Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Romans 12:10
Honor each other. Honor each other above yourselves. That, I said, was a guideline not just for the youth service we held, but was also a guideline for life. Humility is powerful. The only currency a true leader has is humility. I said it last night, and I suppose I’ll keep saying it whenever I meet these fine young ladies and gentlemen.
I shared on courage, and I cited three stories.
First story was about a current concern – Long story short, our cat clawed my finger and drew blood. I didn’t think much of it until I noticed that this cat of ours enjoys licking his paws, and consequently, his claws. Would that mean, therefore, that his saliva may have put all sorts of bad things inside me? I explained that this uncertainty impacted me, much so that in two days of this week I found myself slacking off at bed and getting out of bed two, even three hours past my usual time – just alternating between dozing off and watching videos on the phone.
Second was about my experience in Manila – about how I had the usual bias about our country’s capital, and how I never wanted to live there. Unfortunately, I wasn’t necessarily having the best of times in my career where I was, and wanted a new environment – so much, that I considered joining a group headed to Manila to start a new line of business. So, yeah, I fought through the bias – the heat, the so-called attitude of the urban natives, and so on – and it didn’t become so much of a struggle when, I explained to them, that I met a partner. It was bad enough on a person’s finances to just live in Manila (compared to where I came from, where you can go a whole and full day without spending a peso), and you’d think it was worse when you had a girlfriend… But, I told them, not only did living in Manila become less of a struggle with her – it also became more of a pleasure, in the sense that your biases are totally destroyed: The heat wasn’t so bad, the people were actually awesome, but above it all, you’re able to brave through experiences you never thought you’d go through, confident, knowing you have someone with you.
Finally I shared on my fitness journey – I told them about how I was skinny, then suddenly fat starting in high school, which I believe contributed to my becoming a target for bullying, both domestic and foreign. The fat was a struggle, and it became more of a concern for me when my Dad went ahead to be with Jesus because of colon cancer. It then impacted me (just as the cat-claw incident did) when I started seeing (graphic alert) blood in my stool (end graphic alert).
It came to a point that I agreed to have that inevitable colonoscopy, and the results weren’t so bad – sure, they removed some small polyps but there wasn’t anything else bad with my gut. Now, something about that realization got me started in getting serious with my body. In my words (and I regret not sharing this to the group), I wanted to take my body back: I signed up for a program, got my exercise routine together, got my nutrition reset and in order, and eventually lost as much as 30 pounds, the natural way.
The point I had in all this is that courage is not our foundation. If our foundations are shaken (i.e. the cat-claw incident and the consequent worry), it induces discouragement which impacts our decisions and our movement. On the other hand, if our foundations are bolstered – either by way of the loss of worry (the colonoscopy) and/or the presence of support (my fiance former partner), we’re encouraged.
And he said, “O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”
Daniel 10:19
“…Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:9
Fortunately for us, I explained to them – for us in the body of Christ, we will always have a reason and cause to be confident and fearless, to be courageous – because the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is always with us, for us and not against us, no matter what. Furthermore, He has taken away any permanent uncertainty and consequent anxiety, and we have no reason to fear, because His finished work has guaranteed that we have been made righteous and always in good standing with God.
We are courageous in the body of Christ, because of Christ.
After my time to share a message, the fine folks who administered the service introduced an activity. The kids were each given a pen and a paper, and were instructed: On one side, write one word that described who you were before Christ. On the other side, write one word that described who you are now, with Christ.
Shades of my 2008 family trip to the USA came back up – church services (well, at least in the ones I went to in different states) had this gimmick of having a bunch of folks with placards coming on stage, holding up one side showing who they were before Christ, before turning over and, yeah, showing all sorts of breakthroughs with Christ. I remember that one tattooed guy in particular – the one guy who held up that he used to be a gangster or something like that, then turned it around and projected that he was ‘hustling for Christ’, or something like that.
Now, I’ll be honest – here now, as I’m drafting this, I have cues to remember what each individual wrote and eventually shared, including myself. But I’m not about to mention any names, nor am I going to any detail. In fact, the ONLY reason I set out to do this was not to disclose anything (though I did a lot of that earlier), but to intentionally compile and consequently analyze common points, and items of concern, things to address.
Well, let me just proceed with an observation. Not all of these kids were ‘all-in’ or fully introspective or serious about this entire activity – You could tell that there were still a few of them who wrote something down and said anything just for the sake of writing and having something to share. That notwithstanding I still appreciate that they were courageous enough to write what they did and share what they had. Considering how emotional they all got when it was their time to share, well, you can say that they all involved their heart.
Let me also set your expectations that these folks are, for the most part, already actively involved in ministry, particularly in the Sunday service – helping out with the worship, the media, and so on. Also, a good number of them grew up with the church – their parents/grandparents are ‘active’, while a few were straight up pastor’s children.
Now some of them, particularly the more experienced older folks, shared about more about their actions ‘before’, and how it was sin and/or vice… and the quasi-genuine breakthrough of being free from all that in Christ (although there were a few of them us who were still honest about saying we still made mistakes). There WERE a few of the younger folk that didn’t necessarily mention anything about diving into these things, but shared how they openly ‘turned their back‘ to Jesus – until at least one of them saw the failure of (former) friends who ratted this person out once the deeper vulnerabilities were shared in confidence with them.
I guess that sort of sharing couldn’t be avoided. Then there were some other folks who focused on more on their attitudes before and with Christ: Proud to humble, impatient to patient, self-centered and egocentric to fearless and accommodating, shy (low-key proud) to ‘not shy‘ (?), ‘no respect‘ (sic) to respectful… Envious to now feeling really bad after stealing even the smallest of items, antisocial to not so antisocial, competitive to not so competitive, addicted to other things to now addicted to Jesus (whoa).
Going back to all this… what do I have to say? Well, again – I’m in no position to question whether these folks were genuine or not, but the mere fact that they stepped up was already something of great value. At any moment they could have declined to participate in the activity, but they drew their courage, I believe, in no small part from the fact that they were encouraged to write on the other side of the paper.
That is, they were confident, because they were aware of their being with Christ, and Christ being with them, here and now.
It was a good thing to see this, especially because these were their sentiments, instead of their parroting whatever I say to them. I went through recounting all this, not just for the words, but also just to express how thankful I am, that through this exercise I recall how, in God’s good timing, we would see the fruits of our own labor, our patience, and our efforts.
I could say more, but I’ll just go ahead and cut it off here. We’re on to something good here, and I just want to keep on going.
The returns are in the spiritual, and they’re exponential. To God be all the glory and praise, forever and ever.
Until the next post (which is coming very soon), may the Lord continue to bless us greatly. Amen.
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