Dream Team

Some of you may know that I’ve been hurtling through the last several weeks on some kind of Space Mountain ride: everything’s moving at breakneck speed and I’m being thrown around non-stop in all sorts of directions - but experiencing so much joy and fulfillment while I’m at it. It’s like I’ve finally broken free from the pull of gravity and am soaring towards so many things I’ve only always dreamed of doing, all at the same time. Then again, while I’ve been feeling thrills of joy in pursuing all of these, the ecstatic rush and all the numerous things that are starting to occupy my time have begun to worry me a little.

Am I doing way too many things for my own good?

That was the question – a secret question in my heart I brought to today’s Mass at the Feast, although to some extent I’d unloaded a bit of that anxiety in a text conversation with Father Steve earlier this morning. The opportunities to do what I love and what I’m good at have all of a sudden been piling up on my doorstep – without my having to actually go and seek them out – that I’ve taken in all these blessings with open arms. But are my arms now too full?

You can imagine my surprise when Bo Sanchez, at the beginning of his talk, began to list down all the stuff HE does. Everyone knows what a hectic schedule he has as a lay preacher, multimedia personality, community leader, father – but he actually listed down 20 things of consequence that he does, from various business ventures and investments to personally answering thousands of e-mails to leading pilgrimages abroad and running Shepherd’s Voice. As he did, my little list of all the things I do on a regular basis found company, and even paled in comparison to his:

- Help Miles run Pixel Media on a daily basis.
- Write freelance advertising copy for independent projects and lifestyle magazine articles.
- Develop, secure, and service new and potential advertising accounts.
- Set up and begin the launch of Third-World Traveler Publishing, Inc.
- Do mission work/writing tasks for the He Cares Foundation as much as I can – although lately because of my Pixel and UP Baguio commitments, I’ve not been able to go to Montalban or attend the Saturday general assemblies.
- Act as consulting partner for HBO Law Offices.
- Teach six units of Saturday classes at UP Baguio.
- Cater and cook for friends and family and He Cares, set up a personal catering business (C+C Personal Caterers).
- Do editing and creative consultancy work for CYA.
- Run errands for my Mom (a monumental task indeed), do household chores in QC and renovate BC.
- Travel as much as I can – as if the weekend drives to Baguio weren’t enough – thus far, two international destinations and several local places this year, one more international trip lined up.

And that’s just work. I get to play hard too, but that discussion doesn’t count.

At the end of Bo’s own litany, he told us that many people ask the question, “How do you do the things you do?” How, indeed, without going crazy or dropping dead from sheer exhaustion?

His answer: he doesn’t. He has other people help him out, help him do everything he needs to do. He has a dream team. *Cue fireworks and alarm bells*

He spoke about building your dream team: “your real wealth are the people in your life” (sounds grammatically awkward but I’ll let it slide he he). Think about David, the little shepherd boy who slew the giant Goliath; he won the battle, but not the war against the Philistines – that took the help of his dream team, particularly his three mighty men.

We already have a team – the people in our lives, our family and friends, those we surround ourselves with – but is it a dream team, Bo asked. Do these people build us up instead of dragging us down? Do they shoot down the dreams and directions God has planted in our hearts or allow us to soar towards them? Do they provide the support we need or are they a trap door under our feet, plunging us into disaster? Boy, at that point I knew that I was directly being spoken to, singled out for that message among the hundreds in attendance, bulls-eye, sapul. I think I did a good amount of bodily damage to poor Oman through my elbow action, sorry bro!

Not only do we have to critically examine our team, but the respective team leaders, namely, our own selves. Are we the dream team leaders we should be, or do we need to fire ourselves from the position? And eventually rehire a refurbished, new-and-improved, us? Once we do, we should drop those team members who are impeding our progress, who drag us two steps backward when we should be going one step ahead, who make us miss out on – and sometimes even obstruct the way towards - the fulfillment of our God-given goals. If they lead us away from God and His plans for us, then it may be time to stay clear – to continue to love them anyway, but refuse to be weighed down by them. Amen – and I hear a few of you out there echoing agreement. The “drunkards and prostitutes” with whom Jesus ate, and who He has taught us to love, are the people we serve and need to love, but while they’re in that state they’re not part of the Dream Team that is to support and assist us. In Jesus’ case His team was His Father and His disciples, a carefully-chosen group of people to help Him carry out His Divinely-ordained mission. And that’s the same choice we’re called to make – we need to choose our team carefully, to choose to detach ourselves from the detrimental and cleave to the beneficial, to follow and embrace and seek support from life-giving members and avoid those who dangerously draw on our own lives and lifeblood and keep us from living the way we were meant to.

And what kind of people make up that Dream Team? Bo actually suggested that we think about and write down the names of those we want on it. Here’s a little checklist of qualities he ran through:

1. Persons of character
2. Members care for one another
3. Know their mission
4. Communicate with each other
5. Grow together
6. Work well together
7. Each having a special role
8. Constantly deepen their “bench”

On the dream team should be mentors, those people we look up to and trust for advice and guidance in different aspects of our lives – spiritual, personal, financial, etc.; peers, or people we share relatively equal footing with; and assistants. All of whom should help us serve those needing our service, our “customers.”

Immediately, even as Bo was speaking, a list began to take shape in my mind. All the individuals God has blessed me with in this life, to guide, support, assist, and walk with. My spiritual mentors – ha, I share at least one with the great Bo Sanchez – Father Steve, my confessor Father Jboy, Kuya Joe Dean, Kuya Ben, Sister Patricia. My media mentors in spirit – Bo, Arun Gogna, Father Steve Korapi, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. My mentors in my personal life – Ate Ardis, LP Susan, Ate Brenda, Ate Mayette. I know I need to continue to develop my relationship with each of these wonderful people whom I look up to and trust. My peers – three of whom (including the one whose ribcage is black and blue) were with me during Bo’s talk, and who I know are part of my “dream team” that will win this war as my prayer partners, fellow believers, and beloved friends; my fellow servants at He Cares; my other prayer partners; my long-standing friends who may or may not yet believe but whose love has always enabled me to rise to new heights; my carefully-chosen new friends who share some these dreams with me and are willing to fly in the same purposeful direction instead mindlessly gallivanting away their lives. My “assistants,” or those who, surprisingly, consider me a mentor to them, and who help pull the “loads” of my mission and callings.

One of my greatest epiphanies was two years ago in Teatro Aguinaldo, at the third session of the Feast, with Bro Oman in tow. Today, in Teatro Aguinaldo, at the third session of the Feast, also with Bro Oman (after the longest time!), the Lord, through Brother Bo, once again spoke to me loud and clear. One of the very few times He has, as He knows that my dense little sensibilities need absolute and unequivocal certainty that it’s actually Him. Indeed, His answers come directly, it seems, when my heart is most honest in seeking them. And yet again I got the answer I was looking for, the reassurance that all is well and He is in control of the Space Mountain ride, and that He, the source of all these passions and skills and dreams, will provide the strength – and the dream team – to bring them to fulfillment.

For His greater glory, and His glory alone. Amen!

P.S. On this last trip up to BC, I acquired a new favorite song. It’s a punked up version of an old hymn, a rock tribute to our God, from Whom our deepest dreams and desires come, and to Whom they should be returned. Dare something worthy for God today!

All That I Am
(The Insyderz, Skalleluia Too!)

All that I am, all I can be; all that I have, all that is me
Accept and use, Lord, as you would choose, Lord
Right now today!

Take every passion, every skill
Take all my dreams, and bend them to Your will
My all I give, Lord, for You I'll live, Lord
Come what may!

Verse 1:
Often I come with my problems and cares
Running to You when distressed
But I must bring You the whole of my life
Lord I must give You my best!

Verse 2:
Life has no purpose unless it's Yours
Life without You has no goal
All that fulfills me is doing your will
Knowing that You're in control