How do we explain what we have witnessed in this world? Terrorist attacks, human trafficking, child abductions, mothers selling their own children, wild bush fires, racism, horrendous rape, terrible floods that kill thousands, never-ending world hunger? Subconsciously, we ask ourselves these questions quite often. But consciously, we rarely do. We’re so busy living our lives we rarely stop and wonder – WHY?
But then something happens to wake us up.
Just recently, our Province and Dumaguete had a scare. And maybe people are still living in fear of the novel Coronavirus.
With almost everyone wearing a mask everywhere we go, it is quite impossible not to feel the fear even if we were not scared. Plus, all the news hounding us (whether fake or true), with classes in all schools getting suspended, I would say these indeed are scary times.
Then we tell ourselves, something is really, really wrong. This isn’t how life should be!
Why do bad things happen?
Why isn’t this world a better place? There is an answer to the WHY question. But it’s not an answer that most people would like to hear – the world is the way it is because it’s the world that we have asked for. Sounds strange?
What or who could make this world different than the way it is? What or who could guarantee that life is pain-free, for everyone, all the time?
God could. God could accomplish that. But God doesn’t. At least not right now. And we’re angry with God or we resent at the Creator as a result. We say, “God can’t be all-powerful and all-loving. If God is powerful, this world wouldn’t be the way it is!”
We say this hoping that God will then change His position on the matter. Our hope is that putting a guilt trip on Him will make Him change the way He’s doing things.
But God doesn’t seem to budge. WHY?
God doesn’t budge — God wouldn’t change things right now — because God is giving us what we asked for – a world where we get to treat the Almighty as though He is absent and unnecessary.
Remember the story of Adam and Eve? They ate the “forbidden fruit.” That fruit was the idea that they could ignore what God said or gave them, and strike out on life apart from God. For Adam and Eve hoped that they could become like God, without God.
They were consumed in the idea that there was something more valuable in existence than God himself, something more valuable than having a personal relationship with God. And this world system — with all of its faults — came as a result of the choice they made.
story is the story of all of us. Who hasn’t said — though not for everyone to hear — God, I think I can do this without you. I’ll just go this one alone.
Life without God
Why do we do that? Probably because we’ve all bought the idea that there’s something more valuable, more important, than God. For different people it’s different things, but the mindset is the same: God isn’t the most important in life.
What do you think is God’s response to that? Well, God allows it. Many people experience the painful results of others’ or their own choices that run contrary to God’s ways — murder, sexual abuse, greed, lying/fraud, slander, adultery, kidnapping, etc.
All of these can be explained by people who have refused to give God access and influence over their lives. They are going about their lives as they see fit and how they want it.
A message
When the nCOv struck, people had different ideas amid the fear and trepidation. Some think it’s because of climate change. Others say it’s because there’s too much pollution around us. Still others blame the Chinese government, at the same time, a good number of people theorized that it’s a biological warfare instigated by the CIA to, once and for all, destroy China. Some people I know have even began talking about the potential incidence of having zombies in our midst.
Maybe they are wrong, and maybe, they can also be right. As for me, I think, the nCOv is just a message. A message to wake us all up from the many years of oblivion. Many of us have been so busy doing about our ways to the point that we have totally ignored God in our lives. If we do go to church, it is perfunctory. We go to church because it is Sunday and we’re expected to be seen there. We don’t go to church because we feel the need to be with God. In short, we’re just too busy to want to be with him. If we give to the needy, it’s either because our friends are doing it or because we want to be known as humanitarians. We don’t give because it’s the right thing to do and it is what God has asked us to do.
Terrified but…
When the nCOv scare escalated, I also began feeling terrified. I will be a liar if I say I didn’t feel the anxiety and the dread. But in the middle of my fears, I stopped for a while and pondered. Should I really be afraid? I have a God who loved me, why should I be afraid? God never abandoned me in times of need, why would God do that now? God has been loving and forgiving of my failings and continued to love me despite my flaws. Would God desert me now?
So, I prayed. I prayed that He takes all of my trepidations in my heart. I prayed that He would protect my family and continue to nurture us so that we can continue glorifying His name despite all the pain in this world. I prayed that He would likewise be forgiving of everyone and protect them too from whatever that is scaring them.
I would say, the nCOv is just a message. We need to go back to our Creator and ask for the protection and help that only He can give. God is just waiting for us to make the move.
But you might ask me, what really is the message of nCOv?
We cannot go through life without God. Let’s not even think that we could because we really can’t.
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