'Bad trip' this is a popular catchphrase among those of us who seemed to have Lady Luck working against us. That was how my day started and almost went about yesterday.
My day at work started with the news that the client site that we're working on is down, but as to my dissappointment the section of the site that I'm working on is functioning, thus I have to endure the work by myself, thankfully by God's grace I was able to finish it within 5 hours which made our boss allow us to leave the office at around 3pm.
So that we did got off to work quite early considering that my scheduled time out at the office is 5:45 pm. Leaving early on I decided to go to Adamson and visit Jeanie, so that I did and there I found out that she was busy editing the videos of her students which made me go to waste my time at SM Manila after which I played arcade games and basically laundered almost all the cash that I got in hand, where later I decided to go to the nearby ATM to withdraw the money that I still have in my account, but to my dissappointment the cash machine reported an error in my ATM apparently Expressnet banking services suck, it stated that my transaction
cannot be completed, and it ejected my card. So I decided to again go to another bank that was BPI, because the line for the Chinabank there was overwhelmingly long since the Equitable ATM beside it is offline so there again with the BPI machine it reported that it again cannot complete my request so I again moved to the ATM beside it which was the same as that of the first ATM that I went to which was that lousy Banco De Oro ATM and their elitist Expressnet system, again it reaped nothing.
So I decided to return to Adamson and wait for Jeanie since she gave me a message that she also is maxed out on her finances so I hurried myself to Times Plaza to check if the transaction would work out at the Chinabank there and to my surprise the amount stored in my account was below the minimum allowed for withrawal, I tell you I was so pissed at the banks and especially at myself, I couldn't forgive myself for wasting my money on a lot of things, I was on the brink of crying as I text the sad news to Jeanie, and like me she was saddened.
She told me that her editing will take a while longer and told me to just present my ID to the school guard and go to her at the Media Center, sadly the guard refused to give me permission to get in because it's already passed visiting hours for outsiders, and the guard told me that even if Jeanie would come down she still has to call the security office of the School to grant me permission to get in. Tough luck for me. (On a side note apparently there was some sort of frat related trouble earlier that day or was it the day before? well anyways what happened was there was this kid who got killed in the incident and that's the reason why it wasn't that easy to get inside the campus and that explains why there are many guards roaming about the school and its nearby areas.)
Well, Jeanie was too caught up with the editing and we decided it best that I wait for her in the school's visitor's lounge and so I did, and I think it was about 7pm when I got a text message from Cedric inquiring if he and Laix could sleep over our house and I told then, that they could and that I'll be home before 10 pm. As I was answering the message I really was still so pissed off by the fact that I no longer have money to sustain me up until the next payday and that I can't get to Jeanie and it was such a waste of a rare opportunity to go there earlier and visit her since rarely do such things happen in our office (mind you we are required to go to work even on storm sigan #2s).
Feeling really frustrated I simply just thought that it would be best for me to just pour out my heart unto God in prayer and so I did there in the middle of all those
people going in and out of the campus I simply bowed down my head and closed my eyes in prayer afterwards I decided to read this booklet from Campus Crusade For Christ called Steps To Spiritual Maturity which was written by Bill Bright, and it was there way in the ending part where I read that the comandment of God that we as Christians to go and be a witness to His gospel is a synergy of living a good testimony and as well as speaking of our faith to others and for so long have I tried to be a witness by simply living a good life, which really is quite stupid of me since doing something without giving a good explanation for doing so could be interpreted by others as basically a simple act of goodness and that I am merely a good person and not grasp the idea that I am that way because I've been justified by the blood Jesus.
And then Cedric came into mind, we're off better now we've resolved a lot about ourselves earlier this month and we're good friends so I made this pact with God that I'll see to it that he'll hear the gospel later when they sleep over at our house.
It was almost 8:30 when Jeanie finally arrived in the lobby. She was very apologetic for being late and she was even blaming herself that maybe she might have withdrawed all the money from the card when she borrowed from me last Saturday. Like me she was also very much surprised that we can't withdraw our money we were so earnestly discussing that I failed to notice that Raymond from my church GBC was there and I would have totally not known of his pressence if he didn't call me he was also studying at Adamson, so I introduced him to Jeanie. And while we were walking we both decided to try the ATM again at this PNB beside Adamson, and so we did
and again we were dissapointed.
We simply decided to go home and I told her of this plan I had with Cedric and I told her that I want to get home as soon as possible and she understood and she even volounteered to intercede in my behalf as I'll be witnessing. And she even spoke words of encouragement wherein she said that maybe God did intended the money to be lost for that time so that we'll set our priorities straight and so that we'll decide to simply just go home rather than eat and roam about in SM Manila, and the priority at that time was for the gospel be spoken to Cedric.
I arrived home at around 9:30 or perhaps earlier, I ate and did my rituals and was on the phone discussing the process of doing the modifications for his blog when my
father informed me that Laix and Cedric were at the gate. I offered them dinner and we listened to a few MP3s and played a little Demonstar, and played some songs on my guitars. And I simply got this Fred Flintstone notebook that I had with me always and started to speak to him about God, I tried to combine the 4 Spiritual laws, bridge illustration and the Romans Road as I spoke to him at first I was really nervous and was really quite uncomfortable speaking out my faith by it wasn't about me it was about God working in Ced's life that He opened his heart and to cut the long story short our talk ended with me leading him into a prayer of receiving Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.
By the time we uttered 'amen' in unison I automatically text to Jeanie the good news. Later we got to talk about a lot of stuff and we even ironed out the kinks that we had and we got to talk about that of the demise of Life Is Trying and how so much changed between the two of us during that dark period of being jaded with each other.
As I woke up earlier this day I can't help but feel so blessed of how God has then again used me to do His divine work. By the way I gave him my Bible and lended
him my copy of Warren's PDL.
As I look back now I am reminded of Acts 16:31 whre it said:
"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved you and your household."
And indeed it was true, I consider Cedric as a brother I look upon him as a part of the family that we've come to call as our circle of friends and it was true that
because I chose to believe in Jesus Christ with all my heart and sought to have a relationship with Him, God in His mercy gave the provision for me to speak out my
faith to Cedric and for Cedric to ultimately decide on entering into a relationship with God. And truly to God be the glory.
Looking back at how I thought that the day was a bad trip its nice to know that before the day ends God always gives us all the more reason to give Him glory and to be thankful and for blessings that far exceeds the previous sadness. I may not have money in my pocket but I have a friend in Christ, and I share it with Ced,
Laix, Aga, Jeanie and all my other Christian friends which apparently are growing.
As we departed me going off to Ortigas and Cedric and Laix off to Tandang Sora, I simply gave him this gimme five and smile thinking that indeed despite all of our
infirmities and our sins God redeemed us and made us vindicated from the wrath of sin and its consequences.
"Hope dangles on a string
Like slow spinning redemption
Winding in and winding out
The shine of it has caught my eye
And roped me in
So mesmerizing, so hypnotizing
I am captivated
I am Vindicated
I am selfish
I am wrong
I am right
I swear I'm right
I swear I knew it all along
And I am flawed
But I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now the things you swore You saw
Yourself"
I'm not quite sure but I think I read it somewhere that this Dashboard Confessional song speaks of a man's struggle from justification to sanctification unto the
ultimate glorification unto Christ. And it gives me comfort that despite the fact that right now I'm deprived of a lot of comforts in life I could look back and see God's goodness to me and His work of molding me towards maturity. May this be an encouragement to you all.
By the way as for the ATM I've already reported it to Union Bank and Banco De Oro and learned that such occurances are common among those two banks and that such cases are called debit without release. They told me that it'll be restored within a week.
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