Starbucks moment

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    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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