Heart's desire

Last Thursday evening I attended Bo Sanchez’s Pursuing Life’s Dreams and Desires (Living Fully Our Potential). I was eager to attend his talk for my cousin E. gave me a set of Scriptural diaries published by Bo two Christmases ago and I found his reflections insightful and helpful in my own faith journey.

The evening kicked off with an inspiring testimony by Amilia Chai who shared how she followed the desires of her heart and came to be a lay missionary with the Institute for World Evangelisation - ICPE Mission, the organization that invited Bo and his team to Singapore.

She was followed by Jon Oscorto, who used John 5:1-9 to illustrate that each of us had a choice to be healed by Jesus and, like the paralyzed man in the story, we could take up our mat and walk. Jesus sees us and heals us, even if we may still be wallowing in self-pity and blaming others for the situation we are in. I was blown away by this Scriptural sharing for like the paralyzed man, it took me 38 years before I allowed Jesus to heal me.

Then Bo came on and shared how he was hit by the truth one day when he was still a young man and realized this: we each had the ability to define our future. Excited, he stayed up till 3 a.m. and wrote 15 pages of what he would like his life to be, his desires and future dreams. His list encompassed dreams for his career as well as for his personal life, and how he would multiply the blessings he received from God and “increase his territory”.

“Be specific! List things like how much you want to earn and what you will do with the money.”

Some of the items on his list that I can remember are:

“I will be the greatest husband ever – I will kiss my wife seven times a day, I will take her out for a romantic dinner once a week…”

“I will be the greatest Dad to my children...”

“I will earn $XX a year and I will tithe as much as 25% of my earnings as my income grows…”

“I will write a book.”

“I will have a TV show, I will have a radio show.”

“I will live in a house by a pond…”

Every morning when he prays, he will pray his list, offering it up to the Lord. Through the years, he has seen item by item come into fruition.

E. once told me often our deepest desires are placed there by the Father, “deep is calling on deep”, for He wants each of us to experience life as it should be, according to His plan. We are not talking about selfish or self-serving desires, but rather desires that will bless us, so that in turn, we “will be a blessing” to others. (Gen 12:2)

Vision requires faith, the faith of someone like Abraham who went wherever, and did whatever the Lord told him to and was greatly blessed, consequently. Armed only with human understanding, we often limit our own dreams, but if we listen to God with our inner ear and go where He tells us, nothing is impossible.

Bo challenged each of us to make our own list and claim the promises of the Father. Can it truly be that simple? I know so. Now let me start working on my list…

More about Bo
Bo is extremely well-known in the Philippines, where he comes from, for he is publisher of inspirational magazine Kerygma, an author of eight best-selling books, has a daily radio programme and weekly TV show there, and is founder of Light of Jesus Community, Light of Jesus Counseling Center and Anawim, a home for the abandoned elderly. Check out his website: http://www.bosanchez.ph/ Great stuff!

Lunar New Year musings

Today is the 3rd day of the Lunar New Year and I am glad it's a public holiday for it gives me time to relax a little and do some work that is pressing.

Just over the weekend, I was talking to my cousin A. and we were both feeling the pre-New year pressures - all the rushing around to prepare for it can be quite crazy and extremely tiring. He was wondering why we did all this and I said we did it for our parents. I've been reflecting a little more on what I said and it goes beyond just honouring our parents. It's an acknowledgment of our heritage and a validation of who we are as individuals living within our families.

So while I hate how tired and stressed I get over the cooking and the springcleaning, it conjures up memories especially of my paternal grandmother who would serve up all the traditional dishes during the CNY celebration. I am also reminded of past meals when we sat down together as a family (all three generations) to eat the reunion dinner cooked so deliciously by her, and in latter years by my father. Buying new clothes and slippers, food shopping for delicacies that appear only during this period, arranging fresh flowers around the house, preparing the mandarin oranges and goodies in anticipation of relatives and friends who visit during the New Year; all this and the little quirks like not sweeping the floor and cutting one's hair on the first day are part and parcel of my make-up as a second generation Cantonese Chinese in Singapore.

As I prepared the braised mushrooms and the great pot of soup, I did it in honour of my father who was a fantastic cook and enjoyed watching others experience his culinary concoctions. And I hope that his hospitality was well translated through my efforts, although I can just hear him saying the mushrooms were not tasty enough and the soup lacked quite a few ingredients. "Less sodium, Dad, is good for health... "

Traditions help perpetuate the sense of continuity in our lives and I have come to appreciate those that mark new beginnings, celebrate life and honour the past.

And I give thanks to the One who placed me in this family.

Prophet, priest and king

Today Amelie Rachel was baptised and received new life in Christ, along with five other babies at the Church of St. Teresa. I rejoiced at being chosen as one of her god-parents, to guide her in the faith and journey with her through life.

The baptismal initiation into the priesthood of Christ comes with the invitation to participate in Christ's threefold office of being prophet, priest and king. With our own unique gifts, we are called, as individuals, to bear witness, worship and serve Him with love. Thus in discipleship, we share the singular vocation of building the Kingdom of God in the here and now.

The readings this Sunday were apt. First from Isaiah chapter six, a response to the Lord's call:" Here I am, send me!". Then St. Paul recounts in his first letter to the Corinthians (chapter 15) how he came to experience Christ's grace and thereafter became committed to spreading to all he met the good news of salvation. And finally, in chapter five of Luke's gospel, Simon Peter, James and John experience conversion and leave everything to follow Jesus and become "fishers of people".

Simple, ordinary folk who met Jesus in their everyday activity and responded to His call simply and wholeheartedly. While we are all not worthy, as St. Paul puts it, "I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle", with grace, we can surmount our human weakness and become His instruments of sacrificial love in our everyday lives. We don't have to accomplish great things, for it is enough that we seek to do His work in small ways, ways that are within our capability.

A great role model is St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, who is known for her "Little Way" of accomplishing much for God through the humblest and simplest acts of love.

"I am a very little soul, who can offer only very little things to the Lord."

My gift to Amelie is the prayer that she will be like The Little Flower and always walk in humility and love, building the Kingdom in small, baby ways.