Trick and Threat!

I visited my friend yesterday. Two of her next-door neighbors were busy up on the roof putting up some spotlight to highlight what they had displayed in front of their gravel lawn. Some figures mimicking ghosts and other scary things. I looked around and saw others with spider webs dangling from the front arches of their entry yards. One black figure stood out among the front yards with glowing eyes which got even more creepy as the sun went down. A real black cat gazed from a distance as it kept staring at the glowing eyes but immovable figure. Candies were out as we decided to go to a nearby Target store.

“Wow!” my friend exclaimed… “The candy aisles were emptied out!”

People get busy when Halloween comes. They love to follow this old tradition. Just because… Even if many of them do not understand the origin.

“Trick or treat!” is what comes out from the mouths who love to go door to door and expect candies to be handed over to their bags, as they wear different costumes. Parents watching from a distance to keep an eye on their little ones hungry to get more candies or treats and hoping for their bags to be filled with goodies.

As my family and I accepted the Lord Jesus, this tradition was one among the things He wanted us to purge as we prayed for Him to show us things in our lives that would never please Him. I don’t remember how long now but we never turn on the front light to give a cue that we are not interested to participate in this tradition. It’s not these people’s fault. It is their lack of knowledge.

“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” – Hosea 4:6 (NIV)

As believers we are not to compromise with what we believe in. We are to please God not men.  Jesus said that no one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other (Matthew 6:24).

Some things we allow in our lives that may seem harmless or insignificant may not be necessary true in our spiritual lives. In its truest sense, it could be disastrous!

“Trick or treat?”

No…thank you… It is “trick and threat!” A real threat to one’s soul…

“Don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” – Matthew 10:28 (NLT)

Lord, empower us with your Spirit and give us Your gift of discernment. Help us see things through Your eyes. Help us remove things that hinder our walk with You. Help us get rid of things that do not please You. Please open people's hearts and minds for them to know the truth that comes from You. As for us who have already been found by You, may we draw nearer to You and know more things about You. Thank You Lord for Your love, mercy and grace. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

The New Bed

 “¹³ All these great people died in faith. They did not get the things that God promised his people, but they saw them coming far in the future and were glad. They said they were like visitors and strangers on earth.¹⁴ When people say such things, they show they are looking for a country that will be their own.¹⁵ If they had been thinking about the country they had left, they could have gone back.¹⁶ But they were waiting for a better country—a heavenly country. So God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared a city for them.” – Hebrews 11:13-16 (NCV)

My son got sick since Tuesday. Typical. Seasonal allergy that bogged him down when the Santa Ana winds visited the canyon passes and the valleys, accompanied with the dropping humidity. From what we learned from his past seasonal attacks, he learned well to prepare well-ahead by trying to increase his fluid intake as he could tolerate and by taking his organic allergy pills.

“Rest! As soon as you get done studying,” I cautioned as the clock almost hit 10:30 p.m.. It was not his fault. He had been taking advanced classes that required a lot of studying and perseverance on his part. He always tried his best to finish everything on time, sometimes, ahead of time.

I slowly pushed the door to his bedroom quietly when I heard him coughed a little bit in the middle of the night.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, Mom. I’m fine,” he sleepily replied.

As a watchful mother, you could not help but notice everything even in the dark slightly illuminated by the nightlight in one corner of his room.

“Oh my!” I exclaimed in my mind. As my son went back to sleep, I noticed how much he had grown and did not really fit right on the length of his bed anymore. Either he bent his knees to be accommodated by the warmth of his bed or he must had learned to lie down on a slanting position on his back so his legs could fit and not hit the bars at both ends of his day bed. Yes…unconsciously. But…He never complained to me or my husband nor had asked if he could get another bed.

“Please get the bed today!” I requested my husband and thanks be to God that it happened to be yesterday, Saturday, when he was off from work and could make that run.

My patient and always supportive husband took his time to go to a far store to get the bed for our son and when he got home, patiently assembled the parts.

“Why are you smiling?” I asked my son as I covered him with a lighter blanket last night.

“Thanks, Mom and Dad…Ahhh…It feels so good,” he replied. “I could stretch my legs now.”

my son's new bed

In the middle of the night, as I checked upon him with now lessening coughs, I saw how comfortable he was, hugging his pillow, his new bed even had given him a wider space to make his turns side to side and was longer than his height. Height that kept growing seasons upon seasons. No matter how short or tall he might be, he was after all my child that I love so much...

I kissed his head and softly caressed his hair. I always learned something from my son. From his discomfort, he taught me how it should be in this life’s journey: to never complain and just keep pressing on because we all long for that rest. Eternal rest that the Lord provides to those who truly love and obey Him. He is our watchful Father Who always wants the best for us. Eternal Father Who loves us all first.

“Thank You Lord for everything…” I whispered as I made my way back to my bed carefully, finding my old steps aided with scattered night lights. I glanced at the stars through the windows, visible and so beautiful up on the dark skies as if Abba Father had left those night lights for me to give me reassurance of following His steps despite the darkness surrounding me in this life’s journey. Until I return and find that eternal comfort I always longed for.

^"6 So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. ⁷ So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted:    “Today when you hear his voice,
      don’t harden your hearts.” - Hebrews 4:6-7 (NLT)

Walk The Talk!

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.  
~Mother Teresa

“Why are you here? That’s not an emergency!” exclaimed one of the nurses inside the Clinic as I prepared the vital sign machine prior to letting the female inmate walked in so I could assess her further.

“You know that’s not an emergency! That could have waited until tomorrow!” she yelled at me as she saw my shadow emerging behind the door.

“It might not be an emergency but it necessitated to be examined! Like now!” I replied.

“No, it’s not! Who sent her down here?”

“Is that important to know? I was the one who got the phone call from the unit and it was me who decided to see this inmate. Why are you upset about it anyway? I’m the one seeing her?”

I glanced at the Charge Nurse who was keeping quiet, minding her own business as she heard the two of us argued. It wasn’t the right time for me to go up to her. The female inmate holding her right hand heard everything because she was just right behind me. With a worried look and concerned about what she heard, she worried more about being charged $3.00, the amount they had to pay if they requested to be seen by the medical staff.

“Nurse, am I gonna’ be charged?”

“Don’t worry about it! Just relax,” I reassured.

That particular female inmate was just treated for some abscess few days prior to that time she was in front of me. She was barely done taking her full course of a 7-days worth antibiotics issued to her by the doctor. She worked in the prison’s laundry and that day, she noticed her 5^th finger on her right hand getting inflamed and red by the knuckle area. The deputy from their unit got concerned and had asked me if I didn’t mind seeing her to make sure that the infection was not spreading.

“Keep taking the antibiotics they gave you if they are helping with what you had before,” I uttered softly.

“This looks more like a local irritation maybe from soap or some other substance you deal with in laundry. I want you to start paying attention to see if there’s anything in particular that you come across with in laundry that aggravates this every time. If you do, or any time your symptom worsens, you can always ask to be seen anyway,” I explained.

Giving her some topical medication for a possible allergy with instruction, I gave her yellow pass and called her concerned deputy.

I saw the other nurse who got upset just stepped out to go get something to drink from our Dining Area, away from the Clinic. I approached the Charge Nurse and had asked her if she heard everything and I told her that was a very inappropriate action on that nurse’s part to talk about everything where the inmate could hear our conversation, too. She told me to relax and just do what I needed to do. I gathered her lack of interest to say something to that nurse.

“I did what I had to do. I took care of the inmate’s problem despite her being against that.”

“I’m surprised to see her be upset like that. There were times when she overly-cared for others which I knew did not need any special attention,” I added.

In a little higher volume, I told the Charge Nurse, “By the way, I am relaxed!”

Like what I always believe in: “Actions speak louder than words…”

In other words, “Walk the talk!!!”

“All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” – Proverbs 14:23 (NIV)

Just a little laugh but may we be serious in loving others without hypocrisy!

Bench Therapy

"1 In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God.2 Yes, in the past you lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God. 3 In the past all of us lived like them, trying to please our sinful selves and doing all the things our bodies and minds wanted. We should have suffered God's anger because we were sinful by nature. We were the same as all other people.


4 But God's mercy is great, and he loved us very much.5 Though we were spiritually dead because of the things we did against God, he gave us new life with Christ. You have been saved by God's grace.6 And he raised us up with Christ and gave us a seat with him in the heavens. He did this for those in Christ Jesus7 so that for all future time he could show the very great riches of his grace by being kind to us in Christ Jesus.8 I mean that you have been saved by grace through believing. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.9 It was not the result of your own efforts, so you cannot brag about it.10 God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing." - Ephesians 2:1-10 (NCV)

“You want me to see him?” I asked the Charge Nurse after seeing a very young male inmate watching t.v. from the cold metal bench where he was sitting.

The unit called prior to his arrival. They said that this inmate was complaining of chest pain.

Words do get passed around. Inmates are aware of the magic word.

“Chest pain!”

They know when to use that because they know that this medical condition can never be denied to be evaluated. They know that they can immediately see the medical staff even if that is not the true symptom.

Just like him…With his young face, slightly disheveled curly hair and his expression seemed lost. I could see him looking at the t.v. monitor but his thoughts were flying somewhere else. Perhaps, tracing back what brought him to the prison in the first place. Perhaps, regretting why he did a crime in the first place. Yet, he might also seem proud and consider that his trophy instead.

“He’s only 19! Give us a break! He can wait there for as long as he wants to!” answered the Charge Nurse.

“We are so busy right now and his situation doesn’t even need any attention. Let him wait!” she added.

I could see where the Charge Nurse was coming from. We usually called that “bench therapy” where we let the inmates who did not have any true medical emergencies wait and wait. And wait. And wait. Until they realized it was not really comfortable to be waiting in the Clinic. For nothing.

Coming from outside, living a dysfunctional life, finding hope in wrong places, seeking temporary pleasures from different ill ways, looking for love that they had no clue what it was like in the first place if they had not tasted a true kind of love, seeking attention that they wanted as most of the time, they were probably rejected by many and that would always be the behavior they knew in order to get what they wanted. How could they find hope, how could they change for the better if no one gave them a chance? Or at least someone would give them the benefit of the doubt?

I looked again and saw the frustration from his tired and impatient face. But he couldn’t do anything. He knew he would get in trouble even if he tried to speak or say something against what was told.

I often wondered. When was it the right time to give the “bench therapy” or not? Giving it to someone with a heart hungry to be loved, to be respected despite the age, young or old, might not be the best answer to every situation. It was more like punitive.

"You may go back to your unit now!" yelled the Charge Nurse after hours and hours she made the inmate waited.

My heart sank. I did not make the decision. But I knew I did not even try to offer my help. I felt helpless as I was told to do my work and not see him. But in the back of my mind, I knew I was letting go of a soul who might be desperate for help. A different kind of help. His heart was hurting to be loved and be accepted. The way I once was. The state in which Jesus found me and instead of giving me a bench therapy, He led me to the foot of His cross and immediately made it known how much He loved me and cared for me. He poured his love unconditionally into my empty heart. He made His love overflowed but with the last command for me not to go back to my old ways. His command was for me to "share His gift of love with others who don't know Him."

The young man's footsteps were long gone in the long, silent corridor. But his demand was still very much audible that I just started praying for him. And for me. I needed His continued guidance and forgiveness...