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SOMETIMES it isn’t easy to love God. This is
especially true when things do not go our way. Somehow we believe
that being close to God will keep disappointment, pain and reversal
of fortune away. As if staying close to God will insure that life
will be as beautiful and as rosy as can be.
Nothing is farther than the
truth. All of Christ’s apostles died a martyr’s death except
John. The saints tell stories of pain and inner turmoil as they
strove to stay close to God. We sometimes tend to look at God as a
lucky charm. I can’t help thinking of some Born-Again Christians
holding their wallets over their head as they pray to the Lord to
somehow miraculously fill them with paper money. It looks like a
superstitious practice to me.
Somehow, we can’t help but
expect that if we stay close to God, He will bless us and protect us
from all harm. Perhaps, but then again, perhaps not. Our love for
Him and our good behavior are no guarantee that all will go well in
life. Neither does it follow that if God truly loves us, He will
keep us from things that hurt us.
The fact is that usually, but not
always, the source of our pain is ourselves. We are a strange
people. We get ourselves into all kinds of trouble and then blame
God for not preventing us from self-destructing. And if He suddenly
appeared to us, as we were about to do foolishness and stood in our
way to stop us, we perhaps wouldn’t like Him pushing us around
either.
God does not need to punish us
for our misdeeds. We do a very good job of that ourselves. A guy
runs off and has an affair with another woman and when his wife
leaves him, he blames God for his misery. It’s good that God does
not talk back or a lot of us would be shamed very quickly.
Look closely at your life and see
how often you were the cause of your own problems. It might have
been about a lack of discipline, unwise decisions you made, or an
insistence to proceed down a dangerous path.
The truth is that life has a lot
of bumps in the road, many detours that all of us, regardless of a
life of virtue or vice, need to travel. We are all subject to the
ups and downs of life. The difference will be that those who stay
close to God and have a deep faith will be in a better position to
weather the inevitable storms.
If you have problems about
drugs, alcohol and behavior/attitude call my office at 8206107 or
8251771 or e-mail me at gvcbuenca@vasia.com or write me at P.O. Box
2099 MCPO, Makati City.
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