THE NEXT ACT

Looking for a house is such a pressing task.  We are hoping that we could find the right place at the right time.  But what is happening at the moment is that we could not find a house that is just in the right complete package.  There is always something that put us off in each place.  We needed to increase the range of rate so us to broaden the likability of the options.  And yet we are staying in the backseat and waiting for the right house to just happen in midst of our time ticking out.  The list of houses is I may say hmmmmm just okay but I am still waiting for a big wow house.  Nevertheless the big decision would be when the three of us will be happy with the chosen one.  There are houses that are good and bad to look at in the picture but the opinion can be otherwise when you get to view the exact outside location.  Once you are happy with what we are seeing outside, we request for view inside.  But then why not reque...

I was reading one of the entries of a member of a group of Christian Bloggers about Christians nowadays being underrated for the reason that some of them don’t act what they speak. Looking at it in a cynical angle, it seems that they are just a bunch of charlatans. But hey! Come on. Nobody is perfect. Anyone has its flaws. We are all sinners. We stumble once in while. Don’t be too hard on them. One thing good about Christians is that they have a track to follow. Once they caught getting off balance and swerving a bit as long as they have a clearer vision of their true north and intend to go back, I guess they are still cool. However, we are indeed imperfect but that's not a reason for us not to aim for perfection. I always like the idea that people should always find us faithful. Aiming for perfection does not mean that you got to be a member of all the religious org that you knew or you got be well versed in the bible or you got to be a theologian or you got to be a...

If I have to find out if a law to be passed is making sense, the only way that I can resort  is to complement it with the divine law. The Holy Book gives ten fundamentals as written in tablets. If it falls at least to one of them, most likely it is good to go. I am only putting it simply but in a complicated world, complicated politicians and with complicated peoples' habits and ways of life, most likely it shuns away the true north as the deciding factor and clings on to more selfish reasons.  A law can be a tool for enforcers to abuse powers and its abolishing sounds a good idea. I am not a law maker and I have no degree to support what I am talking about. And I have no ambition to hold political office. All I am saying is that fundamentals are what it holds it together.  They will not run out and become obsolete. Complication may bury them. But it does not mean they 're gone. Until your system makes no sense, you are still stepping on the solid platform which is wha...

Nothing's more fun than doing what people say you can't do! Sometimes being underestimated has the advantage of giving someone something he thought he is never gonna get from you. Sometimes they mock and then BAM it happens right on their face eating every bit of their words. There are also people showing off looking at you for a slight of envy yet all they can get is a blank face. In the first place envy should not be entertained whether you got it or not. A blank face is what they can get especially from people who are trying to be righteous. You know very well that your intellect is being undermined when the answer to your question is somewhat silly and yet the one who answers thinks he got away with it by thinking you are naively convinced. Sometimes I think that I don't look like what I can do. There was a time when I managed to accomplish a big task and the comment that I got was that it was too good to be true. Peer review followed and in the end it's true. ...

When we are truly confident and secure, the opinions of others cannot control us. There are times that I feel crashed and there seem to be no reason to go on. But once I kneel down and listen to the Giver who is saying "Stand up and carry on", even in the midst of feeling that I got nothing to carry on, I go ahead carrying nothing but His Word. My confidence and security are drawn from Him and nothing else.  It is in this situation that I realise He is more than enough. My confidence is not anymore coming from who I am but from who He is to me. The weaker I am the stronger He is in me. There is no reason for me to be insecure for His grace is always at hand. I am confident in Him and whoever says otherwise is irrelevant. Who am I competing against? No one. For I live according to what I am becoming confident about. I am secured in my place because of Him.  I don't need to step on others to rise up because His arm is already pulling me up.

I sit still and make the most of my quiet time. It was Sunday morning .Eventhough I dont feel like I benefit from sitting still I carry on with the endeavour because this is the time I allot to commune with the Devine.  Dryness I recon. Should I exert my effort to be creative in order to water down the dryness of the moment?  Destraction sometimes lingers. What should I prepare for breakfast today?  I am thinking about fried rice. Sorry. The spirit is willing but the tummy is weak. Where are You?  What's the daily reading?  Nothing's happening but my faith which is willing to finish off what seems to be nothing. Though I dont feel any discomfort with the silnce. He's here joining me, I know. Maybe this is what i need: sitting still and be comforted.

It had been a long awaited dining experience with a craving that had never gone ahead. We have attempted in the past to satisfy the cravings by improvising the dish with pork mince, pork crackers, fresh onions, fresh bell pepper and mayonnaise which we succeeded in coming near to the enjoyment of the taste of sisig. We have been contented with it and we almost have forgotten that there is a better life. But that better life of enjoying sisig takes you to head back  home which will take you to its origin in Angeles City or spending a nice night out in Trellis combining the spoon full of sizzling wonder with San Miguel Beer. O man.  Let's make this happen at home in NZ. I have kept my faith up so as to realise everything will fall in to place.  True enough God is good, our path crossed with one who would be willing to come up with a genuine dish. Once I was told that what we needed was a hog's head, the quest was on to find the head. Nah! It was  not exactly ...

One of the reasons why one has difficulty to change for the better is people make it difficult for them. People’s minds somehow do not want to shift from the past knowledge about the person to a revitalized person. No matter how an ex-convict has been renewed, some companies are hesitant to hire someone like him. No matter how the person has realized his past mistakes and how he tries to start anew, some people already branded him a bad boy and they will treat him that way. “Stop treating me as a womanizer, I am family man for goodness sake. Stop offering me a smoke, I am quitting. Stop thinking that I am bum; I have a descent 8-hour job. Stop mentioning to others that I am temperamental, I am learning to control it now.” It is easier to change when people would support the change. The more the information about your old self has spread the more difficult it is to expect support from others in establishing your new you. You may want to move to another place, leave your rubbish behind a...

Claire and i were watching Suburgatory the other night and there was this episode about a couple who resorted to having surrogate baby. The woman has no biological problem in getting pregnant but she has no time in going with it because getting pregnant would conflict with her tour to promote her book entitled Taking Time With What Matters. Claire sniggered when she got the irony.  What can matter more than having a desire to raise a child and a privilege of carrying a miracle inside your womb? Claiming that you have such a high valued principle is different from living it.  Living what you preach is always expected and can be a tall order.  Once you have stood on the flatform you gotta do it right all the way.  May people find you faithful to what you say.  You can always put a disclaimer such as saying I am only human, but when people sees you a number of times to be swaying with your principles, you are not only making a fool of people but m...

I want to consume only good things as much as possible so that what come out of me will only be good. May God help me. I know it's hard with what the world can offer now. The setback of having instant access with anything by means of technology makes us more vulnerable. It's easy for us to blame the world for having been caught with fire but there is also the freedom of choice in the first place. Yet this freedom is out of context when the world has been blown out of proportion. But I believe that it's never too late. I can start exercising my freedom again. Bit by bit I will escape the slavery of worldly things. May God help me. It's time to round up my choice. For instance, rounding up with whom I’ll get acquainted most of the time. In order for me to gain maturity, i need to be closed to those who are mature. It's not that I despise those who are less mature; it's simply part of growing to belong to those whom you want to relate with. It's like in a prim...

In the sermon of the parish priest during the Sunday mass he sighted two kinds of people: those who believe in God and those who do not believe in God. The fact that we were attending mass he humorously took that we are obviously not the latter. We call the latter atheist. They do not believe in God and therefore they believe we are created by something else the likely candidate of which  is an accident of colliding stars in space and after we die there is nothing. In the early society i used to belong when i was younger i haven't met any atheist presumably because they were not acceptable and popular. Now they can be everywhere, visible, not hiding and mostly with conviction. I have met and conversed with them in the bus, in spa and in any normal place. They respect what we do and there is no reason why i should not respect them. They don't despise me and i don't despise them. There are also who are in between: the agnostics who are not sure about the existence of God. Th...

I observe especially now that stealing credits become as easy to most people as picking daisies in the open garden. They drool right away once they spotted a good work and just like wolves they snarl and devour everything to nourish their ego. The hardwork, the sweat and tears invested by the creator/thinker/worker are disregarded and overshadowed by the wicked pride of the opportunists. I guess the overshadowing is too much when it is trying to redefine the moral value as if the commandment "Thou shall not steal" does not exist.  Or maybe they do not categorize it as such. Or maybe they just ignore. No. It's not picking daisies. It is taking  part of the soul of someone who puts passion on the work.  The seriousness of taking may not be severe in the eyes of the taker but it may be  as severe as taking ones life in the eyes of the owner. The movie Flash of Genious has a man who defies everything just to get what is rightfully his. Despite that he had been told a nu...

When trying to ask a mischief and all you can get is beating around the bush, most likely you can find guilty in between lines. All of a sudden the term "Seeing is Believing" is his only ace which booze up his courage telling that he can stiil get away with it. One factor though has been missed out in the equation is that God also sees even better than what mortals can see.

I have permanently bailed out a number of times in many years from being totally disgraced in some groups that I have been with. Over the years, sometimes I forget the reasons why I left. Thinking maybe the coast is clear I tried to be reunited with my past and there you go....Bham! Here goes the rudeness, the crabbing and judgmental. Sometimes going back helped me remember why I left. It is ironic when I think of the reason why. Where I am now is a blessing. A big leap to a different environment has given me a change to start all over again with a clean slate. And with God's grace, I have risen anew. The gift that God has given me are put to practice again. But this time I am more equipped to take care of them. Never again I would let others take the gift from me. He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it. Anyone who tends to block the progress of my achievement in putting what God has entrusted me in good use is simply blocking the consequence of God’s ...

You are much powerful than what I was thinking.   I thought that I would not get it done because I am not that confident.   Yet somehow you have outdone my fear and just conquer it for me.   You overshadowed my fear.   You have shown me that once a provision has set and it has to be done according to Your will, all I need to do is take action no matter what I feel about it.   There seemed at first to have some situation that would say it couldn’t be done, but you have made your way for me to make it and all I need to do is to carry on.  My Faith draws the courage in me.

What is this? A celebrity couple versus a veteran reporter in a brawl. It all started when the reporter taking pictures or video of the female celeb in her worst mood in public which upset the husband. Regardless of who punched or kicked first, the mere fact that one is  being recorded without consent especially when the intention is to showcase the not~so-good side of ones image is something to be upset about. I would be upset if people would record my bad side in the wrong intention. That is really low.  Now it becomes  business to watch out and highlight famous people's not so good side. Paparazzi is such a common term.  Money talks your way out of good conduct. It is still rude. It is low. Yet technology carried in your pocket is a handy dandy tool for you to easily do it whether it is right or wrong. Not all of us are reporters. Yet most of us possess the means. Be responsible. Put the means in good use.

I was reading an article by Maria Rezza, Head of ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs. I was struck by what she says about people who are giving justifications on swaying against principles.  And I quote: "Evil people don’t think they’re evil, and corrupt people don’t think they’re corrupt. Corruption is endemic in our country because people rationalize it. They split hairs about definitions." To put in a much simpler or in kindergarten-ish form, there are people who do bad and they think it's okay because blah blah.  Whatever that blah-blah is, that suddenly becomes a license to harm.  Well I put it that anything bad is harmful. Anyhow, being a smart ass is still an ass.  We know better.  We know what's black and what's white. We know what's wrong and what's right.  But one thing I don't know is how wrong can be right when you put a reason on the action. "I cheat as long as I am not caught." "I make fun of him because he is a dork...

Some people are so vulnerable that they  are easily influenced to hate anyone even whom they are close with.  I hope they wisen up else it's unfair for those being hated without doing anything.  i can't blame their vulnerability. Everyone has its low points. Weaknesses are always the target points of the snake in the garden. Weakness where the vulnerability lies is where you get cornered by deceptions. It is a good thing that God has promised us that the more we are weak the more we find His strength. It's a matter of calling God in times of low moments. Stop being vulnerable or stupid when you are weak. Stop being deceived. You know that God is just a prayer away. Wisen up.

While I was observing a guy I know being praised for his particular achievement, I happend to turn my head and to gaze upon another who had that look which was unmistakenly showing resentment while looking at the guy being praised.  Anyone who has a clear mind understands very well what scenario I am getting at here. It is indeed a waste of energy dwelling on rubbish resentment over envy.  If he could just be happy to the person's glorious moment and stay positive, he may avoid getting heart burns. Each of us has its glorious moment. We can only achieve it if we focus more on our own capabilities. Trust yourself. In order to trust yourself and your capability completely is to trust God. The Almighty has created us with a reason. We are an asset on earth so as to be useful if only we could only tap all our potentials. In order to know who you are is seeing what you are good at. The more you know who you really are the more you trust yourself and trust God...

A smile can come either from outside or inside.   But joy can only come from inside.   You can smile from outside and having no joy in your heart.   Work on what’s giving you joy and the smile will just come naturally from inside.   Joy is a fruit of the spirit.   Joy is the evidence of the presence of God in your life.   You can smile all day but what is it like when you are just by yourself?   A fake smile won’t last long.    A genuine smile carries joy that can  be obtained from having a desire to do the divine will.   The divine will always coincide with how you were made of.  Where is joy in hurting people?   Where is joy in bad talking about people?   And then you smile like an angel in disguise.   Positive outlook comes within.   Positive outlook comes with action.   Positive outlook comes with clear conscience.   How can you obtain a positive outlook when you have a haunting conscience p...