Flatline

We all have those phases when days and weeks pass, and we feel as if we just slept through it. You're not sad. Not depressed. Happy, but not on fire. Just... Flatlined.

I've been praying for a spike. Not enough is happening. The words are not even flowing as freely as before.

But tonight, it was like taking the shower early in the morning, and once the water hits you you're suddenly wide awake because you forgot to turn the heater on. The last song sung tonight:

You are my glorious prize Father
You are the passion that fills my life
My treasure of treasures
A wealth without measure to me
And you'll always be the prize of my life.

...To hear your voice, to know Your heart
Is my burning desire

The heartbeat's back.

Stiff-necked

Having a stiff neck is a very irritating feeling. Crossing the street becomes a deadlier task (it's already a deadly task in Manila) because just to make sure you don't get hit by our friendly and law-abiding jeepney drivers, you have to twist your whole torso to the left or to the right. Worse, picture-taking becomes a torturing ordeal as you try to painfully pose in "your" angle. While smiling and enduring the pain, you imagine whacking yourself on the head for sleeping in the same position the whole night.

Yet, most of us don't realize there's a worse (probably the worst) kind of stiff-neck than the physical stiff-neck -- the "spiritual" stiff-neck. We do the same things over and over again: we lie, we cheat, we steal, we live for ourselves, we live as if there are no eternal consequences to our present actions, and we refuse to be corrected. We've become so used to our way of living that we become stiff-necked people and resist any attempts to revert to how God has originally designed our lives to be.

Eventually, we'll feel the highest point of the pain. The sad part is some of us have become immune to their own vileness that it has become normal to them. And they choose to live with it. And they'll never know the peace, the joy, the satisfaction, the comfort and the real freedom that comes with living the way God has planned for lives.

Don't be stiff-necked people. Acts 7:51.

No to Dieting!

I have always been conscious of my weight. Since I was born with big bones (:D), I have to compensate by eating less (and skipping meals) so that I'll fit in the clothes I stored in the closet (because I just KNOW I'll lose weight soon. Very soon.).

Yet, I noticed that the more I deprived myself of food that I love, the more I craved. And the more that I ended up eating more portions than I should.

"Don't waste your energy striving for perishable food... Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides."

--John 6:27

This has led me to realize that depriving myself of God's Word has the same effect. I become more prone to doing things I shouldn't be doing. "Dieting" from Scripture, from prayer, from quiet time, from good soulfood, makes me crave for all the wrong things. And when I'm famished, my life enters the lull and dull phase... the dry spells... the times when I almost always go back to my favorite sins.

Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. Everyday, we have to fill our spirits with God's sustenance so we crave for the right things, so we overflow with the right love. We do not live and eat just to fit in the latest trends, but to conform to His will and ways. When it's God's Word, wala dapat diet-diet.

Eat. Pray to the One True God. Love. :)

!Hola!

Hey hey hey!

So is this site collecting dust or what?! I know I always say I'll write more often, but it never really happens. Like when I say I'll meet up with friends more often, run more often, read more often, sleep earlier more often... they never really happen (Isn't it cool when your words rhyme even though you didn't really mean it to?). Too much work, hair just got straightened (so you can't tie it up in a pony for a month... so you can't run because who runs with their hair all over their face, right?!), too much work, too many things to do... So you end up postponing important things. There's always tomorrow, next week, next month anyway, right?

Wrong.

People don't always wake up the next morning. They sometimes die in their sleep.

People can't always run (or even walk) the next day. They sometimes slip over a banana peel and break a leg.

People don't always meet up with dear family and friends on a whim. They sometimes migrate to a different country (or worse, they're the ones who don't wake up in the morning).

It's morbid, but it is what it is.

So do what you love to do, every minute, every hour, every day. Write even when you're not emotional. Drink and eat and talk with family and friends even if your clients are hounding you like dogs. Sleep when you can, even if there's a Mara Clara marathon on TV. When you're old and sitting in a rocking chair watching the sunset while your grand children are playing in your lawn, you'll know you did the right thing by prioritizing the things and people you love most over the things you just like.