Weirdness of weirdnesses, I'm home on a late Sunday night after a day of worship, feeling really tired over a full day, and I'm snuggled up in bed after a nice cold shower watching  LOVE ACTUALLY! Seriously, I have no idea how many times I've seen this amazing Richard Curtis flick on DVD! But I do remember having seen it with friends on three different occasions back when it was shown in theaters in 2003!

Again, I am moved by the famous scene (watch this 2-minute clip)...

At any rate, dinner with my family was fun! And today being Grandparents Day, our senior citizens singing groups sung special music. But that's not exactly what I wish to highlight, as I do the sheer goose-bump inducing sight of married senior couples, some of them in their eighties, just loving each other, and loving God.

I arrived at 6:30AM in church and found 80-year-olds Col. Alex Camacho (Ret.) and his wife Claire enjoying breakfast of cut fruit, coffee, wheat bread and cream cheese spread! I greeted them "Good morning," shook their hands and proceeded to the inner room to get my coat. Through the glass door, I saw Alex put a little piece of bread with cheese into Claire's mouth, as he held her hand. 

At lunchtime, I went down to the cafeteria to "oversee" their lunch- that comes with my job description as Worship Pastor, overseeing guests singers' lunch! I did a head count and found that I was missing a couple. I went back upstairs, and found Mr. Ed Alba (78) leaning against a wall. I asked if he wanted to join us for lunch. He smiled and said, "Thanks, son...I'm waiting for my wife. She's in the ladies room. You go ahead, we'll catch up." He and his wife came down and joined everyone else. He picked a table for them, pulled out a chair, wiped the seat with a piece of napkin and asked his wife to sit while he got them both some lunch! After a few minutes, he returned with lunch on a tray. After arranging the food on the table, he reached out to his wife's hand and prayed!

Fil Alcordo (85) and his wife were having lunch together when they saw another senior lady, Nene, a widow, carrying her tray. Fil stood, helped the lady with her tray and gently asked if she would want to join them. Nene agreed. I walked to their table and asked if they would want some cut fruit for dessert. He stood and said, "Maybe the ladies might want some." He reached down and held his wife's hand and asked, "Pangga (love), do you want some melons?"

Prof. Oscar Yutuc (70) came up to me and said, "Pastor, I really hope I could meet with your brother-in-law again. You see, he was the one who planted the Gospel seed in my heart even when I was smarty-pants Professor of Economics in the 90s, always trying to debate with him. Now I'm a believer, I feel I should be thanking him for his ministry. But honestly, I can never thank him enough." I told him that my brother in law was coming to worship at GCF tonight. They met, hugged, and with a simple "Thank you," I saw Prof. Yutuc's sincerity-- an appreciation beyond words.

More than seeing them sing today, I saw how they express their love in various forms. A kind of love that springs from their greatest Love- Jesus Christ.

They are the men and women whom God used to minister to me today in a special way! People who have lost themselves in God, and gained everything in Him.

Losing our lives in God is really gaining what God wanted for us in the first place – an authentic self.

The real challenge in all of this is learning to live authentically. It doesn’t seem to come easily. Since we’ve been so busy living another life instead of the one we were given to live by Jesus Christ, in the power of the Spirit, we have to learn anew how to make our way in the world, in our relationships, in our work, and in our faith.

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This morning, I spoke at Faith Bible College Chapel.

It was weird to step into the familiar chapel- the place where I spent an hour singing and listening to preachers every Tuesday and Thursday for three academic years.

I remember attending a chapel service for the very first time in 1999 as an aloof 21-year-old fresh out of journalism studies at Trinity. Without any intention of attracting attention to myself, I came in my knee-ripped jeans and an olympics-themed black T-Shirt I got months before the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and my hair all jelled up. I had not been told that students had a uniform every chapel day: white top and dark slacks. So, you guessed it, I stood out above the rest- in a rebellious-looking college boy way! A student named Minda actually admitted years later that her first impression of me was that of a rebel-radical-activist  college drop out. But her impression of me changed when Brenda Lee, who was then a senior (now the Registrar, soon to fly out to San Diego, CA) led the singing of an old, 19th-century hymn, I Know Whom I Have Believed. Minda thought to herself, "How could a rebel boy like him have memorized an entire old hymn that isn't even familiar to more than half the students gathered?"

And the former chaplain, the Rev. Brix Laya can attest to that fact that there wasn't a week in my entire Bible college life when I did not violate the chapel "dress code!" It got so concerning that the Student Body Officers agreed to fine students who would not be in white on chapel days! Fines collected were used to buy coffee, sugar and cream for the entire student body! It was my weekly fine that kept the coffee, cream and sugar jars filled!

I must admit, there have only been four chapel sermons that have made some lasting impression and impact on my life- so strong that I remember the sermon title, preacher and text! I say that not to put down preachers and chapel speakers but simply to point out that there are certain things God uses to speak personally to us in ways that He may not in some. That's a reality. Ideally, we should be applying every sound preaching in our lives. But many of us have heard and will yet to hear hundreds of sermons in our lifetime, and yet there will be a few that the Lord will embed in our hearts and minds, and eventually affect our walk in this world!

So in the cab on my way to the College, I was trying to figure out if God would take the message farther than I think it would or will it be just any other sermon preached from the pulpit of the hallowed chapel!

After chapel, I hung out and had coffee with the chaplain, Pastor Aven, and a 2004 graduate named Cleo, who incidentally lost much of her belongings in a fire that ravaged her dormitory. She even lost her precious Bible. Earlier, Brenda Lee handed me an envelop with a gift certificate to a bookshop as an appeciation for my preaching . I gave the certificate away to Cleo so she could get herself a new Bible!

I stayed on 'til after lunch and treated the students to some ice cream! It was fun mingling with the students, some of whom might become my students next semester. Hanging out and getting to speak with some of them made me become aware (again) of their plight as ministry students. 

In a rather strange conversation I had with another guy last week, he mentioned that he is perflexed by the great paradox he notices in the life of ministry students and ministers. He asked, "How could people serving the God who owns all things live in dire financial straits?" "How can God allow for His workers to experience such difficulties, and yet they all claim that He sends provisions just at the right time?" Honestly, I do not have a good answer to those questions other than what I believe His reason was for allowing me to experience the same thing one point in my life: "God allows such to chisel out a character that He wants to see in us- a character of trust, faithfulness and humility- in order that we may no longer find in ourselves the attitude that sees money as that which makes the world go round. He wants for us to focus on the reality that He is central and that He never fails."  Naivete as that answer may sound, I have none other to give.

The Lord has just presented an opportunity for ministry.

Good thing I found a little window of time to write my thoughts down before LIFE PURSUITS Conference begins in three hours.

As I was having lunch at Virramall a while ago. As I waited for food to be served, I found myself in the middle of a section comprising five tables, mine being at the very center. All four tables on my both sides were occupied by dating couples! It felt a wee bit weird for a time because I thought any one can spot obvious the difference! And so, I figured it wasn't a big deal that I was eating alone in what seemed to be a couples only section, I observed. I observed love.

There is no doubt that many of us could provide a working definition of love. We would say something about being selfless, we might describe a feeling, we might even say something of a romantic nature if we’re talking about our partner. Maybe, someone would quote a scripture verse or two about God's love and love for neighbor. 

I always believed that the best way to know what someone believes about love is to watch that person love. If you spend some time around a couple you begin to understand something about the nature of their love, or lack thereof. Watch parents with their child and you will have a sense of the quality of their love. If you spend enough time with two friends you will know intuitively whether love exists in their relationship or if their bond is about something else.

Observing love may be a limited way of defining the nature of love. After all, a couple may act differently around others than they do when their alone. In some sense, that's good. We might say that emotions aren’t always observable. We cannot determine what someone is feeling generally by observing them occasionally. Furthermore, some people can fake it really well. But when we really spend enough time around someone we can begin to determine something of the nature of their relationships and commitments. In other words, if you want to know what someone believes or values watch them love.

I love to see love all around. But like they say, "there's more to life than just watching people live it!"