#christinaction

[wytv7]

Shine Your Light PODCAST #113 Bringing Your Story To Life

[upyfcikot-blog]

Da Francis Code

February 4 2015

Pope Francis is not just the People’s Pope, as I have learnedduring the talk of Kuya Raymond the past Thursday. He is the Youth’s Pope. He isnot just concerned on the problems of older people but he also takes time to hear the cries of the children and the youth. He urges, just like what the Lord tells us, that even though we are young, we ourselves should set an example for other people and not just passively imitate what the world tells us. Although somehow impossible to do, Kuya said that the pope didn’t leave us hanging in the air. He left us with advice, telling us throughout his stay here that we can be able to do this if we just learn how to dream, to cry, to laugh, to beg and to be surprised by God’s works.

The talk stressed how the Pope reminded us that we should learn ‘to dream’ and be wary to distinguish it from an ‘illusion’. Kuya emphasized that a dream becomes an illusion if we don’t take any action towards achieving this dream. And that event we should avoid.

Working in dreams won’t be an easy task, Kuya warned us. There will be many failures along the way. There might be times that giving up would be the sweeter option. This is the reason that in times of loss and discouragements we should not be ashamed ‘to cry’ because this helps you go through your problem and not stay in it. Just like what the Pope said, “You can’t be a good Christian if you don’t know how to weep.” But with the weeping, we are also urged ‘to laugh’ through our journey and to grab the joyful moments that comes in our way since these are gifts from God.

But dreaming, laughing and crying would all be worthless if we don’t do these things with the poor and marginalized people. We should learn ‘to beg’ with them, just as the pope and our Lord did. Maybe not in the literal sense, Kuya said, but instead we should understand what they are going through and take purposeful steps in helping them. Mercy and Compassion, this mission of the Pope should be our mission too. We should reflect God through these people just like how the pope showed God to us (since nasa resort sila nung nandito siya). By doing this, we will be reaping great rewards not just here in this world but also in the eternal one.

“Allow yourselves to be surprised by God”, the final words that I still can’t get out of my head from the talk. It means despite all the efforts and plans you are doing in your life, you lay them down at the end of each day to God. To be surprised is just to surrender it all to our Lord, knowing that he controls everything and trusting Him that his plans for you are greater and more wonderful than yours. Kuya Raymond's life and love story is a testimony to that.

That night’s prayer meeting was in itself a surprise gift by God for me. Being my first encounter with YFC I wasn’t expecting anything but instead I went home filled with blessings and love from the talk and worship that happened. I am excited to be blessed more by these meetings and hopefully I could use these encounters to bless other people too.

 - Karl Michael Edquila