Foreword on the fly (draft) (Patreon)

Yesterday, on May 6, 2025 (my 29th birthday), one of The Ridleys' listeners posted a picture of me on Instagram Stories with a birthday greeting and an encouragement. They told me that I should write a book, a task that, since my college days, I have been meaning to do before I hit 30. It's May 7 now, and I think I should start.

First, I need to figure out what to write about. It definitely won't be an autobiography, because I have so much more life to live. An autobiography is something one should write when they have accumulated wisdom that comes with age and experience. Just now, I Googled, "when did st augustine write the confessions" and "when was st augustine born" and found out that he was 43 when he started his autobiography. I'll set that as a new goal for myself. But back to the topic.

I don't want to write confessions either, especially in an age when sincerity can be taken out of context and used against you. We live in different times, and I need to write something appropriate to the audience. If I have any private confessions to, it would be best to keep them private.

Now, theology is a topic that's way beyond my depth, though God will surely be one of the things written about in this book. Writing about my personal experience with God is something I want to do but need to be careful about, since private experience and revelation isn't always helpful or edifying to the people reading it. I hesitate to write to instruct. Should I end up writing about God, I would caution my readers to take every word with a pillar of salt, study the Scriptures, consult your spiritual leaders, and realize that the words written here are narrative rather than prescriptive.

What can I confidently write about? As I write this foreword on the fly, the perfect idea comes to me: the story of The Ridleys, and how love found me in the most unlikely places. (Something tells me that by writing about this, I will reveal more about myself and talk about God more than I initially intended.)

Nowhere Chapel: The Story of The Ridleys.

As I write, I think of my first violin lessons, my first poems, my first gig with the trio, my first gig with the band, the early years of The Ridleys, the shoebox that housed our first CDs, the EP launch that shouldn't have succeeded but did, the bars we used to perform at, the first album, the pandemic and the second album, Baguio and the third album, our crew, our listeners, our new bassist, stories of birth and rebirth in every season of the band, each cycle solidifying our band's philosophy and motivations. We've been on this journey for 9 years. Just like every year, we don't know where this journey will take us. But from my perspective, it seems that this journey is leading us to God, the guiding hand behind this whole process and the source of all love.

Dear reader, as you scroll down these online entries (and, hopefully, eventually, flip the pages of this book), I have only one wish: that you would experience God. He is found in the four walls of church, or however many walls your church has; He is also found in the many corners of the musty-smelling bar that sells ice cold beer. He can speak to you on the pulpit; He can also find you on a stage with spaghetti wires, faulty amps, and a worn-out drum kit. He can be found in a group of thousands; in my experience, I found Him more often in groups of tens. In all those moments I found Him, I realized it's because He wanted to be found all along; that's why I call Him Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. More on that in the later chapters.

God is love. God is everywhere. God is human, with a beating heart that bleeds love for you. Yes, you. Through this book, I hope you fully understand how the statement "God loves you no matter who you are" is more than just a corny cliche or an empty promise. This love is tangible: it can be seen, touched, tasted, sometimes smelled, and, in my case, heard crystal clear.

May this love find you. And when it does, may you be open to it. Possibly throw yourself into it, arms wide open, just like the Person who loves you.