22 going to 23 surprises :)

April 17, 2011 at 10:05 pm · Filed under 2011, essay/ personal narrative

For the past week, I have been celebrating the transition of two numbers–my age. 🙂 I have only one thing to ask of God that week (which I intentionally didn’t tell anyone), and that is, “Lord, surprise me!”

April 8, Friday–Our Dgroup celebrated three birthdays (March celebrants and mine). Earlier that day, I thought of pizza, and lo! We ate in Pizza Hut! 🙂 As for the surprise, they came in as questions like “what is your idea of a romantic date?” 🙂 They gave me my first (cup)cake for the occasion. Overall, I had a fun night with the ladies.

April 9, Saturday–In John 10:10 Jesus said, “The thief only comes to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” There were two questions: what is the “thief” stealing and destroying in the Filipino children, and as Christians, what must we do? These things heightened the fire within me to do something, to be a channel of that life from God so we may all have it abundantly.

April 10, Sunday–Our large group team was assigned to teach in Sunday School. Since only two of us were left, it was indeed God who provided for help. It is only by His grace that we were able to do our best. True, there were technical difficulties, but God was in control. I leave the touching of hearts to God. On this day, teacher Lynne surprised me with a very cute (cup)cake. It was so cute that I refused to eat it until the following Sunday.

As I listened to the pastor’s message that Sunday, I carried with me a question: “Lord, what do you see in my heart?” Because it was the second time I asked this question in a span of a few days, the “heart” intrigued me. What is the heart? What does it include?

April 11, Monday, THE Day–Surprise! It was the first day of summer classes and I don’t need to expound how it surprised me. 🙂 I do want to share two things. First, my sister Ivy, with Arjay, Quinn, Josh and Tyler surprised me in school. They brought with them a choco-moist cake from Iko’s, with a blue candle and a happy birthday song. Second, mom prepared for me a birthday dinner. She invited my aunts, uncles and cousins. They asked me where my visitors were, I said I didn’t know there was dinner! I was indeed surprised. 🙂

That ends the series of surprises this week offered. Today, I can sum up the past week in two words–“Grace week.” Indeed, I have been heavily stressed the whole week. Almost wanting to give up something, asking God if I was in the right place, doing the right things. And I do wept about it. I was tired, overwhelmed with the things that needs to be done. Having a melancholic personality, having too many things to do in too little time gets me paralyzed. And that’s just what happened towards the end of the week. “Sabog” is a Filipino word I can describe myself at the end of the week.

Add Colossians 3:23 and people saying “God bless your heart” to the equation and THE question emerges: “what is heart?” David was known to be “a man after God’s own heart.” What does it mean to be “after God’s own heart?” I would like my heart to be like that too.

The week concluded in the GLC Graduation. I graduated. Another manifestation of how far God’s grace is able to take me. Since I still have my questions hanging over my head, I decided it was high time to start a Bible study book I bought last September–A Heart Like His by Beth Moore. It was when I studied the first chapter that I was able to call my week “Grace week.” I realized that I wasn’t trusting God as I should have. I owned my circumstances instead of giving them to God, not surrendering each soul I encounter to the Master Teacher. I have been selfish, thinking more of “what I can and can’t do” rather than offering my all so He can do what He wants to do. I was reminded that God will accomplish what He wants whether or not I’m in the picture.

This week, God provided me opportunities to apply my prayer: That I may be able to live one day at a time, love people encounter-by-encounter, and surrender to Him moment-by-moment. I will be able to do these things by learning how and praying that I would be granted “a heart like His.”

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