Alone During The Surgery

The Disciple’s Resolution

This one’s on a daily. I figured newspapers are visually more appealing than Supreme Court decisions.

The Teacher’s Stern Warning

The Mayor’s Contention

I came across Austin Kleon’s blog last summer, and I have since enjoyed his work. Copycat that I am, I thought of attempting to do something like this using a Philippine newspaper as my medium. But then I realized I’m stuck with a mountain high of cases to read in law school. So I thought, why not do blackout poetry using my cases? This way, I don’t only get to squeeze out whatever creative juice is left in me, I also get to reuse, reduce and recycle. And of course, this appears to be a little less copycat-ish. Here is my first attempt.

Bing from Baguio

Bing is from Baguio, and she has not gone anywhere beyond Luzon. The only Philippine language she knows is Tagalog, although she told me she could understand a bit of Ilocano. She was the one who suggested that we (with our friends from the Yakal Christian Fellowship) stay in their Baguio home one summer. She was also the one who invited us over to their ancestral house in Bicol and Camarines Sur.

But even before we had the chance to take her invitations seriously, she is already wading through the streets of my hometown more than 2,000 kilometers from Manila; where Tagalog is as seldomly used as the 30 volumes of Encyclopedia Americana in the age of the internet.

Now, while I go back to Manila on the first week of June, she’ll be stuck here working for another six months or so. Thus far, she has complained of the unforgiving heat of summer. Feared of developing migraine. Got conned by a tricycle driver in General Santos who demanded a 15-peso fare, when it could have been only six pesos. Ate durian. Went to our home church. And had dinner at the beautiful “The Farm.”

Rafa Wins the Day

If you ask me, I’m happy that it was Rafael Nadal who won in Hamburg instead of Roger Federer. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of Roger’s, and I think he is arguably the best tennis player ever (aside from Pete Sampras whom I grew up watching). But Rafa is just too good on clay.

I’m looking forward to the Fench Open.

***

Photo: French Open 2007 (from www.telegraph.co.uk).

In Between

In between the tedious task of organizing several crimes under the Revised Penal Code (for the Criminal Law Review team of which I am a part), I managed to make work smell like the sweet and unhurried fragrance of summer break. This I did by visiting interesting blogs on the internet. Lately, I have been reading the works of Austin Kleon. He is a guy from Texas who blacks out words in a newspaper article and creates poetry out of it. The idea is really brilliant.

Here’s one poem called, “Vandalism (From the Heart)”

The CCS: Overcoming

The evenings were reserved for the divided sessions. On the first night, I listened to Bro. Ricky’s preaching on “Overcoming Sinful Habits.” His presentation of the matter was rather simple and basic, but it is in this simplicity that I got to appreciate the message. There was no what-to-do list nor was there “ten practical things you can do to help you in your struggle with sin.” Instead, what he emphasized was the gravity of sin, and the fact that depraved creatures like us would not be able to pull off a decent fight against what is natural and inherent in us. Our hope then is found in Christ alone who proved victorious over sin and death when He died on the cross, and resurrected on the third day.

The only solution really is to hurry always to the foot of the cross, and beg God for His grace to see us through the struggles and the temptations.

Basic though this principle is; yet, I have realized that this is a most difficult thing to do. This is because as a sinner, I have a penchant for independent reliance on myself. It is not natural for me to come running to God; hence, my trust in God’s grace requires God’s grace, too.

One of the things that encouraged me, however, was the truth that God is sovereign. The sins that I am struggling to overcome are all pieces in the wonderful fabric of His plan for me. Sometimes, I feel like I am a lone soldier in the battlefield surrounded by a sea of enemies. But the truth is that I am not alone.

By God’s grace alone, I can overcome.

The CCS: After the Rebuke

This is one marvelous truth: God is a loving Father who knows how to deal gently with his children.

The Convention was an opportunity for me to evaluate myself in light of God’s Word. And truth be told, I have failed in that evaluation. The sermons preached on the pulpit came to me like a full-body mirror exposing my soot-filled face, my dirty feet, my foul-smelling mouth, but most of all, my rotting heart. And boy, seeing yourself that way ain’t exactly the best feeling in the world. After three days of rebuke after rebuke, I was broken.

And being broken, I was glad.

But what makes me even more glad is the fact that God didn’t leave me wallowing in the pool of my failures. Instead, He fueled my heart with encouragement through one pastor’s preaching on biblical courage which can be summed up in the phrase: Never give up. That is just how gracious and loving He is. It is so overwhelming to know that despite of these failures, God still cares for me that He showed me the areas where I failed; and then, like a very loving Father, calls me to His side and comforts me with the thought that I can run the race again. This is also the same way God treated Peter when he denied Christ. After the rebuke came restoration.

From Nanay

At midnight, I got this text message from my mother who was attending an awarding ceremony in some posh hotel:

Praise God, I’m the most outstanding chapter president [of the Philippine Dental Association] in Mindanao.”

Wow, Praise God, indeed.