Coffee Theory

It's only been 24 hours since my best friend left for Manila, but I already miss her. Dang.

As I was having my after-dinner cup of coffee with a friend (yes, 11pm at that), I could not help but think of the long conversations my best friend and I had over a cup of cappuccino or latte or a peach frappe. Friends wonder, "how on earth could you not run out of things to talk about?!?" 5 hours of non-stop talk is normal for us. Well, 3 straight days is still THE record to beat haha.

It's truly a blessing to witness our friendship mature, as our individual selves have. I remember the first few years we've been together. We've always been profound about lots of things -- like men, work, life, family, you name it. Usual girl talk, if you know what I mean. But now, I believe our friendship has taken a *leap of faith*. Never did we imagine that one day we'll be talking about God. Sometimes, when we reminisce about stuff we talked about in the past, we can't help but compare how much we have truly grown. Now, we reflect on things we have read (amazingly, sometimes we receive the same message on separate instances) and try to discern the message together when the words seem unclear. We have helped each other deal with our weaknesses, especially patience and pride. We have also learned to count our blessings more.

Humor plays a major role in every conversation. We can be very much into serious stuff, but we sure can laugh like crazy. It is a kind of friendship one would wish to last, till every strand of hair turns to grey, even when both have families of their own.

We have certainly made several eyebrows raise upon sharing our friendship with others, and we've always tried to ignore prejudice. On the other hand, a number of friends and acquaintances have honored our friendship, sometimes even wished they had the same. On a human scale, it is truly something to be proud of. At the same time, it is humbling, because we continuously try to submit ourselves to Him, praying and hoping that others may see the glory of God instead of ours. We tend to reach out to others, hoping to build meaningful friendships with other people, too.

Honestly, to walk by faith has been a day-to-day struggle. But when God is in the middle of our relationships with our brothers and sisters, we are assured that someone else is walking that same path, and the road definitely seems a lot smoother.

Is It Right To Judge?

A friend once quoted, "You hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall you see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother's eye." At first, I thought it was just out of fury that my friend had said it. But thinking about it now, my friend had spoken of the truth.

I used to think that we have no right to judge anyone. Taking the statement as it is makes is utterly incorrect. I realized that my idea of judgement is that of our feelings, our traditions, or our opinions. I wish to express my idea on this in my own words, but this link has given me more wisdom and clarity that I dare not give it another version. The lines the struck me the most were "(God) allows judging after you have first judged YOURSELF" and "don't judge when God's word is silent".

Basically, we ought to follow seven rules in judging others: (1) Judge Scripturally; (2) Don't Judge When God's Word Is Silent; (3) Pray for Good Judgement Ability; (4) Don't Respect Persons; (5) Judge in Truth; (6) Judge Mercifully; and (7) Don't Forget to Judge Yourself.

Being human alone makes me weak inside when it comes to giving judgement, or taking it in constructively. But I do believe that with faith and practice, our judgement ability would be strengthened eventually. May we learn to do it righteously, as God expects us to judge.