Today's Punto
Today's Punto
Opinion
Starbucks moment
By Atty. Bong Roque

Mar 05, 2010

As I write this, I’m enjoying a cup of steaming fat-free skim milk at Starbucks-Baguio.  In between sips, I let spoonfuls of the luscious blueberry loaf melt inside my mouth.  I fold my arms in protest against, and at the same time in appreciation of, the cool Baguio breeze.

In front of me is a relaxing, worry-free image:  my wife, Liza, surfing the net on the laptop and checking on new posts on Face Book.

Ah!  Once in a while, it feels good to go on a sabbatical.   No Thursday deadlines for Blue-Sky Scenario, no daily pressure to write inspirational stuff, no Church choir practices on Fridays, no speaking engagements to Catholic communities on weekdays.

In other words, it’s a leave of absence from anything spiritual.

Just as I was having the grandest no-God vacation ever, a picture frame tacked on the corner of a wall in Starbucks catches my undivided attention.  On the background is a smudged black and white image of a rainy day; on the foreground, these words:

“We all need some time to ourselves — just a few minutes a day to get reacquainted with the One who’s been there since the beginning.”

Huh?  What’s this picture saying?

I take a second look at the image, making sure I got the words correctly.

We all need some time to ourselves... to get reacquainted with the One... who has been there since the beginning.

I call my time away from God as a “leave of absence,” a vacation.  But not God.  I try to get away from the daily grind, calling a time-out from everything, not realizing that He is actually reconnecting with me.

I try to squeeze in a day-off from God, but in His vocabulary, there is no such thing as day-off from me, or from any of us for that matter.  Every minute, wherever we are, in whatever we do, He is with us.  I guess that’s why people call Him...

EMMANUEL.

And He goes by that name, even in Starbucks.



Quote for the week:

If you are not as close to God

as you used to be, who moved? 

~Author Unknown




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