Transferring Blog Site

Hi to all who are following my blog...I'll be using my other coffee confessions blog for the meantime, mainly because I can access it through my kindle fire tablet.  It's rbcoffeconfessions.wordpress.com

Hope you guys follow me there also. 

Being in Front

I was driving home around lunch time, and when I reached a red light in an intersection I found myself behind a long bed truck also turning left.  I usually don’t like driving behind long bed trucks because they’re usually slow, and when you are in a two-lane road it’s sometimes hard to overtake them.  Although this truck wasn’t carrying anything, it still did not go as fast as I wanted it to go, and, as I expected, I had a hard time finding a way for me to overtake it.  So I patiently drove behind it until I found a way out!

As it turned left to a usual shortcut leading to a main road, I decided not to follow it, and took the long way that also lead to the same road.  As I reached the main road I saw in my rear view mirror that the truck I was following was now behind me.  I found myself smiling, relieved that at least I’m not behind the truck following its pace of driving, but I was now in front, driving as fast as I wanted to without the truck hindering me.

As I was smiling a thought entered my mind – my being in front, ahead of the truck, was what made me happy.  As long as I was behind the truck, and it was dictating my speed, I didn’t like it.  But when I found a way to overtake it, to be ahead, in front, doing things my way, that’s what made me happy.  I was consumed with the desire to be first, to be ahead of the truck.  Hmmm…I thought again…just like life, isn’t it?

It’s all about being first, being ahead of the pack, doing what we want, in our own pace, in our own way.  And if anyone blocks our way, or hinders what we want to do, we always find a way to overtake them.  And if there is no way to overtake them, when we can’t dictate the pace, when we don’t get to do things our way, that’s what ruins our day.

It’s interesting how God teaches us the opposite.  It’s all about humbling ourselves, and realizing that we can’t always have things our way.

1 Peter 5:6  Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

Could this be why there are many who are impatient with God, frustrated even?  We want things to go a certain way, but God seems to be blocking the way.  He has His pace, and we have ours.  That is why there are many who decide to give up on God, “overtake” Him, and go their own way.  And yet the Scripture above tells us to humble ourselves under God’s might hand so that He may lift us up.  If we are truly walking with God it is so important to stay behind Him, and allow Him to set the pace, and IN DUE TIME, or in God’s time, things will fall into place.  So many times we want to lift ourselves up, when it should be God doing that.

Philippians 2:3-4  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

It’s the same thing God asks from us in our relationships with others.  Sure, there will be times that we are leading the way, and things may be going our way.  But there will be times when we need to humble ourselves, shelve our own personal desires and goals for a moment, and consider others also.  There may be a reason that someone is leading us at this moment, that we are following someone else’s pace.  It is so hard to consider others better than us, or consider their interests also.  As we humble ourselves we  eventually realize that sometimes the other person’s ideas or ways are actually better than ours!

I remember driving to Baguio City when I was still in college, and young as I was I was impatient with how the car in front of me was not overtaking the truck that was in front of him.  So I decided to overtake.  As I entered the other lane I was surprised to see that I was just approaching a curve, and there was a bus coming my way!  So I quickly swerved back to my lane, and eventually realized that was the reason why the car wasn’t overtaking.  He was not overtaking for a reason, and I didn’t see it his way.  He was right all along.

Is being first, the one in front of others, something that consumes us, something that we must always have?  Sometimes we need to realize that we need to step on the brakes, humble ourselves, and realize that there may be a reason why God is asking us to humble ourselves before Him, and allow Him to set the pace.  And there may be a reason why God is asking us to humble ourselves before others, to learn from them, from the circumstance we are in. 

My Sardines Tradition

I was having breakfast this morning – bottled Spanish style sardines.  This is a usual treat I enjoy when we have the budget to buy a bottle – it is quite expensive, especially the really “sarap” ones.  Anyway, back to my story.  As I was munching on my breakfast, it brought a “mini” flashback.

I remember when I was young, my mother taught me how to eat sardines.  Actually I first saw her eating sardines in a certain way, and then she eventually taught me and explained to me why.  It was the canned sardines during that time, the flat can type, most probably imported.  What she taught me was to slice it open first so that it opened up flat.  And then we would take out the bones that were right in the middle of the fish.  She explained, just like eating any other fish, that we should take out the bones so that it would not hurt us or choke on it.  And ever since then that would be how I would eat my sardines.  Slice it open, lay it flat, take out the bones, and then munch!

Until I started working.  The company I worked for started selling canned sardines.  We were the first marketing arm of VMC brand of canned sardines and bangus.  And so, just like any other marketing company, before selling the product we first had a product knowledge seminar on how sardines were cooked.  And that’s when I learned that the sardines in the can were “pressure-cooked”, so that by the time it is canned the bones would be so soft they were actually edible!

So there was no need to slice open a sardine, take out the bones, so it would not hurt us while eating.  For so many years I followed a tradition of my mother, which turned out to be useless.  It’s funny how we have so many traditions about so many things without really asking, or studying about it.  We just follow without any question whatsoever.

In everyday practices like eating, or cooking, and doing other things, there may be no harm whatsoever in doing things traditionally, as the family members passed on through the years.  We all have those experiences – how we eat, how we drink medicine, how we clean cars, etc.  But in the spiritual realm, in our walk as Christians, I believe we need to be a little more careful and understanding concerning traditions.  For what may seem innocent and good to us may not be to God.

In our walk as Christians some traditions may seem trivial, simple differences in how we worship, and yet without our knowing it may actually be useless (to God, not to us), and detrimental to our life now, and to our eternity.  We get so used to “worship” according to what we have been taught without checking with the past, which God so graciously revealed to us in His Word, the Bible.

The Pharisees during Jesus’ time were so seeped in tradition that Jesus had to warn His disciples:

Mark 7:6-8  He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7  They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.' 8  You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."

For them they were worshipping.  But little did they know that God was not accepting their worship, for with their lips they prayed, but their hearts were far from Him.  And their traditions were rules taught by men, and not taught by God.

In our worship of the Lord how important it is for us to make sure we’re not just following rules taught by men, but to follow the command of our Lord.  It may seem good and practical to us, but is actually useless to the Lord. 

God is so willing to give us a “God knowledge seminar”.  He’s prepared the manual – the Bible.  And if our hearts are just open there are a few things we can learn, and unlearn, with regards to how we approach God.  And, it is always good to ask, to check, if we’re doing what is pleasing to the Lord.

Sometimes I Forget

Sometimes I forget that I’m the one God called to ministry, and the “life of faith” (a term we use in our church for our Ministers having no salary, just trusting in the Lord to provide for us through the members of our church), and not the other members of my family.  There are times when God provides for us just exactly what we need, and many times He provides just at the nick of time.  And that makes us anxious – especially my wife and kids.  And sometimes I expect them to have the same walk of faith as God has graciously given me when He called me to ministry.  But they don’t.  And I shouldn’t expect them to have that same faith.  I can pray that the same grace God has given me to trust Him and wait upon Him will fill their hearts and believe that He will provide for our every need.  And I realize that through the years He has been doing that – filling our hearts with faith, and providing for all our needs.  And I am thankful.

Sometimes I forget that I myself become anxious.  I cannot claim to have great faith in God.  As a man, and as the head of the family, I consciously hide my anxious feelings, my fears.  One of my kids mentioned that they have never seen me cry, and have that feeling that I never cry.  But they don’t know that I have cried before God many times.  Usually it’s when they’re all asleep, and I face the many trials and needs that we have – and I cry to God.  Sometimes I forget that I, too, am as weak as they are.  One of my favorite passages in Scripture:  Psalm 56:3-4  When I am afraid, I will trust in you. 4  In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid.  And I am thankful that God reminds me of who I really am.  There are times when I am “strong” in faith, and I have to encourage them to be strong also.  But I cannot do it as if I’m the only one strong, when in fact I am as weak, or even weaker in faith as they are.  There are many times when they, my wife and kids, are the ones who scold me for my lack of faith.  Thank God for that.

Sometimes I forget that I am not the pillar of my family.  God is.  The usual stereotyped picture of the husband/father is that we are the pillars of the family, and we have to hold it up.  We provide, protect, lead and guide them through the many circumstances of life.  But I eventually realize that I am not strong enough, bold enough, to be a pillar.  Then I also realize I am not called to hold up my family.  I am not supposed to try and carry the burdens for all of them.  What I am to do is to look to to the Lord and allow Him to hold up my family, each one of us, with the different roles we have.  Psalm 18:1-3 …I love you, O LORD, my strength. 2  The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3  I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.  It is He who is our pillar, the One we take refuge in.  In no way am I to try and take that place from Him.  And in no way am I to try and show my family that that is who I am.  God is our pillar.

I thank God He is who He is, and that when I forget who He is, and think that I am, He is the One who reminds me of who He is, of who I am…or rather, who I am not.

Isa 40:28-31  Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
29  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
30  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
31  but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.