Sleepless in Manila

Posted: 11 December 2011

I was supposed to have posted this 10 days ago. So yeah, I was that very busy even during the past weekends.

It was the last day of November. It was a legal holiday here in the Philippines but I was not on a resting holiday. I attended a retreat for the high school and college students. Talk about sowing.

The retreat was only until lunch but I stayed longer because I suddenly got tired, which I couldn’t figure why. I was planning to use the Prayer Room and have a rest before going home but there were people using it. I knew who those people were, well at least I thought I did, based on their shoes. I just really felt that I should have a rest.

Just when I considered going home, Ptr. Luz saw me and told me to attend our cluster’s practice for the December 4 presentation. Woah. Albeit feeling unwell, meaning-unusually tired and sleepy, I stayed for the practice. I was actually hoping that I’d only take a minor, perhaps a backstage, role.

We haven’t started yet when I decided to go to 7/11 and buy a tissue and something else. As soon as I entered the room where we gathered, they suddenly appointed me to take the main role. Paaak!

I took the role thinking that it’d be my offering to the Lord. We had practice and we finished pretty late. 9PM perhaps.

When I got home, I was really really tired. If other people were in my shoes, they might’ve opted for sleep and lots of it. But I didn’t do that. I knew exactly what I needed. I needed rest.

Yes. I needed rest, so I didn’t sleep.

I spent the next hours waiting. I had to do that. It felt like a matter of life and death to me. I had some moments of drowsiness but I just knew that I really had to wait.

When the clock hit 4AM, I prepped myself for the 6AM appointment. And that was an appointment I had to deal with for the next 9 hours.

I may have been very tired from the previous day, but I never felt any hint of it in the morning and afternoon. I actually felt an energy filling me as soon as I was about to finish with my still waiting.

And those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength.

When I got home, I was hoping I’d be able to sleep but it didn’t happen. I had to prepare for Friday which required me some paperwork. I finished very late, or very early the next day. I was even tempted to pursue a 48-hour sleeplessness, but I remembered that I have to honour some biological laws which require me to rest my body.

I decided to abandon the plan for 48-hours of sleeplessness but I was 44 hours sleepless in Manila.