A Fresh Call, A Fresh Response

Alpine flowers growing out of rocks

photo credit

...come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place
and get some rest.

- Mark 6:31

Truly my soul silently waits for God;

From Him comes my salvation.

My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.

- Psalm 62:1, 5

We can become very knowledgeable about spiritual matters without becoming truly spiritual people. As we read spiritually about spiritual things, we open our hearts to God's voice. Sometimes we must be willing to put down the book we are reading and just listen to what God is saying to us through its words.

- Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey

I returned to Bacolod City last Monday.

One of the unexpected highlights for me as the month of June is about to end was the weekend retreat that I attended the past two days. Our church invited all those involved in the prayer and intercession ministry to a time away from our busy schedules...to be replenished, renewed, and refreshed.

It was held at a quiet retreat house by the sea, located just a few kilometers outside Bacolod City.



The retreat speakers were Herman and Mercy Moldez. Herman and Mercy are dear friends to Ernie and me; our friendship dates back to our early Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) days more than 30 years ago. It was good to reconnect with them and discover that their relationship with the Lord has indeed deepened and matured.

The retreat, entitled "A Heart Open to God," encouraged us to develop the spiritual disciplines of solitude and contemplation. Indeed, these past two days God did speak quietly but powerfully to my heart.

It was a beautiful reminder to me of the days I spent in Rasa, Switzerland in 1997, where I, for a whole month under the mentorship of Dr. Hans Burki, learned the importance of the spiritual disciplines of meditation, solitude, and contemplation.

(Related posts on my Rasa Experience: Rasa Revisited, Learning to Rest in His Love)


The spiritual discipline of solitude prepares the ground of our hearts for God to meet us regularly. This keeps our heart open to receive the rain of His Spirit, thus keeping it soft, pliable, and fertile... ensuring that we never reach the dangerous point where our inner resources are depleted...or dried up...or burned out.




Herman spoke to us with such gentleness but with deep conviction. This man truly lived his message.

Ministry and worship should emerge from the place where we are being formed to be like Jesus...rooted in our intimacy with God.

The quiet place of rest is where the soul can be renewed and receive a fresh call to love and serve God.

We retreat with Jesus to quietly clarify our doubt, cleanse our heart, and cultivate our soul to be God's dwelling place.

Only then can we return to our life and ministry with inner surges of joy instead of spurts of duty.

Only then can our broken lives become a blessing to others.

Only then can our static journey become a dynamic pilgrimage of growth in the Lord.

It is when we develop a rhythm of work and worship, of service and solitude, of play and prayer that we can give our best in the ministry.

One of the first activities was for each of us to make a poster describing our personal longing and expectation for this retreat.

The longing of my heart was for it to be in touch with the heart of God, looking to Him as my source...seeking to be emptied of anything that was not pleasing to Him, to be filled anew, and thereby be a channel of His love and life and light as I ministered to others.





As I was reminded anew of the benefits of contemplative prayer, I heard a Yes resonating within my human spirit.


Henri Nouwen writes,

Christian leaders cannot simply be persons who have well-informed opinions about the burning issues of out time. Their leadership must be rooted in the permanent, intimate relationship with the incarnate Word, Jesus, and they need to find there the source for their words, advice, and guidance....

Christian leaders have to learn to listen again and again to the voice of love and to find there the wisdom and courage to address whatever issues presents itself to them....

But when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain

flexible without being relativistic,

convinced without being rigid,

willing to confront without being offensive,

gentle and forgiving without being soft, and

true witnesses without being manipulative.

On Friday night, at the end of the first day, we were asked to reflect on the events of the day and give the day a name.

I named it, "A Fresh Call, A Fresh Response."


My journal entry for that day:

I hear You my Father giving me a fresh invitation to start afresh with You, an invitation so special, it is a gift of grace to me!

God's gift of grace to me is His heart reaching out, His heart so precious!

He has been reaching out to me, inviting me to go deeper, and to drink from His river of delight. I have resisted this gift again and again, and have settled instead for lesser loves.

But today, in this place, hearing the lessons and the meditations, I respond to the fresh invitation to accept His gift.

And I do receive it, Father, yes I do.

My hands are outstretched and open...ready to receive Your gift -

of intimacy,

a closer walk with with You,

a higher calling.



What a delightful gift this retreat was to me! It was a continuation of the renewing work that God has been doing in my life the past weeks.

Again, what can I say in response to such an unexpected gift?

I can only say, Thank You, my dear Father for thinking of what I need even before I asked!

Herman, Mercy, me and Jing