New Song: Trust You Everyday

Here’s a new song entitled “Trust You Everyday.” Thanks to Joy Mamon Alulod of the faculty of San Agustin College, Bacolod City for the lyrics. Click here to download.

To Be or Not to Be - a Lawyer

A young friend who studied in seminary asked me this morning for my advice on his plan to take up law. I said I fully endorse it, and here are my reasons:

First, it is a financially viable profession. Whether a profession is one that can financially support your needs and the needs of your family is an important consideration. The Bible says in I Timothy 5: 8 that “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” In choosing a profession it is not wrong to do so with a view towards how one can fulfill his obligation to provide for his family.

Secondly, it is an influential profession, i.e., lawyers can exert a lot of influence in society either for good or for ill. Many lawyers get to become politicians, legislators, judges, law professors, authors of books, columnists in influential newspapers, conference speakers and business leaders. They get to prosecute or defend significant cases that can change the destiny not only of individuals but of communities, etc. In other words, if you want to make a significant contribution to society being a lawyer can be one way to do precisely that. The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:7 “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” Many Christians have a tendency to withdraw from the “world” and its concerns, and to live in a world of their own. But that is not our Lord’s teaching. Jesus taught that we are to be in the world though not of the world (John 17:14-18). Yes, Christians are pilgrims on earth, but during their time of exile they are to “seek the good of the city”. And one way to do that is to be a Christian lawyer.

Thirdly, it can be a God-glorifying profession. Some people think the law is not a field where you can earn an honest day’s wage for an honest day’s work, and that an honest lawyer is an oxymoron. I think that depends on the person. Just yesterday a lawyer friend of mine was telling me of a prosecutor who is now a judge. He told me that when this judge was still a prosecutor he was in financially dire straits and would sometimes call my lawyer friend to sell “chorizo” and kitchen utensils. And my lawyer friend out of pity would buy these things from him. This lawyer friend would sometimes have certain documents notarized by this prosecutor and would send money along with the documents as some sort of tip. But this prosecutor (now judge) would always return the money because prosecutors at that time were not allowed to accept payment for documents subscribed under oath before them. My appreciation for this judge grew by leaps and bounds. Formerly I knew him (quite unfairly) to be nothing more than an extremely strict judge. Now I know that he is someone who is living proof that you can glorify God wherever you are - even in the legal profession.

“Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.” (I Corinthians 7:17)

Lawyers with Depression

Believe it or not, there is actually a website for lawyers with depression. If you’re like me (i.e., a lawyer who plays with the idea of becoming a monk someday) you’ll find this site very helpful. Click here.

No Motion for Postponement

A labor arbiter in our city was killed a couple of days ago. I was in court this morning and the lawyers there were waxing philosophical about his death. “Life is short,” said one. “When it’s your time to go, it’s time to go,” said another. “And the worst part is you can’t file a motion for postponement!”

In this country the most frequently filed motion is a motion for postponement (also known as a motion for resetting). It is also the motion which is most frequently granted by the courts. But as far as the Heavenly Judge is concerned no motion is more futile than a motion to postpone the day of one’s death.

“For it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)

P.S. It seems there was one instance when such a motion was granted: see the case of Hezekiah in 2 Kings ch. 20.

Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton’s really something. Yesterday I started reading his The Sign of Jonas and I found gems scattered all round!

I have only one desire and that is the desire for solitude - to disappear into God, to be submerged in His peace, to be lost in the secret of His Face.

Let me keep silence in this world, except in so far as God wills and in the way He wills it. Let me at least disappear into the writing I do.

God’s love takes care of everything I do. He guides me in my work and in my reading…

Reading Merton makes me want to leave the law profession and become a monk! Maybe it’s not too late.

Now you see me …

… now you don’t. This blog has been semi-abandoned, and I guess that’s not surprising. I recently read somewhere that millions of blogs have been abandoned by their owners simply because it takes so much effort and energy to consistently maintain a blog. Anyway, I’m reappearing for now (and I don’t know for how long) because I can’t sleep and it crossed my mind that I still have a blog which I could re-activate anytime! So here goes…

The question is (as usual) what to blog about? Answer: probably anything that comes to mind at the moment. Like, for example, there’s my Shelfari shelf - if anyone’s interested to know what books I have and what I’m currently reading (click here).

And talking about books: the one that’s really making an impact on me lately is Foster’s Freedom of Simplicity. Here’s a quote:

“Turn your back on all high pressure competitive situations that make climbing the ladder the central focus… There is a legitimate place for blood, sweat and tears; but it should have its roots in the call of God, not in the desire to get ahead. Life is more than a climb to the top of the heap.” (p. 155)

Now that’s something every lawyer (and not just lawyers) needs to hear. Which reminds me, I just talked with a much older lawyer earlier today. He’s successful and well-known in the profession locally. But he advised me point-blank: “Don’t try to be like me. I’m not happy.”

On the other hand, another lawyer-friend said to me, “To be a lawyer is a blessing, not a curse. Not everyone has a chance to become a lawyer. Moreover, you enjoy a lot of things as a result of your being a lawyer: food on your table, money to pay for your children’s tuition, a roof over your head, you get to help people who need your services, etc. So don’t go around badmouthing the profession!”

Well, one can always strike a happy balance between these two views. I’m thankful I’m a lawyer but that doesn’t mean I have to be “in desperate haste to succeed and in such a desperate enterprise.” One can be a faithful steward of the vocation God has given him or her, without overdoing things.

” Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, to work with your hands, just as we told you.” (I Thess. 4:11)

Beloved Enemy

Power, success, as the world knows them, are his who will fight for them hard enough; but peace, love, joy are only from God. And God is the enemy whom Jacob fought there by the river, of course, and whom in one way or another we all of us fight - God, the beloved enemy. Our enemy, because, before giving us everything, he demands of us everything; before giving us life, he demands our lives - our selves, our wills, our treasure.

- Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat, (HarperCollins, 1985) p. 18

Holy Avarice

“Let me remember that life is short and unforeseen,

and is only an opportunity for usefulness;

Give me a holy avarice to redeem the time,

to awake at every call to charity and piety…”

- from The Valley of Vision,  edited by Arthur Bennet (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1995) p. 104

Teach Me to Sing Again

I guess regular blogging is not for me, so I won’t force myself. But once in a while I get the urge to revisit my blog, just to see if I’m still receiving any visitors, and it seems there still are a few visitors that come by everyday. So anyway here’s a poem I recently submitted to christianpoetry.org. I’m posting it here as well.

Teach me to sing again, O Lord of my life;
Heal all the shame and please quiet the strife.
Bitter the heart that has tasted the pain,
Yet the joy of the Lord longs to shine once again.

Let the past and its sadness be heart’s burden no more;
Let the wings of God’s gladness carry thee to the shore
Of a country not far, where the light never fades,
Where the bright Morning Star drives away all the shades.

Never sigh nor a groan can be heard in that place,
Not a sob or a moan but the music of praise:
There be praise to the Father and praise to the Son,
And praise to the Spirit - they are three, they are one!

So lift up thy voice and sing praise, O my soul;
Let the music of heav’n make thee happy and whole.
And this world and its troubles shall soon speedily cease,
Yet sound forth thy God’s praises through the ages of bliss!

A Father’s Influence

Matthew Henry, the great Bible Commentator, was who he was largely because of the influence of his father, Philip Henry:

Matthew Henry, having such a well educated father as his private tutor, lacked nothing that a more formal theological education might have brought him. Every day his father preached to the household at family prayers, and everyday young Matthew translated for his father a passage from the Scriptures in the original languages. In addition his father guided him through the Latin classics, and Henry’s mastery of this literature is evident throughout his literary legacy…

From earliest childhood Matthew Henry was brought up to live by the Word of God. Reading Henry’s biography of his father, The Life of the Reverend Philip Henry, A.M. it becomes clear that the ministry of the son was but a public manifestation of the piety of the father.

(Source: Historical Handbook of Major Biblical Interpreters, edited by Donald K. McKim, Inter-Varsity Press 1998, pp. 195, 196)

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible has been a great blessing to pastors the world over, and all because a godly father brought up his child in the way he should go.