Don’t Believe Your Desires When They Say, “After This, I’ll Be Satisfied” (by Bo Sanchez)

The wife said to the husband, “This Christmas, let’s give more practical gifts to one another, like socks and a diamond ring.” – Anonymous

I love retelling my experience in Grade Four, when the inevitable “passage of manhood” happened in school: A few classmates of mine started wearing long pants. Suddenly, they looked so mature, so grown up, so guwapo (handsome) – while all of us who wore the uniform khaki shorts were so totoy (childish).  So I pressed Mom to buy me a pair, but she kept on saying, “Later, Bo.” The following year, I was in Grade Five, I was the only one wearing shorts. It was humiliating. In Grade Six, I was the only guy wearing a bikini. That’s what my classmates called my shorts as I had already outgrown them.

Believe me, I have never again been so sexy in my life.

Finally, on graduation day, I wept with pure joy when Mom gave me my very own pair of pants. Oh, I didn’t care if the fold at the bottom of each leg was 12 inches long, even reaching up to my knees. (“So that I can adjust them as you get taller,” my mother explained.) To me, they were the most beautiful pair of long pants in the world.

But ironically, after a while, the thrill faded away. Because I started wanting to wear jeans.

“Mom, everyone has at least one pair!” I pleaded.

When she bought me one after a few years of begging, I soared to cloud nine and romped off in them like a prince. I thought my happiness would never end, until my high school classmates told me that their jeans were Levi’s and mine were Ludy’s.

But to this day, wearing Ludy’s has been my happy lifestyle.

In fact, people ask me, “Why do you have so few desires in your life now?” The answer comes from my bikini experience: I’ve realized that all human desire never quits on you. We just keep on wanting more and more stuff. Nothing ever satisfies.

Never believe your desires when they say, “After this, I’ll be satisfied.”

Reference/s:
Sanchez, Bo. SIMPLIFY and Live the Good Life. Shepherd’s Voice Publications, Inc.

A Worm Named Sylvester (by Bo Sanchez)

It was a worm. A wriggling, blackish, slimy, slippery, ugly worm. I was praying one day in our backyard, feeling very sad - for I had just committed a sin against God. (You know, one of those sins of that age: robbing a bank; burning a school; torturing my sister...) I even feared that perhaps I wouldn't be able to enter heaven because of my sins... How could I?

That was when I say this yucky thing slither up a green leaf. And then, I felt God whisper into my heart, "Bo, do you want to become a worm?"

Wha...? I was petrified. "Lord, did I sin that bad?"

"Bo, give that worm a name," He asked me.

Quickly, I thought of one that was farthest from mine. "Uh... would Sylvester do?"

"That will be fine. Let's say that Sylvester has a soul, and that he is a bad worm. I would therefore need someone to tell him that he has to change, or else, he won't go to heaven..."

"You want Sylvester to go to heaven?" I inquired.

"Of course. Let us say that I love him..."

I made a face. "Double yuck. Triple even." We are talking about a real live ugly worm here! And a bad worm at that.

"Sshhh. Let me continue. Now, in order for Sylvester to understand Me, My messenger has to be a worm as well. A human will not be able to speak his language."

"So that's why You want me to be a worm! To save him? But why me?"

"Only for a few days, Bo. Want to volunteer?"

"Lord!" I vehemently cried in disbelief. "Even if Sylvester was the most handsome worm in this universe - I still wouldn't do it! You're kidding me, right?"

"At one point in history, I wasn't kidding. I did ask a similar request of someone else, and He said yes."

I gasped. "Poor guy... you zapped Him into a worm?"

"On that very Christmas Day, My only Son became a human being, a helpless infant - so that He could save you..."

"But Lord, that's different! It's okay to be human..."

"That's because you don't know what it means to be God. Before that day, My Son was glorious, powerful, eternal..."

That was the last line I heard that day. And I thought the conversation was over.

But a few days later, when I went to a church for Christmas Eve - at the altar I saw the Babe in the manger.

And everything about it screamed to me, "I love you, Bo."

Yes, my God has become Sylvester. For me.

I smiled and quietly shed a tear.

Reference/s:

Sanchez, Bo. How to Be Really, Really, Really Happy!. Shepherd’s Voice Publications, Inc.