#the sovereign is out here 4000+ and still loving it lol

[mercuryislove]

I ALSO want to have funny question friday so I tried to think up some interesting questions.

If Anwei and Ciaran had the opportunity to be regular humans again, would they take it? Would the people around them want them to?

I’m sure that the Sovereign has a lot of enemies since he’s like thee baddest bitch, but is there anyone that he just absolutely cannot stand?

What would happen if Robin, Wren, and Dove got stranded in a remote area together? How would they handle that situation together?

as usual you ALWAYS come through with the excellent questions :3c

If Anwei and Ciaran had the opportunity to be regular humans again, would they take it? Would the people around them want them to?

ABSOLUTELY they would. They're both really sick of it. Being undying has its perks but it really loses its luster after 900+ years. Anwei appreciates it more than Ciaran does, partly because she was sort of religious way back when and still thinks of it all as some Big Deal and a Gift and like. a Blessing or whatever and has a serious sense of Duty about the whole thing. And Ciaran is more like “so I can jump off this cliff and be fine? I guess that's cool” and also “so does this mean I can't get stis anymore?” He definitely didn't ask for this life lol (technically I guess neither did Anwei but she adjusted it to it a little better and is also the only reason that [redacted for spoilers] anyway) Either way, they're both tired of outliving every single person they ever know because even with the fun parts of never dying, it DOES get miserable watching every person you ever care about wither away in what feels like the blink of an eye.

I think the only person that would have any apprehension about them mortalizing themselves would be like. Go-Eun but only because she would be too worried that they would instantly get something like the flu and DIE. Yixing would be like “please for the love of god be normal again because I already have so many years on you and I'm so so so so afraid of getting old alone PLEASE don't leave me behind”

----------

I’m sure that the Sovereign has a lot of enemies since he’s like thee baddest bitch, but is there anyone that he just absolutely cannot stand?

It's true that he's the baddest bitch around and a ton of people hate his stupid sexy guts, but honestly he doesn't pay enough attention to anyone else to give a damn about what they think. He knows he'll outlive them anyway. BUT he does hold special hatred for people that try to double-cross him, question his authority, and/or fuck with his family. (technically Andhira meets all three criteria oops lol) Generally speaking, he just offs people that piss him off, but there are a few that are too important or risky to kill outright, so he has too seethe in silence for a few centuries until they end up killing each other in petty squabbles and he gets to watch from his high horse like “oh look how these low born fools destroy each other over and over while nobody ever lays a finger on me and my own” (this WILL eventually come back to bite him on the ass lol). The biggest thorns in his side are the twelve children of Ekion who are part of the third oldest family in the world (though these guys weren't technically BORN into their family the way the Sovereign's children were). He's been waiting for the opportunity to fuck their shit right up for like 600 years at this point and is getting so tired of waiting :c

----------

What would happen if Robin, Wren, and Dove got stranded in a remote area together? How would they handle that situation together?

UM it would depend on just how remote the area is lol If they were like. lost in the woods, it would be no big deal because Robin is notorious for disappearing for three weeks at a time to go on solo backpacking trips in the middle of nowhere, and people always assume he's been eaten by bears and he shows up stinky and hairy on instagram in the middle of Wyoming like “hi everyone I just had the greatest camping trip of my life!!” So he's good at handling the fallout of getting extremely lost. Also his family lived in a VAN until he was eleven, so he's used to shit breaking down and getting stranded places (aka campsites in the middle of nowhere). Dove would immediately have a breakdown and if Wren had a cellphone signal, she would be taking pictures and texting them to her parents through the whole ordeal like “are you sure she's really related to us? She doesn't know the difference between east and west.” And then the two of them would end up fighting like cats and dogs. Meanwhile Robin has already fixed the car and/or foraged for clean water and fucking. berries or whatever and/or built a fire and shelter. This is just a regular Wednesday afternoon for him when you're the kind of person that goes WAY off trail to find so-called mythical crags (that don't actually exist but some old stoner dude at the campsite swore they did).

HOWEVER. If they were in a plane crash on a desert island situation, they would probably just go berserk and end up killing each other in looney tune style traps. Imagine that as you will lol

[sherylbajao]

I’d Rather Not Know

Hi there. It’s been a while.

I’ve been hiding in my cave — distracting myself with busyness and indulging in the business of wanting to know what will happen next. All the while I thought I was living in faith, until the anxiety of not knowing what’s next started to eat me up.

Anxiety, you say? Uh.. yeah. I have been in the lowest tide of my faith (yet again) just recently, thinking everything is hopeless and there’s nothing else to look forward to. Taking fear with me in every turn I take in this journey called life. I thought to myself, “Why is God testing me?” Apparently, He was just revealing what’s in my heart. And I am utterly rebuked. He showed me how I wanted to take control of everything, (I want my own version of my life, Lord! Can’t we just revise the things I don’t like?! #graphicdesignerprobs) when in fact He is the one who’s in control and Sovereign.

So yeah, that’s why I’ve been hiding, and It’s been a long while, and now I’m coming out of this prison I made myself. You might wonder, why did I even do this or from what am I hiding from. I believe one reason is that I get to control what’s happening in my tiny niche: I’m busy with the “work” I’m doing, I know the outcome, I can make contingency plans ahead of time just in case things wont turn out fine. I try so hard to focus on it that I neglect to continue on the other things I’ve started before e.g. this blog. To be honest, I was about to take this down, I thought it’s pointless to post here. “Who reads this anyway?!” Earlier this year, I promised myself I’d post an entry here, but then procrastination and doubts came in that I ended up sharing nothing. (I have tons of drafts saved in my laptop huhu). Months have passed and I didn’t even bother checking this page, until my domain automatically renewed. Thanks, GoDaddy. Hahaha. Now I’m forced to make use of this haha! Perhaps the stories I have should be shared, not for all to read, but maybe one or two, and the rest is up to God. And that’s where faith comes in.

Still, I am thankful for this season that I am learning to stretch my faith muscle. I think every season should be exercise season for our faith, ang tagal ko lang talagang tumambay, ang sakit tuloy ng muscles ko. But no pain, no gain. :)

I know He is calling me to live for Him, like a child, with childlike faith. Sometimes I hate growing up and the fact that knowledge is so easily accessible these days because it desensitized me from God’s Sovereign hand upon my life.

And so I’ll take it from here, and I’ll trust Him as He unfolds the succeeding chapters..

I think that’s good enough for my comeback message haha, thank you for reading! :p But if you’d like to stay a bit longer. I’m inviting you to read further as I share my praise report and reflections from the past year (from the date of my previous post) to present. Like I said in my previous post, there were so many movements — from traveling, to transitioning, and to entering a new season. God is moving me indeed, and He has been reaaaaally faithful to me in every step, even at the times I’m not.

This is not to brag about the blessings I received, like I previously said, maybe my stories should be shared. So now I’m jumping out of the boat and walk in water. These things shouldn’t just pass without being shared because God is worthy to be praised and He is always teaching us something, even in the littlest of things. I pray this will encourage you to always be in the attitude of thanksgiving (that is directing toward the one responsible for our blessing), and to never lose sight of God’s goodness upon your life and what He is teaching you along the way.

Most of these were from the draft that was made early this year. It wasn’t entirely eventful, but I believe these were defining moments where God met me and taught something to me.

Around the World (char haha)

Hong Kong was my first travel abroad. I always thought it’d be far-fetched to go back, because let’s face it, we’ve got bills to pay haha! But days before my birthday this year, I got the chance to explore Hong Kong again, with all expenses paid. Just wow. (And I still have a pending post for my 2016 HK Trip lol) It’s a great reminder for me that God can + will provide, and He hears even my silent prayers.

Weeks before the trip, I was in a shuttle en route to Makati. As we drove along Skyway, a plane that’s about to land fled above us. I asked God, “When will I be able to travel again? ...Only You know.” It was a short and random thought, and pinalipas ko lang. Then came the day that I found out we’ll be flying to Hong Kong for our team’s anniversary outing. They were joking me that we’re just going to McDonald’s... Nathan Road. Knowing the slowpoke that I am, it took around 5 seconds to finally sink in that we’re really going to Hong Kong!! I asked myself, “Sa Hong Kong yung Nathan Road... diba?” And my eyes went big! “Shaks, sa Hong Kong nga kami pupunta!” O_O

And so I budgeted for the trip, I allotted 4000 PHP (~600 HKD) for my pocket money. Pero di ko siya napapalitan, ‘di ko alam kahit anong attempt magpapalit walaws talaga. It’s either the bank didn’t have any HKD or the money changer doesn’t sell any HKD. Tapos nalaman na lang namin pagdating ng Hong Kong, bibigyan nila kami ng 1500 HKD as pocket money for the entire stay. (Tinagalog ko na kasi tinamad nako mag-English hahahahaha) I’m like, whaaaat?! Legit all expenses paid?!?! Thank you, Lord. Sobra sobra pa.

Here are a few photos from the trip (and some from last year for reference sa mga kwento ko kasi di ko nakuhaan yung iba this year haha):

I’ve always loved Hong Kong’s architecture. This was taken while were on the Airport bus to Kowloon. I learned that day that Hong Kong airport lies on artificial land. Wow lang!

This was in Causeway Bay. On our last day in Hong Kong this year, there was a typhoon so malls and stores were mostly closed. We wanted to visit IKEA but to no avail. We ended up walking around the vicinity and took photos instead.

I love their city lights at night! This was in Mong Kok. I had a similar shot taken on my 2016 HK trip, pero sa kabilang side naman. Haha! See below.

We stayed in Tsim Sha Tsui throughout the trip. The hotel was a few kilometers away from the train station so we always walk. 

This is one of the alleys we usually pass by.

And mannn, our hotel room was very nice! Super hi-tech! It made me think what made us deserve this kind of generosity. Look at the remote control! We could’ve stayed in an Airbnb but we didn’t. Wooow.

Di ko talaga kinaya yung generosity nila. Even our Disneyland trip was paid for as well. It was my first time (we went to Ocean Park last year kasi).

Dito muntik maubos pera ko. Hahaha! The stuff they’re selling there were so nice and enticing, it makes you want to get it all, even if you don’t really need it. It made me realize that if you get easily swayed by the things you wanted for yourself, you’ll end up wasting the gift that was given to you. I believe it was a gentle reminder for me to not take the gift God freely and abundantly gave me for granted. :)

I loved the Lion King musical! It made me feel like a kid again. 

Spoiler alert: The plot of the musical was that they are to retell the story of how Simba became king. The songs were uplifting and the production was great! THE CIRCLE OF LYYYYYFFFF~~

My realization: if we are to share the greatest story ever told (i.e. John 3:16), we should be all out. Even if it takes you to share it a million times over and over again, never grow tired of sharing it. Just as how the cast in this musical give their best in every show, everyday.

I think the highlight of my Disneyland trip was the fireworks show. It was so beautiful and magical. I am in awe, and got semi-tearyeyed hehe. If it’s already a wonderful sight here, I wonder what beauty and glory awaits for us in Heaven, where all things are perfected?

A few things I noticed throughout our stay in Hong Kong:

1. People are too fast-paced, busy, and focused on too many things. It’s either they’re looking at their mobile phones or they’re rushing out of the train, walking fast to cross the street. It’s like they are always on to the next thing, which is binding and paralyzing. And that compelled me to pray for their nation. “This nation is Yours. May they see the beauty and freedom of having and knowing You.”

2. Ang ganda ng way finding sa kanila! Clean and minimal.

3. Their train systems are well-maintained and organized. And people know where to fall in line — they follow the signages! I believe our nation is capable of doing that as well, it just really needs to start with ourselves. Hehe.

(These were taken from my trip last year)

Thoughts on Flying

My reflection on flying has always been the same: Trust the Captain, because He knows where He’s taking you. It was a turbulent ride en route to Hong Kong, we entered the sea of clouds yet again, and everything we can see was just cottony clouds. It doesn’t make any sense. Why put a window yet enter the sea of clouds?! You could’ve just taken a different path. Now we can barely see anything and it’s turbulent! R u ok, captain?! My palms are sweaty and I’m nervous, but after a few minutes, we’re back to normal flying mode. Haha. Panic agad eh! And that experience revealed my heart. I don’t trust God entirely. Huhu.

That’s our usual response to God. We easily fall to stress, anxiety, worry, pain, etc. that we lose sight of where God is trying to lead us, and we end up sinning. We end up resisting God, leaning on our own understanding, and doing things our own way, because we believe it’s what best for us and we want to resolve tensions as fast as we can. Newsflash: we’re wrong.

It’s human tendency to always want certainty and what lies ahead in the unknown. We want to know the why in everything. We want to know, “Why this path?” “What awaits at the end of this?” “When is this going to be over?” That we neglect to notice we’re losing faith already.

“The problem is we’re always trying to live by sight and call it faith.” Ouch. That was from Ken Wytsma’s book, “The Grand Paradox”. He said in another chapter, “The secret to understanding where to go in life is found not in navigating our way to safety, but rather simply trusting in God’s leading. Trusting that He is good. Trusting that even if we don’t like where He takes us, He’s taking us there for a reason.”

Without trust, there is no faith. Without obedience, there is not faith as well. To trust is to obey God’s Word. To obey is to jump into the unknown move based on trust in a dependable God. I pray we all choose faith than looking around in fear.

Around the Philippines (char ulit haha)

Here in the Philippines, I was blessed with the chance to visit Batangas, Nagsasa, Bacolod, and Baguio, with my family and friends.

September last year, my good friends and I had an overnight trip to Batangas. And I made new animal friends.

Other people might classify me either a dog or a cat person, I don’t think I can ever be on one side. Let’s get things straight, I’m an animal person. I like talking to animals, I feel like we have this ~connection~, there’s just something about their innocent eyes that makes you want to love them dearly. I believe God has given us dominion over these creatures to properly take care of them.

Come November, we went to Nagsasa Cove in Zambales. 

There was no signal reception in the island pero keri lang! A great 2D1N trip away from the busy and noisy that is Metro Manila. I’m not a water person, in fact I’m totally scared of the water, but heeeeeyy I managed the 2hr boat ride + intense swimming against the current (THANK GOD FOR LIFE VESTS AND PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO SWIM HAHA). Also, the view was spectacular! I am stunned and amazed by just how wonderful God’s works are.

higher than the heavens

stronger than the sea

mightier than mountains

Your love amazes me

My last out of town trip for the year 2016 was in Bacolod. Good food, bro, plus it’s very affordable! Thank God for sumptuous meals. We had a day trip to Lakawon Island too!

Dinuguan with puto. But I ate it with rice hehehe.

La Paz Batchoy. Yummers.

Would you believe that this costs less than 200 PHP? Delicous ribs, yo!

We also met our church family and I was immensely blessed by their hospitality and generosity! (They paid for our food most of the time, and they fetch us at our condo everyday and they toured us around Bacolod!)

I guess how grateful you are for what God has done in your life will truly manifest in your life. I’ve never seen a person who is so thankful yet so timid and silent about it. As the song says, “So blessed, I can’t contain it. So much you’ve got to give it away.”

Indeed, if you know in your heart that God is more than enough for you, you won’t think twice about giving to others—you will truly be a cheerful giver, because you know He’s a God who provides for whatever you will need and He’s a God who will never leave you alone.

We were invited to join their event, Jesus Reigns. Thousands of youth were there, praising and proclaiming the name of Jesus. The next generation is on fire, indeed.

Baguio will always have a special place in my heart, and I will always go back! Thankful for the opportunity to be in the city with the people close to me.

This is Winter, my niece. She’s so bubbly.

Bilanggoals. October 2016.

Tomodachis. November 2016.

Fam. July 2017. Insert kuya Erick, ate Mags, and Winter.

And that’s about it for now.

I actually can’t remember how I came up with the budget to travel, but one thing is for sure, God has provided. And He has blessed me with wonderful people as I explored these places. Thank God for family and friends! Thank God for we are relational beings, that we are not meant to be alone but to be surrounded with people who will encourage and build us up.

Adjustments

People never liked the idea of change, despite it being the constant thing in this world.

Earlier this year, our church transferred to a new place. Tons of adjustments were made, we used to be in a mall in CBD Makati, and now despite being inside a mall, we’re placed in the middle of a residential area. Different barangays! It’s very exciting to see lives of people in the area transformed by Christ, but it’s not a walk in the park of course.

I am thankful that our pastor has been very open about the struggle of transitioning into a new home and for continually reminding us to be strong as we move forward to where God has called us. Indeed, our present adversities shouldn’t hinder us on the ministry He has blessed us with because He is with us and He didn’t bring us this far just to leave us.

What a wonderful opportunity to grow in faith, in ministry, and in my personal walk. There are discouraging times because there seem to be no fruit for what we’ve been doing, I must admit I’m in the brink of recoiling and giving up in serving Him, because I didn’t know what’s next. It seemed redundant! But God revealed my heart again, and I am rebuked. He reminded me that it’s not about what I see or what I feel, all of what we’re doing is for Him. And if it’s for Him, it will never be in vain. It’s also a season where God is teaching us to persevere and pray harder. The enemy is indeed at work, he wants people to give up, so God’s work will be delayed. But we should not give him a foothold of what he wants. Kaya push lang. Laban lang.

A New Season

I thought this would be the easiest part to write, but now I’m lost for words. Actually, words aren’t enough to show my gratefulness to God for blessing me with a great partner, Steven. :) Yieeeeee haha! Indeed, there is a season for everything. And this season comes with lessons and discipline, it’s continually teaching me to be selfless, loving, understanding, to be more focused on giving rather than receiving, and to be more obedient.

To me he’s the greatest musician. He’s my listening ear, my shoulder to cry on (literally), and my comedian. He likes to make puns out of the store names whenever we’re in a mall, and I can’t help but laugh. He knows how to make me burst in laughter! He always tells me how he loves seeing me smile. And I love seeing him smile too, most especially when he’s about to order that slice of cake/blizzard/glass of coke. HAHAHAHA.

I praise God for your life and I thank Him for showing love through you. You always make me happy. You remind me to be grounded on Him when I start to falter. And you hold my hand and hug me when the anxious kid in me starts to kick in. Hehe. Thank you for always encouraging me to push through with the things I thought I couldn’t do, like this blog.

You are a great blessing to me. I will always support you and your leadership, and I’ll continue to grow on being a suitable helper for you. We’ve got a looong looooooong way to go and I’m happy to be in this journey with ya. Apir!!! ;)

I don’t know how to end this post again, hahaha. So here goes:

I wonder what’s the next move? Sovereign Lord, only You know. I always ask You, what’s Your plan for me? And I am reminded that I’d rather not know the entire plan, because trusting in Your goodness is much much better and rewarding.