My path to the light

“Why did you leave your country?” My mother often heard this question from me. “For you and your brother,” she would always reply, and then she would tell the dramatic story of how she emigrated with us from her homeland of Vietnam. It was the winter of 1993.

I wondered how Nathanael could know that: "You are the Son of God, the King of Israel." Not because I don't believe the content of the statement - hopefully we've settled that once and for all since Egypt. No, I doubted that Nathanael actually said that.

It was a hard time, but without this part of the story there would be no story. In my imperfection God's perfect goodness and greatness should be revealed. He does everything out of love: hard graces.

The path to the desert is quick and gradual. I would first have to tell you how I ended up in the desert in the first place. A place with no life, no water, no prospect of growth. Drought and emptiness. Yes, how did I end up there? The year is 2023. Freshly converted two years ago, baptized one year ago. I thought I had the hang of it.

Reconciled yesterday, today in the Holy Land, Thursday, February 9, 2023 - It was the third day after the first session with you, Jesus, on Golgotha on the cross. The sun shone now and then through the clouds, which had discharged abundantly in the form of rain over the last few days...

Do you see the scar on my chest? When I was 4 years old, my heart had a hole in it. And I don't mean that metaphorically - a real hole. They opened my chest and closed the hole. My heart was repaired, physically...