MAKE GOD YOUR HOME by Bo Sanchez

I've been traveling too much, I sometimes wake up in the morning wondering what city I'm in. Am I in Davao? Or Bacolod? Or Toronto? Or LA? Or Jakarta? Or Cebu?

Everything is a giant blur.

But the moment I step outside the sunny day, and inhale the heavy, poisonous, potent, mutant, radioactive, genetically-altering, tuberculosis-causing, cancer-inducing fumes of the air...

Ahhh... (Cough.)

Instantly, I know I'm back in Manila.

This is my city.

Where else are you forced to trust God every time you inhale? Only here.

And many people complain of its absurd, insane, foolish traffic jam. It's phenomenal how we cause them, I think it'll become one of our major tourist attractions.

But I call it sweet traffic. This monstrosity causes me to do an extra fifteen decades of the rosary in the car. Cool, hmm?

While doing so, I try to avoid a mad rush of death-machines swerving left and right beside me (I think they were called public buses decades ago). I say a prayer for the crazy drivers, "Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing..."

My patience is tested and stretched, and little by little, my soul gets love-trained for Heaven.

And when I walk through Megamall, and see the crowd that rivals the sands of Mt. Pinatubo--it becomes the perfect place for earnest intercession. I walk around, praying for that happy couple eating ice cream, that crying child on her mother's breast, that bored saleslady, that punkish kid...

I pray for hundreds of people that day.

Suddenly, God becomes very close to me.

If given a choice, I can decide to live somewhere else - tomorrow if need be. I can escape it all and move to a tiny hamlet in a remote island of the Philippines.

I'd escape the heat, the smog, the madness...

But deep in my heart, I believe God wants me here.

In Manila.

This is my mission place.

And my home is where God is.

And He's here.

I feel Him in every breath I take. (Cough.)

Listen. Anyplace can be your home. It's not the location. Or the ambiance. Or the scenery. It's where God is calling you, pure and simple.

Do you feel Him where you are?

If not, you're not yet home.

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