Personal Development Event.

Date: April 29, Sunday
Place: Kristus Aman Chapel
Time: 11.30 am (after mass)



it's something about business. being a businessman or something. cant remember what the name of the event was exactly cos i deleted the text. :P

If You Could Have A Superpower, What Would You Choose?

If you could have a superpower, what would you choose? I think about this sometimes, and it's a toss-up between flight and super strength. I wonder how I would find out about my ability, if it would be an instant surprise, a gradual discovery, or if it would be the most natural thing in the world. It's the classic superhero dilemma, to struggle with the discovery of your power. One day, you are an ordinary guy; but then your abilities begin to develop and you start to realize that there's more to you than what you once thought. The questions in your mind become different from the usual. Am I really "super"? Why do I have this ability? What am I to do with this newfangled discovery? And what am I to wear? It's the stuff of television shows.

The reason I talk about super-ability is because of Easter, which we celebrate all the way until Pentecost Sunday. When Jesus rose from the dead, it was the power of God at work, liberating us from hell, destruction, sin and death. And that power is what Paul calls "the immeasurable greatness of (God's) power for us who believe" (Eph 1:19). Immeasurable power. God is awesome.

I'll level with everyone here. Sometimes, when I think of the Christian sort of spiritual power, I wonder if it is all it is made out to be, if being holy is as cool as having a superpower. Take, for example, flight and pit it against the virtue of piety. What's cooler? Off the bat, it's definitely flight. Telekinesis wins, too. And so does super strength. I draw out one virtue after another, and on a worldly scale, they lose to the best of any superpower. We humans might even take non-superpowers such as intelligence and physical ability over virtue, most times.

But that's the thing. It's on a worldly, earthly and ultimately finite scale.

The significance of Easter is that we can be all God has created us to be now and in eternity. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is available to us. Of course we live in a broken reality, where we aren't perfect yet. But think of it as a superhero awakening to his ability slowly. You're honing the power, letting yourself be an agent of its innate goodness. You're learning how to wield it. You're discovering its significance. And one day, it's all gonna come together; and clad in spandex, you will be a full-fledged superhero.

In this world we're discovering who we are in Christ. "We see indistinctly as in a mirror" (1 Cor 13:12); but eventually it will all be clear. And those who lived lives of holiness will understand what it was all for in the light of eternity, which is far longer and more exciting than what this world has to offer.

God is awesome. Happy Easter everyone.

"I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead." Ephesians 1:17-20

You Probably Don't Need That

I want to have a better attitude about needs and wants.

I don't think I need everything I say I do.

I don't need new clothes.
I don't need that cellphone.
And though it pains me to say this, I don't need another guitar.
I don't need another guitar pedal.
When you think about it, nobody really needs a guitar at all.
I know. Rock and roll sacrilege. But it's not a need.
Neither is sports.
Or deodorant.
Although many people would debate that last one.

Don't get me wrong, having wants isn't wrong in itself. Having conveniences and pleasures isn't bad all the time. In fact it's often very good. Imagine life without music, for example? All I'm talking about is making a distinction and having the right attitude about material things. Because attitude is a big deal.

Starving Masses in Africa
We all know the line: "Finish your food! Don't you know that there are starving masses in Africa who don't have food?!" Every parent has said it to their kids at some point. And if they haven't, they will. It's written somewhere in the Secret Parenting Manual under "How To Send Your Kids on a Guilt Trip". Every kid sarcastically wonders how their leftovers can solve the problem of mass starvation, not realizing that the point is not the food. It's the attitude.

If kids can have the right attitude about food, without their realizing it, they will become better stewards of things. Their impulses will be in check, and they won't bite off more than they can chew, figuratively and literally.

It's the same for us. If we have an attitude that we don't have everything we need, we will make needs our priority. Since I supposedly "need" a better cellphone, that will be a priority. Since I supposedly "need" more clothes, shopping will be my priority. And at the end of the day, we spend so much time and energy on ourselves, thinking we sit high on the priority list because we've mistaken wants for needs, when the world has so many needs. And the love of God impels us, throws us out into the world and demands that we get over ourselves and start focusing on serving others.

You're Rich
A need is something essential to survival: food and water, shelter and clothing are such essentials. If you have these, you have what you need. If you have these in abundance, you have more than enough, which is good. And if you have all that and a lot more, you're rich. The mere fact that I can afford to type this entry on a computer, and you can afford to read it tells that we probably sit comfortably among the richer people on planet earth. My full closet, the large appliance-filled house I live in, the car I drive, my musical gear, my multiple pairs of shoes -- these tell me I am rich. And while there may be a lot of people who have more than I do, there are far more billions who have far, far less.

So is this a guilt-trip, like the "starving masses in Africa" line? Well, that's not the intention. But I want to change the way I see the world, and maybe help spark a change in others. If we realize we already have more than we need, we'll be more free to be used by God to meet the needs of others.

Our Laughter Says More Than We're Willing To Admit

What we laugh about speaks of our values. I've been getting a deep conviciton about this, recently. And so I write as one learning the lesson, rather than one giving it.

Some friends told me about how a visiting foreign dignitary was annoyed when people laughed when he commented about the ill state of Philippine poverty, as if they treated the issue lightly. Why people found his comment worth laughing about isn't my point; it's that laughter struck a sensitive chord. Otherwise the dude wouldn't have been irritated.

Our laughter says more than we're willing to admit.

I sat in an auditorium recently and a priest was giving a good talk, save for a joke that made light of womens' body parts. Many in the crowd -- made up of committed charismatic Catholics -- laughed with him. I thought they felt permitted to do so because he was a priest. But it struck me that even among "committed" Christians, we've given in to treating holy things such as the human body lightly.

We don't give humor enough credit because it feels trivial to make such a big deal out of it. But society's condition is reflected in what its people find humorous. Laughter serves as an unguarded stamp of approval upon something said or done. It is very honest because when we laugh, we are often caught off-guard, startled into an impulse. Our true colors and honest pleasures show in our laughter.

When we laugh at others' shame, it goes to show what we think about their comfort or feelings; we consider their feelings worth taking lightly. Likewise, when we laugh about sexual impropriety, we unconsciously approve of levity in regards to sexuality, when we should consider sex sacred and of great importance. When we laugh at degrading jokes about peoples' body parts, figures and physical attributes, it goes to show how little we respect the human body and the great dignity God has given us, His image and likeness.

People who don't know me well might think that I'm being a serious prude, which couldn't be farther from the truth because I'm quite silly. I just think that we'd do well to think about what we find funny, and examine if its a symptom that we treat certain things with less respect or dignity than they deserve.

Laughter is social commentary. It is an impulse-driven stamp of approval. Like it or not, laughter is an honest expression of what we deem to be a light or weighty matter. Our laughter says more than we are willing to admit. Let's laugh about the right things.



Our mouths were filled with laughter; our tongues sang for joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The Lord had done great things for them." Psalm 126:2

On Masturbation, Drunkenness and Other Hot Topics

Red lines. They marked off the outer limits of the school grounds. The places that were off limits. My childhood buddies and I were well versed in the psychological trickery being employed by The Man to suppress our juvenile longings for danger...and we would have no part in it. Well that's not really how it went. Being bad is just plain fun, and doing the wrong thing – well it can feel strangely right. Even seven year-olds know this.

Our school sat atop a hill. I remember a cold winter when we would spend our lunch breaks outside, beyond the red line, in an alley hidden in the imposing shadow of the gym. We sat our little rears on the icy cold concrete and listened to the wind howl through the dim passage, as we struggled between shivers and breaths of steam to wolf down our lunches lest they became popsicles. When I recall the scene, I find it a little depressing. Well-to-do children eating wind-chilled lunches in dark, gray alleyways: it's just not a pretty thought. But when I was young, it was heaven. It was heaven because it was wrong.

And we're not much different when we grow up, are we?

Q&A

I gave a talk on nation building at a high school some weeks ago. Come the open forum, one of the standout questions was "is getting drunk a sin?" Totally off topic, but I was glad to talk about it. Another time, I was giving a talk on sexuality at an exclusive high school for boys. An entire high school of boys. Talking about sex. Now you can imagine the wolf-howls, bear-growls and monkey noises that filled the hall those days. Did I mention it was two entire days of sessions? I could have sworn the testosterone had made the air thick with a sticky fog. Come Q&A time, it was eager questions about masturbation, pornography, pre-marital sex, oral sex, fornication -- the whole nine yards, no holds barred.

We are a generation that wants to know where the line of morality is. Regardless of where our consciences tell us we stand, we still want to hear the news, in the the hopes that the line has moved to accommodate as moral what was once not. Deep down, everyone wants to know, because everyone hungers for redemption. For the most part, I feel that we'd like to know where the line is so as to get as close as possible. Because life on the line feels exciting, and it's almost poetic how the prospect of wrong feels so pleasurable. It's the stuff of literature, films and indie music.

Dangerous

We've become a generation that likes to toe the line. We consider it dangerous because it feels like brinkmanship when you walk close to the edge of something. But this toeing the line, it couldn't be closer to safe. It's the epitome of saving your skin, not risking it. If right and wrong are divided by a line, standing on the line is as chicken as you can get; it's neither here nor there. It's afraid to not belong on either side. So we remain on the line and act like we're balancing on the edge of a cliff. But we're merely messing with a red line on a schoolyard.

I'll tell you what's dangerous: holiness. It's so dangerous that even Christians find it a fearsome thing. It'll earn you some derision and persecution. But holiness also makes you dangerous, a force to be reckoned with. People take you seriously; and when the going gets tough, they know you stand secure. That is what the world needs. Not a generation that's about as daring as a bunch of seven year-olds in the back alley of a schoolyard.