Reminiscing

Once a birthday rolls around, one can't help but be a little sentimental. I guess its one's way of taking stock of how much one has received and given to life, in the hopes that God in His goodness will bless one with another year to live. After 28 years of existence, what lessons have I learned so far? Enough I hope to be able to make the next 28 years and more even more memorable and worth reminiscing about.

First lesson I've learned is the importance of choice. It is what God has blessed us with which separates us from mere animals that react instinctively. I have also learned that there always is a choice. Not choosing is actually a choice in itself. I can choose to be present to my present. I can choose to let my past define me or not. I can choose to choose or not to choose.

Second lesson I've learned is that God is big enough to handle the worst sins we can ever commit. He was there when we did it. It's not as if He didn't know what we were doing. So going to him and fessing up isn't actually for His sake, but ours. Only when I've confessed the wrong I have done can He show me concretely what He means when He says His love is unconditional.

Third lesson I've learned is that however much God has forgiven us for the sins and wrongs we have committed, there are still consequences inherent in the choice that we have to face. To face it though is one way God can use to strengthen us and use what negatives we may have incurred to become a positive for our lives in the long run.

Fourth lesson, God is a God of second chances and therefore I too, as His child, needed to learn to differentiate between the sinner and the sin. I have received mercy from Him numerous times therefore I learned to give mercy as well. Doing so has helped me become less uptight about things and have become more compassionate to those who err and have made some bad choices.

Fifth lesson, I am loved. Not just for the good that I do but even for the mistakes that I have made. He has loved me even when I was yet a sinner therefore there is nothing that I can do or say that will make God love me any less or any more than He already does. Loved this way gives me an assurance and a confidence that I will not be able to run so far that God's love cannot find me and make me whole. Such love also serves to drive me to be better for such love deserves nothing less. Yet to fail in the trying is no defeat. That same love compels me to get up, dust myself off and keep running until I see Him face to face.

May all that I do and say be ways by which I can love you, O Lord more perfectly than I did yesterday. Thank you for this life. Grant me the grace to live it well. Amen.