Nailed!

When I was a kid my father was an inspector of our town’s sole rural bank. One of his jobs was to visit parcels of land all over Polillo Group of Islands to assess the values of these properties as collateral for potential mortgages. During weekends his travels became our family excursions.

One time he was asked by the bank to visit a farm land in one of the islands at the back of Polillo facing the Pacific Ocean. He scheduled this itinerary on a time that we can go with him.

Our travel took several hours by motor boat and we arrived in the said island early morning. The tide was high so the boatman was able to dock the boat on the shore. We scrutinized the produce of the land then we explored the whole island as well. Our mid-day meal was a full tropical lunch: broiled newly caught fish with edible fresh fern-salad & cooked white rice recently harvested & manually hushed. It was indeed a wonderful day!

Our group decided to go back to town by mid-afternoon. By then it was low tide and the sea bed was exposed maybe 300 meters far to the sea so we have to walk toward the boat. My mom, papa & I looked for the shortest possible direction to the boat while the rest of the party took the shoreline (which was the wiser choice). Along the chosen route we got stuck in a particular spot, we couldn’t move on because we were sucked by the ground. Slowly but steadily it was swallowing us.

We panicked when my father said, “We are in the middle of a quicksand.”

We became aware that if no one will take us out we will be buried alive. In fear my mom & I clung to my papa but because of that we became a one big mass so the pull of gravity got faster to our demise. I was then thinking: At my young age I will die with one consolation, to leave this world with my parents.

Then in a strong, firm and authoritative voice my father said, “Don’t cling to me! Get down on the ground flat on your tummy…then crawl!”

Even if I was afraid I disentangled myself from him (my mom did that too). Although we will be separated from each other which was frightening, I followed my father because he said so & I trusted him. He was more knowledgeable than I was.

In opposoition to my fear when I detached from him I felt very light. As I laid on my belly the sucking ground stopped, that was the same situation my mom & papa experienced. Then we all crawled from the quicksand to safety. Technically, laying flat distributed evenly our body weight so it made us like flat wooden slabs floating on a water surface thus we floated on the soft sand.

I was spared from immediate death because I listened to what my father told me. Even if I wasn’t sure of what lies ahead I believed him. I was assured he knew what was best for me and all his concern was for my safety.

If my earthly father was very concern with me and that he will never allow harm come my way, much more so with my heavenly Father. His love is greater than any human being can love me and only if I believe Him & have my faith in Him my life will be spared from eternal danger.

I know that he cares for me, that is my assurance & that can be your assurance too!

My job now is to sell corporate furniture & it makes me a very itenerant person. I travel from one end of Metro Manila to the other end. There are times I go to the nearby provinces of the metropolis. There are times that our company provides me a car while on other times I travel by public transportation.

Traveling gives me the feeling of freedom!

One time I had a client call at the south of Manila. After my meeting I rode the jeepney, one of my co-passengers was a woman who paid the driver with a P500 bill. The driver didn’t have a change for that bill so he told the lady that it is okey for her not to pay. Yet it seemed that the lady cannot believe what she heard. She dug deeper into her purse & looked for a smaller bill and she found a P1 change. Again she attempted to give the driver her coin.

The driver & including all of us witnessing passengers to that transaction told her “Wag ka na magbayad!” With emphasis. I sensed that when she went down the jeepney she couldn’t believe that she just had a FREE RIDE.
The problem with our economic culture is we are not use to receiving services without paying. It all started with the barter system. To have something we need whether it be food, clothes, a ride, a facial treatment, massage or something that will give us a good and hearty laugh at a comedy bar, we pay.

That is very evident in a jeepney slogan: Bayad muna bago baba!

Even in our spiritual life we think that to gain God’s favor & blessings we have to do something. We have to suffer first & be disciplined by God through a church organization system & culture before we can experience His love & forgiveness. We have to give offering first before He will bless us. We have to be kind to someone else first before He will show mercy & kindness to us.

Yet that doesn’t work in God’s system. He says: “Even before you are bad (sinner) I have loved you & gave you all my riches (my only Son). I also have offered my forgiveness to you even before you asked for an apology!” That’s seemingly too good to be true that a lot of professing Christians can’t believe.

But it is true! It is true in the Bible times. It is true throughout the church history. It is even true to many a Christian life stories & it is definitely true in my life.

Can I ask you one thing before I end this post? Have you receive God’s forgiveness, kindness & blessings freely? Or do you make many religious practices & rituals just to experience His friendship & goodness. If you haven’t yet better experience it because it is there all along free of charge. If you can’t believe it better believe it!

To know more about what I posted now there is one place I know you can learn & experience this. Come to Grace Place, it’s my church family & we are experiencing that goodness of God there called “Grace.” Visit www.graceplace.ph for more information & listen to the messages (in podcast) that I present every Sunday. FREE OF CHARGE!