bash-ing

it is already midyear-ish and almost my birthday too.

yesterday, at church, lem and i made an announcement that we would be leaving for sydney this coming august. ah, that sealed the plans, "officially". for me at least. yes i know that sydney is waiting (we were the ones who applied to get there in the first place), but having been granted a visa 3 weeks ago, made me more hesitant and nostalgic than excited. now, that announcement was the first step. i better start prepare.

yesterday was also the first time i stood in front of the congregation to share what i have been learning lately. dcbc (diliman campus bible church) holds an agape meal every first sunday of every month. and birthday celebrants are encouraged to share things they want to thank God for.

i am more than thankful. my cup is overflowing.

here's the notes i scribbled:

* thankful of God's love:
- never easy, but also never letting go; knows when to withhold and when to give; and He only has good, my good, in His mind
- He spurs me to do likewise, but not without tangible glimpses:
> thankful for lem, whose love is consistent
> thankful for the family, whose love is giving
> thankful for the dcbc community, whose love encourages me to grow more in the knowledge of the God i profess to believe in

* thankful for God's grace
- i have been more unloving than loving yet
- i am often spared from the consequences of the unloving parts
- i have learned too that whether i labor or rest, God is sovereign

* thankful that as i look back the past 29 years, (i'd be 29 in 2 days time), God worked, so that i may delight in Him and Him alone. He uses anything and everything (everything in this earthly life i have is only incidental) to becoming wholly His.

in college, i have i read this from the book of Jeremiah and i continue to hold on to this promise.
38 They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. 41 I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.