Everyone can be creative so says the author, Merlee Cruz-Jayme, of the same title of the book. I had this narrowed understanding of creativity in the field of fine arts. I thought being creative is just for people who have talent in drawing and putting color on the blank canvas, that one should produce a painting to be called creative. Thankfully, my limited understanding of creativity came to an end when I was catapulted to the grown-ups world. As an adult, I discovered that being creative could not be boxed within the corners of a frame of the world's most famous painting.
The author, Merlee Cruz-Jayme, put it simply that everyone can be creative in their very own way. Life has offered everything to us to think outside the box, or even inside the box to find the talent of creativity within us. For sure, it will not be an easy journey finding your own creativity, but life has its ways to always take you back and keep you on track. The simplest thing within our reach can be a catalyst of creativity. Jayme's experience as an ex-nun definitely helped her in fortifying her creativity and it served her well in choosing a career in the field of advertisement. But we do not have to enter a convent and be an ex-nun, so we can find our creativity and a career. We have our own moments of realization and sometimes it takes patience, discipline, and fervent prayer to find what we are looking for.
The book, Everyone Can Be Creative, is a good companion in discovering and rediscovering the creativity within you that may be hidden or just stuck in the corner covered with dust. This book will definitely take you on a step by step journey in claiming back the passion of creativity you may have lost in the process of organizing and fixing your life. It is never too late to get back on track to living a creative life. Be bold and be you.
But first, do not forget to pray and ask for guidance in the new chapter of your life in finding and honing the gift of creativity from above, from the One who makes everything possible, from the source of creativity, the Creator of all things in heavens and in the earth. Get ready and fight a good fight and let your creativity shine like it has never before.
The lady in a pink t-shirt and knee-length maong skirt asked the lady cashier if F. Sionil Jose's books were all on sale. Her fascination with Jose's book urged her to buy his other works to complete The Rosales Saga novel series where The Pretenders belong to. So she went back to the bookshelf in one of the parallel bookshelves. As she returned to the counter to check the discounted price of F. Sionil Jose's book, she decided to double-check the official receipt from the lady cashier, and upon careful scrutiny, she noticed that one of the books she already paid for was scanned at its regular price of 475 pesos, that got the shock out of her. She thought she had the advantage, but it turned out that she was at the disadvantage.
She was cool about the mistake and thought that she still had a change. The lady cashier was a little panicky and apologetic as she tried to come with a solution for overcharging her customer. The lady in a pink t-shirt and knee-length maong skirt was looking forward to the change, but it turned out that payment through debit or credit card was difficult to retrieve for some accounting reason, the accountant would be able to explain. Surprisingly, she was still calmed about the predicament of not getting back her excess payment.
The lady in a pink t-shirt and knee-length maong skirt waited for some moments for her concern to be resolved. She observed patiently as the lady cashier called for a back-up. Help came from another lady who appeared to be a store manager. She suggested that additional purchase could fix the problem, that the lady in a pink t-shirt would have to add books or other items from the book store to compensate her excess payment, and supposedly her change to be.
She did not want to cause trouble or inconvenience on the part of the lady cashier and store manager. Willingly, she accepted the suggested solution. She went back and forth from the counter to the shelves and vice versa in search of a book or books that would be equal to the change she was supposed to get. In finality, she went for 2 books from F. Sionil Jose and 2 refills of Dong-A color green sign pen for NBS to compensate for her unreturnable excess payment.
It was not a pleasant experience, more so the lady in a pink t-shirt and a knee-length maong skirt was surprised at herself for not losing her temper even though it took her long and 4 trips of back and forth from counter to bookshelves and bookshelves to counter just to find the right items to remunerate her overcharge payment. It was also getting late and she badly wanted to go home, but she was not overcome by annoyance or impatience toward the cashier or the situation and circumstance she was under.
When she was asked to fill out a small paper survey form, she gladly answered the needed information. It was a return and exchange survey form, she was not sure of some of the details needed in the form and for the assistance of the lady cashier. She got a response from the staff that they would be the ones to take care of it and submitted the form right away.
Everything did not go smoothly at NBS, yet she was satisfied with how the inconvenience turned into satisfaction. All by God's grace. The lesson learned is always to double-check your receipt before leaving the store, ask the cashier if the books you want to buy for so long are on sale because sometimes they miss putting a new price or sale tag, if possible be patient with everyone, and lastly, always be ready for the surprises in your life.
She was cool about the mistake and thought that she still had a change. The lady cashier was a little panicky and apologetic as she tried to come with a solution for overcharging her customer. The lady in a pink t-shirt and knee-length maong skirt was looking forward to the change, but it turned out that payment through debit or credit card was difficult to retrieve for some accounting reason, the accountant would be able to explain. Surprisingly, she was still calmed about the predicament of not getting back her excess payment.
The lady in a pink t-shirt and knee-length maong skirt waited for some moments for her concern to be resolved. She observed patiently as the lady cashier called for a back-up. Help came from another lady who appeared to be a store manager. She suggested that additional purchase could fix the problem, that the lady in a pink t-shirt would have to add books or other items from the book store to compensate her excess payment, and supposedly her change to be.
She did not want to cause trouble or inconvenience on the part of the lady cashier and store manager. Willingly, she accepted the suggested solution. She went back and forth from the counter to the shelves and vice versa in search of a book or books that would be equal to the change she was supposed to get. In finality, she went for 2 books from F. Sionil Jose and 2 refills of Dong-A color green sign pen for NBS to compensate for her unreturnable excess payment.
It was not a pleasant experience, more so the lady in a pink t-shirt and a knee-length maong skirt was surprised at herself for not losing her temper even though it took her long and 4 trips of back and forth from counter to bookshelves and bookshelves to counter just to find the right items to remunerate her overcharge payment. It was also getting late and she badly wanted to go home, but she was not overcome by annoyance or impatience toward the cashier or the situation and circumstance she was under.
When she was asked to fill out a small paper survey form, she gladly answered the needed information. It was a return and exchange survey form, she was not sure of some of the details needed in the form and for the assistance of the lady cashier. She got a response from the staff that they would be the ones to take care of it and submitted the form right away.
Everything did not go smoothly at NBS, yet she was satisfied with how the inconvenience turned into satisfaction. All by God's grace. The lesson learned is always to double-check your receipt before leaving the store, ask the cashier if the books you want to buy for so long are on sale because sometimes they miss putting a new price or sale tag, if possible be patient with everyone, and lastly, always be ready for the surprises in your life.
In this time of the pandemic, have you ever wonder what God has been up to? Where is He in this uncertainty that we are all facing now? What is He doing when people are dying due to CoViD-19? Is there hope from all of these? Will there be a better tomorrow for all of us? These are only a few of the questions, we may be wondering and pondering since this pandemic took off and blatantly destroyed all our planned trips, promotions, career move, business endeavor not only in the year 2020, but as well as the years to come. Maybe, this pandemic changed our priorities and plans and turned our lives upside down.
There is no telling when this effect of the pandemic will end, some say it may take about two to three years for us to return to normal or get used to the 'new normal'. Some are skeptics if we can ever return to the normal set up we are so used to. And again, you can't help but wonder where is God behind all these uncertainties? No one knows, no one is certain, but one thing is for sure God is at work, that despite this global pandemic, He is still in control. He is the Sovereign God.
In David Allan Hubbard's book, What's God been doing all this time?, he ran us through God's business and that is His divine plan of saving humanity from all our iniquities. He is in the business of saving us from our enslavement to sin. He devised a plan, a perfect plan, just to save us from our very own destruction without compromising His disgust to sin. He knows that sin is not good for us and of how sin can harm and pull us farther away from Him. We are created in His image, thus we are required to be holy in His sight and presence, but because of the mortal sin committed by our ancestors Adam and Eve, their disobedience to God and distrust of His love for humanity led us to our death and separation from our Creator.
It was a tragic episode in human history, but God had a plan and would not let us rot in our own demise. He intervened and made salvation available through His only Son, Jesus Christ, for those who believe in him. It is The Great Rescue and His mission is to redeem humanity.
Hubbard's book will help you get a picture and perspective of what the Bible is all about from the beginning to end. It may give some answers to your questions about salvation and the redemptive power in Jesus, and we can rest assured that God is at work of saving people spiritually, physically, and emotionally in this time of the pandemic. May we always experience the true peace that can only be found through Jesus, our solid rock.
This past week I participated in a week-long prayer and fasting. It is the third time I joined this prayer and fasting in the church I am attending since November 2019. This week-long event is held twice a year among the church members. For the first two times I participated in prayer and fasting with the church, I fasted with my social media and online browsing, but this time I chose partial fasting where I fasted one meal, originally I intended to two meals and I was successful on the first day, but for the days that allowed I decided to have it as one meal since work and other activities demanded that I ate at least two meals a day. I felt like a failure, so I prayed to God for forgiveness and understanding of my iniquities.
When I was young the only knowledge I had about fasting was people do this during Holy Week. In my young and ignorant mind, I tried to participate with the intention of pleasing God in my own little ways. I remembered that I even tried not to eat meat or any food that has meat during those days even though it was the only viand I would like to eat with rice back then, I did not want to eat fish and vegetables. I guess you could that I always failed. There was an idea implanted in me that meat is dirty and it pollutes and corrupts our body if eaten during Holy Week. I was young and with limited and confusing knowledge about faith and God. And It thought prayer was just a one-way communication with God, so I could tell Him my wants and needs.
Prayer and Fasting are spiritual disciplines we need and must practice in developing a personal and intimate relationship with God. That's how I see them.
Prayer has been my constant means of talking to God since I have come to know and experience Him on a personal level. There are moments that I cry while remembering His mercy and grace in my life, how His redemptive power gives hope and joy in my once bitter and angry life. God also answers in our prayer, though they are not verbal and some are not given right away, still, there is something miraculous in the way God responds in our prayer and sometimes it is really hard to explain, that it seems like it is beyond human comprehension. Christians coined it as Spirit-filled prayer for us to live a Spirit-filled life.
Here are definite answers I got from the booklet provided by the church about prayer and fasting:
This is the suggested pattern of prayer found in the booklet:
Every day there is an assigned Scripture for what we prayed for and I got to journal my thoughts on the soft copy of the booklet through the Write on PDF app on my android phone.
All by God's grace, I was able to attend and participate in the Prayer and Fasting week. We were reminded that prayer and fasting as a church or as an individual were not just one or two times event in a year, it could be a once-in-a-week routine, depending on your chosen day, and it was also suggested that it could be on Friday. I still have a long way to go and a lot to improve in the areas of spiritual disciplines of prayer and fasting, and I praise God for guiding me and providing opportunities to be closer to Him, and as He always does, staying close to me. By His grace, may we always turn to Him in prayer, whether in joy or in pain. God bless our brave hearts!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
