Jesus Needs Help!

Are you willing to help? Are you generous enough to give everything to Jesus? Are you ready to share your blessings to Him this time? Are you serious prioritizing Jesus and give Him all the help He needs right now? Are you already prepared and decided what gift to give Him on His birthday?

I am quite sure that many of us have already bought our gifts for our family, friends, and godchildren. It is indeed a very benevolent gesture of thinking and preparing something special for the people dear to us. Jesus is truly happy for all our acts of generosity and thoughtfulness because we never fail to remember Jesus’s birthday through others.

This time JESUS NEEDS HELP!

More than the gifts we usually give during His birthday Jesus is appealing to us to extend our help to our suffering brothers and sisters in Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, and other affected areas in Mindanao due to the great havoc brought about by typhoon Sendong. All of us may have read, heard, watched, or witnessed the very depressing situation of our fellow Filipinos who are right now suffering from great hunger, thirst, obnoxious smell, missing family members, lost of properties, and death of a loved one. What have we done so far?

Every time I watch the news on television, I can’t help but feel very sad and at the same time guilty because much as I would want to help I am not doing anything at all. More than pity and prayers which anyone of us can do, they need all the help they can get from us. As Jesus said, “Whatever you do to the least of your brethren, you do it unto me.” Jesus needs help this time. He is begging us to share our blessings to our suffering and dying brothers and sisters in Mindanao. Jesus never fails to help us and He never gets tired of listening and granting our prayers every time we asked help from Him. This time Jesus needs our help.

It is never too late to send all the support that we can give and be an instrument of hope, love, and compassion to those who need it. I believe that Jesus never expects anything from us on His birthday but if we really love Him more than anything else, let us help Jesus now through our suffering and dying sisters and brothers in Mindanao.

Jesus needs help! Do you care enough to help Him?

The Psychology of Prayer

I have always believed that ‘prayer’ is a form of therapy. I am more inclined to believe as well that it is one of the best therapies out there. More importantly,  it is for free. Hence, while I try to be scientific in my counseling by adhering to my counseling  paradigm, I always conclude the session with my client, provided h/she is a believer, by telling her to pray. Why? What do we get from praying?

There are basically 2 reasons why we should pray, one  reason falling within  the scientific realm and the other in the spiritual realm.  Doctors have observed that when we pray, we activate the  chemical serotonin in our brain, and once it is activated, it relays signal to the hypothalamus in the form of neurotransmitters.  Serotonin is known as the ‘happy chemical’, it is responsible in influencing directly and indirectly  approximately the 40 million brain cells in human, i.e., brain cells related to mood, sexual desire and function, appetite, sleep, memory and learning, temperature regulation, and some social behaviors.  This suggests that a balanced level  of serotonin would influence mood in a manner that leads to happiness. Logically, an imbalanced level would produce the opposite outcome.  As the hypothalamus is  the ‘seat of all human emotions’, these neurotransmitters activate  the emotion of happiness in the hypothalamus, making it possible for us to experience this positive emotion. Hence, just this notion or belief of getting connected or reconnected to God through prayer stimulates this kind of physiological reaction in our body that produces positive psychological effects.

In the spiritual realm, when we pray, we make ourselves an open vessel for the Grace of God, especially if we do it via the four ways: contrition, adoration, thanksgiving, and supplication (ACTS).

In that connection, to pray is to seek a ‘win-win approach’!

In His Mountain…

According to the Book of Genesis in the Bible, Jehovah-jireh (or Yahweh-yireh, The Lord will provide), was a place in the land of Moriah. It was the location of the binding of Isaac, where God told Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering. Abraham named the place after the Lord provided a ram to sacrifice in place of Isaac.

In His mountain,  the Lord provides. I subscribe to this divine  promise not just as a matter of conviction  but of personal experience of God’s provision in  my life. Well, God has been my Divine Providence since I came into being but I suppose that lately,  I have become more conscious of the manifestations of this promise in my life. Let me cite a few cases in point.

When  I lost the car I was driving to a bad vehicular accident in August 2010 (The owner decided to sell it after its repair.), one of my main concerns then was how to get to St. Francis of Assissi  Church at Jebel Ali, Dubai in time for the 7:00 P.M. Mass when I have to come all the way from Jumeirah 1, Dubai,  after 6:00 P.M.  The two places are around a 45-minute drive apart at a minimum. Getting a taxi from the Ibn Battuta Station at Jebel Ali  at around that time is always a frustrating experience. But  since ‘In His mountain, the Lord provides.’,  He tapped  a good friend to help me get to Church not exactly on time but at least not as tardy as it would be if I took a cab and without the exasperation of having to deal with insolent taxi drivers. When this same  friend went home for vacation to the Philippines in late December last year,  since ‘In His mountain, the Lord provides.’,  on that particular Sunday, despite the long queue in front of Ibn Battuta Station, I was able to get a cab quickly and the polite driver uncomplainingly brought me to the Church.  When after the Mass I noticed that there were many people waiting for a cab to bring them home, since ‘In His mountain, the Lord provides.’, He gave me a companion to walk along with toward Jebel Ali Hospital where after just a few minutes of waiting, an RTA bus came and brought us to the Ibn Battuta Station. When a few Sundays ago this same good  friend could not hear Mass for some reasons, since ‘In His mountain the Lord provides.’,  he sent an old and friendly Pakistani man to take me to Church for a minimal charge of Dhs10.00.

Just yesterday night, as my lady friend was running late and yet I had difficulty getting a cab from Ibn Battuta Station, a four-wheel-driven vehicle just stopped in front of me. The three Filipinas in the car offered to take me to the Church. I found out that they are members of the Choir and they knew that I was also going to Church that time because they always saw me sitting near the Choir area during the past Sunday Masses.

Had I started listing all these incidents since I first reached the ‘age of reason and of conviction’,  my list would have been endless at this point. Definitely, this recurrence of God’s provision in my life will go on with repetitious regularity and surely in those pursuits of mine that would please and glorify His name.

In God’s Time

In His time, in His time

He makes all things beautiful in His time

God’s timing is perfect all the time. His is  ‘the right time all the time’. I know this and as a believer, I have accepted this fully and unconditionally, or so I thought. But the weakling Christian  in me makes me doubt this each time I find myself in a wearisome  situation that would always be a consequence of my past decisions and actions. While I know that I should listen to and discern God’s holy will before I take a shot,  the obstinate person and idiotic risk-taking venturesome spirit that I am would decide and do based on my conceptualizaton of events in my life, totally oblivious to  God’s prompting through His Holy Spirit. Yet when I am at the  moment confronted with the ramifications of my past folly, I turn to God to bring me out of the same mess that I myself created.  And if He does not seem to respond in a manner and at a time I so prescribe, I would throw tantrums like a child to his father when the latter would deprive him of his whims. How stupid I am and what right do I have to be demanding?  God does not owe me anything and whatever I ask that He gives, He does so not because He owes me or I deserve it but because He loves me. I do not merit anything from God no matter how straight the life that I may have been leading is (only for the sole purpose of discussion), hence, I can only beg for His grace and mercy. Yet, I demand for help from Him as if  I have all the right in this world to do so. Maybe it is because I am bound by my construal of  my relationship with Him as akin to that between a father and his son, as God being a Father is one of my best metaphors of Him.

For the past one year or so, I have been going through one of the most difficult trials in my life if not the most difficult so far. All throughout this time, I have been turning to God, praying to Him, and asking for His grace and mercy to help me throughout all these troubled times.  Yet, the impatient spoiled brat in me would feel disconsolate and  would resort to blaming Him if I do not get the help I expect from Him at the time frame that I specified. And while I sulk like a spoiled tot to his sire,  at the end of the day, I would surrender my pride and  turn back to Him as I have no other recourse. It has always been like this  for quite some time now. Lately though, I have started to see good things coming through as God has started to use people and events as instruments to minister to me His  amazing grace and undying love. The moment I started to realize that God has brought answers to my prayer, I started feeling guilty and remorseful that I ever doubted His faithfulness and love. This has always been the kind of relationship I have with Him and despite how He proved His love and faithfulness to me in the past, every time I find myself in a thorny quandary  and feeling dispirited, I would sulk in the corner of my own  little world and blame Him for abandoning me.

This time again, God has proven me wrong and I feel so shameful for being so frail in my faith. When will I ever learn? What face do I have to show Him this time yet again?  

Lord please show me everyday

As You’re teaching me Your way

That You do just what You say

In Your TIME

Ecclesiastes 3:1

Snowflakes Fall at the Right Places All the Time

There is a right time for everything and everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance, and I believe that where I am right now is exactly where I have to be. The more  I examine my life in retrospect, the more I am convinced of its  truth, as crucial events in my life are a testimony to this. I will share some of these events in two aspects: career and personal development.

My career path is peppered with twists and turns that I did not intentionally seek. It started with a work in a bank, to a teaching career, then to a career in counseling psychology. While taking my masters, I met a classmate who became instrumental in my eventual employment as University Counselor of a university in Manila.

In this University, a professor and friend of mine  broached the idea of Toastmasters to me. I did not pursue this interest because of problems in transportation.  Looking back, I realized that my decision not to join was meant to be as consequential events vindicated it.

After 12 years of working as University Counselor, a major event transpired that made me decide to leave. The year was 2003. Two months after, as luck would have it, I obtained a US tourist visa to attend a convention for Sports Psychologists. But I had another purpose in mind for going there:  to explore career opportunities. But two weeks after my stay there, my brother in the UAE kept on prodding me to come to Dubai. I eventually relented and on Dec 6, 2003, I finally set foot in Dubai.  So here I am working as Sr. Consulting Psychologist in a management consultancy firm. Looking back, I realized that my decision to leave the University, to go to the US, and to come to Dubai was  for a good reason, as the consequential events that have taken place so far have vindicated it. 

In the third quarter   of 2006, I met a Filipina who breathes Toastmastering day and day out through a common friend. She was the one who re-introduced Toastmasters to me.  There could not have been any perfect time to join as the Oasis Toastmasters’ Club has just been formed.  Since I joined, I had been hesitant to do my Icebreaker until a few days ago when this lady  told me to stop procrastinating. I hated the label, so I finally decided to do my first speech. That moment came into pass, and I believe that where I was at that moment, delivering my Icebreaker as a contestant  in the International Speech Category at the Club Level,  is exactly where I had to be.

Sometimes people come into our life and we know right away that they are meant to be there…to serve some sort of purpose, teach us  a lesson or help figure out who we  are or who we  want to become.

And sometimes things happen to us at the time that may not be right  or sensible at face value,  but in retrospect,  we  realize that without them taking place in our lives, we  would not  uncover  more our potential, our  power, and our heart.
In our life, sometimes it makes sense to just take things as they come and allow life to take its own course.  As they say, some things are meant to be. If they are bound to happen, they will happen, and they will happen at the right time and for the right reason, because “Snowflakes fall at the right places all the time.”