The troubled times we are experiencing as a nation these days are surely troubling for a lot of people.
The horrible massacre in Maguindanao just a few days ago, the flash floods in recent months brought about by super typhoons have claimed record death toll this year alone.
Just last week, someone commented on my blog on Who To Turn To In Your 2012.
This was the reader’s comment–since God is an all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing, universe-Creator, natural disasters that kill and maim and leave tens of thousands of people homeless, orphaned, suffering, disease-stricken, shouldn’t be happening…
Tragedies that oftentimes claim hundreds or even thousands of lives of people always elicit questions from people—the hurting or those directly affected by it, the orphaned and the skeptics.
And most of the time, the question people ask in moments of trouble is, “Why me? Or “Why my family?”
Others go to the extent of questioning God’s “absence” in situations where they needed His Presence and help the most.
But here’s the thing, God’s absence or silence in our trying times doesn’t mean He doesn’t care.
We have to understand that we are living in a fallen world. With that, sicknesses, diseases, war, among others are prevalent.
Ever since man rebelled against God’s word, the world was under a curse (Genesis 3:17).
As hard as we try to rationalize things, we can never fully grasp what is going around us unless we fully trust God and His infinite wisdom.
My near-death experience
On January of 2004, God taught me first hand how to trust Him more after a near-death experience shortly after New Year’s Day.
While the world was still having a hangover of the New Year’s celebration, my mother and I were at a wedding reception of our family’s friend some where in a Chinese restaurant in Malate.
Since I wasn’t feeling well, I told my mother I’d just go home to rest because that time, I was coughing hard already caused by flu.
On my way to the exit of Century-Sheraton Hotel, I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision slowly beginning to darken while I started vomiting blood.
Good thing I was near the restroom and so I mustered all my might and scampered to the men’s room where I continued throwing up blood. The huge lavatory was full of blood in a matter of seconds.
Later, I felt someone catching me before I fell backwards while he applied a damp, white cloth on my nose. From there, I passed out.
I was rushed to the nearest hospital by my mother and the man who helped me out at the men’s room, where I consciousness later while lying inside the emergency room of Manila Sanitarium (now Manila Adventist).
Interestingly, I learned later on that that the man who helped me out at the men’s room was a physician specializing in gastroenterology, the exact doctor I needed at the moment due to excessive loss of blood caused by internal hemorrhage.
He told me later that I could have died on the spot if I didn’t stop vomiting blood because by the time I left Century Hotel, my blood pressure was down to 70-30.
Several blood bags were needed for the transfusion and I really thanked God for literally giving me a new lease on life.
Did I ask God why that incident had to happen in my life?
Oh yes, I did considering that after being discharged and recuperating at home, I spent several sleepless nights because I had low blood.
The doctor also told me I can’t run or do physically demanding activities from about 6 months to one year because of my situation.
But through it all, I remembered and meditated on Romans 8:28 that says, And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
God has His reasons why I went through that trying stage in January 2004.
But here’s one thing sure, you will never go wrong when you completely yield your life before God.
Things may not be perfect, life may not be a bed of roses, but as the Apostle Paul would say in Romans 8:35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Absolutely nothing and no one will ever separate us from His unconditional love.
Photo Source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YL7XUqZiucg/SIqM16qW29I/AAAAAAAAAJM/k2sUAxAktNo/s400/man%2Bpraying%2Bon%2Bone%2Bknee.jpg