No Easy Road

I live an incredibly blessed life. I am well loved and loved well by God. I have a great family-the best wife any man can hope for and three beautiful daughters. I have loyal and faithful mentors, peers, and friends at my side. I get the privilege to teach emerging leaders at Messiah College. I am honored to pastor a wonderful church at Horizon Ministries.

Yet with all honesty, life has never been easy for me. I am not naturally gifted nor a born leader and achiever.  I am at best, average. Everything I have and accomplished so far, though clearly only by the grace of God, I have to work hard for and dare I say the word-struggle for.

I have more unanswered prayers than answered ones. I have more dreams unfulfilled than those realized.The sacrifices outnumber the successes. There are more disappointments, discouragements, and disillusionment than I care to remember.Horizon Ministries is a perfect mirror of my life. We officially have  292 members but only around 100 of them are active. That means we have more members lost  than those who have chosen to stay and grow with us.

I know, I know. I should not wallow in self pity. I should look on the bright side.I should count my blessings. And that's the thing I'm doing now. At the very least I would like to say I'm struggling well.

By now I have accepted this to be a norm for my life. No more ''pie in the sky'' stuff for me.No more simplistic statements like ''if you can see it, you can achieve it'' hogwash. The truth is  I am blessed, but I accept the reality that everything I dream of, care for, and want to achieve will be done through sacrifice, pain, hard work, and agonizing prayer. That's just the way it is for me. It is what it is. No explananations needed.

Many of my church members know I live by a code, a number of them actually (think of them as principles for living). I call them my Code 27 (twenty seven representing the number of Codes there are.) Right now, I'm adding a Code 28, and Code # 28 says Embrace the struggle. Struggles are a part of life, and since they refuse to go away, might as well embrace it as a friend instead of treating it like an enemy.

It's not a contradiction to say you are blessed and at the same time acknowledge that life is hard, even for a believer.That's the path God has chosen for me, and I know for so many of you also. 

Life is not fair. It's not fair that some of you were molested as a child. It's not fair that you have irresponsible parents. It's not fair that your children who are selfish. It's not fair that you grew up in poverty. It's not fair that the people you trust betrayed you. Hell, it's not fair that life isn't fair. Simply get over it!

May we have the faith to believe in the face of these realities that God is still good and will and have already blessed us.That's the one thing we should never get over with!

Let's choose to live in hope. Tomorrow can be better than today. It won't be easy, but so what? Nothing good and worthwhile comes easy anyway.

So there. Embrace the struggle and fall into the embrace of God.

Paganini And One String (The Story Of My Life)

Nicolo Paganini is considered the greatest violin virtuoso of all time...with a matching ego to boost. A famous story of him is told that during a sold out concert in Italy, he was playing when suddenly one of his strings broke. To the delight of the audience, he still continued. Then another string snapped, but he still played on. Then another popped and he was left with only one string. With dramatic flair, Paganini paused and told the vast crowd,''And now...Paganini and One String.'' The place erupted with wild cheers, and when he finally finished, the people gave him a rousing standing ovation.

I think of that story often, but with a twist. Instead of me being the great virtuoso, I see myself as the violin, broken, beat up, and not much use unless it is  placed in the hands of the Master Artist. When our life breaks under tremendous stress and pressures, Jesus our Master can still produce beautiful music out of it.

It's not the instrument that matters. It's the Artist.

I thank God profusely that my life and my ministry is not about me. If it were all up to me, goodnight and never mind.Fortunately it's all about HIM. When I am weak, HE is strong. When I reach the end of myself, I come to the beginning of God.

Whatever I have accomplished in life can be summed up in one word-GRACE.I told the Lord early this year,''If leadership and ministry is only for the great and gifted, I'll pack my bags and go home. But if grace is real, and it is YOU who sustains, then here I am Lord, use me to the fullest.''

This year, like never before, my eyes are on you Lord. Let me be a shadow that will follow you wherever you go, however you lead, whatever you choose for me to do.

2011 is the year of God's uncommon favor. Favor in the Bible is simply another word for grace.I claim this for myself not just for this year, but for the rest of my life.

Faith Goals For 2011

1. To love God daily by spending quality time in prayer, devotions, and through my actions. Always begin the day with God. Live a life of integrity before God. Never fall in love with ministry at the expense of God. Relationship with God first, for that's the ''one thing'' that determines everything.

 2. To disciple my family. Family is my first ministry. Love is spelled T-I-M-E. If Christianity is not seen at home, why bother exporting it outside?

 3.To add 100 new disciples for Horizon Ministries.May the Lord find us faithful.

4. To raise 30 new Life Group leaders. Never bother to ask God for more souls if you cannot in good conscience take care of them. Develop leaders, that way Horizon will always have a deep bench and everyone will become useful in the hands of Almighty God.

5. To personally share the gospel to at least 100 people, mostly through CONQUEST.Were gonna make it hard for people to go to hell, esp our family members.

 6. For Horizon Binan to finally have a place of her own so we can formally launch a church there. Make no mistake about it though, with or without a physical location, we are already A CHURCH in Binan. Iba nga lang kung may formal Sunday service na. Please Lord, help us find a suitable location for her. 

7. Write and finish my book :)

8. For Kingdom Connection to touch and impact more pastors and local churches. ''No pastor left alone, no church left behind'' .

9. To never preach a poor sermon this year. Last year I had a number of pretty bad messages, not up to my own standards. This year, my resolution is to never ever peach without first becoming desperate for God and His anointing. Why bother to preach if God will not go with you?

  10. And here's good news for those who say I should smile more often and stop being aloof and snobbish-to be friendlier and more relational. Haha. :)

 LORD, what's my excuse for living if my living is not for YOU? You can take me anytime you want, only that I will live nobly and die with honor.

God bless everyone! May 2011 be the best one yet!