Should we not be praying for a stronger faith, a deeper relationship and walk with our God?  Should we not be “wishing” that we live a life of trust, dependence on the Lord, and see Him in every blessing and trial that we face?  Should we not be praying that we be more Christ-like, more like our Lord, in all our dealings with man?  Should we not be making this our priority, what we fix our eyes on?

Not just for the new year, but for every day of our life!  What is seen is temporary…what is unseen is eternal.
Proverbs 4:23  Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.