Joy in a Foreign Land

Written by Warren |Posted on June 11, 2009 | Comments

Last night I was able to discuss for our Wednesday devotions. It was quite long actually because I fed a lot of details. It took me about an hour of discussion and I didn’t noticed I was exhausted. Hazel said she can hear me breathing louder in my microphone as I began the 2nd half of the discussion. But all in all it was a blessing to me. I enjoyed preaching generally and I enjoyed it more when people get blessed. But actually I wasn’t much happy about it.

For a moment I had quick flashback of my history when I was in Manila. I knew I attended church, had some friends there. I was born and raised in Manila. But I never realized that I wasn’t happy back then in Manila until last night. Last night was such a blessing to me as well as to others. And I couldn’t deny my feelings. I’m starting to feel at home here in the province. What’s sad about it is I grew up in Manila so if ever I would be enjoying my days, I would expect it to be in Manila. I would expect that I’m preaching and maturing in Manila, my hometown. I would expect my friends in Manila to be blessed. But somehow I couldn’t fit in. And I didn’t realized that until last night. I thought I was happy back then. I thought I was experiencing the love from fellow Christians. But this time I felt I had a real family here in the province.

This is a sad fact for me because I’m realizing that the number of years spent in Manila is not worth comparing to the number of months stay here in the province. It’s like I’m standing on the crossroads and I need to make a decision whether to continue on this path and love the people in it or force myself to fit in to a crowd that doesn’t even see me nor notice that I even exist. And I’m not talking about my schoolmates, to which I don’t bother much, but to my Church colleagues. To the people I spent most of my years with.

As I grew up in this kind of environment, wherein you can count the number of times you see them smile in their lifetime, I thought that being cold towards another is already the expression of love as we see in Scripture. But as I mature and read through the scriptures, I see there the necessity of loving the brethren and part of loving the brethren is being sensitive towards another’s needs. It’s like I realized feeling affectionate love towards another brethren isn’t a sin at all. In fact it’s encouraged.

Not that I’m experiencing a lot of love in our Church lately here in the province. But whenever Hazel and I would reach out to them, I see their response. And that amazes us both. Their response was very human. Like prayer wasn’t an obligation but our common expression of love towards God. Or discussing things about the Bible leads us to praise and worship God. Sometimes we would even sing hymns adoring the love of God for us.

I am still amazed at what God is revealing to us. I have more to see in the next months.