May 1st 07
Posted by Arnold in Day today
May 1, Labor day. No work. Just play.
People flock in the malls partly to skip the hot summer afternoon back home, but mainly to fall in line to be the firsts to see Spiderman 3. Malls are going crazy. Glorietta, Shangri-la, Megamall, Powerplant. They all made a sweep. They showed just one film — Spiderman 3. All averaged 6 theaters per mall. Whew! That’s hipe.
A friend IM’ed me and asked me to join them. I declined due to work. I asked, why — would it be different this weekend? He said, maybe. Maybe this weekend, Vhong Navarro will star instead. Gagamboy. :D
Apr 30th 07
Posted by Arnold in Day today
With a new url (http://arnold.gamboa.ph) comes a new design. With K2 as the theme manager for WordPress, I was able to implement everything for only a couple of hours. Actually, this design is a rip off of another blog that I follow — just guess what. But what the heck, we’re all borrowing from somebody else on the web one way or the other.
Apr 26th 07
Posted by Arnold in Day today, Too Personal
Blogging from my hometown Jaen, Nueva Ecija, some 100 kms north of Metro Manila.
Death in the family is never fun. It’s a season of sadness and mourning. I’m not going to talk about that, though, as it is expected. Let me just share in this piece some of the unique experiences I’m having in this recent visit.
* * *
About an hour after my arrival from Manila today, I entered the room where my aunt’s casket is stationed. I saw familiar faces. They were having an interesting discussion — religion. The characters:
Ate Glo – Ang Dating Daan member, former Seventh-day Adventist. During my time as an Adventist youth leader here, she was my sparring partner. Now, a Bro. Eli Soriano “fan”.
My mom - Seventh-day Adventist.
A distant cousin (forgot her name) – Iglesia Ni Cristo
A distant relative (forgot his name) – Roman Catholic
Mang Ilo – elder of a local full gospel church, God is Alive Christian Ministries. Most active in the discussion, he quotes the Bible for every sentence that he makes. Encouraging yet, in my opinion, intimidating.
And then myself – a Christian from an urban church called Grace Place.
Topics of discussion ranged from the deity of Jesus to the Sabbath to who should be allowed to read the Bible to why Eli Soriano remains in exile. When I got in, things are already getting out of hand. They were not debating violently, but I can feel the tension nonetheless. This is a unique experience, I told myself. Who can ever tell that you can put all these people with diverse religious persuasions in a single room. Only in a wake can you do that :)
Anyway, I remained silent, listening intently to their discussion. I do not intend to interrupt but has started praying that the Holy Spirit will put the right words into my mouth when and if I am asked to speak. (I expected that they will ask me about my opinion because Mang Ilo, knowing that we’re on the “same team”, introduced me to the group as someone who leads a ministry back in Manila).
And then, my time came. They asked me about my opinion. I’ve been praying and I believe the Holy Spirit has truly put the right words into my mouth. I mumbled words that I do not intend to say, thoughts came while I was speaking. I may not have lead a soul to Jesus during that short participation in that unique conversation, but I believe I accomplished what I intended to do: to make the discussion fizzle out while leaving some questions in their minds. The finger prints of God was all over the place.
* * *
Around 8 pm, I visited a “crusade”, an evangelistic tent meeting (happening a barangay away) normally done by the Adventist church during summer vacations and Christmas breaks. I’d like to see what changed, or to be more precise, to see if there’s anything has changed at all in the way they preach the “gospel” since I left the church 8 years ago.
It’s discouraging and sad to learn that nothing has really changed. Same topics, same tactics. Sabbath. Ten Commandments. End time events. Scare tactics. Legalism.
The topic was about living a healthy lifestyle. I had an impression that the points being presented was good in one way or the other. But when the speaker started explaining each point, legalism started to crop up. Imagine telling his listeners that buying and chewing bubble gum is a sin against God? I also got the impression that smoking cigarettes will usher you to hell. Where the “hell” did he get that idea?
Of course, expected in this topic is the discussion on Leviticus 11, food prohibitions. He started with verse 1 where God says, “speak to the Israelites…” He may have seen my facial expression and anticipated what I have in mind. I did not intend to, but it may have just came out unknowingly. Of course, I was thinking, the Bible was clear, those were spoken for the Israelites and we are NOT Israelites. He stopped and explained as if he was talking to me, “Let me explain for those of you who thinks that this is not for us, there are two types of Israelites, the literal and the spiritual. We belong to the spiritual Israelites.” I was laughing inside. I wanted to ask the pastor, so to whom does God spoke Leviticus 11? To the literal? Or the spiritual Israelites?
The elder told me that they are to baptize 3 people as a result of that crusade. Hayyy…
* * *
Today was also a trip to memory lane. I saw and spoke to my grade 6 teacher. My math coach. Mentor. I love this guy. He is a motivator. My love for mathematics (and anything number) came from him. I saw several old friends. Played “pusoy dos” (a glass of water as a bet, if you’ll allow me to be defensive). Hang out with my favorite cousin Kuya Unyo. Most of my relatives from Austria are also here.
Tomorrow, as part of the tradition, we’ll walk from here to “bayan”, about 4 kms., the cemetery.
Apr 23rd 07
Posted by Arnold in Day today, Too Personal
We saw Will Smith’s “Pursuit of Happyness” on DVD last night. Two words to describe the movie: uncomfortably inspiring. 
There were some moments in the movie where we were literally on the edge of our seats, not the suspense kind, but we can almost feel the pain and hardships that the main characters were having. After the movie, I told Joy that I can possibly handle sleeping in a rest room — that is, if I’m alone. But to have a 5 year old kid with you? That I cannot possibly handle. I admire the strength of character that Smith, in the movie, portrayed — which is based on real life story.
A couple of thoughts:
1. I can’t help but thank God that I don’t have to undergo that kind of hardships. The Bible says that God will not give us trials that we cannot handle. God does know me from the inside out. And He knows I can’t handle that kind of thing. God, on the other hand, does allow other kinds of hardships in my life to mould me and train me to become a better person. Things that sometimes I feel I cannot handle, but true enough to his promise, I am able.
2. Being comfortable is dangerous. I don’t mean we should not be happy for having a car, living in a townhouse or earning a good pay every month. I don’t mean that we should not be thankful for being comfortable. But being comfortable in life can hinder us from pushing ourselves harder. Smith, in the movie, is motivated to become better because he sees his child’s discomfort, and he felt his. He did not stop and just be contented with living in the streets with his kid (which is, apparently, the case for most families we see living under the flyovers throughout Metro Manila). Sometimes, if not most of the times, we stay in the comfort zone. We don’t grow, we don’t pursue personal improvements. But the reality is, there’s always room for improvement. We can improve our skills. We can improve our career. We can improve our relationships — with our spouse, with our love ones and with God. We should not be comfortable, it’s dangerous. Feel the discomfort and improve from where you are right now.
Apr 19th 07
Posted by Arnold in Day today
Lord, our heart aches for the victim and their families of this tragedy. We don’t know why this happened and why you allowed it to happen. But it is my prayer that you will make your presence be seen in the midst of sadness. May your embrace be felt by those who are mourning right now. And may stillness be planted in their hearts in the middle of this storm. In Jesus name, Amen.
If you feel like praying for the families of the victims, say your prayers in the comment box.
