Finding God in a punk rock record

It has been said that spiritual formation happens through human experiences.

It is in the ordeal of living the whole of human existence that one comes into contact with this dynamic encounter with the God who transforms us via the agency of our lives, to which the experiences that our sensory faculties (like seeing, feeling, and hearing) functions as the arena where transformation takes place. In this case I would like to highlight the sense of hearing as an arena to which I discover God and His loving identification with people in the midst of human pain and anguish.

As it is no secret to those who know me that a lot has been going on in my mind lately. Life and all its complexities that come along with aging and varying circumstances leads one to question so many things and to lose hope –to despair, get angry, cry out to for and against God.

I would write of the details of this pain and struggle but I am at the same time afraid to lay bare my soul as well as space cannot be enough to put what I am feeling into words that would make sense. It is in the middle of these things that I find myself clinging once again, in consolation to the music of my adolescence –to punk rock.
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Living with the nuisance of transformation

Genesis 1:27 says that human beings, male and female, are created “in the image of God.” While, Colossians 1:15 convey that Jesus Christ is the “image of the invisible God.” Thus to say that we are created in the image of God is to say that we are created in Jesus Christ.

That is why over the course of our exploration of this belief in our spiritual formation we are always reminded over and again with the realization that to be spiritual is to be human and that life is the arena of the journey towards being more fully human and that our human existence finds its basis, origin, and form in Jesus. He is our prototype and fulfilment.

However, that in itself is but a portion of this greater reality as we have come also to learn that even now we are gradually being transformed and our lives and all its facets are being pieced together to re-orient us with the startling reality of God’s future that has been inaugurated by Jesus Christ, the kingdom that approaches even now and sets our present lives within the context of God’s reality –which culminates towards our transformation to Christlikeness: to becoming indeed fully human!
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Romans 12: 1-2 | Recovering God’s Story

“Well, for one thing, the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We’re teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it. Create your own.” – Morrie

We live in a lonely world in spite of the fact that recent communication technology boasts that loved ones can now be reached with a few clicks of a mouse or dial of a phone. The sad truth remains that it seems implausible that the number of solitary deaths have been on the rise in countries like the UK and Japan in recent years. Alienation, dubbed the “great emotional sickness of our era” by Italian filmmaker Michaelangelo Antonioni, remains a disease that even email, cell phones and online networking has been powerless to remedy.

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There is always room for you at the table

I am and will always be thankful for the fact that mealtime in our household is a family affair. My parents never failed to see to it that we drop whatever it is that we’re doing in order to sit and eat dinner together –sharing a common meal, sharing our lives in the company of those whom we love.

It only just occurred to me that this common scene at our house is a theological-goldmine-of-sorts as this portrays a very vivid picture of God, salvation and the fullness of life that God intends in Christ, that only dawned to me after reflecting on it for a couple of days after listening to a lecture on the spirituality of sleeping, eating and drinking.

In order to better appreciate this theological construct we must first come to a realization that life in itself is already a gift.

Writing about the apparent meaninglessness of life in today’s commodified society Craig Gay proposes that: “indeed, the single most subversive and ultimately redemptive idea that we can set loose within the capitalist world today is the simple recognition that life is a gift.” For me this implies that life in all its facets and its utilization are to be conjured up on the things really matter in life –and that is life in the context of community –that can be found in the web of human relationships.
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Passport Realizations: reflections on the Filipino diaspora overseas

Had this paper been scheduled to be submitted last week, the contents of this reflection would have been different…

But, alas!

Over the weekend life along with all its apparent tragedies and unrealized triumphs happened, and shaped the way I see life and faith from a Filipino perspective differently – consequently forcing me to revise the reflection on the concept of, MABUHAY: Life considered from the innermost of the Filipino people as pondered in light of the Word.
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Life: a divine journey through space in time

In less than 24 hours I will once again recall a year past, say: “thank you,” remind everyone of my age –celebrate my birthday, in consequence be reminded again of a milestone in my life journey that is both exciting and demanding.

As I write this my heart beats albeit restlessly because at present my journey is not what I would call ‘well.’ I have a lot of things happening and at times I honestly feel like I a twig in the middle of a whirlwind and at times it seems like I am hanging on a thread. So writing about life as a journey for me is quite difficult, partly because there’s that persistent discomfort that I myself am wishing that I’d be relieved of.

It has been said that life on earth can be considered as a journey –thus it is an activity that transcends time and space wherein environments, culture and values play a vital role and not to mention are formed afterwards acquired as a means upon which we interpret reality –thus forming us into the persons that we are.

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I can only wonder...

I was surprised to learn that not unlike the Christmas Days that I've come to know when I was younger, SM Malls and their departments stores are now opened...and I was even more surprised that even small time beer gardens are open with women in skimpy clothes feeling the chill of the Christmas night...and I wonder...

...does this mean that as a people we're gradually losing our soul?

on the way to the post office

We were on our way to pick up a package at the post office when we saw a pair of children's shoes beneath the jeepney's backseat, lying beside it is a filled backpack that's secured against several water jugs and at the back of the driver's seat was a pair of spoons and beside the driver were more backpacks filled with clothes, I presume...

On the way to the post office I looked at the driver's face as he glanced at the rear-view mirror.

I thought to myself maybe this is where he and his family lives. A thought that I prayed to God I was wrong.

There on the way to the post office I cried. I wanted to help, but I do not know where to start...

On the way to the post office I cried and asked myself what does this reality say about me --about my faith and about us as a people who's been living on a life based on consumption and complacency?

On the way to the post office I cried...

Liberation: God’s saving act in the history of His people

24 November 2009

I was on my way to the seminary when I was stuck in a traffic jam.

Apparently, there was a vigil at the Boy Scout Rotonda in Timog Quezon City, people mostly ‘lefties’ that I’ve known in my past life at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines are congregating in the area with their flickering candles in a ceremony of solemn luminosity that spells out the word: ‘justice’ in the brick-layered pavement of the rotonda.

Little did I know that what I saw as an obstruction on the way to ATS was a reaction to what is now known as the bloody Maguindanao, massacre. Unaware of the significance of the vigil I proceeded to class –and then as if by divine intervention our class of the Book of Exodus endowed our study with this staggering message: God heard, God remembered, God saw, God knew.

Doctrine, Theology and theological stubborness

Just a thought...as I’ve always encountered people always talking about doctrine when relating to theology maybe it’s useful to note here that doctrines are the result of a community of faith’s (i.e. a particular church's or denomination's) understanding of Scripture thus should never be allowed to supercede Scripture. While theology is the attempt to express faith verbally in a responsible way, thus theology is the struggle to give faith a proper vocabulary, a proper idiom with which to speak of God.

I believe this point of clarification is important for all Christians who agree on the basics of orthodox Christian faith. As sometimes we tend to believe that only our local church’s or denomination’s doctrinal formulation is the only valid expression of Christianity. Perhaps the question of always being on guard against ‘strange winds of doctrine’ specially in pertaining to groups and institutions that adhere to the basics of orthodoxy (Inspiration of the Scriptures, the Trinity, Deity and Humanity of Christ etc), are mostly borne out of our stubbornness to admit that our local church or denomination does not have the monopoly of precision as far as understanding Scriptures go.

Creation, Fall and Reversal

It has been said that Genesis is the book of beginnings, and as an individual who is embarking on a new beginning I would like to use the word – serendipity to describe how timely the study of the book was for me as I start my life as a theology student at Asian Theological Seminary.

I have always believed that I already know the book --after all, I could no longer count how many times I have finished reading and hearing about it, and how many times I have studied it at church. After all –most of the Bible lessons that I’ve heard as a kid or have watched in Superbook are there: Adam and Eve; Cain and Abel; Noah’s ark; Abraham sacrificing Isaac; Rebecca’s marriage with Isaac; Jacob and Esau; Joseph the dreamer etc.

Re-reading Genesis has jolted me out of my ‘born again Christian’ complacency, that has been borne out of my belief that I already know all that there us to be learned from the book as I have already studied it a number of times at church. But as I have said earlier, reading it again in light of its original context has opened my eyes to God’s story that seems to be intricately related to me and how I live my life as a human being, especially if I were to relate it to its overarching theme that I consider as: creation, fall and reversal.

Kuya Danny

Last Sunday I attended the morning service and learned that Kuya Danny Asi just passed away...

It only took me now to process the thought of his passing.

Not many in Grace Bible Church remembers him now.

But I do.