“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” - Mark 9:7

Whoever told it's easy and rewarding to become a Christian has no idea with everything that he's saying. Rewarding, yes. But nothing worthy comes easy.

In today's Gospel Jesus Christ transfigured in front of His followers Peter, James, and John. His transfiguration symbolizes how even when we're already with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and are equipped with wisdom, we are not excused to the harassment caused by the other side. As long as there's light, darkness would always try to tag along.

With this, we come to realize that there's no end to needing God in our lives even when we think we already have everything we need and we can do anything by ourselves. On the verge of fulfilling our service in the Lord, we also continue to fix and re-fix ourselves. Human as we are, we change our ways and repent as we correct our mistakes. And none of these would be made possible if not with the power of the Big Man up above.

He is so great, even when we are lead to strange places where we get lost and when we are placed in heart breaking situations where we seem to lose it all but with God, we can say that someday, you'll just smile and joke on how you once thought it was all impossible.

We tend to question why He makes us do things that we cannot understand at present. However, the Lord has His ways and the best thing that we can give back in return is our obedience to His call to service, an indestructible faith and confidence that He will put us through.

It will be a tough way, but cliche as it may sound, the Lord will never give us something we cannot overcome. We only have to see delight on how rewarding it is to see God on the gates of heaven say "Good job, my obedient child."

-Iana Ilaya