Run Towards Intimacy with Him

                It has been 3 months and a couple of days now since I was declared a college graduate. It also has been more than 3 months now that I’m the official non-working, non-studying individual in our home. It only means that I have a lot of free time nowadays, even more abundant than the busy times that I had when I was a student (sounds like it has been a long time huh? XD). So in these ocean of free times, I made up my daily routine. Of course, first in my morning schedule is my devotion.

               

My mornings with the Lord are spent not inside a room but with nature. We have an unfinished roof top in the house wherein you could seemingly touch the floppy clouds, gaze at the blue or dark sky, and listen to the birds sing. There’s one covered hall we have there with a long, old, brown table inside it. I sit on top of it and there is where I sing out, cry out and write out my heart to God. That is my secret place where I could think of Him so deeply, stay so still and hear His voice so loudly and gaze at His beauty as reflected by His creation.

                Lately, there was something that was stopping me from going there--- a crow. The moment that I went up, a crow screeched so loud and attempted to dive down towards me. In my fear of being bitten by it, I hurriedly run downstairs and never went up again. I thought that it was God telling me to retreat and simply have my devotion on my bed.

                But the next day, the same crow was screeching and scaring me. The same scenario happened and there I was downstairs, near our front door, panting and thinking. God suddenly impressed on me that not even this should stop me from having my quality time with Him. So I made up my mind to run, run as fast as I could to get to my secret place and meet Him. So that was the very thing that I did. I ran through our roof top so fast to reach the spot for my devotion. I heard the crow screeching again but it didn’t get the chance to reach me.

               

When I reached my spot, I sat comfortably at the table and sighed. “How similar this is to our journey of pursuing intimacy with our God,” I thought. Many things (a zillion to number them in this generation) will hinder us from spending time with God. It could be the undefeated, most influential distractor such as the social media or it could be work, school or any particular sin or struggle. And whatever they are, in whatever form they may be, they have this one aim- to keep you away from spending time with God. And truth is, they more often succeed than not.

                The Lord showed me a simple principle from what I experienced this morning:

                Run… FROM the things that keep you away from God and run... TO Him to keep you away from these things.

                Remember: Running takes an extra effort. It’s having to sacrifice your usual comfortable walking for one that is more tiring and active. Running from these things that keep us away from God would mean a decision to change our actions and to sacrifice some things. Maybe it could mean having a social media fast, keeping your phone away from you, turning the tv off, waking up earlier or sleeping later than usual. The thing is, as John and Stasi Eldredge wrote in their book Captivating, “To pursue intimacy with Christ, you will have to fight for it.” As you run from these distractors, and run to Him daily to keep you away from these things, God’s grace and power will make it easier for you to abandon them.

                    What are the crows in your life stopping you from reaching your secret place?

                Whatever they are, remember to run FROM them, and run to God, towards intimacy with Him.

Nineteen, Twenty and Beyond

This time, I let the out pour take over my writing.

What does a lady who just turned 20 want to express?

On Gratitude

Perhaps I express gratitude to Facebook because even if we say that people who actually remember our birthdays without it are the sweetest,we can't deny the fact that people who take time to post on our timelines or send us messages because of a reminder that it's our birthday are also sweet. And of course, I am most thankful to all those people who did. <3

So why am I thanking Facebook again? Because it has made reaching out to each other so accessible to the point that one celebrant like me can be overwhelmed and touched by people's numerous greetings.


On a Normal day

Yesterday, I was in between happy and okay. I was not the happiest but neither was I the saddest. I spent my birthday with a normal day, with my normal routines. I have even forgotten to eat my breakfast and I ate Anne's best birthday cake in the world (with one or two Makis) as my lunch. I prepared for and actually executed a teaching demo in church last night and arrived home past 9 pm when everyone but me has eaten dinner. Wohoo! What a great birthday celebration! Haha!

But I arrived at home with the cute little boy greeting me the very moment I entered our house. And he actually blew my candle for me. I also had an unexpected "mini-handaan" with my family and I just didn't expect that.

About gifts

Material gifts? I received none. Not even one except the picture greetings which I received from my Sunday School family last Sunday. But I honestly did not seek for any. For greetings (since words of affirmation is my love language) were enough or more than enough and I can never feel even more content in the life that I have now.

In Looking Back

My 19th year has been a tough roller-coaster ride. I had numerous blissful-happiest and heart-breaking-shattering moments. There were days I was way up high on cloud nine, days when I felt like the most beautiful lady on Earth or the most loved creature in the entire universe. But there were even more times (longer, actually) when I felt lower than my lowest and uglier than whoever or whatever could be ugliest.

True. That's how it looks like when I look back. But the latter days of my 19th year when I crawl to get on with life and move along despite the circumstances are the days that brought me back to the life He has set out for me. Times at my lowest and my feelings of being the ugliest are ironically what lifted me and instilled again the beauty I seemed to have lost.

These days before I turn twenty are the highlights of His grace and steadfast love compelling me to move forward, even through one step a day, despite the current of yesterday pulling and weighing me down.

The Promise

Every detail of my 19 years of living, He has perfectly willed and planned. And yesterday morning when I talked to Him, he reminded me of how He is there, beyond my 20th year, and He has prepared a work for me, the man He has for me and more than ever a grandiose life plan I can never imagine for myself today.