EBEN-EZER

2014 brought many blessings to my life that have included celebrations, traveling adventures and life transitions. These past three months in particular have presented me with "desirable difficulties."  I moved again, changed jobs and have made some hefty decisions in regards to my future. I've been blessed with opportunities I never imagined and I've also witnessed things I never thought I would. These next three experiences have really marked me, for the better.

Example #1:
My mother left to El Salvador for a month. After 30 years, she returned to her homeland for some time. My father stayed behind, he thought it pertinent for her to enjoy her time with the family. Being at home with my father after she left really showed me what needing someone looks and feels like. Often, we confuse desire for need, they are not the same. You know that knot feeling in your throat? The one you experience when you're about to cry? You can't speak. You can't eat. And you're eyes, they diffuse your need and try to sooth the loss. The question we often ask ourselves and others is, how do we learn to value someone without having to lose them first? My dad hadn't lost my mom, he just realized the value of companionship- "el pacto del appyo, y lo que es no tenerlo."

I also realized the difference between choice and option. To be someone's choice is not the same as being someone's option. How we view a partner makes a lot of difference in a relationship.

Example #2:
I work in the "helping field." My training involved exactly this--helping those in need, in crisis, in complete desperation. Yet, when all of this hits home, I'm at a loss for words. I cannot even begin to explain the fraustration that is felt when this happens, there are no tangible words. I've never felt so vulnerable to another's actions and way of life. And I've learned this is completely normal, I am human. I live by faith and that keeps me going and hopeful. My love for my family never changes.

 

Thank you Lord for what you will do.

Experience #3:
I met a man randomly at Grand Central Train Station in New York City. We exchanged some words and I was grateful for his words and for what I thought would be one isolated event in life. I met him a second time, so randomly in front of the New York Public Library the evening before I returned to California. Coincidence? Definitely not. I did not agree with some of the things he told me but, there were a few things that resonated with me although I could not exactly decipher the true meaning of it all until recently. Today, in retrospect, I understand more of what he was trying to say although he did not say explicitly, everything we do,everything we accept and everything we reject should reflect this principle:

Live Intentionally. 

 

Sometimes what we want is not what we need, at least not now. When we live with intention, beauty transpires. No Doubt.

 

 Hasta aquí nos ha ayudado el SEÑOR.

                                                                     = eben-ezer

 Up to this point the LORD has helped us.

                                                                     1 Samuel 7:12


C'mon 2015 :)