Change we can believe in

"Change" may sound like a medeocer slogan for an election campaign but Obama(the most likely candidate to be the next president of US)carried it with grace and won his democratic party campaign against Hilary Clinton.Folks I am not here to beat my political drum but here to say that 'CHANGE' is so key in all of us at all times,right?
I very clearly remember my first retreat in 2003 precisely february 8th at Holy Trinity ashram(Engg DTP) where the welcome & ice breaker session was led by Mr.Jose Sebastian(RIT) and the first question he asked all the participants was the expection that they had and what they wanted from the 8 day DTP.Most of them including me said the same word 'CHANGE'.May be i told it that time coz it was more conveniant to repeat what my other fellow participants were telling.But as of today that very word 'CHANGE' still lurks around ,I still need a change in heart to be closer to God, a change in heart to experience Dad's love more closely.A change happened in my life in february 2003 but the change was more superficial but as I spent more time in God's work I sense a strong urge of a deeper change in myself , a deeper change to believe that God will carry me on his back and will win for me the races of earth & of heaven,a deeper change to believe that my true redeemer lives in me.

And change is not far away it is very near,just few metres deep inside your heart!Just to show what change can bring about -if you have observed this blog I just changed the background colour to 'Light Blue'and now the blog looks brighter than ever before and more energetic(in my eyes).

Without CHANGE there is no future
Without future there is no present
Without present there is no past
Without past there is no life
Without life there is no God
My Lord My God,CHANGE me!

Having said all this the only thing that has not changed from the beginning of creation is 'God's' LOVE toward us and Expecting no CHANGE on that front till end of days & forever.AMEN !

Daddy will keep you going !!

Came across this video, of a Dad and son.



A small glimpse of how Our Dad loves us and keeps us going. The race they are running is a really tough one. Infact, its called The IRONMAN. You can read more about the triathlon here

If you wanna know more about the Dad and son in the video, click here for their story.
And, if viewing is more of your style, heres the video.
And this is their website

Truly, My Redeemer lives!

This Dad and Son duo also brought to light another concept i always struggled with - How can God use our weaknesses to show his power?

Now its beginning to dawn on me.

My Daddy strongest !!

There used to be a commercial for a cooking oil, where the kids would talk about their Dad, and how strong their Dad was.. I absolutely loved the tagline - " My Daddy Strongest!"

I've been very close to my Dad( earthly dad), he's been more of a friend to me.
Dad had his own business, and from a very young age, on every school holiday, I'd set off with him.Of all of us sons, I'm quite sure I probably spent the most time with him.

Imagine my surprise that even with a father like him, I still longed a Fathers love.
This realisation dawned only when I came to the Lord, and came to experience Our Heavenly Fathers love.Words are too few to describe those tender moments, and the assurance of knowing that you are safe in the arms of your Father.

Here's a video that I found really inspiring. Especially in those innumerable moments of weakness and falls.




Truly, "My Daddy Strongest!!!" ... rather " Our Daddy Strongest!!"

In the Fathers love

Aju

Lk 23.43 Sunday reflections from our dear Father Tom

If we want to weed out all the bad, the weeds, we see, soon there would be no one left as we all, even the best of us, are weeds sometime or other. Imagine if God were to have blasted Saul of Tarsus when he was first persecuting the Christians. Or Peter were to have been annihilated when he denied Jesus! God waited for the right moment to convert both. This is the story of all of us. Sometimes we are weeds, sometimes we are wheat. Because of our human weakness, our decision today can be overturned tomorrow. It is not so for pure souls like the angels. They rebelled once and were thrown out of heaven as their decision was final. But not for us human beings. So as long as we are on earth, we can turn to wheat or weeds. Only after death, there is no more change. The state we die in is the final choice we make and that remains fixed. The "good" thief was a weed all the while until he met Jesus on the cross and he crossed over and became a wheat and marched right into heaven with Jesus (Lk 23.43). Tom

The fruitfulness of futility

What to write? Where to start? Should it be something from my life or somebody else’s experience? Do I really have anything worthwhile to share? Did I hear anything that touched my life? How have I become so numb? Where did all my writing acumen disappear?. Doesn’t God talk to me these days? Is my good times over? These were the questions that bounced back to me when ever I sat down to write.

A total emptiness, a feeling of uselessness and dryness

Jesus said unless the grain falls on the ground and dies it remains useless. But if it dies it gives forth life. A change from total futility to total fruitfulness. Only empty pots could be filled. I fix my eyes upon Jesus. He changes lives…

Break me, mould me, fill me……

A story of trust and love

Dear Friends,
It has been along time since I have written. I have decided to break my shell of silence. This interim period has been a tough period, but through those moments our loving Lord was teaching me a lot of things. Let me describe one of those moments. As I have told you I was the father of three children and now I am the proud father of four children. I love my moments with my children and they enjoy my company.I want my love for them to reflect the love of the heavenly father as much as this imperfect me can. I fail most of the time, but I guess I succeed a little considering they consider me as their most trusted pal.

So I trust my kids unconditionally. I accept their love as the greatest gift they can give and give the most of my little reserve of love to them too. Some times my kids come to me with some elaborate story which I know is not completely true. I would clarify to them that even though I am not convinced, since they say it is true, since I trust them I believe in them and that it is true. This has always worked for me because they would immediately tell me the truth or come back and confess the truth later. So my trust in them and the love of my heavenly father which kept them on the path of righteousness grew in leaps and bounds.

Then one day it happened. One of my kids broke the trust and told me some thing which was not true and stuck to it. I handled it in the usual way. I was not sure whether it was the truth or not. Then it happened a second time, this time I knew it was a lie and the matter on which this happened was a bit serious. After all my loving promptings and indicating that I knew it was probably not the truth my kid stuck to the story. I was devastated. Suddenly my premise for my tender love for my kid and the unconditional trust that I placed was questioned. I could not bring myself to accept it. I could not even bring myself to love my kid from the depth of my heart. That night I sat with my lord and asked him, is the power of love only this much ? Was my methods which I had presumably learned from him all wrong ? I threw those questions at him and sat in front of him ?

Then the mirror was turned this side,I saw my face reflected there ? I saw in that mirror a bigger denier of trust. I saw in that mirror a much bigger betrayer of love. How many times had i broken the unlimited trust and misused the freedom that our Good lord had entrusted on me ? But in spite of all that his love for me never wavered. His love for me never wavered in spite of my weaknesses, the incessant faults in my behavior, my imperfections, my feeble love and even feebler trust in him. His was a constant love and that was what drew me back to him.

I was ashamed of my own feeble love and commitment towards my Lord. I was ashamed of judging my child when I was a bigger betrayer of trust and love. So I got down in front of my Lord and forgave my kid right there. I came to the realization that I am not to love her for what she gives back to me but in spite of those. And that I will never get to love a perfect kid, but an imperfect one just like her dad on whom his heavenly father bestowed all his love and trust in. And I went to sleep that night in the loving and trusting arms of my heavenly father.

99 Ballo0ns

Just a week before my 23rd birthday here I am standing at the end of the 22nd mile of my life.A mile with well planned dividers,beautiful trees on the road side,potholes & muddy stretches.As I stand at the crossroads looking at the 23rd mile,here I am looking back and looking ahead.If you would ask me If I see a narrow 23rd mile or wider mile ,my answer would be that I dont know!I prefer a narrow road since it gives me only one option - concentrate and focus on the road ahead where a small lapse of concentration can be crucial whereas wider roads can be quite misleading,they seem to be easy but are not !Well 22nd or 23rd their will be no end on my philosophies ,they are like Navjot Singh Sidhu's laughter factory -keeps on coming,nonstop!
I am one of those kinds who hate celebrating Birthdays.Donno why I feel slightly embarrassed when people wish me on my birthday ! Cant seem to recollect from where/when I picked up this feeling of discomfort.But lately I have come to realize the importance of birthdays.I have an identity, I have a name ,I am a person and I was born on a particular day few years back.The beauty of birthday stems from the fact that it is the day of remembrance when Life was given to me as a gift by my God.Just imagining I could have been killed by my Parents on that day or even before that, as many parents across the world do ,which we call abortion .The number of Lives lost on a single day due to abortion is quite scary.I am thankful to my parents who loved me and gave me life as a symbol of their love.I am thankful to God for giving me my parents.Thank yo dad & thank you mom.....Dad hope you are doing well with God ! I at this moment wish to thank the unseen,unknown Doctors & nurses who were instrumental in bringing me into this place called - Earth !
I would like you all to watch this video called '99 Balloons'- my tribute to mom & dad !