Miracles Happen

I went to our prayer meeting last Friday, with a string of coincidences and detours I was contemplating on. Besides that, I was happy with the way things turned out regarding a paper I churned out to my bosses this week. It was a miracle that I finished it on time and an equal miracle that my bosses approved of it. I actually chided to my colleagues that I am a miracle worker for I do work that requires miracles. But ain’t that so?

What struck me during our prayer meeting was the sharing of a sister who met a fateful incident last September, on the exact day of my birthday. She was stabbed 14 times by a street smart kid who tried to extort money from her. She did not dwell on the ordeal but on how she found God in all that she went through because of that.

“God indeed is my savior.” She just said the very lines that has been a mantra to me these days.  ” I am confident and unafraid…” I added the lines from Isaiah as I readily agreed to her. I may not have experienced her miraculous bout with near death but having something to worry about is like contemplating the worst or death at one’s door anyway.

One of the things that I can attest to His saving love this week is when He gave me the extra energy, extra dose of “luck”, of time, of wisdom and good sense to do another daunting task from work. More than that, He gave me joy and peace in my heart–no complaints, no negative perspectives entertained–just sheer enjoyment in the midst of challenges, difficulties and potential disasters! If that is not grace I do not know how to call it.

“With joy you will draw water from the fountain of salvation” This is the reason why God saves. So that we will know where to draw love, peace and joy from–the very waters we so desire and long for to fill our being and not just merely exist but LIVE. I realized that this world will always throw us our share of storms and sufferings. In many forms, they come to us — through an accident, a breakup, a betrayal, a rejection, an abuse, and death even. I see that all these storms we call, are merely losses in this world. A loss of wealth, recognition, friendship, job, reputation, and ultimately, of life. But I also see that they are all temporal. They are part of this world.

The most important things in my life can always be taken away from me in the blink of an eye, in many ways. My family. My friends. My relationships. My job. My ministry. My community. My mind. My limbs. Everything that I have. If I draw my being and meaning through them, I will be lost. I will not be at peace. I will always try to control things whenever I sense that I might lose any of them.

The truth is they are not really mine in the first place. With that, I should know that they are not what is truly constant, unchanging, ABSOLUTE, which is God’s love. Or simply, God Himself. The things here merely represent Him or His attributes and gifts at best. But they are still not Him. Him is one I cannot possibly lose in this world nor in the next.

What does it mean to be saved anyway? The first thing that came to my mind was to be saved from worry. “Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” That is what we pray in each mass celebrated everyday. It is the knowledge that God is God and He is our father unlike any other. That He provides. He is merciful. He is rich. He is almighty. He is everything I need and He gives me all I need. And that cannot be experienced any more truer than when we are most in need of His saving help.

Yes, when we pray for miracles, miracles happen. It may not always be the miracle that we expected or wanted (Like, Lord, I hope that my boss’ mind doesn’t change like she changes her outfits everyday) but the miracle that happens when we are attuned to what He wanted and expected. Now that defines a real miracle.

Another Detour

God really has a way of pointing things out in a way that is truly unmistakable.

Last night, our out-of-office event ended earlier than I expected. I was about to meet some brothers from the community to accompany me to our weekly prayer meeting at 7 PM at a train station (MRT Taft Avenue) to get to Pedro Gil. Yet, it was only minutes after 5PM and I was so near the station before that. With lots of time to waste, and knowing the venue enough and the way to get there, I opted to take the service bus going the other way and planned to get off at another train station instead (LRT 2 Katipunan Station) to get me to Manila. A longer route, more tiring perhaps, but I simply followed my “instincts”.

At first I thought I was not going to make it on time. The bus got caught in a traffic and forgot to stop at the corner I was supposed to get off. It had to make U-turns to bring me back to that exact same spot and of course, that took some precious minutes already.

Well, as night fell already and I was not that familiar with the surroundings,  I did not realize the station I was looking for was underground… and I was looking for something like the skyway for that is what is familiar with me. I only realized my predicament after about half a kilometer perhaps, when I asked around for the station. Yeah, only to find out it was just a few meters from where the bus left me. Lesson 1: ASK when you know you do not know.

So I boarded the train, went off at the last station, walked the labyrinthine walkways to the other railway transit (LRT1), took some cash from the ATM to pay a friend, went to buy my ticket and went to the platform area. A train passed at the other direction-northbound… Then, another… after some  more minutes, another. But not southbound. I was beginning to get impatient. I was early but I thought I was not going to make it on time and only because the trains were late?

I asked myself at first whether God wanted me to come here in the first place. For your see, I was waiting for a text message from my mom whether we would go to an important meeting tomorrow or not but she has not answered at all. I was having thoughts of going home instead to ask her rather than go to the PM. God must have something up his sleeve, I mused. God has a purpose, I rationalized. Okay, in truth I silently told Him, You must have some explanation on this?

Finally, our train arrived. When I got off at Pedro Gil, a sister saw me and told me that a brother was with her too. When finally we met together, they confessed that they did not know how to get to the place we were suppose to hold our meeting and was only too glad to have me with them to guide them. And as we went our way and turned to the corner of a street, I found another sister asking her way from strangers. I immediately asked if she is part of our community and was going to the prayer meeting as well. Her answer was affirmative.

Later during the prayer meeting, our national director gave a short presentation and quoted Pope John Paul II, ““In the designs of Providence there are no mere coincidences.”

This simple and unplanned coincidences made me smile.  God gave me the answer I was looking for.