Form or Goal?

When deciding on something, do you pursue the form or the goal?

“I will buy an iPad because I love Apple”

“I will become a call center agent after I graduate, that’s the fastest way to having a career after I graduate”

“I need to go abroad, my family needs money to live”

“I have been attending this church since I was born. Why would I try others that they say would benefit me?”

Form or goal?

In buying a gadget, the form are brands, the goal is usability.

In establishing a career, the form is your job, the goal is being able to use your unique passion in pursuing the kind of work designed for you.

In relationships and family, the form is job security, the goal is love and togetherness.

In worship, the form is a church, the goal is God

In making decisions, the forms are almost always given emphasis. But in the long run, if we focus on the goal rather than the form, it produces short term pains and long term gains.

So how are you spending the Christmas season?

Christmas has always been traditionally the fondest, most anticipated and busiest time of the year. And this is also the most misinterpreted holiday of the year.

So how should we spend the Christmas season. Let’s go back to basics. A note from LifeChurch.tv’s Facebook account:

Christmas has become, for many of us, a season of eating, shopping, hosting and spending. We run ourselves ragged in an effort to please the people around us and make everyone get along long enough for all of the holiday pictures to be taken. It’s exhausting and it’s all a bunch of focus on the things that Christmas was never meant to be. We’re not gonna take it anymore. We’re going to make this year different.

This year, (let’s go) back to the basics. This year Christmas (should) be about worship, giving, and love. Those are the things that the first Christmas was all about. When Jesus was born he was a gift from the creator. He was the symbol of God’s love for us. These two realizations caused the shepherds who first visited him to worship in awe of the wonderful miracle of the Messiah.

So as we head into the holiday, let’s conspire to change Christmas. Let’s leave behind the stress and spending and trade them in for worship, giving and love.

What’s happening to us?

A couple of weeks ago, flash floods wreck havoc in Metro Manila, killing 350 people, displacing more than a million individuals — most are still displaced and in evacuation centers.

In the middle of this tragedy, before the week ends, another super typhoon crossed the country. And while it changes its course and has spared Metro Manila, it did create damage in Northern Luzon.

It was on its way out, when another typhoon entered and pulled it back and landed to Northern Luzon 3 times, killing hundreds more on landslides and floods.

Today, I opened my television in the morning, I saw 65% of Pangasinan under water. My mother called from Nueva Ecija, and while she comforted me by saying they are just fine, she reported that most of our town Jaen is already under flood water.

Can you imagine that a mountain city like Baguio will experience flood?

Can’t help but ask, what’s going on? What’s happening to us?

It’s a rhetorical question, don’t need to answer that. I just feel that I need to get that off my chest.

What I HATE about the Christmas season

Three days before Christmas and you wouldn’t believe that I’m about to spoil the fun with this series of blog posts. I just want to let the grinch out of me and tell you about the things I hate about this season. Let me start with this:

Read the rest of this entry »

The power of partnerships

Partnership is God’s idea.

When God instituted marriage at creation, he said that it is not good for man to be alone. He created the woman to partner with the man.

In your spiritual life, God designed it that everyone should be part of a spiritual family called the local church. If you’re just a church goer and not really living life with your church family, you’re missing a lot!

In business, I’m learning these days that partnerships should not be disregarded. The reality is, we don’t know it all, and we can’t do it all. A project may need multiple technologies, and we can only offer one. The best solution is to partner with another company — which we formerly consider as a competitor — and, instead of compete, we cooperate.

Bottom line: the cliche “No man is an island” rings loud and clear on me these days. It’s humbling to understand that we’re not perfect, we don’t know everything, and we need each other to compliment each other’s weaknesses.