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On your 27th

You're getting old, dude. What's truer than that? More than a quarter-of-a-century of existence has given you ample time to decide on what truly matters; to define your life's mission towards what will truly count. There's no denying that your time is limited, so make the most out of what you're given. Time is a matter of fact, so is your existence. So is your life.

You've been through a lot--both positive and negative things--in your journey, and through them, you've also learned a lot. Every detour has presented itself as an invaluable lesson. And every life test that has ever occurred turned-out into something useful for your mission. You've been armed fully with experiences that will help you in the fulfillment of your destiny, your upward call. You've been given with a testimony that deserves to be played out loud. Do not waste it. Though the world may seem to be unmindful, let your words and love speak with stunning eloquence that people will be drawn eventually. Love will burst even into lost places.

Remember why you were broken, and was made whole again by grace and truth. You needed the breaking so that love would spill out and reach out to others. You needed the breaking so that your King's glory may be revealed. Oh, were you broken beautifully!

And remember why you are here. Remember the commitment you've made one time during the summer before the ocean and with the sun rising gloriously over the horizon. That you exist to fight in a battle where very few dare go, and very few dare finish strong. That you exist to be consumed, to be spent, to be used, to be broken, and to be offered as a sacrifice bit by every little bit, for the glory of your King.

So run, warrior! Run the journey ahead of you! Run towards the battlefield and slay the dragons and the giants until they are no more! Raise the banner for Jesus in every place you dare go. For truly the King is the Warrior who has overcome! And it is He who says, "...the LORD is with you, mighty warrior!" (Judges 6:12)

The fault, dear Marvin, is not in our stars...

There is something in the stars that I can't resist.

Gazing at these cosmic flares and watching them flicker in the dark of night is something I automatically do every time I need an assurance that all will turn out alright. There is something being stirred deep within the recesses of the soul when I turn my head towards the heavens and just contemplate and try to take in the mysteries written on the face of the night sky. And since they were there, fixated in the grand palette that is the universe, suspended in time and space on which pain and suffering and worries do not matter, I know I am here and why I am here. They affirm my very existence.

And sometimes, when you let the stars take you into a profound stillness you'll realized, that just like their light reaching you from millions of miles away to exactly where you are, that love is able to find you. It has found you.

Tonight, I'll gaze upon the night sky again. And allow the stars to take me in.

“Do you remember still the falling stars

that like swift horses through the heavens raced

and suddenly leaped across the hurdles

of our wishes -- do you recall? And we

did make so many! For there were countless numbers

of stars: each time we looked above we were

astounded by the swiftness of their daring play,

while in our hearts we felt safe and secure

watching these brilliant bodies disintegrate,

knowing somehow we had survived their fall.” 

-Rainer Maria Rilke-

By the thousands

This photo was taken during our first LAYF (Lakas-Angkan Youth Fellowship), at the CLSU Auditorium. We've decided in December last year to relocate to a larger place because the church facility at the NIA-CLSU can not anymore contain the growing number of regular attendees. God is really multiplying this generation by the hundreds!

And indeed, that first LAYF in auditorium, God showed up, and He didn't disappoint. We can not contain the overwhelming joy we felt when we saw huge numbers of youth who came to seek Jesus. We almost filled the main hall of the 2,500-seater CLSU auditorium. God is able to give us the campus by the thousands! 

I remember that night, I was at the back together with some of the youth leaders, our ates and kuyas, and we just fell silent, watching God's spectacle. Our eyes were swelling with tears, and when we can't anymore contain the joy, raised our hands and jumped and danced in celebration. Is this what God meant when He said He is able to win this generation? 

When you can see before your eyes what great things God is doing in this generation of young people, you can really be assured that He is capable of doing more. And I am convinced even more that this is where God is calling us--this stewardship of future leaders and prime movers of the community. If we are going to impact the future of our nation, we have to do it now and we have to do it in the campus.

The Christian minister Frederick Buechner said in that famous quotation: "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." I now appreciate that even more, now that the trajectory of my life has been altered by the grace of Him who promised that He can finish whatever He has started in me. I can see myself in no other calling than the one before me. I believe that God will be there to affirm and to deliver!

Shall we?

I'd like to write
         our life story together

but I'm so afraid not when to start
                               but where to begin?

Would you like to write it with me, too?
                        or would you rather go your way?

Would you create it with me
                   a true and lasting love story?

and read it the rest of our lives
                  all for the glory of His Majesty.

Shall we begin now?

Someday, we'll watch together our love story as it unfolds...in God's perfect time. (Google image)