Sorry for the Late Reply

How many times have you sent that message via SMS or E-Mail? I’m pretty sure that most of us have experienced responding late to a message either by a friend or a business contact. It could be because our hands were just really full that time or we were just really in a non-responsive state – you know those moments when you just feel lazy to text back? And sometimes, we respond late because we are not yet sure about what to reply. That’s the good thing about SMS and E-Mail – it’s not as direct as a phone call wherein you are most of the time put on the spot to answer questions you would have wanted to deal with much later.

Whether it was about being busy, lazy or uncertain – I think we’ve all been guilty of delaying our replies. But there’s someone I know who has never been late in answering back – Our Almighty God! This morning, our dear Father in Heaven showed me how foolproof his promptness is.

Last night, I was feeling a bit distressed. First, my husband wasn’t around for me to share my thoughts and emotions with, and second I was feeling a bit useless. To be honest, I’ve been feeling spiritually dry for the past weeks. I can’t really put a finger on it but I kind of felt discouraged. I dropped out of my Hermeneutics class because I could not keep up with the early morning schedule; my church small group has not been meeting regularly; I felt that my leadership traits and working style do not match with the people at the Young Adults Ministry; and most of all I felt so silly blogging everyday.

By now, people might be thinking that Jill obviously has tons and tons of FREE TIME on her! Truth be told, I have quite a number of script and concept presentation deadlines to beat. In fact, I almost never leave my chair the whole day (hence I play badminton now). Blogging serves as my BREAK.

I love to write. But with all honestly, I’m a bit insecure about my writing. I am friends with a handful of Palanca Awardees, English Lit professors, Magazine editors and writers, and I don’t think my writing could measure up to the sharpness of their semantics and grammar. They write full-length feature articles for a living. My professional craft on the other hand is short creative copy, hosts spiels and press releases. I haven’t written any feature article professionally yet. To be honest, I don’t even know if my writing skills qualify. But I’m also not really sure if do want to write for magazines and have editors breathe down my neck.

I love to blog because it makes me feel free – which results in me being more creative. Like I said it’s my BREAK from work. It’s writing as ME! There are no bosses to tell me to take out that line, change that joke, re-word this, add this thought, make this Tagalog, make this sound masa, make this sound more hip, shorten this, lengthen this… etc… etc… the builds just never end. And finally when all the editing’s done, I don’t recognize my work anymore and I would wonder why they even hired me to write the project in the first place. Hahaha.

That’s why I have learned in my 8 years in the business to be unattached to my product.
Work is just really Work. It’s not ALL fun. Blogging on the other hand excites me. It has become the substitute for my magazine career frustration, but it’s much better because with my blog I don’t get to be told what to write and how to write it. Blogging in itself is a free form of writing. No rules! Yehey! But of course I can’t really say that I am my own editor because I know that God edits and directs my soul.

However, like I said earlier lately I’ve been feeling silly blogging EVERYDAY! Last night I poured out all these frustrations to God. I asked Him if I’m just really wasting time and amusing no one but MYSELF in this endeavor. Has blogging become like my self-serving habit – a way for me to defy being governed?

God of course was QUICK to reply with a heartwarming encouragement. This morning when I opened my mail, I got two surprising messages from no less than Neta Jackson, the popular American writer I talked about in my Christian Chick Lit blog entry and the other one was none other than THE Harold J. Sala, renowned author of countless devotionals and books, Bible teacher and speaker, and who happens to be my FAVORITE Christian writer. His books ministered to me immensely when I was just starting out in my new Christian life. His book “Touching God: Guidelines for Personal Prayer” is my all-time favorite.



I was overwhelmed with the fact that my blog actually reached these noted people from the other side of the world. Ms. Jackson is a bestselling novelist based in Chicago, while Dr. Sala resides in California. Their messages were filled with encouragement for this "ministry". Just when I was about to feel that I’m just adding more clutter in cyberspace with my reflections, two of my most admired writers gave me my much-needed pat on the back. I felt like a fan who just received a simple handshake from her idol. I was ecstatic!

Once again, God has proven to me that he is NEVER late in his replies when we pray to Him. He ALWAYS answers right away. I remembered one scene from Bruce Almighty when Bruce now turned into God was actually answering e-mailed prayers and he could not cope with the gargantuan task. Of course, the REAL GOD can. If we could really e-mail or text him our prayer concerns, I’m pretty sure God is running on an UNLIMITED text load and his internet connection is the most powerful broadband.

God will certainly always REPLY RIGHT AWAY. It’s just that sometimes we ignore his messages in the Inbox of our hearts. When we see that His message begins with something like “I’m sorry child but…” I think we stop right then and there and pretend that we haven’t read his message at all. And then we forget all about it and begin to complain that we haven’t gotten any reply. He did. We just didn’t read it.

I have learned that not only God ALWAYS ANSWERS our prayers; He is also NEVER EVER LATE in His replies. He will never ever say “Sorry for the Late Reply…” His response may not always be a YES but he will be quick enough to tell your heart right away the following messages…

• “No I love you too much!”
• “Yes but you’ll have to wait!”
• “Yes, but not what you expected!”
• “Yes and here’s more!”
• “Yes, I thought you’d never ask.”

He answers promptly but are we listening? That’s the problem. I’ve been guilty of this too. Asking him something and waiting for His answer that I prefer to hear. He has replied to my call but I’ve been ignoring it.

I was blessed today for getting a QUICK REPLY from God. And what a reply! It was definitely a YES! And as if He was not done pleasing me today, when I was at St. Luke’s Hospital this morning to get some hormone tests done, He gave me another speedy reply to my SOS.

I was already waiting in line at the cashier when I remembered that the cost of the lab tests based on the last one that I had would be about 7 Thousand Pesos. I only had 5 in my wallet. Of course, I could always go to the ATM and make a quick cash withdrawal but just when I was about to get out of the line, my turn came up and I just decided to go on. I said bahala ka na Lord. I could always excuse myself from the cashier and tell her that I didn’t expect that cost so I would have to get some money first. True enough, when I took a peek at her computer screen, the tests cost a little over 7 Thousand Pesos. Just when I was about to tell the lady that I don’t have enough cash on me, she suddenly said, “P5,000.00 ma’am” Huh? Apparently, I got a discount and I don’t know why. I was too dumbfounded to ask and just elated with God’s instant miracle. Haaay! Grabe!

Yes is not the ONLY VALID REPLY. No, Maybe, Wait… they’re also responses and God is always quick to give them. I’ve had my share of Nos, Maybes and Waits. But today, let me bask in the BIG YES that God has given me.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples” – JOHN 15:7-8