Working Under Grace

It irritates me all too much when I see individuals who always come up with excuses why they do not have any means of earning to feed their family or even when they do not get to find the right job to do. My say to this is that sometimes we always just have too many excuses to come up with when our hearts are not truly set into the goals we are trying to achieve.

These past few days I have been taking my time to work less compared to the seasons of my working life when I wake up early and sleep late writing. I appreciate it greatly when I am given the extra time to rest early, watch television, cuddle my dogs, or even update our blog. But this does not mean that I hate working.

I think working hard and on the double turns bad when we exchange it for other aspects of our lives that weigh far greater than the money we can earn like spending time with our loved ones. At the same time though, it can help to remember that God has nothing against human effort since hard work even honors God. Hard work only becomes a cover up that God cannot provide for our everyday needs when we depend all our lives on our work.

Despite all the perseverance all of us may be showing in these times of economic hardships, it is still important that we have enough rest and a lot of spiritual refreshment. But this should not be an excuse to be lazy. To strike the right balance between working and trusting God is what we need to do along with times of resting as well while trusting Him still.

30 Days of Stress Transformation - Day 1

Dori says...

Stress. We hear it everyday from TV commercials promoting vitamins or energy drinks that will ease it and actually verbalizing it as we go through our day at work or at home. A person without stress anyway is one who refuses or chooses not to grow and remain stunted, so next time you feel stressed, flaunt it. But stress is not at all hazardous if we learn to manage it well and use it as an opportunity to advance like a hard push when we feel stagnant and an electric shock for us to be awakened and become fully alert.

I've come across this interesting series called One Moment Meditation by Martin Boroson aimed at managing our everyday stress with just simple and easy to do instructions for 30 days. So today we are starting this journey and hope by the end of the course, we will learn to spell PEACE by heart amidst the elements of stress lurking in our day.

Day 1: Introducing the Basic Minute

1. Find a place of solitude.

2. Sit down.
3. Place your legs in a relaxed but fixed position.
4. Sit up.
5. Set your alarm for exactly one minute.
6. Place your hands in a relaxed but fixed position.
7. Close your eyes.
8. Focus all your attention on your breathing.

AFTERMATH: This was not easy at all. For a second or two I was able to concentrate on my breaths, inhaling..exhaling, but in between thoughts about what we would have for dinner or have I fed Pio's turtle were rampaging and distracting me. I was able to sit still, though. So I guess I still need the remaining 29 days of the course :D

“We could say that meditation doesn't have a reason or doesn't have a purpose. In this respect it's unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we don't do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.”

-Allan Watts

Auj says..

I have always believed that it is never easy to have a silent mind, especially for someone whose mind is as active as mine. But it is through the power of meditation as well that I get to acquire three important benefits: a more focused concentration, another window of positivity opened in my life, better knowledge of myself, and believe it or not, a much better health.

With another journey to take, this time in the world of meditation, it is such a privilege to have the opportunity to quiet things down every once in a while in my life and hear the more powerful things we ought to hear when we fall silent, ironically speaking.

AFTERMATH: This first step made me realize that the word “I” goes far deeper. Simply saying, that I am no slave even to my own thoughts. That no matter how hard we try to strive in setting a time for meditation, it is still a very spontaneous action. My mind has always been used to life’s twisted complications. This is the perfect time to unlearn the habits that have always deceived us to be something good.