Fearing Failure

It is always better to fail in doing something than to excel in doing nothing. A flawed diamond is more valuable than a perfect brick. People who have no failures also have few victories.
John Mason


Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!

The Minor Basilica of Saint Michael

From my son's blog (Just In Time) . . .

The next site in our family trip to Quezon is this Church in Tayabas, which is the Minor Basilica of Saint Michael.

Featured in the photo above, from right to left, are my Ninong Mike, Manang Freda, my dad, my mom and my brother, Jelo. Every year, we spend a bit of time going to Quezon, to visit the farm at Candelaria, or the Kamay ni Hesus. However, it's our first time to visit this interesting Church.

If you need more information about this Church, just check out this highly informational plaque right outside.

(Well that saved me a lot of typing time!)

The interior of the Church is kinda shabby (trust me, this is probably the best angle in the Church, considering how worn out the other areas of the Church are). But the paint work done all throughout is stunning, especially in the altar area. It seems this was the portion of the Church that was well-maintained.

Especially pretty is the paintwork done on the dome above the Church. Just look at those shades. Very intense.

And the Church was not immune to the Badion family's love for jump shots. My brother and I were actually more occupied taking jump shots in various locations outside the Church (meron pa naman yata kaming right sense not to do jump shots IN church). This one is of me.

And another one, this time of my brother.

Well, eventually, everyone got into the spirit of jump shots and did one together.

Now that's family energy right there!

A Touching Song

REFRAIN:
In Him alone is our hope
In Him alone is our strength
In Him alone are we justified
In Him alone are we saved

What have we to offer
That does not fade or wither
Can the world ever satisfy
The emptiness in our hearts
In vain we deny (REFRAIN)

When will you cease running
In search of hollow meaning
Let His love feed the hunger
In your soul till it overflows
With joy you yearn to know (REFRAIN)

Experiencing Death

Hahah, just finished 16 episodes of a Korean drama, "My Girlfriend is a Gumiho".

Puffy eyes, yup, got those from the concluding episodes, but the drama ended in a happy note.

It is incredulous how these Korean tele-novelas are being used by God, at times, to communicate to me. He probably sees how hooked I was on these, so He squeezes helpful messages into the mini-movies. Often, the messages are personal and do strike home. Very very surprising indeed.

So what's the message this time?

A little background . . . a Gumiho is a nine-tailed fox. The girl is a "gumiho" from ancient times, trapped in a painting. She was released by a guy who became his boyfriend in certain terms. She has so much "will" to be like the man he loves, a "human".

The striking scenes were the so called "deaths of the Gumiho". During full moon, her nine tails show up. During the process of being human, she dies and loses one tail. Every death was awfully painful. She endures the pain. To be able to ease some of the supposedly unbearable ordeal, she has her "bead" besides her. The bead is some sort of a central power source of the Gumiho.

Back to the message . . .

Like us, we want to be like the One whom we love, our God. For He said, be perfect just as your Father is perfect. We are also advised to imitate Christ, to be like Christ. However, in the process of reaching this goal, we have to undergo several deaths, dying to one's self. If we die to ourselves, we let Christ live in us.

And each death becomes possible only through our source of power, the Holy Spirit.

Continuous Learning

. . . you learn what you do.

If you worry a lot, then day after day you are learning how to worry even better. If you think about doing something a lot, then you are learning how to think about doing. Every moment you are happy, you are learning how to be even happier. Every time you act, you are learning how to take an action even better. What is it that you've been learning today? What is it that you want to learn tomorrow? LEARN A NEW SKILL.