A Filipino lawyer's musings on theology, law and everything else.
Always escaping when you should do so no longer:
a roach that scurries back to the dark
in fear of its life.
Being squashed – not a prospect to be relished;
but if life has no risks, then
it isn’t worth living.
Commitment is key, even if tomorrow
is uncertain.
To fear is to escape all the time,
instead of standing one’s ground
against your worst fears.
Have faith, make a stand,
commit and don’t budge!
(Photo by Jesper Aggergaard on Unsplash)
My God is not stupid;
He’s wiser than you are.
Do not presume to judge Him;
He knows you from afar.
His thoughts are higher than our thoughts,
His ways above our ways;
Our wisdom’s but a tiny drop
In the ocean of His days.
If it were easy to discern Him,
Then He would not be God;
To pit your puny mind against His
Is proof that you are mad.
Look to the mighty stars of heaven,
The worlds that fill the sky;
Great is the wisdom that has made them.
Kneel, then, and weep, and cry!
I watch my daughter eat her food
Like Loki hungry at a feast;
She licks her fingers, fierce her mood,
Intent on conquering the beast
That lifeless lies upon her plate –
A sorry sight! But foe it is
To her whose appetite is great.
The plate’s now clean. She blows a kiss.
“For you to say that death is gain
runs counter to this world’s good sense.
We grieve at death for our great loss.
How can your words convince?”
But if a brighter world awaits
the saintly soul, what better word
can best describe the state of things?
Not “Death is loss,” but “Death is gain!”
We are not stones that cannot feel;
we mourn just like the rest of men.
But, Christian as we are, we can’t
suppress the hope that yearns and burns
Undying in our Christian breast
for Life blood-won by our Lord.
Death has been conquered. It now serves
as entrance to Eternal Bliss.
Yes, death is gain because Christ lives,
Transformer of the dark and bleak.
Tho’ death be bitter, the bitter’s sweet
if it transports me to Heaven’s Gate.
What shall I pursue
with vigor unrelenting?
A face no man can see,
a voice heard only in stillness,
a presence too real for mere sense.
All other things lose their relish
sooner or later.
I have tasted heaven once,
and now all else is insipid.
For the meantime I am dull;
my heart is hard, unfeeling.
But Hope hopes on:
it is its nature.
Oh, to delight once more
in things eternal!
To taste the sweetness of Deity,
To have Joy fill the heart to brimming,
To have Love prompt the soul to singing!
Maybe Tears will flow soon;
that is the way.
I write poetry
even if I don’t know how;
but better this
than waiting till
I’ve fully learned how to.
Life’s wasted in too much waiting
for the perfect time.
There is no such thing!
There’s just the moving
and the doing
and the taking of risks
countless times.
Better that than always waiting
for the perfect time.
Alas, I cannot travel all the ways
of Wisdom, for the time alloted me
is short. I must content myself to be
a traveler of one road throughout.
But what road to choose I cannot tell,
Each road has charms I can’t dispel:
To embrace the one is joy and pain;
To leave the other, loss and gain.
The sun is hot, the sea is calm,
the boats move in a circle.
The boatman feeds the sharks with shrimp;
they eat without a struggle.
The tourists swim beside the fish;
they’ve paid to get this close.
The children shriek: they feel the rush
when nearby a shark goes.
A toothless maw sucks in the tide;
they’re big but pose no danger.
There is no sign of a Great White;
of whale sharks I am fonder.
(Note: Feature Image taken from trip advisor.com.ph)
Oh Father God,
Have mercy now
On me Thy wayward son.
Please change my heart
And make me pure;
Make me willing to endure
Thy judgments just,
For then I trust
I will come forth as gold
Refined in fire,
with cleansed desire:
To love Thee above all.
Alive the grace of God in me
Though Sin may rage ferociously.
Grace shall not falter, shall not fail,
And in the end it will prevail!
Though bruised and battered Grace may be
Underneath Sin’s wild melee:
Let bloody kicks and punches fly,
‘Tis all in vain – Grace cannot die.
Thus, bleeding, fallen in the fight
Still, will I trust in God’s sure might.
The grace of Christ will give the victory,
I will arise and put on glory!
