Calm in the midst of chaos
I received this message from an Arellano University student a few days after Typhoon Ondoy wreaked havoc in Metro Manila and some parts of the nearby provinces:
“Only in God are we truly safe and secure. Anything else is false security. Whether you are surrounded by a mighty wall of stone, a comfortable home or a secure job, NO ONE can predict what tomorrow may bring. Our relationship with God is the only security that cannot be taken away.”
For the past days that we were monitoring the news on the post-Ondoy calamity, we see thousands of families packing the various evacuation centers in Pasig City, Marikina City, Cainta, San Mateo, Rizal and Taguig City.
People affected directly from the typhoon either lost their houses, their cars completely submerged by water, or went through the near-death experience of almost being swept away by the raging floodwater.
In light of all these sad episodes in the lives of people, we all have to go back to the truth that nothing in this world is permanent.
Everything we own and we value–our bank account, our salary or earnings, our business, our jobs, our titles and positions in school or work, our houses or properties, our cars—literally everything we put so much effort to keep and value—all these won’t give us permanent security in life.
However, the one, solid truth we can all lean on is this—that God is our strong tower, our refuge, our security, our haven in a life that’s full of uncertainty.
The Sons of Korah, who rose to eminence in the Levitical service during the time and even after Moses’ time in the Old Testament, wrote Psalm 46 to perfectly describe who God is.
1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its water roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
We can’t change the fact that the life we live in is full of uncertainty, but God is constant—He is ever faithful to His word, He’s our security, He is trustworthy.
Photo Source: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HWU3wX2cDLQ/R4S9Rfwp8dI/AAAAAAAABew/DDL_5o3w5gY/s400/calm_sea_blacks_beach.jpg