It’s a tough time in my life right now. After 3 years of hiding my faith from my parents, I have finally come out in the open. Life was great the past 3 years. But there was always the nagging in me (not to mention the nagging of some of my friends) telling me, “Aimee, what about your family? Don’t you care about their salvation?” I guess because my I knew my parents were very solid with their faith, I knew that I had to be ready if I were to give them a different view of faith. I had to learn everything there is to learn before confronting them because I know that they would definitely squeeze it all out of me. I know I’m young compared to them and my knowledge about religion could not compare with theirs. I was talking to an officemate of mine who is also a born again Christian and I told him of my situation. I just felt I needed to tell someone. And talking to him made me realize something that I already know but just forgot: that everything is in God’s hands. I was reminded that as long as I have faith in Him, he will make his plans known and his plan, once done, will always turn out the best. It’s God’s fight, not ours. I keep forgetting that people aren’t saved out of man’s effort, but out of God’s grace. Our role is to take care of our own faith, and let God blow our sails.
I was also reminded of prayer today. It’s been a long time since I last had small talk with God. I used to always talk to Him before my decline in the past month. I used to always tell him everything while on the bus, in the jeep, walking in the rain, etc. When I got drawn “into the world” I got ashamed. I shun away from God thinking that I was a disgrace, thinking that I didn’t deserve to be heard by God. I completely forgot that my God was a merciful God, and that mine was a Father that would never let go of me, just as the shepherd would not let his lost sheep remain lost. This evening I got reminded of how God answers prayers, even the simplest ones. I just finished doing my groceries buying 5 kilos of rice and loads of canned goods (yes junk food I know, but those are for cases of emergency ;p) I came from work so I was bringing my computer with me and my bag. So you can imagine how much I was carrying. The 3 plastic bags felt like they were ripping the arms of my muscles off. I walked from Shopwise to the gateway taxi stand thinking that there would be a line of taxis waiting for passengers. There weren’t any vacant ones passing in front of the grocery. That was a painful short walk and I had to stop halfway to the taxi stand to call Ritchie and ask whether he could possibly magically appear at gateway to help me carry my stuff. Well, I actually knew that was impossible, I just needed a reason to put my stuff down and relieve my hands for a bit. After he promised to try to rush there after his class (which is waaay over at ust) I continued my agonizing walk to the taxi stand. And to my dismay there were no taxis there waiting… none but passengers! I remembered thinking, “agawan na to…” I squatteid on the sidewalk listening to music on my ipod deciding to just wait for ritchie to get there so he could help me carry my stuff to somewhere I could easily get a cab. I was expecting to wait another 1 hour. I saw cabs with passengers pass by, and cabs with no passengers, being hi-jacked by the people who weren’t carrying any stuff with them. I knew I was no match for the people with no stuff. So I just waited there, thinking, reading, singing, reading, thinking… then I remembered a message I heard from a church that God listens to the littlest prayers. Then I found myself praying for a taxi. For the first time in a long time, praying sincerely, and believing that he would give it to me. Then I found myself thinking, maybe I wasn’t praying right again. Then a cab came to a slow stop towards the curb i was standing on. Then I saw the people with no stuff to carry make a bee line for the cab. The cab stopped in front of this old lady standing a few meters away from me. She too had quite a number of stuff with her. Then I saw the ruthless people with no stuff try to steal the cab as the old lady was about to load her stuff. I remember thinking, ‘the nerve of some people’. Turns out, the passengers of the cab were the old ladies companions who left earlier to find a cab elsewhere. So when they left, I was the only one standing on the curb on my side of the road. There were a few more people on the other side also waiting for a cab, most of them, being people who had no stuff to carry. All this time I kept praying still. But it was getting late already, so I texted Ritchie to tell him to get off somewhere he could get a cab and just ride it to gateway to pick me up. Just then I saw an empty cab being swarmed by the people who had no stuff to carry. My heart sank when the cab slowed in front of them. but I got a jump when he refused them and made a u-turn for my side of the street. Like I said, I was the only one on my side, no people with no stuff to carry. I hailed the cab and he asked where I was going and when I told him, he said yes.
You might think it’s just a coincidence, that a small thing like that shouldn’t be counted as something of significance. Well, I would tell you that I think otherwise. I believe that there is no such thing as coincidences for God. He knows everything from the moments when a country falls to the moments that a strand of our hair falls. It’s not wrong to pray for the little things in life. God is generous and he will never run out of power for answering his children’s wishes.
As I said earlier, I was listening to some songs while waiting and one of the songs was a rendition of 2Cor3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” and Galatians 5:1 which says “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” The song is entitled “Freedom” sung by Hillsong Kids from the album Shout Praises! Kids.
Aimee
