Photo: Patrick Ruiz
I am blessed to have had Jesus expose Himself to me during my stay in Calgary. I saw Him in the blessings I received but also, for the first time that I’ve paid attention, in the losses that I experienced.
I left for Conference early with two other brothers from Vancouver Cluster and, as a result, I bonded with the Documentation Team that I would serve with. We arrived Tuesday night by Greyhound; right away I was treated to the hospitality and love of the host Couples for Christ members and their families. From the transportation team to our host family I felt familial love that was so warm and inviting, a reflection of the love Christ calls us to have. I experienced this love right into Conference when I met and served with Documentation and, right away, knew that I could feel love as warmly with these brothers and sisters as I do in my Household. In that blessing of fellowship, and an affirmation of the love of this community, I was able to see Christ as evidently as I do in the monstrance or the Tabernacle.
It was not only in the joys of Conference that I saw Jesus exposed. I saw Him for the first time, really, in my sadness and loss. My mantra for the weekend was, “What is God trying to reveal to me in this?”
As a writer, my tools are very important to me; I always carry my notebook and pen in case the Lord inspires me and, when I serve Youth Communications (YCOM), I bring my laptop. Serving Documentation required all of these. When Conference began, however, my laptop wouldn’t boot and when I tried again on Saturday morning, my entire hard drive was wiped clean. I lost not only my service work (which, as YCOM, was a lot) but all of my personal effects as well: music, bits of writing, a lot of photographs, and the like. My natural response was devastation but I held fast to my mantra and found what God was revealing to me.
Just as He was present in fellowship and love, He was present in my loss. He reminded me to shy from the distractions–of which there are many on computers–and simplify with a pen and a notebook, but He reminded me to cling fast to Him. Just as the Lord takes away, He also gives (Job 1:21). The more I prayed, the more I understood. With that reluctant simplification I was given the opportunity to focus on Conference a lot more intensely than I normally would and, in holding on to Him in prayer and through the Documentation Team, I never forgot He was around.
In many ways God gave me a reset button: to love as I have been loved, to focus more seriously in my service, to appreciate prayer, and to hear Him in everything. Through joy I have been blessed. Through loss I have overcome. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
John Ray Catingub, CFC-Youth Pacific Region
