Answer Your Calling

Warning this is a very late blog… but still a relevant one nonetheless and up to this day, it still resonates the beat of my heart.

Please remember 4 dates for me: 4 years ago… Dec last year… May this year ago and today. I’ll do it as brief as possible to not bore you to death…

4 years ago, I got my calling… “I want you to pastor.” this was a prophesy i’ve always rejected since 7 years ago when Tita Thelma Reyes said that I’m gonna be one. I guess very few people wake up, watch a pastor and says “I wanna be like this guy someday.” I have enough problems of my own to even think about other people’s problem. FYI, the true meaning of a pastor is a “feeder of the sheep” whatever that need may be — spiritual, physical, emotional… So I made a compromise, my company is yours, I will serve but I want my life…

Dec last year 2014, I finally took the plunge… after months and months of praying, reading on books on leading churches, how to plant a church, pastoring and stories and talking to other pastors, i’ve decided to take the leap of faith and just answer God’s call. Not knowing if I am up against the wall or if this church will drain the my pockets, I said “Bahala na…” and just went through. Dec 3, 2014 was our very first service. We had gone around houses and asked how many people will come and about 9 people confirmed… so at best bet, we were expecting around 15.

May this year, I decided to upgrade myself and re-enroll myself to Asian Theological Seminary. If I am to pastor people, I’d need all the help I could get… God’s work is not to be taken lightly. I was having second thoughts though and had so much questions going on in my brain – “Can I really fit this is my schedule?”, “Is this gonna be worth it?” & “Won’t I be able to learn this automatically as I go along?”.

Going back wasn’t easy… it made me go back and forth. First Time I came they were on team building, then next time – the person I had to talk to was sick, then 3rd time was on a long lunch break, 4th time was on a meeting that I began praying “Lord is this really for me?”. Come enrollment it was already the last day, my checklist was only half filled. I told God “Lord if my lunch break I don’t get to do this, then it means your answer is no…” My personal 12nn deadline came and guess what? I’m not done. So I walk out happy with the outcome thinking “At least I tried…” and this girl just runs after me and says “you’re coming back right?”, I said “No cause I’m not available after lunch because Weds are our service and I have to prepare.” and she said “We can extend it for you for 2 more weeks.”

Cut the story short, I was able to enroll and was shocked at what I had discovered. Right now, I think since a year or two ago, Counsellors now need to pass a board exam with PRC. If I had allowed my attitude to get the better of me, then I would have missed out on being able to accomplish the work God has set before me. You see if you ask me to identify what that one thing that burdens me is — it’s broken marriages. I came from one and I experienced one myself. It is pitiful, It is a waste but it is not hopeless. and like a doctor who finds a cure for cancer, I believe I have the answer to all marital problems.

So after enrolling, then the picture becomes clearer. The devil wanted me to fail… he didn’t want me to preach the message.

Today, I get an email… that every month an average of 250 pastors leave the mission field and quit.

So I began praying that I’ll never be one of them… Please pray for me that I finish the race and may I humbly ask that you pray for me too. That even when everything else falls and fails, that my heart for pleasing God and doing his mission will always be forever intact.

Is there something in your heart that God has been asking you to do? Whats keeping you? If you God has given you a calling — maybe its about time you answered.

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