I thought I’d seen a lot of “instants” and automatic items in this generation but I found myself once again amused when I saw self-stirring mugs advertised in a local online store. I thought it was another product of Filipino ingenuity.
But my online research showed even Amazon and Ebay sells them. Yes, you don’t need a spoon to stir your drink. With the press of a button a little whirring disc at the bottom spins and froths, and your drink is stirred.
I thought they are for those who are just plain lazy. But then I found myself buying two dozens of them as Christmas giveaways. Why not? They’re a novelty.
I wonder if a person who fails to stir his own hopes and dreams is a novelty, too.
The ability to stir one’s self to action is defined in one word – initiative. It is the ability, power or opportunity to act independently or take charge before others do.
I used to take pride in my independent nature as I thought of myself as someone who can figure out how to accomplish tasks way ahead of other people. Until a series of events proved me wrong. I fell flat on my face and that’s when I knew I am not in control of everything. God is.
Today, I still use my ability to lead but this time I let God stir my spirit first. And I found that this is the perfect formula for success—not to self-stir but to be God-stirred.
Nothing can go wrong when God stirs our lives, be it in our decisions today or our plans for tomorrow. When we lean on our own understanding and depend on our own ability, things are doomed to fail. Human nature is weak and is bound to fail with its imperfections. And this has been my pitfall.
And then I realized that I am a Christian and the last letters “i-a-n” stand for: I Am Nothing, without Christ. When I acknowledged that there is a greater Power over my own initiative, that was when I was able to make sound decisions because anything of God’s is true, good and perfect. How can anything go wrong with God?
In short, I have let go and let God move in my life. I am far from perfect but in faith I believe God will mould me into His perfection.
With all that’s happening in our nation in recent years, I like to think that we are all being stirred to recognize our helplessness and nothingness without God.
So much destruction, death and crisis have come to test our faith and then we find ourselves bending our knees to pray.
But if we can learn to strive to hear God’s voice, read His holy words and follow in His footsteps, we allow Him to take the initiative and move before us. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
Today, there is that sense of urgency to let God move our nation. The election fever is stirring up all of us. I pray we allow God to stir our minds so we can best discern whom to vote.
There is that sense of urgency to keep our family intact, though we know deep in hearts they are imperfect and may fail to meet our expectations. I pray we allow God to stir our hearts to love more unconditionally.
There is that sense of urgency to change ourselves, never mind if we think we have committed the gravest sin. Jesus came for the sinner not the saint. I pray we allow God to stir our souls to make it pure and clean once again.
The Christian group Hillsong United’s song says it succinctly: “There’s a stirring in the Spirit. There’s an urgency in this hour. We as children must obey. Can you hear the footsteps of God? God is moving, God is moving…”
There’s that formula again: we just have to surrender and obey God. The little Child Jesus or the Sto. Niño was just that: fully obedient to the will of His Father.
So over and beyond the festivities today, may we all take time to reflect on these holy traits of the Senor Sto. Niño. Despite being the Son of God, He was constantly God-stirred and not self-stirring.
Pit Senyor!
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