"I Can't Believe It's Over." A Break-Up Story

It was on a Monday night shift that my co-worker and I was left cleaning the whole line (if you've been to the place where I work, the line I was talking about is the one on the inner side of the sneeze guard). We are about to brush the floor clean and to remove the dirt of the most busy place of the store we needed an extra-strong chemical to do the magic. And when I say extra-strong I mean skin-burning extra-strong type of chemical. That is, Diversey's Suma Break-Up. (I should get paid for this advertisement)

(There, so you'd imagine my description better.)

Cutting to the chase, Wayne (the pretty co-worker in the story) and I are moving chillers and all those stuff around and started cleaning. Until she said, "Ah.. By portion natin ipu-push brush?" The #hugot lines started. "Yup. Kasi ang break-up dapat dinadahan-dahan, dahil kapag hindi, masakit, madali tayong mapapagod," I answered.

And so it goes.

The incident is not really the main reason I'm writing this portion. Just the usual, I'm just catch-phrasing para catchy ang sinusulat ko.

But what I'm writing now is about the real breaking up that I've been learning lately.

Hosea chapter ten verse twelve reads,

Sow righteousness for yourselves,

    reap the fruit of unfailing love,

and break up your unplowed ground;

    for it is time to seek the Lord,

until he comes

    and showers his righteousness on you.

BREAK UP.

Those two words that sometimes scares me, have hurt me and gives me total discomfort.(And for a funny aside, these are also the words that whispers at me during conferences "Yari ang mga strongholds mo, bitaw ka ngayon." And I would know what God wants me to let go at the time. #thatfeeling he he he.)

I appreciate it. Though I don't love it at first Sino ba? But the thing is, I love being broken especially if it means breaking through new opportunities, a new life, seeing a brighter, wider, and bigger perspective of God's plan in this only lifetime that I have here on earth.

Most especially if it means getting closer to the Lover of my soul--Jesus Christ.

Only this time, coming across this verse made me notice one more important thing--that thing which cause you to chew on the verse all the more--the words unplowed ground.

UNPLOWED GROUND.

Those words sounded a little closer (pareho ng karakas) to the word barren. Hopeless. Loser. No chance. Good-for-nothing. Waley.

But because of the edifying wisdom God has given me, it wasn't the first thing that came to my mind. Instead, God made me realize this wonderful picture of what He wants me to put in heart and mind--may ground, may taniman, may hacienda, may farm. And it's very similar to His promise, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Being a Christian for a long time sometimes makes it hard to find brokenness in the midst of familiarity, knowledge and over-the-years events and experience in the past. Hello, Ms. I-know-it-all. Add to it the busy life in the secular world.

And so we'd ask ourselves,

"Sino ba ang madalas mo kausap?"

Again, there is a ground. It needed only to be broken. That ground is our hearts. How is it cultivated now? It doesn't look good being dried up and all. Unplowed is synonymous to unbroken.

Where is that conviction to become Jesus' righteousness? Of being convinced that, really, the old has gone and the new has come. Conviction turned into condemnation. Vision turned into vain imagination. Eleven days turned into forty years.

What happened to the ground?

...

Breaking up is really hard. It's tiring. It's taking up too much of your strength--mind. spirit and body. The strength to think, pray and act.

But the best part in breaking up, is when the dry land springs up. Flowers blooming all over. Green grass covering the land--a good place for growing plants and tending flocks. Hence, fruits--lots of 'em!

There will be uprooting of unnecessary clutter. Many things will diminish for sure. Those many things that are mostly not part of God's package. There will be an end--to those of which you are used to having and doing.

Break up. And start cultivating a good soil again. If you don't know where to start, you just have to remind yourself where it all ended--to that ground in Calvary where a cross stood.

There is a ground. And there is a God who experienced brokenness first-hand when He doesn't have to. But He does it anyway because He loves you.

We may (all who experienced brokenness and break-ups--taas kamay!) have said such statement like; "I can't believe it's over."

Well, kapatid, I, too, can't believe it's over. But I thank God it's over.

It's time to heal. It's high time for zealousness in the Lord. Let God take over and experience supernatural hope, love and have a supernatural faith. It's time to seek the Lord. (and not seeking the things that only make you sick)

Para sa mga nagbabasa nito na hindi naka-relate sa 'zealousness': Simply put,

It's time to move on. Ang ganda ng buhay mo. Give yourself a chance to be genuinely happy again. Marami ang nagmamahal sa'yo. God loves you. Cliche man pero kumpleto ang pagmamahal na 'yan.

___

So, when Wayne and I finished cleaning and closing the store, man, I can't believe it's over. It has been a busy day but we, and the others, have done a pretty productive job that day and so I thank God it's over.