Being Brothers and Sisters in Christ

My son, Sev, is very affectionate to his younger sister, Kaitlyn. Sev usually gets things broken because of his hyper active ways. But when it comes to his sister, he's very careful. He tries to control his strength so he can be gentle with her. At times, Sev will dance for her so that she'll burst with joy and laughter. Sev would fondly refer to himself as "Tigger" and Kaitlyn as his "Pooh bear." We're blessed to have Sev as a loving brother to Kaitlyn.

We have a loving and affectionate God. He calls as His children. He loves us so much that He sends his own son, Jesus, to be our brother. As our Brother, he guides and shows us the way. He tells us parables and shows us how to relate to God our Father. He protects us, heals us and saves us from our sins. When God searched for Abel, Cain answered God by saying, "Am I my brother's keeper (Genesis 4:9)?" But Jesus our true brother will do everything for us. Even if He will be shamed, undergo suffering, and even put to death, just so that we will be saved.

How are we as brothers and sisters to others? Do we protect and save each other? Or do we seek for the fault of others? There three things that I remember in how we are to relate as bretheren. It's Three L's. We have to be loyal, loving, and life giving.

An example of being loyal is not to talk about other people when they are not around. Specially when it degrades the character of the person. Loyalty is also about not telling others of things that are shared to you in confidentiality. Most often the case is that we can't control ourselves from telling secrets. We find ourselves saying, "Don't tell others that I told you this.. ." Having a loose tongue breeds distrust. Another thing, being loyal is not about standing by your friend even if you know that what he or she is doing is wrong. Loyalty is about helping others to be true to the right principles and see them through in becoming better people.

"Love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34)." This is Christ's challenge to us. Loving is not easy. We are able to love out of God's grace. Since we are dealing everyday with sinners like you and me, one is bound to disappoint the other. We have to learn to love in a way that is unconditional. In 1 Corinthians 13, it says everything about how we should love. One way to check if we are aligned to how God want us to love is to replace the word "love" to "your name" in the verses of 1 Cor. 13. It will sound like "Kirby is patient, Kirby is kind (and so on...) ."

Are we leading people to life or closer to death? Are we bringing them to the Lord or are we influencing them to sin? As a brother or sister, we have to be life giving. Loyalty and love will make a good relationship, but without the life that faith gives, it will be limited and possibly non-sustainable. Christ should be at the center of our relationships. We can do our best help out a friend or a family member, but it is Christ that will create the miracles in their lives. The best gift we can give them is the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

May we be loyal, loving, and live giving to each other. Christ has shown us how to be a true brother. Indeed we are our brother's keeper. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers (1 John 3:16)."

Super Heroes

Yesterday, my son Sev was getting his picture taken with comic super heroes. These super heroes have been around for years, capturing the imagination of the young. What is in superheroes that attract us to them? I could identify some. One is that they have special powers. Another is that they save others' lives or they are able to the world from destruction. And probably one more is they have interesting struggles in life.

These super heroes have a lot of things similar to us. Like them, God gives us special powers (1 Corinthians 12:4-11), the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He gives us the power to serve. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8)."

With these powers, we are able to be used by God to save the souls of other people. So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls (Acts 2:41). We use God's strength and power to be able to be soul savers. By evangelizing people, we also build a people who are good stewards of God's creation and a people who will strive to bring God's love to all cultures of different nations "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:19)."

While we do our best to be God's disciples, we also face our daily struggles and victories. Our lives are living testimonies of God's goodness. They say that the world doesn't need more preachers but more witnesses. I believe each of us has a story to tell. A story of conversion, a story of overcoming struggle, a story of surrendering to the Lord. All these we shall use for God's glory, bringing others closer to our Lord.

We are more like these Super Heroes after all. But the greatest hero of all is Jesus. He died and suffered for our sins, that we may live the fullness of life. Now that's heroism. May we be more like Christ everyday, responding to His call with heroism.

Serving In God's Vineyard

Mike and I have been serving quite a while as full time pastoral workers. I started in 2000 while Mike started in '98. After all these years, people start to notice some white streaks of hair and our horizontal physical growth (yes, we're getting fatter). Yet, with all these external changes, one thing remains the same: The passion to serve God through music. Mike's staying most of the time in Davao, while I'm based in Manila. But every time he comes to visit there's an instant connection, and most of the time we come up with a new song.

Seving with Mike, I come to realize these four postures in serving in God's vineyard. First, we have to be thankful to God for the people that serve together with us. They are our co-workers in the vineyard. They are one of the "few laborers" that God has called to the "great harvest." He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Luke 10:2). Second, we thank God of the talents He has given us to serve in His "vineyard." We are gifted by God to contribute to the work. We are not given the same gifts so we may complement each other and work as a community. Third, is that we have to honor the friendships that we have built while serving in the "vineyard." It would be sad to start off as friends and co-workers, only to end up being bitter to another. Friendships are God's gifts to us. Friendships are what makes us rich, for there is abundant love. Fourth, we have to be God's instruments in bringing in more laborers for the harvest. Using our friendships and our talents, we come to attract others towards Christ by witnessing to the love of God in our lives.

May we all continue serving Him as faithful co-workers in God's great vineyard. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ--everything in heaven and on earth (Ephisians 1:10).

A Perspective On Livelihood

As a birthday gift, I gave my 3 year old son, Sev, a ukulele. He loves it so much. He brings his ukulele everywhere. In the office, in the mall, in the sala, in the bedroom, you name it. He does his best to sing worship songs. His favorites so far are 'Worship the Lord' and 'How Great is our God.' He strums and strums and sings his heart out. He is so happy playing his ukelele. He even made a song called, 'Hippopotamus.' During Mass, he tries to keep up with the music ministry by strumming along. Today, while the other fulltime workers were worshipping, he was even closing his eyes and trying to sing the songs. I saw in Sev something he really loves doing.

What is it that we love doing so much? What is the very thing that we do that ignites our hearts? What makes us sing with joy when we do such a thing? They say, "Find something you love doing, and you don't have to work a single day."

This reminds me of our livelihood. Our daily work, whether at work or in school. The word livelihood' comes from “lyuelode,” a 14th century Old English word which means “the way of life” or “the manner of living one’s life.” Since it is a way of life that supports our personal and family's needs, is our livelihood, life giving? Many of us complain about our jobs or livelihood more than we are thankful for it. For some, it's all about logging in on time and logging out on time and making sure we get paid for our work. I believe we have to assess some key points in our livelihood. We ask, "What is our company's end goal? It's vision and mission?" Is it something we believe in? Is it something we are proud of? What are the values that we are practicing or pursuing in our livelihood? Is it being lived out or is it compromised? Is what we are doing pleasing to the Lord? My perspective is that it would be great if we are in a livelihood that we are truly passionate about. But even if we land on something that is not fully aligned to our passion, I believe we have to sincerely consider these three important things. First, we dedicate all our works to the Lord, making us strive for excellence. Second, our character and integrity are not to be compromised. This will allow us to live a life of dignity and righteousness. Third, we think beyond our profit goals and see ourselves contributing to the noble vision of the workplace, specially if it is compatible with our Christian values. This will remind us that the little and big things we do lead to something worthwhile. With these, we gain peace. With these, we honor God.

Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better (Colossians 1:10).

Let us remember that our livelihood gives us life and not the opposite. May we do our work passionately like how my son plays his ukulele. Let us grow in loving our work, fully dedicating it to our Lord Jesus.

God's Great Inventions

I bought a light bulb today. I'm finally replacing the one that got busted. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, was a very prolific inventor. According to wikipedia, he has 1,093 U.S. patents in his name. Now, that's a lot of inventions. His inventions also include the phonograph and the motion picture camera.

I always wanted to be an inventor. I like the thrill of discovering new things and the thought of contributing to mankind. That's why I admire Thomas Edison. But still the greatest of all inventors is the one who invented this thing called "love." In fact He is love. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love (1 John 14:8). Out of His love, he created mankind. All of us on earth, all 7 billion of us, is patented by God in heaven. Not to mention those who have gone before us in all history. None of us are alike. No two fingerprints are alike, no two voice prints are alike, no two eye prints are alike, and no two heartbeat patterns are alike. We are all God's great inventions, made out of his great love.

May we not forget how special we are. If you come to doubt your value and importance, remember that God made sure you are one of a kind.