Guidelines To Find Meaning For Your Life

 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”   Luke 12:15

“My husband and I have been listening to you for a long time,” writes a friend of Guidelines.  Omitting the very kind things she wrote, she continues: “We have been ever evolving in our spiritual walk and find ourselves at a painful standstill, not knowing how to proceed.”

The letter tells the story of so many today. As the years pass by, your life gets more complex. Increasing demands are made on your diminishing time and energy. More seems to be better. Going to the bottom line, she wrote, “Every day…we talk about…how we can go to the next level of serving the Lord. We are being called but do not know how or which way to proceed in this matter. When you are surrounded by everyone that acts like it means something to move to a bigger house, have your kitchen redone, or win a soccer game, I acquiesce and painfully give in and follow the masses. We truly are living lives of quiet desperation.”

In the moments that are left on today’s edition of Guidelines, ponder the following guidelines that can make a tremendous difference—ones I constantly strive to follow personally.

Guideline #1: Prioritize. You can’t do it all. You can’t have it all. You can’t be all things to all people so, like it or not, you have to decide what is important in your life. This, of course, includes the upward perspective. What is my purpose in life? Does God have something new, something different, something valuable for me to yet accomplish which isn’t going to get done with the grind and routine I have right now.

Guideline #2: Authenticate. That means draw the line in the dirt and step across the divide of being driven by our culture, buying things, doing things, even saying things because everybody else is doing the same thing. Being different is not always being better, but being authentic and genuine often means you are in the company of the few—not the masses.

Guideline #3: Simplify. I’m thinking of a group of middle-aged adults who got fed up with the commercialism of “having more and more,” and decided to pledge to each other that with the exception of food, medicine, and toiletries they would buy nothing new for six months. Was it a challenge?  You know it was. The six-month experience lasted a year and changed their lives. One of the books that has influenced my life is Richard Foster’s Freedom of Simplicity. The media and the constant bombardment of ads have brainwashed us into living beyond our means, unhappy and frustrated without the newest of everything.

Guideline #4: Purify your thinking. That was why Gandhi dressed in a loincloth and spent time every day spinning wool. Take time to fast and to seek God’s will for your life. It’s never too late to redeem your future, whether it is long or short.  Wash away the acid of commercialism by touching the lives of hurting people. Give away the junk in your closet or garage and refuse to refill the same space.

Guideline #5: Refocus and reconnect. If you’re married and you’ve lost your first love, strive to regain it. Rekindle the spark you had when you were first married, dirt poor, but madly in love with each other. Walk through the woods. Look at the stars. Meditate on God’s greatness and His love for you and determine that you will no longer walk the broad path to the shopping center but find the straighter one, the one less traveled on which brings peace and contentment. It’s not an impossible quest at all. Corrie ten Boom was right when she said we ought not to hold onto our possession tightly because it hurts too much when God pries them out of our hands. Indeed.

Scripture reading: Luke 12:13-21

https://www.guidelines.org/devotional/guidelines-to-find-meaning-for-your-life/

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Lalaki patay matapos mabaril ng kuya sa Iloilo

Patay ang isang 35 anyos na lalaki matapos umanong mabaril ng kaniyang kuya sa bayan ng Balasan, Iloilo, sabi ngayong Miyerkoles ng pulisya.

Ayon sa imbestigasyon, biglang tinutukan ng baril ng biktima noong gabi ng Linggo ang kaniyang kuya at ama habang nag-uusap ang mga ito. 

Inagaw umano ng kuya ang baril mula sa biktima pero bigla itong pumutok at tinamaan ang nakababatang kapatid.

Hindi pa umano matukoy ng mga awtoridad kung bakit tinutukan ng baril ng biktima ang kaniyang kuya.

Dinala sa ospital ang biktima pero idineklara ring dead on arrival.

Patuloy namang hinahanap ng mga pulis ang kuya, na tumakas matapos mangyari ang insidente.

– Ulat ni Rolen Escaniel

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/03/24/21/lalaki-patay-matapos-mabaril-ng-kuya-sa-iloilo

THE 700 CLUB ASIA | In Everything Give Thanks | March 23, 2021

Joys and sorrows

 ‘… I know they were tears of joy and appreciation for all that had gone before, which molded me into the person I am today.’

HAPPY happy birthday to Atty. Ma. Gabriela P. Roldan-Concepcion. To those who follow GMA Kapuso’s “Unang Hirit” morning show, she is the formal lady who dishes out legal opinion on questions sent in by listeners that are relevant to current issues.

Me, I’ve known her for 40 years now (??) and early on I told her “You will be First Lady one day.” Well, today she is First Lady indeed – of the University of the Philippines, bringing grace and charm (and surely, steel!) to the workings of the administration of UP President (POTUP) Atty. Danilo L. Concepcion.

Happy healthy birthday po!

When good friends mark special days it’s a great opportunity to be human – to express one’s emotions, and share in the joy (sometimes in the sorrow) of the moment. By sharing in the joy, it is multiplied; by sharing in the sorrow, the burden is shared. Either way, things get better.

As a member of an FB group called “Batang UP Campus” my news feed was flooded the other day with old pictures of senior ladies who we were being asked to identify. It was a heartwarming moment for me, seeing teachers from nursery school and kinder and high school, many of them gone now but all of them having been significant influences in my life.

There was Dr. Luz dela Cruz, the diminutive principal of our high school, who almost didn’t let me graduate because I was accused of “leading” the traditional CAT graduation rite where we cadets get to pelt our officers with water laced with the juice of this small fruit whose name I forget which makes the liquid itchy. She told me she was doubly disappointed with me because I was class president and expected me to follow the rules. I guess she forgot I was a middle child? Anyway, my parents were so mad at me they sought an audience with Dr. dela Cruz, who had planned to ask me and a few others like Palamedes Lim to write on the blackboard “I will not do this again.” Which I did although it was silly because we were graduating so we wouldn’t have a chance to do it again, yes?

Dusky (as Lim was called) kept writing on the board but was knowingly leaving out the word “not” in some of his later lines. He too got away with that.

One of those in the pictures was Prof. Salome Miranda, a very kind and gentle chemistry whiz who was a neighbor in UP Campus and whose middle child Raul was my age. One time she surprised me by saying, in class, that she saw me knelt in prayer at the UP Chapel – adding that young men and women who spent time in church are always a good catch. (!!!). Maybe that’s why she gave me a “3” when I know I didn’t deserve to pass chemistry!

Then I thought I espied the image of Prof. Trinidad Flores, our next door neighbor who became my mother’s best friend on campus. Another sweet lady, she was my home economics teacher which was the first subject on some days so I would try to watch if she was leaving her house so I could leave ours through the back door and race to get a ride before she did. There were times when I didn’t notice her leave!

Also in the photos was Mrs. Lesaca, our nursery school teacher at the Child Development Center where our rights were disregarded and we were all forced to sleep on our throw pillows for a certain period of the day! I was too young to lead a protest at the UN Human Rights Commission so we did nothing of that sort and just complied.

I was quite emotional two days ago and before I knew it tears were streaming down my cheeks. I think both Hayden and Apollo sensed something was amiss because they were looking at me with wide eyes but making no sound, as if giving me space to let my emotions out. One is never too old for moments like that and sometimes events around you conspire to make the moment ripe for the shedding of a few tears. But I know they were tears of joy and appreciation for all that had gone before, which molded me into the person I am today.

Which, hopefully, doesn’t bring others to tears of sorrow!

Personal: Condolences to the family of Rev. Fr. Lamberto Pasion, OP who died yesterday

https://malaya.com.ph/index.php/news_opinion/joys-and-sorrows/