Sharing by Ex Funtera at the 16th CFC USA Leaders' Conference in The Woodland, Texas last July 3, 2010. Ex is one of the CFC USA National Council. He, together with his wife, Gladys resides in Warrenville, Illinois.
Good morning. Let us first have a moment of silence and pray with me before I speak. (Silently invoke the Holy Spirit before you speak.) Thank you.
“To know you Oh Lord and to know your love, to love you and to make you love!”
I did not make that up…this is part of a song that culminated all aspects of the Christian Life Program (CLP) brought to us with love, inhabited by the Holy Spirit to remain in our hearts and joyfully accept the calling because we are a new creation – right brothers and sisters ?
It’s truly a privilege to stand here before you holding on to the promise of a blessed life that only our God can satisfy! I’m a living witness to God’s love and it all started when I proposed marriage to my wife. My mother-in-law who almost fainted hurriedly gave me an advise. What she was referring to involved me as a husband, her (poor) daughter Gladys as my wife, and Jesus in the middle of our marriage. She said the closer you get to each other, the closer you get to God. At first, I did not understand her point of view. Now I realize it is what we call the love triangle. So my dear friends, I quickly learned another lesson: “Behind a man’s success in life is his mother-in-Law!”
Each of us has a story to share about our journey with Christ. Mine started some 20 years ago. As the head of the household, I always think it noble to provide for the needs of my family. That time, it was the stock market deals which captivated and fascinated me, believing it as shortcut to financial freedom! Using my 401K, my imagination led me to believe that I could pay off our mortgage ahead of time and have enough savings for the college funds of my two children. In the process, however, I became greedy! No longer content with a gain of a thousand, I decided to go to a big broker who lured me to the big game, “The sky is the limit!” He gave me 50 % credit margin, meaning my $100K could buy $200K worth of stocks. Imagine that! So I succumbed to the temptation and the lure of easy money!
I remembered clearly that the first six months of the three year deals were all winnings, one of which generated $27K income. But I did not take any of this money home, rolling it over for bigger volume. But as quickly as it gained, the stocks plummeted and shares started losing. I held on with the belief that the market will rebound. Quite simply, it did not. I found myself even at one time borrowing $25K from a friend to avoid a sell-out. I became so desperate that Gladys would see me standing in front of the altar in our room at two o’clock in the morning almost daily - praying for a miracle. Since Gladys was unaware of how deeply involved I was in this stock market mess, she thought I was hiding some kind of serious health condition.
The desperation, the disappointment and the distress that this brought to our relationship was phenomenal. In my heart, all along, I thought my intentions were all good, yet this happened.
It was at this moment that CFC came into our lives! Through CFC, I began to realize that a father’s main responsibility is not to provide financial security and educational benefits to the family, but more importantly to bring Jesus at the center of our marriage and our home.
Yet, temptations really dwell in us as humans. Despite the spiritual enlightenment, after a few months I found myself back to my old “visio” – the stock arena, this time though, with smaller margins, believing that this time I will beat the system. After all, I thought I was smarter. So, here I was again … immersed in the old habit, making matters even worst as I kept all these from Gladys. I thought I would outsmart the system; it did not happen. When Gladys accidentally found out through one of the big withdrawals that I made from our account, she was so dismayed and shocked that she gave me an ultimatum to choose - either to end my “visio” or end our marriage.
But God was so patient with me not letting go of me even though I strayed again. At this difficult time in my life, He once more came to my rescue.
By then, it was the early 90s. Our company was acquired by an Ohio based corporation and will have to relocate from IL to Ohio or lose our jobs. I was so confused blaming God for what was happening. I already lost my pension plan and now I had to relocate? But since I did not have any option, I had to work in OH for 18 months. The company had given us one year to relocate, help us look for housing and was even willing to pay two points to lower the interest payment. However, I was treated like royalty by the company even allowing me to stay for six more months before relocating. During this period of time, I would live at the Residence Inn of the Marriott Hotel chain with free car rental and airfare every week. I would leave Chicago every Sunday and come back home every Friday. Because of this situation, I lost contact with my broker and I paid less attention to what was going on in the stock market! Month after month, God was shifting my mind into productive work hours so that I even received promotions and ended up becoming Credit Manager of the Equipment Division. And this was only a side benefit of his love for me because a greater gift was yet to come.
When I was alone in Ohio, I went through a lot of spiritual changes. God arranged my schedule conveniently. I was able to go to mass every Wednesdays and Fridays. Every night, after praying the rosary I would call up Gladys before I go to bed. I made it a habit that in the process we became friends again. We were able to patch up our differences and become more patient with each other. I would say the distance kept us closer and little by little, we became lovers again! So much so that for us there was no more “Stock only love”. I called her “Ga” (a shortened version of the Ilonggo word,”Palangga”., meaning my dear sweetheart. In return, she would say, “This is my Ex.” Of course, not meaning as if I am gone from her life because Ex is my real name! Friday nights back home became our Family nights. On top of this, our good members in the household agreed to hold our household meetings every Saturday afternoons for my convenience. Praise God! Towards the end of the 18 month period, I got a couple of job interviews in Chicago and ended up with new employment with senior position and better pay. Henceforth, I really believe that my going to Ohio was God’s blessing in disguise!
As I continued to grow in faith through our faithful involvement with CFC, I was being led more to live my life in union with Christ. As we deeply and truly accepted Christ Jesus as our Lord & Savior and keep ourselves rooted in Him, Gladys and I grew much closer and begun to build our lives again on solid ground. I realized more and more how deeply entrenched God is in our lives. Through CFC we learned how to conquer our weaknesses, accept our failings, be humble, but most of all we learned that God’s awesome goodness and His love for us is so liberating. By just being united with Him, He provided for us generously and beyond we can ever do on our own.
For as Matthew 6:19-21 reads:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Now I realized that Jesus speaks of treasures in our hearts that make life worth living - not financial security, educational prowess or any material advancement, but rather, love, kindness, forgiveness, consideration, and the like. If these qualities are our real treasure, then our hearts will be there as well.
So I end today with this meaningful and beautiful prayer that I stumbled into:
Help me, Lord to find what really matters in my life, the things I keep before myself to learn and practice in my family, my work, my love, my grief – everything that makes me so very human, so dependent on your help. Forgive my infidelity, deepen my love for what is truly valuable in life. And thank you for your immense and unconditional love for me. Only your love can transform the ugliness of my wrongdoings to something that is worthy of your grace, forgiveness and love. Thank you for this treasure. Amen.
“To know you Oh Lord and to know your love, to love you and to make you love!” May God be praised.
