One Sunday afternoon, I knew I wanted to write a blog post but I somehow feel ‘off’ today and the past few days, so I thought of allowing myself to be refilled by Jesus.

I was reading a book called “All Out! How to Waste Your Life Meaningfully” written by Nerry Gool. The 4^th chapter of the book entitled “Transformed by Christ” has five parts which I found very inspiring and I want to share my realizations with you.

Beyond the Boundaries

I remember asking myself out of the blue, “how can God love me with such undivided and unconditional love?”. I was in awe, wondering how God can make me feel like I’m His only child and at the same time, He unceasingly teaches me to love His other children like how I love myself. I thought, He has so many children and yet, He never fails to give the love to each of us that is so complete and so faithful.

And then God made me realize that once we accept Jesus into our hearts and allow Him to transform us (in a gradual process), we begin to understand that God is not like humans. Therefore, His ways are so different from our ways; His way of thinking is waaaay beyond human logic; He is divine, infinite, and He goes beyond anything that binds or limits us, human beings.

Joy and Pain—We Need Them Both

For quite a few times, I remember experiencing the comforting and assuring embrace of the Holy Spirit right at the very moment when I am feeling the pain of rejection, regret, or spiritual attack.

It is already given that when we are happy, it is easier to be grateful and we come to God with gratitude. But in the most recent experience that I had when I felt beaten up and painfully wounded from what I understand as a spiritual attack, in the midst of hurting, I found myself still having something to be grateful for. Sab inga ni Ate Nerry do’n sa book, “When you are hurt, something in you still makes you grateful.”. You may ask, ‘How come?’. Sabi pa do’n sa book, the Holy Spirit is assuring us that God is working for our good, kahit na hindi natin nakikita o hindi natin nararamdaman.

This means kahit yung mga bagay, tao, o pangyayari na nakakasakit sa’tin, ginagamit ni Lord para sa ikabubuti natin. Cheesy ba? Pero totoo. We always want joy and despise pain. But both of them have their respective roles in our lives. Just like the gentle people and the harsh ones; the tender and the tough; the listener and the talker.

We don’t have to choose one over the other because both of them can bring us closer to Jesus and can make us become more like Him.

Everyone Has One

When a person has a big problem, he or she tends to think that others are luckier because they don’t have problems like his. Little did he/she know that others have their own share of problems too and that everyone has his/her own journey and purpose.

I remember the time when I used to envy other people whom I perceive as better or luckier. But Jesus has told me that I am blessed for having what other people don’t have. And I am forever grateful.

Each person has something that someone else doesn’t have and vice versa.

Over And Over Again

Do you find yourself repeatedly experiencing something which you do not like experiencing? One of the things that throws me off and easily irritates me is getting interrupted when I am so engrossed to my work—reviewing for exams, doing a project, preparing for a presentation, finishing my job, etc.

I’ve always known that interruption is always there. It’s constant. But I never really got used to it until God has placed me in a job where constant interruption is inevitable. I admit, I still feel the irritation here and there, but Jesus reminds me to be more patient—always be more patient. At naaalala ko ‘to whenever I evaluate my performance by the end of each day, and I found myself still not at my best.

But whenever I am being impatient with myself, Jesus reminds me that He will never give up on me. He will never give up on us. He will always keep on teaching us what we need to learn, even when we have to repeatedly go through the same situations just to become more like Him—Holy.

Slow Progress

Whenever we feel like our progress in our career, love life, personality development, etc. is so slow, again, we are being reminded to be patient. In the book, “All Out!”, Nerry Gool shares that God said “Every human work is a work In progress.”.

“Development takes place in the course of time, given a particular space, with allowances for errors and imperfections, for fine-tuning along the way.”

–Nerry Gool from her book: “All Out! How to Waste Your Life Meaningfully”

That ‘slow progress’, I’ve felt this for quite a few times, particularly when I was looking for employment and right now that I am in a steady job for almost three years and I somehow feel afraid of getting stuck at level 1 of my career. I have been planning to do several different things, but the Lord has, again reminded me that “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21)

TRANSFORMED BY CHRIST

The transformation process is currently on-going. Mine is under-construction.–I mean, is also a work in progress. LOL 🙂

We are just going to be disappointed with ourselves or with other people if we are expecting for absolute perfection—no more pain, no more sadness, no more failure, no more shortcomings, no more weaknesses, no more drama, no more etc.

But the Lord’s promise is that, He will surely provide us with all the graces that we need to become like Him, to do His purpose for our lives, and to learn our lessons to be shared to others.

And let’s always remember that everything is part of the process. Even the seemingly mundane, irrelevant things can be utilized by Jesus to transform us.

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