the space in between

2000 years ago something happened...

2000 years ago there were young lovers.

They were minding their own business, when in the mediocrity of their lives something happened:

It arrived...unexpectedly...

It was strange, and altogether life changing, but nevertheless they looked at it as a gift from the Divine.

It was welcomed with meaning, uncertainty and faith.

Little did they know that altogether this something that happened, this gift, this baby would in turn become this Palestinian Jew who would in both words and actions announce that the Kingdom of God has arrived.

This man would reveal God to us as the one whom we can call "Father". Ultimately this something would be 'God with us' and in turn would "give himself for us" because he loves us.

This something came unexpectedly and there's a lesson to be learned in welcoming unexpected because it is in the unexpected that the obvious is seen and felt. It is there that God works and there that God meets us in love.

Gloria in excelsis deo.

Christmas: A rant

Let me say it clear: I do not want to abolish Christmas; I am just frustrated with the beast that it has become in recent years.

I hate the way Christmas turns people into proactive gift recipients who expect people to give them presents. Newsflash, the idea of a gift is that it is given because those who want to 'give' so freely chosen to render gifts it cannot be the other way around.

I hate the way taxi drivers see it as a license to overcharge, choose passengers whine and make you feel that you should give them an extra on top of their meter rate.

How long, how long, will I slide into the abyss that is myself?

God knows how much I try to make sense of this life by putting it in a perspective that is beyond me. But every time I do so I miserably fail. It must be a matter of will power, something that I sadly do not have an ample supply of. For someone who holds fast to a truth claim like faith in a loving God, I am one who always treads that thin line between belief and unbelief. In faith I wrestle with doubt. In faith I fall prey to the apparent certainty of my understanding. In faith struggle to climb out of the pitch-dark well that is myself...

Learning to 'mind the gap'

A couple of weeks ago I was blessed to have been invited to teach a Sunday School class on New Testament history and in the process of preparing the material I was constantly confronted with the nagging question of why would we need spend time and energy bridging the historical and cultural gaps between the modern world and the world of the New Testament era?

As of now I am still struggling with this question and below are some insights that I shared while giving the introduction to the lesson, to which I think the phrase: ‘mind the gap’ fittingly exemplifies.

Of flash mobs, Christology and the church

Watching this video somehow struck a chord.

Especially, since last Sunday I broke my months of absence at church. Months ago I've somehow lost interest in attending worship services, because I feel as though like I've just been spending years of my life going through the motions of standing up, sitting down; reading the Bible; singing long praise songs that repeats the words Jesus" and "me" to the point of abuse; and sitting for an hour to listen to unchallenging messages and reading bullet points flashed in a multimedia projector.

Last weeks’ celebration of Greenpeace 40th founding anniversary reminded me that this year I am also celebrating my 6th year as a part of Greenpeace Southeast Asia’s Philippine office, and I am proud to say that it was 6 meaningful years that I will forever treasure as an individual that have chosen the path less-traveled of environmental activism that finds its personality in direct action – in “cutting out the middleman” and becoming an instrument of defense for this precious blue marble that we all call Earth.

Amchitka: the beginning of a movement

Vancouver, Canada 40 years ago: a ragtag band of hippies, Quakers, American draft-dodgers, journalists and ecologists would change the face of environmental activism as we know it...

In this day and age of technological overdependence and internet activism I believe there is wisdom in re-visiting what being a revolutionary meant to those who have actually given their all for their vision of a better world.

Lean Alejandro was an activist who was murdered at 27, ironically in the democratic space instituted by the Aquino administration. May his words challenge us to go not gently unto the dark night of complacency and romanticized notions of awakening an upheaval with our mouse clicks of 'likes,' 'RTs' and online petitions...

"A revolutionary must know how to compute the distance of the stars, how to differentiate a fish from a shark.... He must know how to distill wine into liquor, how to arrive at e=mc². He must know how to cook bacon, butcher a pig and roast lamb. He must be capable of leading enemies into battle. He must know how to follow orders and he must know when to disobey them.

He must know how to soothe pain, comfort the sorrowful, maintain his composure in hot water, drown gracefully, sink with his ship with honor together with the mice.... He must be able to debate, he must know how to analyze difficult political situations ... he must know how to sail a ship, dig a latrine, wash clothes, wash dishes, plan an offensive, plan a retreat ... take care of babies, manage a state bureaucracy.

He must know how to discuss Mao and debunk Zinoviev, ridicule Stalin, correctly read Mabini, recruit members to the party, motivate members to struggle, host a party, be critical, be self- critical, be honest...."