Unapologetic

After not seeing each other for several months, my friend Pastor Ferdie "The Running Pastor" Cabiling called to invite me for breakfast on a Thursday morning.

- CITO BELTRAN

I never declined Ferdie's invitations because he has always had my best interest at heart.

So, we met up at the nearby Starbucks Portico and when I got there he was in the thick of it, doing what he loved most, which was to mentor men and maybe even evangelize a guest or two.

Once the group broke up for the day, we started our breakfast, which was more of an appraisal or checkup on my status professionally as well as spiritually. That, of course, was his life's calling and came as no surprise.

But after a while, Pastor Ferdie did his own version of "Straight Talk" and reminded me how my "social status" and being in media gave me access to many of the country's powerful people who, in spite of their successful and colorful lives, were seeking purpose and meaning in their lives.

"It is an opportunity that not many have and should not be missed." He emphasized that my straightforward manner and access to the corridors of power combined for a powerful opportunity to minister, care and help powerful men with real challenges and struggles.

I explained to Pastor Ferdie that people in power rarely open up. Many of them even put up acts or facades of strength because they think or imagine that in a "dog eat dog world," any sign of softness or gentleness could ruin them.

In terms of religion and spirituality, most of them are nominal believers, practicing on a "need basis," even hypocritical as they go to church on Sundays but live out double lives in the board room or another bedroom. It is a system many of them were raised in.