..Why You Shouldn't Give Up on Your Season..

You have resisted the tedious and arduous battles. You have tapped your shoulder countless times to affirm your being gifted to stand out good despite of dot dot dot. You emerged victorious from wounds unseen by the world. And yet, there you are. Taken by the waves from the shore of so many stones thinking that your piety has saved you only to be smack back to the shore. Double. How can life be so unfair in so many ways? 

An optimist  can only sigh.

I was on my flight back to Philippines from my short vacation in California and was glad I kept repertoire of that one summer month of my life. Stories that I valued quietly in my heart as I ponder on them whenever life hits hard. Whenever life puts me to the endless "scorching summer feels" I would ask why good people has to suffer. Most of those days of me asking, God is always there. Quiet. So quiet I could hear Him in daunting nights of plea. So quiet I could feel Him in the arid air. 

You see, even an optimist is not exempted from the fair share of what season brings. But why you should endure your season?

Crisis Builds Character.

I hated the days I was learning to drive. My uncle would stop from his chores to help me maneuver the steer. My hands would sweat upon sitting on the driver's seat. We would then saunter the road. The road with so many bumps and turns. I would complain because it's hard driving in a road with crowds and humps. But what do we do if we see humps and bumps? 

We S L O W  D O W N. We take time. We become careful. 

Because a fine road doesn't make one a good driver. It's the difficult paths that teaches us values we never learn from a fine travel. C builds C.

Expensive Wine takes Time.

It was a fine day in  Napa Valley, a long drive from San Rafael California where I am staying at my cousin's place. We arrived before afternoon and plunged our view to the vast field of vines. We went there for the purpose of tasting some of the best wine. Joining the tour of how wines are made, I was delighted and was sure that I was allowed to witnessed this simple yet a melting pot of practical lessons in life.

From growing to harvesting to fermenting to the time wine is put in the bottle, I can only imagine the worst of pain of waiting. Some of the bottles in the underground section of the Castillo de Amorosa Winery was there for more than a decade! From the outside, it seemed that nothing is happening inside those oaks. And I was smirking like an idiot that they could have sold those barrels for  hundreds of dollars. Our guide was so wise I was awaken to my reverie when he said, "the most expensive wine takes time".  

Do you feel like nothing is happening in your life?

Do you feel like you were pruned for nothing?

Do you feel like you are stuck in the oak barrels?

Do you feel like God is deaf with all your prayers?

God musn't have been so patient to make the most expensive wine out of you!

Believe me, I never looked at wine the same way again!

Even in the Dark, God is there, too!

I can't sleep with lights open. So even when I pray, I go under my blanket. I don't know what's so comforting praying that way. Perhaps because my alone time is my time to reconnect with the unseen. To unplugged from the resonating noises of the world. So I would pray in close eyes remembering every name and intention of people in my life in every bead of my rosary. I've been doing that for a long time that one night, I opened my eyes in the middle of my prayer and noticed a single bead glowing in the dark. That single bead amongst the 50 beads of my rosary lying on top of my chest, proximate to my very heart. I tried to close my eyes and open it again. There, among the darkness of my little world under my blanket, there glows the bead reminding me that even in the dark, God is there too!

I take hold of these 3 wonderful learnings whenever I'm on the point of succumbing to life's undulations. When life tricks me and my faith to just give up and stop believing. It's easy to pray when things are going right and we have everything we asked for. But the true challenge in life is to keep on praying when things are difficult and  heaven is silent to the things we are asking for. 

It's winter once again and I would complain how cold the weather is. I forgot that when life puts me in those scorching situations, I prayed for this winter to come soon. 

Life, my friend, is akin to season. There is time for everything. And every season comes with a lesson. I don't know what season you are at the moment. But always endure. Because it's just a season. Always endure. Because seasons change. Only God doesn't. Because only God is not a season.

He is everything!