Yesterday, my bandmates and I went to Conspiracy Cafe to of course play our new songs. Buti nakakanta pa ko. I had to apologize to the audience for my voice because (sigh) I really sounded horrible. Para bang may nagliliha sa loob ng lalamunan ko. Nakakahiya. Andun pa naman si Ms. Jeanne Vicars and Direk Mark Aranal. Their names on here are linked to their facebook pages so just clicky clicky para malaman niyo kung bat ako kinabahan ng bonggang bongga. (Syempre maglogin ka muna sa FB mo, kung di mo makita profile, igoogle mo na lang sila) Kahit hindi namin first time, each time feels as if it's our first. Haha. But they're nice people and it's always been an honor for us to get invited to such a wonderful event. 

While people might think that having been able to play our music in that place was the best part, it actually wasn't. I can't say it entirely wasn't the best part but the "awesomest" part of that night I should say, was when their main guest for the night took the stage. Meron kase silang theme every week and the title of the theme last night was Broken Pieces. Ang speaker ay si Germaine Santos. Never heard of her name before but through her testimony I got to know who she is. She shared how within a year, every thing that she considered her treasures was slowly taken away from her, hurting her in the process of course. Within that year, she lost her dream job, her father, her stepfather, the only grandparent she had left (these three people died on different occasions but she weren't there when each one passed because she's a missionary...she was out serving the Lord), her senior pastor, her home and got her hamstring injured thereby losing her chance to run again - which is one of her passions. Oh, she's forty seven and single by the way. 

And you might also think that whoa! she must be at her wits end now!...but no. She seems like a happy person. She was even joking and laughing. She said every thing that she had to go through was painful. She said she sat on her couch one day and said "Lord, why don't you just take me? I'd rather be in heaven with You where there's no more pain and crying than be here."

And then she shed a tear.

Pero sabi niya she wouldn't become the person she is right now hadn't she gone through all of those things. Ang pinakagusto ko sa sinabi niya ay yung "I am closer to God now than I was before and I always talk to Him" or something to that effect, I can't remember what her exact words were but it really left a mark on this hallow mass in me. If God can break you, only He can make you whole again. Kung walang wala ka na, san ka pa tatakbo? Just think about your lowest points, who knew about those? Who knew what you felt? No one. But Him.

My thoughts: 

We often whine about something...how low our salaries are, how corrupt the government has become, how our bills have reached sky high, how mean and rude others are, how we never get to buy what we want, how unappetizing the dishes are on our tables, how poverty has gotten worse, how the hot weather affects our skin or our mood even, how long we've been waiting for a bus or whatever....I can list down oh so many things we complain about each day. 

We whimper but never appreciate.

If we think about how easy it is for God to take every thing away from us, who would stay self-centered? Sigh. I always sigh. I'm sighing not because I'm tired because this had me thinking.  

John 13:1 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (NIV)

SOMETHING TO PONDER:

Does praying horrify you? Does the sight of someone reading the Bible or a verse gives you chills? Then you might wanna think again. Bakit di mo subukan si Lord? WALANG MAWAWALA. Kung sa tingin mo ikaw kausap ko, oo ikaw na nga! 

And you know what? JESUS LOVES YOU. This might sound funny to you but He does. He really does.

I disabled comments for this post. Just Be Silent and Think.