19/09/2026
âYou cannot serve God merely because of the people inside the Church. You will eventually encounter difficult people. You will encounter personalities that hurt you, disappoint you, or make you question why you are still there. But if your reason for serving is another person, sooner or later, you will stop.
Serve because of God.â
The Church is not always a safe space.
(please read the whole post while reacting)
I remember giving a talk to a group of young people in a parish. I told them something that may sound uncomfortable, we often hear that the Church is a safe space for everyone and I believe it should be. But sometimes, the Church can also be the place where we get broken.
It can be the place where someone makes you cry.
Where someone makes you doubt yourself.
Where someone questions your worth.
Where someone tells you that you are not capable enough, holy enough, talented enough, or worthy enough to serve.
I know because I have experienced it myself.
For almost ten years of serving and observing life in the Church, I have met all kinds of people. And I have learned to look at people with a grain of salt. Not everyone who surrounds you is genuine. Some people are there because they truly love God. Some are there because they love the community. And some, perhaps, are simply there because everyone else is there.
The Church is made up of people, and people are imperfect.
I have been bullied. I have been questioned. I have been told that I could not do certain things. There were moments when the words of other people became the voice inside my own head, and I started questioning myself even more.
âBaka hindi nga ako magaling.â
âBaka hindi nga ako para dito.â
âBaka hindi nga ako enough.â
But somewhere along the way, I realized something. The things that broke me also revealed something in me.
They revealed a strength I did not know I had. They taught me to stand even when nobody was clapping. They taught me to continue serving even when I was not understood. They taught me that my worth cannot be determined by the opinion of another person.
And perhaps that is one of the most important things I learned in serving the Church:
You cannot serve God merely because of the people inside the Church. You will eventually encounter difficult people. You will encounter personalities that hurt you, disappoint you, or make you question why you are still there. But if your reason for serving is another person, sooner or later, you will stop.
Serve because of God.
Because when your eyes are fixed on Christ, no human being can ultimately take away the reason you started serving in the first place. This does not mean that we should tolerate people who hurt us. It does not mean we should remain silent when something is wrong. And it certainly does not mean that being wounded is something we should romanticize.
But sometimes, instead of allowing the wounds to make us bitter, we can allow God to use them to make us deeper. So now, when I meet difficult people, I try to pray. When something makes me cry, I bring it to God.
When I feel misunderstood, I remind myself that God knows my heart. And when the road becomes difficult, I try to see it as a small participation in the Cross of Christ. Because carrying the cross was never promised to be easy.
But there is something strangely beautiful about realizing that the very cross you once begged God to take away can become the place where He teaches you who you are.
After everything I have experienced, I am still here.
Still serving.
Still singing.
Still believing.
Still choosing God.
Not because the Church has always been gentle with me. But because God has always been worth serving. And perhaps that is what I want to tell every young person who feels wounded by the Church:
Do not let the imperfections of people make you forget the perfection of the One you came here to seek.
People may break your heart.
People may question your worth.
People may make you want to leave.
But if you keep your eyes on Christ, perhaps even those wounds can become part of the story of how God formed you into the person you were always meant to become.
Sometimes, the place where you were broken becomes the place where God teaches you how to stand.
