Category: Spirituality

There will always be that secret part of you, that part that others may never know. Your friends may spend years in your company and not learn about it. Your parents may hardly have a clue. Even your most intimate loved one may have no idea that it exists. But it does. It exists somewhere deep within you. That hidden part that no one sees.

Have you ever experienced people suddenly being surprised about you? Once in a while, someone says you’ve changed a lot, and another comments you did something quite unexpected of you. But you weren’t surprised at all. You know that you’ve always been that person capable of doing such a thing. They just didn’t know you’ve got it in you all along.

There’s a whole universe within each person that cannot be entirely known by another. And though once in a while, someone may have more glimpses into your inner world, you know that there is so much more that hasn’t been revealed.

Sometimes it feels good because it helps you see just how wonderfully you have been made. You know that you’re not someone who can just be tagged into stereotypes. Your inner being is so vast that it can never be measured by anyone.

Sometimes, however, it can feel lonely, too. You want others to know you more. And you don’t want to be judged by the few moments they have seen you.

But that’s just what happens every now and then. When people talk about you as though they know you but you know that they don’t. When people cast you away because they think they have already measured your heart and soul.

It hurts even more when it comes from the people who are closest to you. Why couldn’t they possibly understand? How could they say such things?

Ah, but that’s just how it is. No person could ever know you as well as you know yourself. And you could never know yourself as much as God knows you.

We were not meant to always be alone and misunderstood. There is One who sees us, One who knows us. He looks at us and loves us for who we truly are. And one day, if you do not lose faith, you also will know how He sees you. He will give you a new name, and you will understand just how much you are known and loved.

“Even among the sisters you will feel lonely. Know then that I want you to unite yourself more closely to Me. I am concerned about every beat of your heart. Every stirring of your love is reflected in My Heart. I thirst for your love. ‘Yes, O Jesus, but my heart would not be able to live without You, either; for even if the hearts of all creatures were offered to me, they would not satisfy the depths of my heart.’” – Divine Mercy In My Soul, 1542

“To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows but he who receives it.” – Revelation 2:17, WEBBE

If you have watched Korean romantic dramas, you must be familiar with love triangles. You must also be familiar with the second lead who often offers full support and devotion to the main character but fails to end up with him or with her in the end.

Many times, viewers of said dramas feel more attached to this second lead. If this character is a man, many female viewers may even root more for him than for the male lead. They would also feel that it’s unjust for such a man who is quite capable of loving wholeheartedly and unselfishly to end up not getting the girl.

Some would argue that it’s because of destiny. Some may think it all boils down to the personal preference of the female lead. She loves the male lead, and she decides to choose him even if he could never prove to be better than the second lead. She loves him even if he has hurt her so much already.

Thinking about it, I guess I could agree with the latter reason. Sometimes, we already see who loves us and cares for us more. We also see who isn’t concerned very much about our good, but for some unidentifiable reason, we keep on sticking around with them.

We then let go of those who are more worthy. We let go of those who are willing to lay down even their own lives for our sake.

In a way, are we not reminded of the way we often treat Jesus? Though He had always been there for us, and though He gives us everything we could ever need, we still prefer other things and other people over Him. We make Him into that second lead who fails to win his lady’s heart. The One who has not been chosen. The One who wasn’t loved the way that He deserved to be loved.

Sometimes I can’t help but think that the world doesn’t know what mercy truly means. Though everyone seems to talk about it, I feel as though we often get it wrong.

Many people who talk about mercy seem to talk about something they feel they ought to have. They feel that they have been deprived of something, and the merciful thing is to have it back.

When we talk that way, we seem to see mercy as something that is rightfully ours. Could it be the we are somehow confused between the ideas of mercy and justice?

Is it mercy that we want? Or is it justice?

If mercy is something we think we deserve, it is understandable why many of us feel so angry when we don’t get the things we want. We feel indignant. Somebody has taken away what is ours and if we don’t get it back, we feel that we have been deprived of mercy.

But if we truly know mercy, maybe we’d know more also what humility means. To be given mercy is to be given a kindness we do not deserve. It is not something focused upon our goodness, but upon the goodness of those who have acted mercifully toward us.

Before we understand mercy, perhaps we should also understand first what justice means. We should know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. And if we admit we are wrong, and we are forgiven instead of being punished, if we are loved instead of being despised, maybe then we’d have a better idea what mercy truly means.

“For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a good person someone would even dare to die. But God commends his own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”—Romans 5:7–8, WEBBE

The longings of the human heart… Who can fathom it? Who can measure it? Does anybody know its depths? Can anyone say how much of it remains to be satisfied?

The longings of the human heart… If only we knew them. Maybe then we’d finally understand each other. Maybe then it would be easier to forgive.

The longings of the human heart… For how long must they be hidden? For how long must it hurt whenever they are touched?

The longings of the human heart… Only God can reveal them. One day we’d finally meet the only One who knows our pain. Only then could all our longings be fully satisfied.

Let me tell you what sin does. It destroys everything that’s beautiful. It covers sweetness with bitterness. It turns tears of joy into tears of grief.

Sin spreads like a virus that stifles and kills. There is no private sin because every sin affects the person and each person can’t help but affect another.

Just as your joy warms the heart of another, your wounds hurt those around you. And nothing wounds the soul as much but sin.

Sin is the darkness that covers the world. It is the pain that burdens each human heart.