The virus prolongs its stay. Businesses close. The uncertainty drags on like a sour note. Summer ends without the usual reprieve. “It won’t be the same anymore,” they say. Talks of the “new normal” lead to poignant paradigm shifts. As the death toll rises and the world tips into economic breakdown, I’m stuck wondering, “When …
For the reader whose 2019 hasn’t been the best journey: The year is ending. Your emotions stir like a contrast of colors. Dark streaks stain the bright. You trace the silver lining on your worst months. There’s still something to be grateful for. Yet those months remind you of how these scars were formed. It …
[The World Has Changed] I thought 2020 would be better. I ended 2019 on a poignant note on my blog with “trusting God” in the midst of personal darkness. I wrote that last article, hoping that the New Year would become a fresh start. But the first quarter of 2020 hit the world like a …
Dear Traveler, I’m doing a “Blog Swap” this month! I’m swapping posts with Eliana Duran, a talented teenage writer from the Young Writer’s Workshop. She also posted my article “5 Ways to Love our Families Better“, on her website at Eliana The Writer. If you’ve been facing big (or small) challenges in life, then this lovely …
[Greater Suffering] Imagine this. Government officers barge into your house at night. They don’t only drag you out, but they also grab your parents and the kids too. You’re all thrust into concentration camps. Interrogated. Tortured. Locked away forever. Your crime? You believe in Jesus. Personally, the common kind of suffering I’ve experienced is stress …
[Breaking Point] It was the summer of 2016 when my stomach decided to throw a tantrum. My swollen jaw throbbed from the recent wisdom tooth extraction. But it was nothing compared to the rising acid from the depths of my gut. The pain bubbled up, tightening my chest. I sprang for the bathroom as I …
[Dealing With Comparison] Everyone loves sunflowers. They’re bright and alive, sunny petals raised towards the skies. Eye-catching. Beautiful. The center of attention. Sunflowers are easily the stars of the garden, singing of their Creator’s glory. I wanted to be a sunflower—prominent and visible. But I felt like a daisy. [The Daisy Complex] I was small …
Three Different Families I. Mommy left this morning. It was inevitable, like a ticking time bomb set to explode. Right now, the casualties in the wake of her outburst included one devastated father and four traumatized kids. It’s the youngest daughter who asks the right questions, “Why did Mommy leave? Why aren’t you chasing her, …
[Two Different Kinds of Beauty] A music video splashes across the screen in psychedelic colors, throbbing with imposing bass-lines. The star dances like she’s the most attractive goddess on earth. I sit in the comfort of my bedroom, pondering how our culture finds this beautiful. The star bends and twirls. Her ultra-revealing clothes leave no room …
I. There he is again. The guilt settles on his shoulders like snakes with weights, coiling around him, pulling him down deeper. He sinks into the quicksand of his own self-abasement and abandons the thought of change. He did it again—looped another porn video; broke his promise to end the addiction. He vowed to change, …
