"An intelligent man speaks when he has to say something. A wise man speaks when he has something to say."
Walking, commuting, and serving these past few weeks gave me the opportunity to contemplate about how God has orchestrated the way I have lived my life recently. During those naive moments of sitting or standing while my mind is thinking and reflecting, I started to appreciate the difference between the environment in which I have opened my eyes before and the influence where He has brought me now. I would be one of those who can attest to say that you cannot go with God and stay where you are at the same time.
I am just amazed on how He works in my life that when I always soak and dwell in His presence, it is always justified that a sanctified isolation (that becomes a unusual sequestration) brings you to a life of consecration with Him and in the point of intimacy He unravels a glimpse of His plans and purposes and leaves its response to me and how certainly, eventually, would affect my scope of influence.
In my case, God has brought me into a journey where its not what I expect to be but I believe was His will for me.
Unimaginable risks that I took yet were safe in his blessed assurance, therefore faith is strengthened.
Tenacity that is forged in the hidden crucibles of life, therefore perseverance and endurance is produced.
Giving your life selflessly that is motivated from a one compelling reason. Love, as its main reason behind, becomes fortified.
I noticed how reticent I was to be assertive. How I chose to be hidden so that others will be seen. How I have offered myself voluntarily, generously, wholeheartedly and faithfully to a vocation (or calling) that doesn't give any chance of security and stability, in a mundane practical value.
How I have committed myself into commitments that would ask much of my time, talent and treasure even reaching to a point of living a life of obscurity. And I'm freakin' loving it. And I cannot imagine myself doing things other than what I'm doing today. Just recently, I would admit that at some point, posting in social media on what my day looked like would be a way of somewhat breaking my silence. But those things that I post are like a tip of an iceberg from the engagements and activities that I do due to the versatility that is maintained and sustained by God's grace.
But I'm not the focal point of this essay. What I would want to deliver (and I hope I may achieve it in the end) are the realizations I wanted to share from this life to affirm and validate other people's experiences (or relate to them in one point or another) and tell them that they're on the right track just in case there's someone out there who lives like the same way that I live.
As if I detached my conscious self to the subconscious, and reflected on the subconscious aspect of my life and how its experiences were enriched with divine orchestrations woven in tapestry with the life and the lives it shared and encountered. (Sorry for the psych jargon. Thanks to my sister. Hehe.)
And that subconscious life that was a product of entrusting my life from a single intention to follow the Great Shepherd who is also the Great Writer who writes such story gives me lessons that are worth to learn and too good to be hoarded.
I know that this revelation in one time or another has been passing on your minds. But bear with me, I will just give emphasis on this point to serve as a reminder.
In my observation, I learned that life's happiness, purpose and its fulfillment cannot just be limitedly defined by what the eyes can see, what our senses could feel, or what ideas and notions are prevailing (but the opposite is what the world is always trying to pound in our smartphone screens and picture tubes).
I would say that the greatest things that can happen on one's life is always manifested in the hidden. Those intangible things that happens in the inside of us always provides and grants eternal, impactful results that makes us different from the world. And the joy of discovering what it is and savoring the process that it entails for one's life is a glory given for the discoverer.
The following may be one of the big things most of the people would expect to receive.
It might be a breakthrough of healing for a loved one. It might be a soul that's more stronger than ever. Or a relationship that has been restored. Or a granting of life to a medically challenged body. Or a provision for a certain need. Or a deal that has to be closed. Or goals that are already reached. Or accomplishments that are attained. Or secret desires that are fulfilled. To others, it may be stability of heart and mind to do things decisively. Or it may be an acceptance of a loss of a loved one. Or comfort in the midst of grief. Or a shelter from an exposed environment. Or a discovery of their capacity and capability from an unexpected circumstance that happened. Fortitude that is unleashed.
It might be a strength and the courage to let go of what you are holding on. And move forward to a hope and an expectation that is already assured even if you don't see it yet.
Substance of life becomes more evident when one tries to assess what are those things that are valued by the heart that beats for conviction and principles that are not of the world. Being challenged by the ever-changing mind but firmly grasped by the heart that is divinely influenced.
A heart that says:
Its not how far you've gone. Sometimes, its about how close you've stayed. The proximity that you chose to stay regardless of the promising chances in exchange to a prize of great heights that can be reached and rewards that can give a remarkable fulfillment. That choice of fulfillment in contentment giving a unflinching resolve, unshakeable as it is, which displays strength in meekness, brings you to a course that is unpopular, adventurous and full of risks, but satisfying and fulfilling in its depths.
The contending to uphold those things that are not seen is the evidence of a life transformed from a life of independence to interdependence as opposed to a mundane expectation.
People are sometimes desperate to pursue the next big thing where in fact in God's eyes it has been transpired already but failed to appreciate it. Fail to realize that the big thing is not determined on the external. Its most of the time made in the internal.
Not only determined by the results but also in the process.
And when this understanding becomes embedded in one's consciousness, one's perspective changes, and the meaning of life becomes profound in this world where superficialities and hollowness is prevalent.
And when purpose is divinely anchored to the Giver of Life Himself, life becomes not one's possession anymore.
You now start to make a difference by being different. Different in a sense that you don't settle for anything that's not worthwhile.
Oh, that we may commit our lives daily to Him, to Jesus who's faithful to journey with us in the process. And I love the fact that as he takes care of what's happening behind the scenes, the program (or the story I must say) is always subject to change without prior notice. Those changes are the intangibles that pervades and penetrates the innermost depths of one's heart.
I'll give some examples of an intangible thing that describes its evidence.
The gap that bridges the intention to live this life for Him and the obedience that entails sacrifice most of the time is built from a personal encounter with Him.
You cannot have a personal, intimate encounter with Him and not become radical for Him afterwards.
You'll have your own too. As this new year unfolds before our eyes, begin to discover what are the changes God has transpired in the inside of you, repent from what you have failed to appreciate, and be amazed on how He will bring you into a journey that makes you more fulfilled than ever because your life in the inside of you is valuable to Him and eventually become Christlike.
The simplicity of appreciating greatly those things God is making behind the scenes cannot be equalled from the pursuit of man showing themselves off from unreasonable complexities.
To wrap this up, let me finish this with a verse that substantiates the things that I mentioned above.
"We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal." - 2 Corinthians 4:18
I pray that let this be the completing piece for those who feel a missing puzzle in your life.
P.S. If you love (the Source of) Life, (the Source of) Life will love you back.
