Have you ever felt as though you were so drained emotionally and physically?
... so empty once, twice, get up and then got drained again and again until this final time
Have you ever felt like you were being beaten down by the odds of life?
Well, honestly speaking, no human being goes throughout life without experiencing trials. And each individual got to experience different kinds of trials because trials vary in kind and intensity. That's why we don't need to compare our problems with other people. We might not know that there are lots of people out their who have a bigger problem than ours. And they still endure their problems, face them strongly and fix them.
Big problem, small problem, easy to solve problems and hard to fix problems; still and all, we have our own problem and we must solve it accordingly.
Actually, Our Trials can be our Greatest Blessing
As what I have read, the Chinese character for the word 'crisis' represents in two different words and othe other word is 'opportunity'.
So it means that our trials and crisis in life can be an outlet for opportunities that may come our way. It may sound like a cliche or an elderly sermon statement but it is definitely true.
What does not break us strengthens us.
So in this blog, I want to share some key points that we might need to choose or use in beating odds and overcoming trials
I've learned some of it from my nursing years, wherein we nurses able to witness the beauty of a newborn child down to the mournful moment of a human being which is death. And also through reading inspiring books about life, my personal experiences as I got married and of course, perhaps the best lessons are from my grandpa.
Be with God, Always
This is the first lesson I want to share with you because it's the most powerful shield we can have during bad days. Just like what I have heard from a friend who is a breast cancer survivor, and with her testimony, she said that her cancer disease is God's greatest gift to her because it had made her closer to God even more.
That's how amazing a human being can endure such difficulty, and I do believe everyone can be as strong as all other breast cancer survivor.
And I think everyone or most of us know the story of David and Goliath, wherein Goliath happens to be the giant in the giant land and David ran to meet the giant despite of his human strength, the odds were really against him. But with David's strong faith in God, David killed the giant with only a slingshot. And that scenario, God was with him all the way.
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. - Isaiah 41:10 New International Version (NIV)
Keep your Mission Alive: Know Him and Make Him Known
Have you ever known someone whose life's been busy with constant work and other humanly duties?
Well, apparently some people nowadays who happen to have their retirement stage doesn't even enjoy life at all. Not only because they have been so busy at work, with their family, and with their duty to get their children to college, but they also didn't seek God's wisdom of contentment and satisfaction, spiritually.
Financial stability will never give us the full satisfaction we need, we must also feed our soul with the words of God.
All of us here on earth, by the virtue of the baptism we had at our own conviction, are also called to be Apostles. And being one of the apostles we can spread the words of God in our own little ways. Spreading His words doesn't mean we need to utter those Godly words literally, the main course of preaching the good news means allowing ourselves to be God's instrument in 'warming the hearts' and healing other people's wound. We can heal others in our own little ways, physically and most of spiritually by staying at their side, listening to them, offering some shoulders to cry on and letting them know that God is always there to guide and give them strength.
From a missionary's story that I've read, he saw a crucifix with no arm in a church in Germany when he was studying there, the crucifix' arms were cut off when the Allies bombed the city during WWII. And the missionary shared that beneath the cross, there was a sentence stating..
''I have no arms, You are my arms''
In a clear thought, we can all be His apostles, we can all be God's arms to embrace the world and spread His words.
Never Ever Give Up!
One of the best commencement address I have ever read was delivered by an orator named Winston Churchill at Harvard. And in his speech, he uttered the three words - 'NEVER GIVE IN', seven times!
"Never give in, never give in, never give in, never give in, never give in, never give in—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense." - Winston Churchill
I think we all have heard all the stories of our grandfather when they were still young and beating the odds of life. As for me, I love listening to my grandpa's story when he was still young, he loves to relay them to us everytime we have small gatherings. He always shares with us how they survived life by striving hard every day just to be able to eat three times a day. And with his words, I can't further complain any problems I have right now because my problems are just 1/4 part of how big he had experienced back then.
Even from the start, we all know that Jesus Christ took up and carry his cross. And there's no other reason why we should not carry our own cross. Yes, we all are carrying our own crosses every day. We have been carrying the crosses of our past and the too much worriness about the crosses we are about to carry on the future. And that's the mistake we have been doing because the only cross we need to carry is the cross for today. Let us forget the cross from the past and most of all let us not worry to cross we will be carrying in the future. Because the cross for today is so much loaded with our personal dilemmas, dilemmas like: a cheating husband, rebellious daughter or son, grumpy mother in law, failing grades, a misunderstanding with your friend, and many more. There are others too who are carrying very heavy crosses every day, diagnosed with terminal cancer, no food to eat, tons of debts and many more.
There is so much reason to cry out loud and give up but with God's grace we are able to survive the day carrying our crosses, and at the end of the day we are alive. We have survived the day and the rest days of the week because we have our family that comfort and supports us, we have the friend who lent us the money, we are able to talk to our children heartily and patients at the hospital relieved from pain due to a well-rendered nurses' therapeutic management. And also there are others who didn't get the chance to solve and fix their problems, however, we can still lay down our cross, have some rest, pray and be thankful for the strength you received from Him. Because sometimes some solutions to every prayer come after we had a good sleep or maybe not yet.
In any way, we can sleep in God's arms, gather more energy for tomorrow's journey.
Whenever we are going through such dilemmas in life, let's just picture in our mind that we are like in a race. And at the end of that race, the finish line, God is waiting for us, giving us the best cheer we need.
So, we must win all the battles in life together with God
Don't Fight the Battle Alone
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. - Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 New International Version (NIV)
No man is an island. No man or woman can win alone
I never thought that I would be marrying my college classmate and clinical duty mate. At first, there were lots of hesitancy in getting into a relationship with the man I am married with right now. One of those hesitancies was that I am too afraid of getting hurt, but all in all, I tried, I entered the kingdom of love with him unexpectedly. And honestly speaking, I got hurt, we got hurt, lots of storms passed by, we've been lots of trials and dilemmas along the way but we conquered those dilemmas together, hand in hand. And there are lots of times that I have been so negative about life and every trial we meet I easily give in but my husband was always there to cheer me up and give me strength to continue, he was always there holding my hand as we walk through those trials.
Thank God I married my college classmate. Thank God for giving me a best friend and one of the best companion I could have here on earth
The Mysterious Triangle of Strength
According to the best selling author of Happiness Is a Choice, which is named as Frank Minirth, MD, there are three important core on each leg of the mysterious triangle of strength.
Original Image edited via MS Paint
The First Leg is God's Word
I know the words of God are hard to grasp on and it is not that easy to learn everything in just one reading. In reading and learning His words we must give ourselves the time we need to understand the meditations we are reading. Knowing Him more is not like we are reading our fave novel, it is not like we are at school and just simply uttering the text of every textbook. Opening our heart is the key and giving it much time to spontaneously accept His words.
I have here the steps I have learned from my grandfather, on how to pray with a bible alone.
I read the meditation heartily without any commotion inside of me and around me
I look for the part where it strikes me the most and I give myself some minutes to contemplate those words.
Then I speak all my thoughts to God, just like He is just sitting in front of me, listening to me.
I then listen to God's response silently, not by waiting to hear His voice literally but I open my heart and soul to Him and let the Holy Spirit touch me.
And end my meditation with a personal prayer in thanking Him for giving me the time I need and thanking Him for the presence He shared with me.
The Second Leg is Prayer
I still can remember when me and my brother was still in our elementary days, my grandfather always calls our attention every 12 noon, 3 pm in the afternoon and 6 pm because he was teaching us the rosary. My grandfather was the one who introduced to us the holy rosary and how to pray the verses along with the corresponding beads. He taught us to pray if we received something, he taught us to pray if we feel down and he taught us to pray if we feel so drained and tired. Unfortunately, we stopped doing those together because our life( me and my brother) has been so busy that we forget to pray the rosary. But now that I am more matured enough to take my priorities seriously and able to manage my time I can truly say that I am so thankful to my grandfather for teaching us the holy rosary and every time I have time in my day I pray to the rosary as what my grandfather taught us.
Our earthly body together with its human condition, ordinariness, boredom, demands at work, physical issues and sufferings from day to day can sometimes lead us to being so drained out. And one of us suffers such fatigue and so burnout with those never-ending rubbing of shoulders. However, if we can only see God's grace through every depressing event in our lives we will surely transform those negative vibes into the channel of grace and solace.
For those who remain connected to the source of grace shall never run dry.
If we are unhappy- let us pray, if we had a bad day let us pray, if we received a blessing today let us pray, if we are tired let us pray...
The Third Leg is the Body of Christ
Lately, Mindanao has been one of the places here in the Philippines that has been experiencing different kinds of typhoons. And even when we were just kids it has always been so chaotic here in Mindanao because of all the bombings and terrorist attacks. But despite all those challenges we have encountered my grandfather keeps on telling us that no storm can defeat a person's faith as long as it is by group, my grandfather encourages us to pray together every trial that comes our way.
In beating the odds of life we also need the support and encouragement from our closest kin. Together, with our strong faith, all of us can able to build surpass that very tall mountain, together, all of us can survive any type of storm.
Guard Your Spiritual Being at All Times
We all have our own trichotomous being within ourselves, this trichotomous being is the three-part field of a human being which is consist of our spirit, soul, and body.
Among the three, the spiritual aspect is the most overwhelming part because of every day, every hour, every minute and every second in our lives, our spiritual being tussle and wrestle with such powerful spiritual enemy who wants to win over our faith to God.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. - Ephesians 6:12 New International Version (NIV)
We face and encounter such powerful enemy every day, and sometimes those kind of enemy we keep on fighting lures within ourselves. And the only way to win the fight is walking and taking God's hand in our daily walk in life. Because unlike in physical issues we tend to suffer every day, still, we can improve those part of ourselves by having a healty lifestyle and taking good care of our body. And even in terms of our psychological being, we can have and grab those people who are our close to our heart and share our thoughts and feelings to them for us to gain such relief from all the daily stressors.
Just like the conventional aphorism...
We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us
This may seem so odd but I think it is somehow true because we have been fighting the biggest battle in life ever since and that battle is just within us. And in order for us to beat the daily odds of life, we must be spiritually strong and always guard our spiritual being at all times.
I and my husband, has been through a lot of trials in our married years. From the financial crisis as we were just starting down to the part wherein looking for the very means of earning money for the family was too hard. Lots of rejections, dilemmas, and misunderstandings came our way.
We might have fall down many times, not once...not twice but we get back up again and again by grabbing God's hand; We got our knees wounded, not once... not twice but we continue on kneeling and praying.
Now that we are much closer to God I can't say to all of you that we don't have problems, we still do. However, we continue to choose God over those problems.
Life is so difficult. The odds might be stronger than us but we must fight the battle not just for our family but also for God, we must be strong and we must fight back!
With God's help we can be victorious over every odds in life
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