New New Year's Resolution (Part 2)

My last blog was about an old lady (who had recently passed on) and her last new year’s resolution. It was life-changing for me to discover what she had realized in her sunset years. 

It won’t be long now before my hands will be gnarled as hers were, and as she did, I stopped sometime ago making a new list of what to improve on in my life. I guess at the back of a senior’s mind is that, my world has shrunk, my faculties have weakened, there is nothing I can still resolve to do that would dramatically affect my circles. 

The repetition of the word “new” in my title is intentional. There is something new about new year’s resolutions upon reaching a certain age. Mine started coming again last year when I got involved in the presidential run of Atty. Leni Robredo. 

Before then, I had given up on public officials and the problems they bring—corruption, greed, and impunity, among them. But when she decided to run, I  witnessed the enthusiasm of the youth (and those younger than I am). I jumped in. The passion and energy were catching. 

They sucked me into working for a better-run Philippines, as symbolized by PINK, the campaign color they chose.  

Since then, I had likewise carried PINK as the symbol for hope. 

But my hope goes further than politics. It is based on Scripture, on what God said to the Israelites, who had become rebellious, “I’ll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed, not self-willed.” Ezekiel 36:26 (The Message) 

It isn’t I or anyone who has the power to change hearts. This I knew since my years in advertising. I dealt wth a motley group of characters (atheists, LGBT, polygamists, etc.), but unlike Chita, I never dared change their hearts, or wars could have erupted. 

That’s probaly why I am a writer. Words can be read without the author arguing her point and losing control of her emotions. 

That’s probably why, today, I have also embraced the role of a teacher in Sunday School among women. They are faith sisters by grace and fellow students of the Word—the wellspring of hope.

I’ve digressed. 

My new new year’s resolutions are 10 verbs that  have been affirmed by my involvement in the PINK campaign, and collectively taken as a Noun: Jesus. 

New New Year’s Resolution (Part 1)

“New Year’s resolutions are for the young,” Chita laughed when asked by her seven-year-old grandson where she kept her written list.       

“Why don’t you make them anymore?” he wondered.    

“Go ahead, make a list," she replied, rememberning what her list was like many years ago. 

"Look,” she added, showing her shriveled, arthritic hands. “These can only flip pages of books, but can no longer write a list.” 

In truth, Chita had made a new resolution in her mind. It was something her grandson could not yet understand. It was drawn from one of her Bible readings (Romans 14:1-13 NLT) during the Christmas season. 

She likened it to a special present wrapped in grace, because it talked to her in a personal way. 

The verses made her examine herself. Now advancing in years, she was becoming more and more judgmental, thinking that with her vast experience and intimacy with the Bible, she knew more than any believer younger than her—and expected them to follow her stringent rules.   

Verse 13 particularly affected her, almost rebuking her, “So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.” 

Like the Romans in Jesus’ time, Chita realized that she had been too insistent for others to adhere to certain behaviors, not really explicitly written in the Bible.  

Like Chita, we, who no longer write our list of New Year’s resolutions, can perhaps include this verse in our mind’s list. It is to encourage fellow believers to walk with God, instead of setting up roadblocks that can cause them to stumble and fall.    

The Three Pasketeers

The year 2022 was a challenging time for our church. Over and above the pandemic, there was a leadership vacuum that had our elders doing this and that, trying to fill in where there were gaps.  

But the Lord never leaves gaps unattended too long. He closes them. And he fixed those gaps with three young pastors whom he lined up to help with His ministries.  

I now reflect, with much gratitude, on how all this happened in God’s own time. I am leaving out the details as this blog is not about disgrace but the opposite—the grace that comes just when we need it, and plucks us out of the tragic to bring us to epic (a term young people today use to mean: awesome). 

These three gap-closers were seen together one day having a tete-a-tete.  Their photos were uploaded to FB and Mitch, a faith sister, quickly called them. “The Three Pasketeers!” 

It's a perfect pun on Alexandre Dumas’ book, “The Three Musketeers.”  

The similarity, however, ends with the word three. Our pastors' task was to join hands with the church board to keep the transition in God’s work seamless. Let me call it a grace triad.   

Because they are young and upbeat . . . 

    • the youth and children are drawn to them; and the older ones spare nothing to support them;    

    • their messages are down-to-earth, earnest, and authentic;  

    • they unabashedly ask for help where they feel they have failings; 

    • their youthful energy and passion in serving the Lord is palpable, as they enliven our worship services;

    • their work ethic is collegial, acceptive of suggestions for growth.

      

How refreshing to work alongside them! 

We all know that feeling when we work alone. We get exhausted and burned out. Why? Because God never meant it to be that way.

In Ecclesiastes 4:9 (NLT), God tells us, “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.” When we work as a team, we get so much more done. Plus, having open and receptive teammates is fun and encouraging.  

A special energy comes from being part of a shared mission for Jesus. Just in time last year, The Three Pasketeers joined God’s Mission team in our church at crunch time.   

In our faith journey, we cannot do everything alone. We need other people to walk with us, just as those people also need us. As we share the burden of our work with fellow Christians, we can  actually accomplish more for God. 

This, to me, is what The Three Pasketeers symbolize. Bonded together, we respond to Jesus’ call for us to be one, working hand-in-hand in a circle for His glory. 

“May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus."  Romans 15:5-6 

Fad Diet

A fad diet, or novelty diet, is a program for losing weight that is popular for a time. It is similar to fads in fashion, which come and go. This diet promises unreasonably fast weight loss and health improvements.

Those who perceive themselves as being fat fall for a fad diet. Let me narrate a story that happened prior to the pandemic.

Deux at 5’7” (aged 32) weighed 200 pounds (from 140) after binge-eating during the Christmas season.

His close friends who saw him after his weight gain teased, “Oh, Santa Claus has not gone home!” 

Deux had had enough of their ribbing. He decided to follow a fad diet. He lost 25 pounds on the first week. Then on the second week, he was rushed to the hospital because of breathing difficulty. His body could not take the drastic diet change.  

Abandoning his fad diet, Deux’s body ballooned again—back to Santa Claus proportions. 

A fad diet can help one lose weight, but there are consequences. Unless the dieter goes through the process of changing his eating and other bad habits, he is likely to gain back his original weight. 

Deux’ doctor advised him to stop drinking and smoking, sleep eight hours a night, and  walk daily. In six months, he lost 30 pounds, and was on his way to his ideal weight.    

Our body is not our own; it’s grace from God, who bought it with a steep price.  

In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, we are advised, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” 

It is necessary for every believer in Jesus to take care of his body, instead of making excuses like, “Christmas eating comes only once a year.” I hope we remembered this and did not overeat last Christmas.   

 geriatric doctor said, “Many senior people today are on maintenance medicines because of ailments that could have been avoided had they taken care of their bodies in their younger years.”   

Ouch. 

Poles Apart

Ambivalence—that sums up my feelings for years about Santa Claus. 

Like many Christians, I abhorred this obese man’s intrusion into our celebration of the Holy Birth. Parents use him as the symbol of gift giving and therefore, to many kids, this carricature in red is the personification of Christmas.  

On the other hand, I liked what it meant to children—if you’ve been good and nice, Santa will give you a gift/s on Christmas. A perfect example of what psychologists term as Operant Conditioning (carrot and stick).  

As I aged, travelling through valleys and dirt roads with faith in my heart, I came to realize that Santa and the Reason for the season are poles apart (or more like apples and oranges). In fact, there is no comparison whatsoever. God created all poles, the North Pole being just one of them. 

The red, rolly-polly character squeezes his cholesterol-laden heavy body into chimneys to deliver gifts. He diasappears after Christmas—to re-appear again the next year on the same date. 

On hindsight, I wish I hadn't dismissed Santa as a non-entity. I could have explained his cameo role in my young sons’ Christmases, for them to better ingest and digest the never-ending-never-sleeping Source of moment-by-moment grace, Who became flesh on Christmas, then only to wear a crown of thorns and die for us on the cross.    

Thankfully, as now adults, they celebrate Christmas for what it really is: the day the greatest Gift is given to all men, no matter what kind we mght be, whether we've been good or bad. 

   

Treasure from a Snail

Snail mail has been deleted from our modern lingo. With technology, messaging is at real time, faster than a cheetah.  

In olden days, the snail was a bringer of treasure. The waiting took days and nights of excited anticipation. Then when the mail finally arrived, a sacred ritual ensued: from carefully opening the envelope to joyfully reading the message handwritten by the sender. You could feel his/her heart and soul  with every word. 

On January 1 this year, son #3 asked me to look for a document I might have filed by mistake. Instead, I found one snail mail I received 10 years ago! 

What makes it a treasure? It came from someone I never met. Let me quote parts of it . . . 

“Two years ago, someone gave me a copy of Gifts of Grace. I read it in just two days. Then I read it again slowly and took notes. After a while, I began lending it to my friends, mostly Pastors’ wives like me.  Unfortunately, it never returned so I asked my daughter in Manila to buy me another copy . . . 

“Last Christmas, she gave me a copy of Grace Found Me. Again, in just two days, I finished reading it, then went back to read daily and slowly.”

What this snail mail tells

 me is that my books go to places I may never set foot in, and that they minister to different types of people. In this case, a church worker.  

Now, why would I re-discover it on the first day of the year? Well, I take it as reminder that I have a job to do.  I have to finish that book I was assigned by CSM, my publisher, to write. But I had mimicked the speed of the snail by writing too slowly due to distractions like holiday activities and such. 

So now it’s back to the “work” I love. I hope to mimic the cheetah, a creation built for speed and grace.  

My New* Bible

Every Christmas, after our traditional turkey dinner, I look forward to unwrapping a gift with my new Bible for the next year. My excitement is not being presumptuous. Every single year, since I-can’t-remember-when, son #1 has made it his tradition to give me a new Bible translation. 

In the last few Christmases, I received a different translation of the chronological Bible. It’s safe to say I am one of those who have a complete collection of all the translations. 

The last one in 2021 came in time for my assignment in church as the Sunday school facilitator for the women’s group in March 2022. It has all the information and assistance in looking for resources I needed to deeply understand each lesson. 

This new Book of grace is my staple reading for the year 2023. 

It is divided into 365 parts, with daily insights from Pastor-Teacher Dr. John MacArthur.

The Bible is the one and only Book that keeps giving, blessing, teaching, guiding, enlightening, inspiring, reminding, affirming, and rebuking when one goes astray. 

As an author on grace, I refer to over a dozen Bible translations for better understanding. But whichever Bible translation you prefer to read, the Holy Spirit will guide you to understand and be enriched by it. 

“Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? Jeremiah 23:29 NKJV 

*New is a misnomer. God’s Word has been here from the beginning of time (John 1:1).  

Familicious

Can you think of anything more delicious than a holiday with family? I can’t. 

A holiday is a dish that combines the authentic ingredients of idling, laughing, relaxing, exchanging gifts, bantering, reminiscing, feasting, and simply being. Now, add the exotic flavor enhancer called family and wow, it’s nothing but a chef-d'oeuvre! 

After almost three years of being corralled by Covid-19 at home, Tony, two of our three sons, and I finally dared risk spending precious two days bonding with my siblings and their families who reside in the Philippines. 

We met on the 69th floor of an airbnb building, where we had an unrestricted view (and mind tour) of the whole of Makati and neighboring districts. It’s the next best thing to visiting them all. 

There were 14 of us—divided right down the middle: seven seniors and seven fireballs. Again it’s the next best thing to having the complete family together (19 are in the US and Australia).  

During these difficult times, we make do with what is available to us (these are more than we deserve, actually) and be exceedingly grateful for them. 

Within those two days, we watched old videos and laughed till we cried;  played games like Jeopardy and Bingo, the mechanics of which the seniors never got right; had meals—some room-cooked, some in restos across the street; attended our 78th Clan Reunion online where we worshiped the Lord together and honored traditions of remembering loved ones now in home eternal. After that, our mikes were unmuted and a rowdy tete-a-tete went into many chaotic directions. It was perfect. 

One of my nephews bought a high-end camera to document his first born’s birth. But the birth is yet to come, so the 69th floor denizens were beneficiaries of his test shots. 

My siblings, except for Earl in Australia, and I

Yet no state-of-the-art camera can ever capture or record the grace of bliss. Again, the next best thing is to borrow emojis to see and listen to the fullness of joy. 

Taken together, these emojis taste familicious. 

We pray for a blessed 2023.  "Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil." Proverbs 4:25-27 NLT

What’s Up in 2023?

 It’s another new year on planet Earth. What’s in store for us earthlings?  

Will it be (to borrow Charles Dickens' words) the best of times or the worst of times? The years 2020, 2021, and 2022 were appropriated by the Covid-19 pandemic that bought our economy to its knees. And worse, our presidential election brought our values to the gutter.      

What’s up in 2023? 

We do not know. 

What I do know, as a Christian, is what I have experienced in my faith journey all through the new years of my life.   

My Saviour, Jesus Christ, the King Who became poor so He could save me from my sins, and so I could live with Him in His Kingdom forever as soon as (to borrow Shakespeare's famous soliloquy in Hamlet), I have shuffled off this mortal coil is:  

“. . . the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 (NIV)  

In lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV), we read, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” 

It’s a new morning, the first one this year 2023. It may still be fraught with worldly troubles, but it will be another grace-filled year! 

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