Posts Tagged ‘God’

On Unanswered Prayers

// June 18th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Blog-a-holic, Life in General

Today, I noticed that my friend’s status message says, “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”  And I thought, “Does God really not answer our prayers?”

I personally think that God hears and answers all our prayers.  Yeah, all of it.  He never gets confused about our prayers because he knows the desires of our hearts before we even pray about it.  Here are some of my thoughts about this:

His answer may not be the ones we ask for. Before, I used to pray for an ex-boyfriend.  He was very abusive and I prayed that he’ll be saved someday and that his abusive ways will stop.  And God answered my prayer.  After three painful years, everything stopped and I was happy again.  But we were no longer together.  Instead, He introduced me to this really cute guy who shares the same faith as I.  It’s been more than two years and we are still together and we’re happier each day!

His answer is better than what we ask for. My siblings and I lived in the province back in the 90’s for about 3 years.  The three of us were so used to eating instant pancit canton.  We would cook a pack and divide it among the three of us and we were happy.  We’d pray that someday, we could eat 2 packs each of those instant noodles.  God did answer our prayers and now, instead of pancit canton, we can now afford to buy Charlie Chan in Yellow Cab or other stuff we’ve never imagined we can buy.

His answer is not always immediate. It is very typical for us to become really impatient.  And it can be very frustrating to wait for God’s answer.   I’ve been there.  It’s so tough to get a yellow signal from God.  In one of our Bible study meetings, we talked about Abraham and how God promised to give him a son.  It took 25 years before God fulfilled His promise.  A yellow light isn’t such a bad thing.  A friend told me, “When God says wait, that’s when we should be at our happiest because He has something good in store for us.”

So, does God really not answer our prayer sometimes?  I don’t think so.  Have a blessed week everyone!

Life’s Lessons from the Humble Computer Keyboard

// May 13th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Blog-a-holic, Life in General

God has a funny way of teaching me life’s lessons.  He must have known about Generational Diversity and figured out that I am a Millenial (i.e., I heart the web and computers). Here are some of the lessons in life I have learned from the humble computer keyboard.

  • CTRL + Z – Unfortunately, in real life, I can’t just Undo anything I have already said and done. This means, I have to be very careful on what to say or do.
  • Backspace – And if I have done something wrong (which I couldn’t CTRL-Z away), I have to remember that there’s no Backspace key to hit.  I cannot erase my mistakes or how I made people feel (whether it’s good or bad, of course).
  • Del – Same with Backspace, there’s no Delete button in real life.  Once done, it’s done.  But I can’t just stop in the acceptance phase, because it means I also have to forgive and learn from it.
  • Function keys – Reminds me that help is always available (F1) especially if I learn how to search (F3) for the solutions, and that I also need times of refreshing (F5).
  • ALT + TAB – In life, one needs to learn how to multitask.  Especially if you have two or more tasks at hand of equal priority. But if you can’t handle it, you always have an option to…
  • CTRL + ALT + DEL – (Task Manager) Re-prioritize and end those tasks that you cannot manage right away.
  • CTRL + S – Only God can save us from sin and from pain and sufferings.
  • ALT – F4 – They say, quitters are losers.  That’s not entirely true.  Winners quit the right things (bad habits, poor attitude, etc.). And last but not the least…
  • Esc – “I kept on pressing escape, but I am still here. Help!” The truth is, when things go out of control, the best escape is to God. I tend to search for God more when things go wrong.  But when things are doing well, I tend to forget Him.  Lesson learned: Always escape to God.  No matter how difficult the situation is; even if I’m not having a Kobayashi maru moment (got this term from my Trekkie friend, Tris).

Please feel free to share what you think or if you want to add anything or comment. :)  Funny how some alone time and tweeting with @olympicnw helped me realize these things.

The Best Things in Life are No Longer Free

// May 4th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Blog-a-holic, Rants

Now that’s too bad. There came a time when you can get free stuff.  Today, you just can’t.  You have to pay for almost everything.  Let me give you a quick run down of the great things that used to be free.

1.  Cool air. I remember, if I wanted a breeze of cool air, I would just open my room’s window and there you have it, a cool breeze.  It’s way too hot nowadays.  Now, you have to buy an electric fan or an airconditioning unit if you want your cool air.

2.  Peace and quiet. I live in the city and that means I have to live in an area where there are about 5-8 kids per family who also, unfortunately, live with their extended families.  You could hear kids crying, dogs howling/barking, and drunk neighbors belting their worst version of My Way at times as early as 7AM or as late as 12MN.  If I wanted a quiet neighborhood, I have to get a condo or rent a house for as much as P18, 000 a month for some peace and quiet. Phew. I miss the province.

3.  School supplies. Back in high school, we were given free pens, notepads, notebooks, pencils, books, even bags and shoes for free.  We even get some clothing allowance.  Now, if I wanted some school supplies, I have to open my wallet and hand over my hard earned money to the cashier.

4.  Paper cups. Tell me, what kind of coffee vending machine does not dispense paper cups?  The ones in our office doesn’t.  There was a time when it did, but that was back in 2005. OK, it’s cool to save the trees from turning into paper cups.  But then, I sometimes forget to bring my own mug.  So when it gets extremely cold at work, I don’t even bother going to the vending machine.  If I wanted my hot choco in a paper cup, I have to go to Starbucks and pay P150 (which is a pretty hefty price for someone like me).

5. ATM use. Ha. The banks got ya! Whether you’re just checking your balance, paying your bills, transferring money (sending or receiving) or making a withdrawal, the bank will charge you a fee! The cost of convenience, tsk, tsk.

6. Clean water. Thanks to pollution galore, even clean drinking water is no longer free.  You have to buy bottled water or a water-filtering system to get clean water.

7. Extra gravy. Think you can get free extra gravy from McDonald’s or KFC when you order food to go?  Think again.  Or better yet, check your bill or ask the cashier.

I could go on and on but there’s one great thing that remains free — salvation.  Thank you, God.