PENnED

Good afternoon!

I said, “Good afternoon” and you responded with the same. But is it really a good afternoon?

Judging from the expressions on your faces, I’m not sure if it is.

How does your face express a good afternoon? Let me see it.

C’mon, everyone, let me see your face. (Pause to examine faces).

Here’s what some of the faces here look like: (mimic the sourest faces). Yong iba d’yan parang kakahigop lang ng Datu Puti vinegar.

Do you remember the old Datu Puti vinegar commercial? Mukhasim!

Can you do the mukhasim look? Try it!

There you go—you’re now laughing.

Does it now feel like a really good afternoon?

Yeah? Great!

Life is lived on a day-to-day basis. So if we have more happy and meaningful days than sad and miserable ones, could we say that we’re living a good life?

I think so!

Since we’re here to remember Brother Felix, based on our experiences with him, could we say that he lived a good life?

I believe so. I actually believe he lived a great life.

The reason for me saying that is because as his name, Felix, suggests, he was a fortunate man. Felix means fortunate, lucky, or happy.

And that’s why I titled this message ‘Blessed Felix, the Fortunate One.’

People often associate fortune with material wealth, but what makes us happy has nothing to do with money.

One of the wealthiest men in the world, Warren Buffet, is the one who actually said something like that. Buffet, ‘The Oracle of Omaha,’ says his life is ‘a vacation every day’ and that ‘it has nothing to do with money.

He says that his financial success isn’t the root of his happiness but the fact that he enjoys his work and his loved ones.

“I can’t buy time, I can’t buy love but I can do anything else with money, pretty much. And why do I get up every day and jump out of bed and I’m excited at 88? It’s because I love what I do and love the people I do it with,” Buffet said.

Brother Felix was a guy who loved what he did, and the people he did it with.

I don’t know everything about Brother Felix but I know at least a couple of things he loved to do:

One, he loved to design his own outfit and I believe he was more than willing to design one for you if you had asked him. I hadn’t. That’s because I could not carry a flashy style like he did!

Remember his black pants that he custom-tailored with shiny leather-looking pockets?

If I’d wear something like that, I’d probably look like a jester. But Brother Felix–with a matching shirt and a hat that were customized as well—he wore his outfit like a rock star!

I wonder if any members of his family had worn any of his creations: anyone?

Another thing Brother Felix loved to do was to travel. Long road trips were his thing.

I still have to do one of his tips about how to stealth camp anywhere, including urban areas: get a big vehicle like a cargo van and just put a mattress in it!

Brother Felix wasn’t merely talking—he had done it himself! He actually bought a Ford cargo van and put a mattress in it!

Those are at least two of the things he loved to do and with the people he loved.

Who were the people he love?

Definitely his family.

But that we are here today might mean that we too were loved by him.

Brother Felix and I did not always see each other eye-to-eye, especially when I was his pastor. But we became good friends after I visited him at the hospital twice many years ago–in both cases he had a health condition that put his life at risk.

So I’d like to think that I’m one of the fortunate ones he loved as a friend. After all, my name’s meaning is similar to his—while his means ‘fortunate,’ mine means ‘fortune.’

I guess Fortune and Fortunate were both fortunate to have each other as a friend!

In Hebrew, fortunate, can be rendered baruch which can be translated “blessed.”

In Ecclesiastes 26:1 we read, “Blessed is the man that hath a virtuous wife, for the number of his days shall be doubled” (KJV). I believe that that Scripture verse tells the truth about Brother Felix.

If I remember it right, brother Felix was born in poverty, was adopted, and did not have the opportunities privileged kids had. Because of hardship and the risk of living in the streets, his life could have ended when he was still a “barok,” a young man (in Ilocano language).

But barok found a home and was gifted by God with a good wife: sister Lily.

He was a fortunate man because he was blessed with a wife who truly loved him. And thus, I believe, his life was prolonged; he lived twice as long.

Last but definitely not least, Brother Felix believed in God and that’s why he was a fortunate man. He was blessed.

Psalm 144:15 reads, “…blessed is the people whose God is the Lord” (NIV).

Brother Felix was one of those people. That’s why he was blessed.

Are you?

——

*https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/03/warren-buffett-the-key-to-his-happiness-isnt-money.html

**Most of the photos were stolen from sister Lily’s Facebook account 😊