What this Christmas Means To Me?

The last 2 Christmases were not so good to me. Not so good in a way that my experiences were specifically daunting. Year 2011, just two months before Christmas, I saw my company’s performance dwindling down. God knows how I tried to save it but it seems like every action that I do comes to no avail. There were still many things that I tried doing to save it but I kept it secret from my team. I thought, by doing that, I can cushion them from the headache of getting financed by just having them to focus on ramping-up our sales, but unfortunately even that, we missed. The uphill climb was tracked by me alone.

I have learned that being a leader, as someone who is on top of the organizational hierarchy is truly a very lonely place. A lot of people think that it was full of glee for having gregarious environment all around you… but my experience will tell me it is the exact opposite. You make decisions that are general in scope, and yet you could expect it will not be taken lightly. And at the time when you need all the strength and encouragement you can get, you find yourself in the middle of the mire where everyone is ganging up against you. One single life-changing, career-aligning decision will move your subordinates to crucify you many times over even if you know your heart bleeds of the decision you have to make of closing the very company you love. Blame, hate, false accusations and digital effluvia were just a few things I endured. Nonetheless, in all this, I choose to stay mum and reserved.

In the heyday of my success and wealth, I have 100 friends BUT in the valley of my loss and poverty, I would be lucky if I have 5 that remembers. 

Year 2012, I am filled with hope. I thought that things are beginning to turn-around. But every door of opportunity I knock on, were two doors shunning down. I lost a big amount of money from an investment scam. I was literally swimming with debt. I didn’t know what to do. Fear overran me. Depression intends to claim my life. Extreme loneliness and pain were a meal every morning. The feeling was unbelievably crippling and paralyzing.

In my deepest pain, I turned to God and God is good indeed.

This year, 2013, God has restored me. He healed all my pain. He taught me how to forgive myself for the unwise decision I made. He touched my heart to forgive others and give them more love. God opened my eyes that I never lost my talents and abilities. God shook away my pride and replaced it with humility. God renewed my mind. God did not only make me happy but assured me of joy. God remove my doubt and offered me faith.

Then as I begin to realize how my pain made all sense, fear melted away from my sight. Fear transformed into love, courage and forgiveness. I come to know that I really never feared my darkness. I feared my light. Because deep inside I know, that when I set mind unto something, I can turn it into something great – so great that I may not have a ready aptitude and audacity to handle it.

God slowly opened door after doors of opportunity. My career and purpose were now affirmed, my entrepreneurial ideas were sharper than ever and my knowledge in finance like stock market and money market instruments were honed. I met new mentors in different fields. I have learned new things I wish I knew earlier. I met new friends that uplift my worth and affirm my expertise.

I can no longer visit my past with blame and guilt but with authentic gratitude for the many lessons it has counseled me with.

I discovered that the greatest gift I have ever received is LOVE and the greatest gift I have ever given is FORGIVENESS.

This Christmas… the Christmas where the Lord became my fortress, strength and my friend is a Christmas of VICTORY, EMPOWERMENT, FORGIVENESS and LOVE.

This is what this Christmas means to me.

May you have a greatly blessed Christmas too.

The Need to Ask

The reason why you have nothing is because you failed to ask.

Just this morning I had a conversation with an older friend that is a resident physician of SSS (Social Security System). She told me that at a send-off party of one of her colleagues who had just retired, she heard one of the most entrancing farewell speeches she had ever heard.

This colleague of hers, who retired at 55 years old, said, “God has blessed me with so many things. As you can see, I lived a very good career and a happily harmonious family with my siblings and parents. But there is only one thing I didn’t have; I did not have a husband and so I never became a mother, never became a wife, never had kids. Just recently, I realized that the reason why God didn’t give it to me is because while being busy with my career, I forgot to ask God to give me a partner.”

That became the center of our conversation all throughout and the need to ask something.

Before I go on, please ask yourself.

What is it that you really want? Have you dared to ask for it? Why not?

I think the reason why most people did not have much in life is because they never asked. The case can either be; a.) They don’t think they deserve to ask something or b.) They have no inkling what to ask because they don’t know what they want. Not knowing what you want is one of the saddest things in life, because it means you have no idea what you want to achieve.

Jesus even said, ⁹ “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10)

This to me is indeed an assurance that if we only learn to ask, God can fill us with the many facets of His infinite blessings.

When we do not know what to ask, we only accept what comes along.

Nobody wants to live a mediocre life. And I don’t think God, being a loving Father would want us to have a life that is less than what He plans for us to have – to live a joyful life.

My challenge is this, if you feel like nothing exceptional is happening in your life right now – gather your most authentic faith and begin to ask. Who knows after asking, God will lead you to an adventure of a lifetime where He can open His floodgates of blessing from heaven down to your coffers.

Ask and you shall receive. 

The Motivation Transcript

 

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes of your goal.

You are the CREATOR of your own destiny. If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is, WAKE UP.

Always act like you’re wearing an invisible crown. Always take off “t” from the word “can’t” and make it very big “CAN”.

Failure is simply the STEPPING STONE to SUCCESS.

A man who faced many rejections from the newspaper editor; they said he has no talent and yet he become the biggest creator as Walt Disney that we know today.

A man failed 10, 000 times before he made the electric bulb is Thomas Edison.

A man who failed in business at age 21, his sweetheart died at 26, had a nervous breakdown at 27 become the President of the United States – Abraham Lincoln.

Learn from the life’s stories of these people. Turn your negatives into positive. DON’T WAIT. The TIME is always right.

Create a plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once. Whether you are ready or not, put this plan into ACTION. Start your day with a POSITIVE LOVE to take RESPONSIBILITIES.

When your DESIRE is strong enough, you appear to possess SUPERHUMAN POWERS to achieve your DREAM.

Talk to yourself. The most important conversation you will ever have is the one you have with yourself.

Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for SUCCESS.

Go for it. Live with it. Think and GROW RICH. 

 

Fear According to Marianne Williamson

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Where is God in Tacloban, Leyte?

 

In the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban City Philippines, a mayor of a prominent city in the south was interviewed upon arriving in the airport. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao City said that it seems like God is somewhere as this super typhoon wreaked havoc an entire city and leaving thousands of dead bodies on the streets.

As a matter of fact, netizens mentioned that if you want to see what a zombie apocalypse really feels & looks like, come and visit Tacloban City.

The mayor’s comment came from his observation and verily this could also be what others say.

Where is God in all of these?

How could a God that is good have allowed this to happen to people?

I don’t have a direct phone line to God in heaven and call Him for a quick phone interview. If I do, I could have also easily asked the whereabouts of a lot of missing persons that is still yet to be accounted for.

So if I’d have to answer it, the quickest reply I could say is, “I don’t know?”

But here is what I believe; God is with us in every moment of our lives. He is with those people in fear of the terrible storm, He is with those children crying for help, He is with those cold and trembling orphans, and He is with those mothers who lost husbands and kids.

We often say that there is a reason for everything.

What could be the soundest reason for this?

The first tweet I read this morning is from Pastor Joel Osteen, he said, “A setback is simply a setup for a great comeback. That adversity could be the very thing that will help promote you.”

It is for us as individual person and every survivor to ask, to seek wisdom for that we may understand. I strongly believe that one day, things will all make sense, no matter how great is the loss or how painful is the struggle. Our faith in God that there is still good after all this will help us strengthen ourselves and come out victorious after a one dark episode in our life. Get that adversity to launch you up; not push you down.

It is my earnest prayer today along with other people in the world for a Godly comfort to the typhoon survivors, to envelope every aching and anxious heart. May people offer more prayers and may our loving God touch everyone in pain.

God Bless the Philippines. God bless the world.