We Are Not Debt-Free

Back in the country where I grew up, we believe in a superstition that whatever your condition is on the first day of the year, it is likely that it will remain that way for the whole year.  As a result it is everyone's goal to set their lives in the best position before the clock strikes midnight on the eve of new year.  People clean their houses really well, fill up their food containers (pantries), get a new hairdo, new clothes, food on the table - enough to be hospitable and generous. etc.  But beyond all these, the most important of them all is the deep-seated tradition to settle all debts before the year ends.  People try everything to be found debt-free when the year turns.  In fact work places give a 13th-month pay to employees just so they may be able to have an abundant table and to settle remaining obligations at the end of the year.  We all, not only Filipinos, find a sense of peace when any accountability is fulfilled.  We all desire freedom.  Who doesn't?  However, I'm not going to continue talking about the debts that we can pay for.

There is a debt that is different from the ones that keep us awake at night.  It is not like the ones that make us want to hide our faces from other people nor the ones that make us grumpy because we didn't pay them on time.  But even if we don't feel this way about this obligation, we ought to because it is heavier than the ones that we all are accustomed to thinking about.  This debt is something we will never be released from.  This is the continuing debt to love one another. Love one another continually.  It is the only way that we will be able to fulfill the law of God.

The verse in Romans 13:8 says, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law."

1. Debt to love remains.  No amount of payment will ever free us from the duty to love one another. There is no end to love.  Your mortgage payment will at some point be paid in full but you and I will never be freed from the obligation to love.

2.  Love is not a limited resource.  Love never ends - there is no limit to love.  You can't give it all nor consume it all.  There is no excuse for not being able to love.  For as long as you are connected to the Source, there will always be a steady supply of the grace you need to love.

3.  Love is everyone's obligation to everyone.  In the ideal world people love each other.  However, our human nature compels us to discriminate when we love.  We love those whom we expect to get favor from or those who have shown favor to us - never mind the others.  The scripture says that we are to love others as we love ourselves.

In the Philippine-culture there exist a similar, but not the same, indebtedness - the one that can never be settled.  They are the help extended out of kindness.  The name for this kind of debt is"utang na loob"  (meaning debt that is internal).  This debt remains inside your chest not your chest of gold but the chest that holds your heart.  The only difference from the love that is talked about in Romans 13:8 is that the loving here is limited to the one with whom you owe kindness to.

Once upon a time, there was a King who came out of his palace, and out of his kingdom to come and live in a desperate world of sinful man. These men are walking-dead because they are bound to die with all the punishment due upon them.  The king took it upon himself all their debts paid for all of them with His own.  He lived in poverty and eventually gave up his life in order to pay the full price. He gladly gave it all up so that the walking-dead would have life.  The King is Jesus Christ.  We the people are the walking-dead.

We must love the King who purchased our life with his own so that we get the freedom.  And as people who have been purchased through love - the love of God, he left us a legacy of not only a life of freedom but a life of love.  As free people we have the confidence to show off our inheritance. He said, "love as I have loved you."  With all mercy and grace, He loved us.  We no longer live in scarcity but in abundance through Him.  There is no need to hoard on love, we can be generous now. The problem is, we remain to live our lives as if we are still in debt.  We fail to love because we live in a limited resource mentality.  We fail to be generous because we have not figured out the extent of the inheritance we have.

This is the beginning of a year.  It is time to make a resolution. Make an installment on that continuing debt - one person at a time.  Happy New Year!  

Welcome 2015

Another year has past and it went by so quickly. The parents worked and the kids went to school as usual.  A lot of details were entailed in those two basic classification of activities but God was exceedingly gracious in the way He guided us and took care of us through the whole year of 2014.  In spite of minor challenges and complications here and there, at work, at school, or at home, life was peaceful - as usual - because the Lord is good and He is good all the time!

Miriam said goodbye to Rolling Hills Middle School and embarked into high school at Oak Ridge this year.  Unlike her siblings, she bravely joined the marching band.  As a member o f the drum-line she played the heaviest instrument - the mallets.  It is worth mentioning here that she is probably one of the smallest students in band.  She did a great job and we are so proud of her determination, persistence and of course, musical skills!  At present she is training to play the snare drums next year.  Academically, she is also doing great in Spanish, Biology, Algebra, Life Fitness, and Language Arts.  Hooray for Miriam!!!

Brahms started his second year of college life - majoring in Anthropology heading towards a double major in International Agricultural Development.  He moved from the dorm to live in a nearby apartment with two of his college (Christian) group friends - Pavel and Daniel.  They have a landlady named Mrs. Lee.  I have heard a lot about Mrs. Lee and it is all good.  Brahms' involvement in the college group of University Covenant Church is balancing his college life.  To break the monotony of thinking only about papers to write, tests to take and grades, he plays bass and banjo during the group's weekly meetings and spends time with people outside of his classroom.  He continues to work as a student assistant at the Dining Commons - they call it the DC - and learning a lot about work, work politics, and life itself.  He tells me I should not send him loaves of bread.  Last Christmas he gave me a beautiful red silk scarf.  I like it a lot.  

Shannon started her last year in college last year and is scheduled to graduate early - in March to be specific.  Around Thanksgiving, she applied and got a job offer from Epic Systems.  According to plan, she will start working there as a computer programmer.  In the meantime, she has to complete and pass all the remaining classes that she has to take during the next quarter.  Hard to believe how things are happening so quickly.  It seems as though it as only last year when we brought her to UC-Irvine to start college.  Time flies!  I am so happy for her and yet the thought of her going even farther away is not easy.  But we know that God will always be with her - protecting her as He always did.  Last Christmas she gave me a beautiful set of coffee mugs.  They are the right size and weight for drinking tea.  She seems to understand me more as she grows older and wiser.  

Life goes on.  God's promise (to be faithful) keeps our hopes alive.  We can laugh at the days to come because He is with us!  Welcome 2015.