B1G was an event for singles but I knew that the topic would be about work so I attended and sat in the back like a grandma. A very kind gentleman laid out some chairs for me and my two friends in true admirable Filipino tradition. All The Single Ladies! You will find eligible God-loving men here! But please do seek the God-obeying kind! 🙂
The heartfelt, passionate message from Cindy Soriano, Pastor Joby’s wife, is a gem. With her permission, I am posting her message for the benefit of every Single Lady out there! I much more highly recommend the video version so you can hear Cindy herself speak. But below is the text version for those of you who speed-read 🙂
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Cindy, the wife of Joby. As I was sitting there at the back, I realised that so many of you remind me of myself many, many years ago when I first walked into something like this… I was one of the executives at The Peninsula Hotel. I spent the first half of my life pretty much wasting my life. In a very successful and worldly way, I did attain all my dreams and hopes and many things that I desired. But the sad part about it is that in my twenties, I felt a sense of success but when I walked into that room like this where the bible was being taught, I felt really lost. I had a certain sense of something missing.
You know they say life is like a coin… You own that coin but you only can spend it once. How you spend it makes a lot of difference in the next part of your life.
I pretty much wasted the first half of my life. Why? Because I was only driven by making a name for myself.
Being from a family of nine children—eight daughters—- and the middle daughter at that, I felt invisible. I felt that my parents were too busy to notice me so I kinda tried to get their attention in many ways being good in school, excellent at work. I found a sense of success that was not really meaningful…
I felt that when people walked in [tonight], they might not be able to identify with what God was really saying… I sat there the very first time and all I did at the back, believe it or not, was cry. Here I was dressed in my stiletto heels—working The Pen, you had to be dressed— in my best suit. But I sat there literally bawling, crying the whole time. Nobody understood; I felt so humiliated. But can you identify with that…when you see a room filled with people who seem to know where they’re going? And I didn’t know where I was going. But I sat there and I realised I wanted to know more.
They say the bible is God’s Word. Wouldn’t you love, Ladies ( I’ll speak to the ladies), wouldn’t you love to know what your special man was thinking? Wouldn’t you love to know and read his mind without a word?
Do you realise that the word of God is God’s thought, all His thoughts for us. I never knew that…
I tried to be everything to everyone. I needed a sense of success but now I’ve learned that the greatest success I’ve had in my life is when I failed.
Just the other night we gathered about 180 people together and I didn’t know what I was gonna say because I had prepared something but it sounded so…. you can’t identify with it… it sounded too profound. And God moved me to tell them this: My failure is truly my success. I believe when you are willing to embrace the fact that you’ve failed, that’s the only time you can begin building your building blocks of success because your failures and mistakes are what make you, who you are, it makes you better. If you don’t fail, it means you never tried. What am I driving at? I know you sit there, you’re all so young. I envy you because at this age, you are beginning to know the real meaning of life. I lived half of it without knowing… which is why you notice us— Joby and me— we’re in another age of our life but
we’re striving even harder to reach more people because we feel the earlier we get you to understand that God is the worth in your life that you need, when you read the word of God, you begin to understand Him. And believe it or not, YOU are God’s workmanship. The Word that you read everyday, if you do, builds up who Christ is in you. You are His greatest workmanship. Don’t you ever think that there’s no purpose for you.
Don’t you ever think that success means you have to belong to a family name that’s famous, that you went to the best schools in town. Nothing defines success as the school you came from, the family you belong to, the boyfriend you have, the fact that you’re single. To me, success is understanding that you are God’s workmanship, created [voice cracking] in Christ to do good works.
Don’t look at the outside because if you look at me today, you will never know my journey. But if you know my journey, you will know why I’m passionate. I’m not crying because I’m sad. I’m crying because I’m so passionate for people like you to understand that the best is still to come, that you can serve God no matter where you’ve come from or what you’ve done.
What you’ve done or failed in doesn’t define who you will become. You will become who God decides that you will become if you allow Him. Tonight, I just want to say that wherever you are, make a commitment to spend that one life the best you can. Let go of anything right now— be it a man, a woman, a career, or anything— that is slowing you down being the best you can be for God. And do not fear if you walk for Him, He will work for you.
I wanted to give the Holy Spirit through Cindy a standing ovation for giving hope to young, single people who may think they’ve blown it, for them to know that they have a chance to redefine their future when they let God work out His best for them, to see themselves for who they are: God’s workmanship to do good works. Knowing that the best is yet to come with God, they don’t have to compromise their souls in pursuit of a name as a well-known name’s value is in its integrity.
Married Ladies, just in case you thought that your husband is slowing you down from being the best you can be for God, Cindy’s message to “let go” is not applicable. Just saying 🙂
BUTTERFLY IN THE SPRING 