The Long Way Up

My job / vocation is not your typical 9-to-5. Sometimes it feels more like a 7-11 in the sense that in certain seasons, one work day can last way beyond the setting of the sun. Like right now. We've had two fathers of our congregation members pass away in the last week and everyone on staff has had to pull double duty where needed. Along with that, we're hosting a pastoral conference in five days, which has also stretched our work force thin. Then there's the two weddings happening a day part of each other this week. So, the expression "when it rains, it pours" is suitably applicable here! However, we also get to experience varying states and degrees of downtime. Dog days , if you will. These I look forward to... except when I've had too much of it. In which case, I start looking for things to do. But on its 'natural' ebb and flow, the downtime can be very helpful in recuperating from a season of hard work and emotional toil. Sometimes, being ab...

The longer one lives on this planet, the more they learn about themselves and others. In my case, all forty-two-and-a-half years of my life have shown me that I can't stand being around a lot of people for long periods of time. That's not to say I do not bear the discomfort of it, which I do; I'm saying if I had it my way each time I would choose to spend most of my time with fewer or no people around me at all. #IntrovertProblems . 😔 The reasons why I prefer to be by myself are as follows (these might not be all of them): - I get to avoid unnecessary chatter. Sometimes people talk too much about things that aren't really that important. Sometimes I feel too much talk is just adding to the noise. - Silence. Yes, it is connected to the first reason. Silence for me is such a priceless commodity that's getting more and more hard to find in a crowded metropolis like Cebu. Noise pollution comes from sources other than people, too: vehicles in traf...

It's really hard running into people with a very fixed, one-sided view of things that are very intricate and multi-faceted. Really hard! I can't understand -- if we're feeding off from the same source material and being taught by the same teachers -- why some people still choose to cling to a piece of the pie and insist to everyone else that their piece IS THE WHOLE PIE! This is probably the reason why the body of Christ is as fractured as it is today: too many people upholding one biblical truth and taking it to the extreme... mowing down other truths AND PEOPLE in their wake. I once taught about this during one of our services, echoing what I have learned from my pastor (and from other pastors online and off) that there is a danger in going to extremes when it comes to scriptural principles. The Word of God is so rich, so powerful and so full of many beautiful facets of spiritual life that fit together to make a whole. Human as we are, we have a tendency to p...