CHAPTER ONE

PURSUING PRAYERS

I became a believer and follower of Jesus in 1984, a year after graduating from the University of the Philippines (UP). Though it’s not uncommon to hear people say that they “found Jesus” or even that “Jesus found them,” I thought such comments were quite extraordinary. It never occurred to me that either one of us was lost. During my college years, members of the Campus Crusade for Christ in UP had twice tried to point out the nature of my lostness, but theirFour Spiritual Laws presentation didn’t get much traction with me. I remained aloof and rather proud of my restraint. There was, however, the temptation to launch into a defense of my religious traditions. For the first through the sixth grades, I went to an elementary school operated by the Jesuits and attended Mass regularly throughout high school and college in the village chapel where my family lived. I distinguished myself among my friends by sitting through the Mass while they sneaked outside to smoke. By virtue of those efforts, I considered myself a good enough Catholic. I was grateful for my religious upbringing and that I knew about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as well as the Ten Commandments, but I was ill-equipped to defend my Roman Catholic faith. I was just fulfilling my religious duty. Nonetheless, I was slightly irked that someone who didn’t even know me had the nerve to suggest I change religions. Deep down, what really bothered me was that after all those years, I had almost nothing to say about what I believed or why. So, I chose not to argue. No doubt those two UP Campus Crusade students were led by the Spirit to make what must have seemed like an unsuccessful gospel presentation. However, that conversation intrigued me for some time.

In mid-1984, I had a chance encounter in our village with a childhood friend. It had been a few years since Jet Antonio and I had seen each other. We took turns catching up on how things were going for us. It was one of those conversations in which it was hard to resist talking about the dreams and plans for all the big things you were going to accomplish. After graduation from UP, I had accepted an engineering position at a multinational oil company. I was pretty proud of that and could hardly wait for the opportunity to casually mention it. After all, I assured Jet, it was just a stepping stone to bigger and better things. My friend worked the conversation around to the topic of religion. And, of course, I responded with a comment about trying to live a good Christian life. At that point, our conversation shifted to a more serious tone.

“You know what would save you, Manny?”

I suddenly felt like I was in catechism class again, trying to think of the correct answer to the priest’s question. However, this was a rhetorical question, and thankfully, Jet continued without giving me a chance to answer.

“It’s by putting your faith in Christalone, not in your own goodness.”

He went on to quote from Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). When asked if I had ever heard that verse, I had to admit that I had not. Of course, that could have been said about almost any passage on what I would later come to understand assola fide (by faith alone),sola gratia (by grace alone), andsolo Christus (by Christ alone).

Two thoughts crossed my mind. Maybe I had overdone it with my comments about my great job and my big dream