Monsters

(Google image)

It's Nietzsche, the philosopher. The one who believed that God is dead. The one who believed in the Ubermensch--the philosophical concept of the "man is superb" and that man himself is the "higher being". Long before Superman, Ubermensch. Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Today, Nietzsches are everywhere. Far more in today's modern and scientific world. A world slowly traversing in a godless course. Nietzsches who believe that man is invincible, than man is supreme. That our will is sovereign. Loyal disciples of the skeptical search for truth and meaning. Nietzsches who out-rightly deny the existence of a deity, of an all-powerful and all-knowing Being. Their minds not able to fathom that grand majesty.

In their search for what they thought were monsters, they become monsters themselves.

Nietzsche's long dead. And God is alive.

And forever will be.

Home

"There are many roads in the journey,

but the one that leads to home is always the most wonderful."

-Warrior Lessons-

The warrior is home!

Thank God for holiday breaks. I've never looked forward to a vacation like this before. It's not that I felt overworked or something, but I just felt I needed this break to loosen up a bit with all the harshness I inflicted on myself these past months of soul-searching. The warrior journey which I gotten myself into was not actually an easy one. It requires discipline of the highest order, it demands that I beat my body and make it my slave, it requires total allegiance to my King, it asks absolute denial of all my claim to self. Daily. The warrior's code says I must take up my cross every single day. And it's worth it.

So, what’s the fuss about being home? For me, being home keeps me grounded to the realities of life. One may get disillusioned or over-idealistic about life, but home and family is there to keep the balance within and without. Home is a person's center on which everything else should go around...or should make sense.

Being home reminds me that life is beautiful. It is a reminder that no matter how harsh the journey gets, one can still be comforted of the fact that home will never change and will always be there to embrace the weary.

Being home allows me to see the other side of life—caring, affectionate, warm, and unconditional. It keeps me from terrible thoughts and obsessive feelings that sometimes engulf me when I go out of control (just kidding). The tangible feeling of love in the family is irreplaceable. It is a treasure that no one in this world would trade.

Being home allows me to see my weaknesses and mistakes, that I am still human who needs correction and rebuke. Being home is also a humbling thing: knowing that God has gifted us with a family to cherish leads one to be grateful of the Creator's infinite wisdom. It reminds me that I desperately need to consider my life in a perspective that only God can give me fulfillment, and there’s nothing else in this world.

Even though there were those times that I thought my family is imperfect, they keep on reminding me that unconditional love is the highest standard of perfection, and that everything will always be alright. God has made things beautiful and perfect in His time.

Photo taken at the Magat Dam in Isabela (c)

...a bigger and grander homecoming awaits somewhere. It will be the homecoming of all homecoming. It will be the biggest celebration ever, the fulfillment of every warrior's journey. But that will be in His perfect time. For now, the warrior must continue to fight the good fight, to slay dragons, to give up his life, to finish the race...

...and when a warrior come face to face with The King, that's when he will truly be home.

My not-so-Christmas thoughts

(I don't want to be the next Scrooge-who-killed-Christmas guy here, but since the message of this not-so-distant journal entry still rings today, so here it is. This was written four Christmases ago. Man, time really comes a-flying!)

It is not hard to say that nowadays, Christmas is becoming nothing but an ordinary day in the calendar. The season that is supposed to be filled with the tangible presence of joy and meaningful celebration now seems just a time to party, just another event that one gets away with and then nothing.

It is a reality: the true meaning and essence of Christmas now seems to be buried amid the confusion that is happening around us. There seems to be no end to the disillusions that gravely blinds humanity to the truth. What transpires these days from all over the world—the problem of social justice, terrorism, war, poverty and apathy, the ever threatening issues of climate change, and the harrowing story of international politics—do nothing but make people to resign to hopelessness and desperation.

In the country today, the situation is a lot worse and the scenario is more appalling, which disheartens even the staunchest hopefuls.

Corruption and distrust among public officials were as rampant as the diseases that spread in the shanty towns and squatter areas all over the country. The disease of dirty politics now threatens every corner of the archipelago; the people are hoping that somehow, this new administration which took over a regime of lies and lawlessness from its predecessor will indeed turn this nation into the proverbial“matuwid na daan” which it professes.

One could only hope that one day, the people will wake up from their deep slumber, and take necessary actions. And I could only hope that one day, people will stop blaming other people for every misfortune they or their country will encounter, and to embrace responsibility for whatever circumstance that befalls. Finger-pointing, or looking who’s to blame only adds to the confusion that is sadly becoming the byword of the already confused people.

With honest desperation and quiet whimper, we are led to ask these questions: how do we get away with the evils and ills of our society? How do we remake our lives in such a way that there will be no more confusion in our midst?

And how come people terribly dread the answer to these questions? Even though we already know it?

They said that it’s easy to end up hope and give up life in these trying and difficult times. It’s easy to surrender all that we have ever dreamed for our lives, for our families and loved ones. It’s easy to just stop living a life of hope, because after all, what we see now in the current landscape are the same things that we dread to see.

In short, it’s easier to stop living and believe in nothing.

But in return, what would that make us as a people? What would that make me as a person who still thinks that life is good despite the fact that the bad is also present?

I am torturing myself with the same questions again and again just to test if I can still come up with a good conclusion, to test if I can still think of sane answers to these troubling questions about these insane circumstances. What if I give up hope? Just like that?

Perhaps it’s the same with other people—and maybe even worse. There are more people experiencing the worst of life out there, having little or nothing to make sense of it. But sure, what’s happening around, what we see, what we observe only affirms that we are still alive and that we can do something about it. That this season reminds us that we have the capacity for compassion and love for one another.

That’s the essence I think, of being alive, of having the chance to celebrate this season: to be able to feel what others are feeling—the feeling of inadequacy, the feeling of hopelessness, of utter lack of compassion, and of love and sacrifice and hope. If only people will really find time to realize that there is more to Christmas than just gifts and foods and party and noise...then life will be much different. Christmas will entirely be different.

This life has it's own troubles and difficulties. That’s a reality to learn. We are never given the easy road wherein we can all get by happy and scot-free. There are the turns, the bumps, and the dead ends. But in all that, there's also another truth to this. A wonderful truth is that life, in its twists and turns, promises to be a beautiful and fulfilling journey. And that is if we are journeying along with the One Who gives us every single reason to hope and live.

And yes, He has given us the reason why we must be joyful and hopeful not only in this season but all throughout our lives: that one night, in a cold manger, in a far-away place, with only the moon and the stars served as a majestic canopy above, a Child was born. Clothe in humility and unconditional love for His people, He reached out to them. He came for us. His name is Jesus Christ. And He's the reason for this season.

A happy and meaningful Christmas!

Just a glimpse of the greatest story ever told. (google image)

This is how we do

We read chapter four of the book of Philippians today for our early morning devotion, and these are some of my reflections:

Suffering is real

That is a plain fact. Everyone of us experience sufferings of many kinds. Sufferings in the form of the physical, emotional, material, and spiritual. We experience lack, we experience frustrations, we experience testings, we experience hunger. Since every one is living in this unpredictable world, no one is exempted. Not even the apostle Paul was spared from the sufferings of his day. After encountering Jesus on the way to Damascus one day and after he has surrendered all claim to himself and gave all to his God, he realized that it was not actually easy. Life in Christ doesn't mean we go through life scot-free. But we are expected to live a life worry-free, and every step of the way, to live by faith and not by sight.

Our response

We should stand firmly on God's promises. In times of suffering, trusting and being confident that something good will turn-out can actually be harder than is imagined. But the Word of God repeatedly assures us that our confidence is in Him who is before all things and who holds all things together. So that no matter how and what happens, we can expect God to come through. Because He is able. That's why for Paul, in verse 13, has this singular conclusion: that in anything and everything, no matter the situation, no matter how hard the journey, no matter how troublesome life can get, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." He can say that with credibility because he is a person who's been there in the worst of his life, yet never failed to see Christ coming through it all. How about you? Where do you see Christ in all this?

Our source

It's Jesus alone. Not our own declining strength, not our own limited understanding, not our own temporal resources. It's Jesus alone who can supply us with the necessary faith and strength to go through with life. It's Jesus alone who can turn our worst sufferings into celebration! As a warrior, my journey with the King is the most fulfilling. All else are shadows compare to this. When we live for the King... He will meet all our needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. (v.19)

Beyond classrooms and other lessons

This photo together with my SocSci batch mates was taken right after we presented our thesis proposals.
After that, we became 'remnants', and the rest, as they say, is history.

Earlier this day, I was evacuating old college files from sets of DVDs to my laptop computer when I unearthed not-so-old photos during my SocSci years in CLSU. I do not intend to reminisce about those turbulent years (LOL) of my life, but as I click through the rest of the album, I can not help but smile, and then laugh, at how those times came in a blur yet made an indelible impact as to who I am now. As I always like to say, CLSU have been my turning point, in every major detail of my life. And my years as social science student were really defining and life changing.
But one fact remain that made me laughing throughout my brief review of personal history; one word that described my college life: REMNANTS. It was actually a sort of notorious title given to students who stay in the university beyond their expected time of graduation. Not that they want to gain more knowledge, but I hoped so, really.

An extended college career? It was never in my dreams, not a part of my plans to get extended in college. Especially when the fact that people would make a real stigma out of that misfortune had brought me no comfort. When I graduated in high school at the top of my batch, all I wanted was to NOT let myself fail the expectations of people around me. I was too terrified of being not able to fulfill those expectations of me…expectations that seemed to be burdensome for me yet I was more than willing to adopt for myself. That’s why I was really so desperate to graduate on time. I even once considered not being able to graduate on time as a curse, that’s why all I ever wanted was to finish on time and on the right track, to get out of college with a wonderful exit, and then find a decent work and be happy in life.

 Yet that was before, when I do not yet consider myself to be made for something better than just the dreams of graduating on time, or of having a wonderful and colorful exit in college, or a grand entrance to the real world of profession and career.

That was before when my world was just made of other people’s expectations for me, when my security was just built on my dependence with other people and not from within. That was before when I simply went to classes to study lessons and get good grades. That was before when all I needed to do was to bury myself with just books and lessons and assignments and projects. That was before when I simply contented myself with the dorm-classroom-library-dorm routine and satisfied myself with just the lessons the professor taught me from the whiteboard that was rarely used, or in a black board that was in the first place not even really the color of black.

Things have greatly changed when I woke up one day and feeling tired of the usual routine that honestly did not give me any sense of fulfillment, or a sense of purpose. That was when I wanted to find a way to be somewhere else, or else I stink in the same place with nothing to give when the right time comes.

It took me a hard time figuring out what I really like doing, and I realize I've been denying myself of a lot of reasons to improve by keeping to myself my passion for something I was supposed to be putting into practice. And since my course, and later the CLSU Collegian (the university publication which I joined and eventually led) changed so much in me, all I could do was to find that something, that place somewhere, where I would be able to learn things beyond the scope of the four corners of the classroom.

And these are just few of what I found out:

a. Learn from life itself. I realized that nothing beats the lessons learned from the school of hard-knocks. You have to keep your mind open to the realities--even the harsh ones--of life and muster every courage you can to be undaunted by them. Life is unpredictable, that is a fact. But life is also a series of choices we make daily, so it definitely will not hurt if we make only the good ones. If we can't avoid the bad ones though, at least we try to bounce back and be willing to change for the better. Fair enough?

b. Be with people. Being a hard-core social science nurtured individual, my greatest capital should be a heart for people and the community. Irregardless of my introversion which thankfully my course and my experiences with it have liquidated, I must show up; I must commune with the people I am taught to love and serve. Being a social science person means I must embrace the community as my laboratory and growth zone; a soil upon which the seeds of learning that I gained from my education can be sown and will someday grown and bear fruit.

c. Loyalty to country. Yeah, come on! It seems that today nobody is talking about loyalty and love for country anymore. It seems that we have become a generation of people willing to leave country in exchange for another life somewhere, in a place we call 'greener pasture', wherever that is. If there's one thing I am grateful and proud about my chosen discipline, it is the lessons of valuing national history, culture, and identity. In my personal journey with the 'science of the social', I have found out that heroism can be as real to us as they appear on books and movies. Heroism and sacrifice are real, because the people I know who made these ideals true to their meaning have existed. And they left a legacy on which I am intent to emulate, or aspire for.

They say that the greatest lessons are not so much learned from the classrooms as they can be learned outside it. And as a student, I have subscribed to that idea. When I became a teacher myself, I couldn't agree more. It was the lessons of life--an application of what I gained from the classroom--that had the greatest impact every time I land a point.

It was the lessons from beyond the classrooms that makes greatness possible.

It has always been that way.

Need I say more?

"Perhaps it's true that things can change in a day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house---the charred clock, the singed photograph, the scorched furniture---must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for. Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstituted. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story." - Arundhati Roy

Look Forward. It can happen. It is possible.

On Risks and Beginnings

Take the step to become better. Daily. (Google image)

Some say the hardest part of all is to begin. Whether in starting a work of literature—a poem, or a story perhaps—or starting a new phase in life. It is difficult to begin especially when you are not sure where things might end up later: you may end up regretting a decision or end up overhauling an entire composition just because the beginning doesn't sit well with the rest of the story, especially with the ending.

But it is the beauty of uncertainty that makes beginnings wonderful and rather exciting. It is the risk that comes with starting again that makes beginning a worthwhile journey of discovery, and well, awakening. I like the part that says beginnings are wonderful because of possibilities. And it’s true. Possibilities are there for the taking, but the question is, will you have the courage to begin again? Will you take that one, necessary little step that will let you embark at another journey? 

For all my life I've been taught to take careful thoughts about the steps I will take, to make sure I will not step on the wrong direction thus wasting away precious time and effort. But I've learned also that the only way you can go from point A to point B is to TAKE A STEP. That the beginning step is essential to all that is to come. That beginnings are a kind of risk we can't avoid if we want to grow and mature personally.

To begin is hard, but only if it is not clear to us why we should. And only when we become intimately acquainted with our deepest desires and aspirations, and realign them into a higher purpose, that beginnings turn into great opportunities. Beginnings can be liberating when we know that at the end of the day, a wonderful destination awaits us. So take the step. And have the courage to begin anew.

Happy first of December! Cheers to all the wonderful things ahead!