An afterthought about my friend Ana’s statement:
God is a creative god.
We may fall so in love with other people’s love stories that we tend to want the stories for ourselves. But God is NOT into plagiarism. Your story will be different but will never be less special. Just you wait.
“Fight the good fight of faith…”
-1 Timothy 6:12
The hero gets the girl.
This idea has grown to be so attractive, it’s the central theme of more than half, if not every, movie – regardless of the genre.
Every man wants to be the hero that gets the girl of his dreams. Every girl dreams of being fought for and rescued by her hero. But here’s what often happens: we get too consumed with wanting to get to the end of the story, we fail to appreciate the beauty and the importance of what happens in between.
Men, getting the girl is not supposed to be easy. Getting things faster isn’t the way to go. If you expect or even allow yourself to get everything you want and need in a flick of a finger then you have decided to give up the title of a “hero” and are settling with being called a brat. You win the fight, you get the girl. Yes, you’ll get hurt along the way, you’ll get tired, you will have to drag yourself into the battlefield at times. But the essence of winning isn’t about getting the prize. It’s about the effort you’ve put into it that makes the difference.
Every pursuit is an act of faith.
Women, getting the girl is not supposed to be easy. Yes, it’s the same reminder. A hero who refuses to fight for you is not a hero just yet. If he’s a brat now, then chances are he’ll be a brat for most of the time that you are with him. Yes, waiting for the hero to come can be tiring, scary at times, and even emotionally unpleasant. But hang in there. You can either settle for momentary bliss (and then get hurt for the most time) or wait until your hero has fought every battle he needs to face to get to you. By then, he’d be strong enough to fight for the both of you when you’re finally together.
Waiting is an act of faith.
Make sure you don’t get into anything without a fight. We all have our battles. The good thing about it is that because we have Christ in us, we are no longer fighting to win. We are standing on the side of victory while we fight!
I was walking from the entrance of our village on my way home. The moon lit up the skies. And the stars, they were all in place. Before I went through our gate, I decided to look up and found myself staring at the moon. And then I thought to myself, “Hey, this is the same sky I’ve been looking up to for the past 25 years!”
Yet the same sight never fails to leave me in awe each and every time.
I stayed on that spot, for quite some time and pondered about His greatness. How, even though there are times when the skies aren’t as beautiful, how life isn’t as beautiful, there are always moments like these that I can look forward to; how His love for me remains the same despite my imperfection; how He can afford to pursue me each and every day. And then, out of sheer gratitude and an overwhelmed heart, I sang (yes, in the middle of the street):
You never change
You’re still the same
You are the everlasting God
You will remain
After the day is gone
And the things of earth have passed
Everlasting God
And then the sweetest thing happened.
The wind blew. Hard enough to move the leaves of the coconut trees lined up beside the road; hard enough for me to hear the leaves moving. But it was so soft I never really felt cold. And during that moment, He spoke to my heart: “Yes love, I am here. I am here with you. I have loved you with an everlasting love. And I will never tire of loving you, of pursuing you, of taking care of you. I am here and I always will be.”
And then the wind stopped.
And I, with tears in my eyes, stood there for a few more seconds, in awe of how real this relationship is. Amazed at how He can just come through at any given moment and make me fall for Him over and over again. And thankful for the many times that He has made me feel so loved despite my imperfection.
And for some reason, I felt overly excited for everything that is to come.
“Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one
by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of His great power and mighty
strength,
not one of them is missing.”
-Isaiah 40:26
