The Juxtaposition of Love and Doubt

 

A few weeks before the Christmas Break effectively finished the second term of school year 2013-2014 for De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (CSB), my members and I met to talk about what kind of crowd event we were supposed to conduct for January to be able to introduce YFL in CSB. My partner, MJ, being a fellow music production student, automatically suggested we attempt to hold an Open Mic Night for the whole school. I almost immediately rejected the idea because I doubted that even five active YFL members in CSB could pull off a big event like that (five is really the number of active YFL members in CSB). So the meeting dragged on until it came to the point where we couldn’t think of a better idea than MJ’s fantasized open mic night. So with a nervous heart, I agreed with my partner, and so that meeting became the inception of Reminisce, YFL CSB’s very first event.

 

 

 

 

My members and I tirelessly worked to make Reminisce possible. I personally had to write six different letters to six different offices of the college, each with a numerous amount of revisions. My partner worked on finding people who would perform for our open mic night, a tedious task considering people could just cancel on us at a moment’s notice if they got the least bit of lazy. My execom, Barcy and Robz, worked on posters, photo shoots, ID’s, sponsorship letters and a lot more. For a while I was satisfied with how we were doing because we were immersed in the work of preparing for the event, hence we didn’t have to worry about the event itself at the moment. At this stage of the preparations, my members and I were also comforted by a fact: CSB was rich. No, I’m not saying all the students in CSB are rich. I’m saying the college itself is rich. Almost all the resources we needed could be found in the college; it was just a matter of coordination. Come to think of it, the only thing we spent on the event was a tarp, posters, ID’s and tickets. Surely, God did not fail to amaze because when we indulged ourselves in Him, He who has promised was faithful.

 

 

 

 

Christmas break ended, the first week of classes passed by and the few days before the event came. By this time MJ and I were panicking. Doubt had found its way into our hearts again and we weren’t sure we could do it. I remember the meeting we had the night before the event, I swore to make YFL CSB an example to others by being punctual and finishing and ending Reminisce on time. It was MJ’s turn to doubt when she told me that there was a good chance that we were not going to be punctual because of all the things that might happen at the event. When the day of the event came, it was really hard not to panic, as there were a lot of things going through our heads. Performers started backing out, pieces of furniture crucial to the event were missing and one of the MC’s backed down a night before Reminisce. Thirty minutes before the open mic started, me and MJ looked at each other in sync with matching worried looks as the first wave of MV’s and fulltime workers from the community walked through the glass doors to the event venue to watch. Things really did look dim that night, and it wasn’t just because it was nighttime.

 

 

 

 

Finally, the event started (on time mind you) and everything thankfully went relatively smoothly. The performers MJ got from the Music Production program turned out to be world class and everyone got a share of their promised food which was made possible by the 10,000 pesos worth of GC’s given to us by KFC. Halfway through the event I was delighted to listen and watch the performance of YFL DC’s contemporary performance. They danced to the song Latch which talked about finally being able to latch on to someone and never letting go after so many challenges and trials. DC’s interpretation of the song presented God as someone to latch on to and was very appropriate for what me and the rest of my team was feeling. The event ended a little before 9:00 pm, our target end of program. And so I was very proud of my team for being excellent in all the respects it took for Reminisce to become possible. Also, how could I forget my fellow campus based YFL who worked on the day itself for the event even though they weren’t in their own campus?

 

 

 

 

Romans 8:38-39 are my life verses. I realize now that the message these verses bring contains the assurance of God’s love in whatever situation I may be in. Whether I am worrying, or doubting, or straight up not seeing His light, He will always love me and the people around me; not for who we are by ourselves, but for who He is. He will always find a way to make sure you know that He loves you. The night of January 17 proved to be a challenge for all of CSB YFL. But because we survived it, we were forged to be more durable and limitless by his perfect love, because surely: love eliminates all doubts because to love is to be sure.

 

 

Shared by Andy Gruet
De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde