THE KEY TO THE HEART - By Bobby Sagra

"The door to the human heart can be opened only from the inside." - taken from Apples of Gold

While browsing over my hotmail account I again passed by the update of the Database for high school reunions. Right there in the category of related interest I again saw the name of my beloved Marilene. It was there that I started posting some e-mails to reconnect with high school friends of the Cabatuan National Comprehensive High School that I met Marl sometime three years ago. We started communicating by e-mails. I was then a Benedictine Monk and I have an office where I am provided with a computer for my use. I became a part of Marl's life and she became a part of mine. In the beginning she will open up private matters of her life, her family and her work asking for some friendly support, especially during those times when she has some difficulties caused by the various pressures of her life. Being adept in matters concerning helping those who are trying to find meaning and direction in their lives, I will write back and give my guidance and encouragement for her. Things progressed from there joyfully for us. We exchange set of pictures, lots of hellos and hi's in a friendly casual manner. Then, one day, while we were having our usual chat conversation I honestly expressed my love for her and she responded gladly with love too. One of the most beautiful moments of that cyber love connection was when Marl sent a cd of her songs with her pictures on my birthday. I was so thrilled and happy to receive such a token of deep and sincere love from her. Then came a period when I decided to refrain from communicating with her to focus more on my life and work as a monk and to listen some more to my feelings of love for her. In the book, Fire in the Belly on the masculine psychology it is written that, "when a man truly loves a woman, he has to say goodbye to her." I did exactly just that and I found out that in that space, in that silence, in that hollow and uncertain moment in time,...that I truly love her and I want her to be a very significant part of my life in this world. To make my presence felt again in Marl's life I sent her a package gift for her birthday which she received just before Valentines Day. From then on, we started communicating again on a regular basis by giving updates and concern for each other. I was scheduled to go to Ghana, Africa last year for a new mission assignment when I heard the news that my mother got sick and I needed to go home to help in taking care of her. I went home last August, 2007 and I called up Marl as soon as I arrived home in Cabatuan, Iloilo. I asked her if she can come home for the town fiesta on September 10,2007 which she did. She said she will go home so we can meet and see each other. I met Marl for the first time ever since we communicated via internet at the new Iloilo Airport last September 8,2007. It was a very beautiful and memorable meeting. We both gave our gifts and there was heartfelt reluctance because I was still wearing my monk's robe. She brought her two year old grandson, Kiel who became our love's cupid during those four days of our tryst in Cabatuan, Iloilo. Marl went back to Manila after the town fiesta to continue her work at UMC Manila. We exchanged text messages every day. On September 30,2007 I went to Manila and joined the birthday party of Isah, Marl's daughter. I brought as my gift and "pasalubong" the famous "Tinuom" dish of chicken cooked in banana leaf from Cabatuan to the delight of everybody in the family including her son, Gabo who is finishing Mass Communication in Perpetual University of Las Pinas City. On October 22,2007 I solemnized the marriage of Jay and Bel Alere in Cavite. During the moment when as a celebrant I asked for prayer in silence for our personal needs, Marl who was there in the crowd whispered a prayer to God to have me as her husband. It is very true that God answers prayers. The very next day I decided to leave the priesthood and monkhood and proposed to marry Marl. In that mysterious yet deeply profound twists and turns of events, God's love and design for my life and that of Marl merged like a beautiful completion of a jigzaw puzzle. We both decided to get married on December 8,2007 in the Dreem Haus restaurant along Taft Avenue, Manila. Our wedding was a joyful and successful testimony of our love for each other. Guests included family members, friends and co-workers and everybody went home stomach filled, contented and mesmerized. I stayed for a while with Marl doing some fixing of the house and accompanying her to work everyday. I was with her and her kids and grandson for Christmas. We both celebrated her birthday at home with her brother Ed Lusaya as our special guest last January 24,2008. We dated on Valentines Day by Manila Bay area. Then I left Manila on February 17,2008 to go back here in the U.S. to continue my work as God's servant and minister in a new community called the University of Mechizedek, an online Ascenscion School and Retreat Center located in Glorieta, New Mexico. I continued my daily contact with Marl through the internet chat medium. Our spiritual group has decided to relocate to Mt. Shasta, California on April 21,2008. I hope to get a better income earning job there and petition Marl to come and join me here. Once again I am into a new adventure of faith and life. This time I am not alone responding to God's greater calling to holiness and love because Marl is one and united with me as my wife. I look forward to reach Mt. Shasta and be worthy to stay in that sacred mountain of God with Marl soon to come. The psalmist in questioning who shall climb the mountain of the Lord wrote the response, "he whose heart is pure..." Lord, my heart is pure and I am ready to go. Watch and care for my beloved hun Marl while I am on my journey to your holy mountain. Bless our love and devotion to each other as husband and wife. You are truly love oh Lord and you have given us the key of love which opened our hearts from the inside. We praise and we thank you for creating us for each other to love, to cherish and to be happy together in this life and in the next. Bless our love and married life as we journey along and serve you and and your people. Amen.

The Brick

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going abit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?" The young boy was apologetic. "Please, mister...please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do," He pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop..." With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It's my brother, "he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me." Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. "Thank you and may God bless you,"the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy pushed his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: "Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!" God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has tothrow a brick at us. It's our choice to listen or not.

Thought for the Day:

If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.

If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.

He sends you flowers every spring.

He sends you a sunrise every morning Face it, friend - He is crazy about you!

God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow,sun without rain,but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light forthe way.

If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.


For the Christian Prayer is not an option but an opportunity."
In prayer; expect setbacks, but refuse retreat." - Richard Eastman

Do your best, bring out the best in others,Don't tell the Lord how big the problem is,tell the problem how Great the Lord is!

To subscribe or unsubscribe visit http://www.christianchallengeandblessing.com

If you lack internet access you can subscribe orunsubscribe by sending a blank email message with"Subscribe" or "Unsubscribe" in the subject area. to: liverite@christianchallengeandblessing.com

Life Is a Gift

Life Is a Gift

Changes

CHANGES

Today I pray that I may understand there are some things I cannot change:
I cannot change the weather.
I cannot change the tick of the clock.
I cannot change the past.
I cannot change another person against their will.
I cannot change what is right and wrong.
I cannot change the fact that a relationship ended.
I can stop worrying over that which I cannot change and enjoy living more! I can place those things into the hands of of the One Who is bigger than I. Save energy. Let go. Instead of trying to change someone else:
I can change my attitude.
I can change my list of priorities.
I can change my bad habits into good ones.
I can move from the place of brokenness into wholeness, into the beautiful person GOD created me to become.

- Taken from an e-mail by a friend

The Privilege of Suffering - James H. Hewett

"The Privilege of Suffering" Joni Eareckson's story is now well known to us both through her books and the movieabout her paralysis as a teenager and her amazing fight back to a useful andproductive life of ministry through her art. From the preface of Joni: Isolated, by itself, what is a minute? Merely a measurement of time. There are sixtyin an hour, 1,440 in a day. At seventeen, I had already ticked off more than 9 millionof them in my life. Yet, in some cosmic plan, this single minute was isolated. Intothese particular sixty seconds was compressed more significance than all the millionsof minutes marking my life prior to this instant. So many actions, sensations, thoughts, and feelings were crowded into that fragment oftime. How can I describe them? How can I begin to catalog them? I recall so clearly the details of those few dozen seconds--seconds destined to changemy life forever. And there was no warning or premonition. What happened on July 30, 1967, was the beginning of an incredible adventure which Ifeel compelled to share because of what I have learned. Oscar Wilde wrote: "In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting whatone wants, and the other is getting it." To rephrase his thought, I suggest there arelikewise only two joys. One is having God answer all your prayers; the other is not receiving the answer to all your prayers. I believe this because I have found that Godknows my needs infinitely better than I know them. And He is utterly dependable, nomatter which direction our circumstances take us. In the Psalms we're told that God does not deal with us according to our sins andiniquities. My accident was not a punishment for my wrongdoing--whether or not Ideserved it. Only God knows why I was paralyzed. Maybe He knew I'd be ultimately happier serving Him. If I were still on my feet, it's hard to say how things might havegone. I probably would have drifted through life--marriage, maybe even divorce--dissatisfied and disillusioned. When I was in high school, I reacted to life selfishlyand never built on any long lasting values. I lived simply for each day and the pleasureI wanted--and almost always at the expense of others. --James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited(Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 13.

Personal Comment: There is a good purpose hidden in every painful life experience like the one described above. What is important is that once in a while we pause and learn the lessons of good beneath the sad realities of life and celebrate that God loves us after all just the way we are. - Bobby Sagra, Spiritual Teacher for University of Melchizedek, Glorieta, NM, USA

Daylight Vision

Daylight Vision - Poems, Blog Posts, Reflections by Bobby Sagra - God's Poet from Cabatuan, Iloilo, Philippines