Foresight 2010

All I wanted for this New Year is serenity and solitude. And I don’t think I will ever get that—not today, not at this very hour.

It's almost 2010. I can hear the firecrackers and see the fireworks from the window of my aunt's living room while everyone here in the house is at the dinning table taking photos of the roast pig (yes, with less than a dozen people in the house, we have roast pig), three kinds of cake, two different pasta--lasagna and fettucini, and almost all kinds of fruits that the vendor is selling at the market (I brought additional watermelon and banana). Now they are moving to the Christmas tree to take more photos, which I think is totally too late for Christmas 2009. Hello? We are celebrating the New Year not Christmas 2009...or 2010. It's too late or too early for that. I don't know where else they will have their photos taken. Maybe at the garage. Let's see if they will go outside. No, they are not. But they are moving to the living room where they are now disrupting my serenity and solitude desire. My cousin and niece are blowing the horns. Toooooot! I think they are even noiser than firecrackers. Whew!

Not forgetting the smell of the New Year, I am becoming to feel that my throat is closing. The health-hazard power irritates my respiratory system every New Year. I always have asthma attacks the day after. And I don't want to miss our family outing tomorrow. Oh man!

Now they are ganging up on me for a nice photo op. Okay, just for the sake of family memento, I have to pause and say "cheese."

H-A-P-P-Y-N-E-W-Y-E-A-R! :)

NOW, it's really 2010! This is it. Welcoming the Year of the Lord's Favor! Thank You, Lord. You have been faithful to us all throughout 2009. And you will remain faithful this year. You're the best God ever! I love you and life with you is even more lovelier this time around.

So here are some of my 2010 to-be and to-do items:

1. Know Jesus more: study the bible and share His love
2. Build (and rebuild) relationships
3. Be happy
4. Love my job
5. Travel!
6. Start something significant
   
7. Save money for a new car
8. Exercise: SWIM!
9. Have another pool party for my birthday
10. Do something extreme like ultra weight flying
11. Aim for 4.0s (I can hear someone saying, "You're killing yourself")
12. Sleep early

More thoughts are popping out. I just need more quite time with God. Hopefully before I fly back to Manila, I will find time to reflect and to write my reflections.

So, this is my first blog for 2010. As my Facebook status says, "All the best for 2010!" I pray that everyone will have God's best for them this year 2010.

Let's embrace everything with faith because God is with us and for us.

Happy New Year.

Preface

This is a new "segment" in my blog brought about by an anxiety that if I die anytime, my family and closest friends would have a hard time organizing my old-and-worn-out notebooks to compile the things I have written over the years of seeking spiritual counsel and for the priceless times of silence and solitude with God.

As a Christ-follower, I believe that one must continue to hear and discern God's call and direction for his or her life. We are called to continuous search for His direction and will but with caution that our ultimate reason behind this attempt is to give glory to our Father in Heaven here on earth. In the process, we come more acquainted, though not fully acquainted, by His wisdom and ways that always result to a deeper and intimate relationship with the Author of Life.

My mentors would always remind me of the verse, "Write the vision and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." (Habakkuk 2:2). And it has been my going-concern to heed to their wise advice. I just can't find enough time and appropriate storage device. Through the years, I have etched them in my heart and kept them in an exclusive compartment in my brain.

So instead of waiting for years for my family and friends to give me a tribute to my legacy after God calls me home, I'd like to share to the world some of my dreams for myself, for my family, for my community, for my accountability group, for the city where I grew up, for my business, and greatly for my country. I believe that God honors and gives the desires of our hearts if we seek Him first and find pleasure in knowing that He who began in me will be faithful to complete it. He will accomplish His plans for my life because He is faithful.

Some of these dreams have already shared with a few valued individuals who belong to my accountability circle. They are special people in my life which includes some family members, my pastors and mentors, my friends here and abroad, my officemate, my classmates, and my small group members.

I affirm one author who said that there is no better place to be than in the nucleus of God's perfect will. And in my faith-journey, I desire no place to be than in the heart of His good, pleasing and perfect.

Because of Jesus,

Jaja

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace. Acts 20:24