How I Found Real Joy

How I Found Real Joy

"Sir, you just take a taxi from the terminal and tell the taxi driver to take you to Casa Gorordo." That's the quick reply of my co-teacher when I asked him how to get to the venue of the seminar.

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The Department of  Education - Cebu Province Division sent a memo to the whole division to invite all ICT coordinators of the schools which were listed in the memo to attend the "Free Wi-Fi Internet Access" seminar conducted by the DICT(Department of Information and Communication Technologies).

My fellow school teacher read the memo at the eleventh hour and he had to disseminate the notice the schools in the island the time he read it because if not, nobody would be informed unless they read the memo themselves. I was one of those that should be informed for I am the ICT Coordinator of Senior High in our school. But I received his text at 7:12 in the morning the following day through another fellow teacher of our school because he didn’t have my number. As I received his text, I hurriedly packed-up all my things needed for the said seminar. I had to get to the city which is 4 hours by ship including the bus ride.

It really seemed an emergency situation because the seminar would start at 8:00 o’clock that day. Try to imagine the chronology of the situation starting from the time I received the message added with the 4 hour trip compares with the time the seminar would start. I don’t know how you could manage your time to get to that place. Not only that, while I was on my way to the city I had been contacting my fellow teacher who informed me of the seminar since he arrived at the venue earlier than me but still late for we are in the same place and left home early in the morning. “Oh, come on, sir, please answer the phone. I don’t know the place. I don’t know how to get there.” I said silently as I bite my lips while holding my cellphone. I called him many times and even showering him with many messages but of no avail. As he said, at that time he was sleeping. “Really? That was the time when I needed you most, sir.”

That was really a great day. Though it was too hot and the road is quite dusty as I was getting nearer to the city but it was okay because I took an air-conditioned bus. I called my co-teacher once again but no answer and the worse thing is that he couldn’t be contacted anymore and my phone is in a battery low, too. Wow, great! So the last resort is the memo. The memo has the address, so I had to find the place through the address the memo stated. And then suddenly, he replied. "Sir, you just take a taxi from the terminal and tell the taxi driver to take you to Casa Gorordo. The venue is moved to this place, Casa Gorordo." Since I still have 8% battery, I could still reply his message, “Okay, sir. Thanks.” I know this place, …Gorordo.

So I tried to find a taxi to take me to that place. “Sir, please take me to Gorordo Avenue.” “Okay, sir.” The taxi driver replied. As we were on our way to Gorordo Avenue, I tried to ask the driver if he knows the place, “Casa Gorordo”. He nodded indefinitely. I checked the time and it was already 1:57 in the afternoon. And we arrived at the avenue.

“Where is it, sir?” I asked.

“This one.”

“That’s West Gorordo hotel.” I commented.

“We have to check another name. The one that has a ‘Casa Gorordo’.”

Because I thought it’s still a hotel remembering almost all of my seminars and trainings were conducted at the hotels. It took us 30 minutes to pass through that very long avenue since the taxi was running very slow scared I would pass by the Casa Gorordo unknowingly. But we couldn’t find that name. So, I told the taxi driver to stop and I got off after paying it planning to find the ‘hotel’ by foot.

I started from that point I got off and went back to where I started looking for it by taxi. I really couldn’t find it. I asked people like guards, students, bystanders, drivers and even those who reside in that avenue but they just pointed many places and I checked but it was not. I was a bit disappointed and my last option was to go to the Adventist conference office. I asked the guard of the office but he doesn’t know. So, some of my Adventist friends helped me figure out where this place is but no one knows. A woman of her 60s who was the secretary of the conference gave me an advice why not finding it on google. “Oh, yeah. Right! I’m so stupid not to have that idea.” So she helped me checked and we found it. And I realized it’s not a hotel. But a museum! Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! What a great mistake! For it took my time, money and effort!

Though it was disappointing! It hurts! But I turned that experience into positive and I learned something from it.

Sometimes in life you don’t have to rely on what you know is right. What is okay is not okay all the time. What is permissible is not permissible at all times! You need people to help you, to check if what you will decide is really right. Names are not enough to decide what you’re looking for is right. You need to know if what you’ve found really meet the characteristics of what you’re looking for, what you need of, where you’re going, how to get there, who you are to meet, and why. I have these requirements when I want to know the truth, the truth of knowing the “Way, the Truth and the Life.” For in Him I found the real joy. Joy that every human being longs for. Joy that cannot be attained when you are alone. It can only be found through a relationship with someone else. When I wanted to find real joy, I found a relationship with the Source of real joy and that is Jesus. If you can still smile amidst hardships, trials, and sufferings, that's real joy. It is knowing that He is there, never "leaves you nor forsakes you".

Have you experienced what I have experienced, too? What do you think?