GOD SOMETIMES ANSWERS OUR QUESTIONS WITH QUESTIONS

I was motivated to scribe this blog after reading Ms. Lyn Juan's wall post , one of my colleagues from Wordbook about falling down and getting back up. I believe that life is not an easy and effortless matter; we cannot live through it without dwindling into frustration and cynicism. Family problem, health in bad situation, debts and bankruptcy, broken relationship, quest for power – these are just some of the reasons resulting to life bitterness and animosity. We think and say that we have everything we need, but then we realize that something is lacking, someone is missing. We then take somebody or try something more promising and end up with even more miserable life. Our resentment becomes greater when we have much and want more. We think we are deprived of life’s basic essentials when we can see clearly less fortunate beings around us. We blame our partners or blame other people and worst, execrate God for our miseries. We always explore to find somebody or something to complete and fulfill us where in fact nobody else can really provide it for us. Tonight, I have just finished reading a story from a Hebrew Bible. I bowled over, I twisted my own arm to get up from bed, turn the PC on to share and write this article for you. The story is about Job an exceptionally righteous man whose life was put to trials and afflictions. Job, certain of his own blamelessness, keeps up that his ordeal is unjustified as he has not transgressed, and that there is no basis for God to scourge him thus. By any means, he does not curse God's name or blame God of iniquity but instead begs an explanation or an account of his wrong doing. The scripture is mainly written in questions. Of the 288 questions on this holy testament many were from the mouth of Job. Suddenly when God eventually speak in the closing chapters, His answer to Job comes in the form of more questions. Out of the 288 questions marks in the Book of Job, 78 of them belongs to God, these are His replies to Job. What can we take from here? When our lives are put to the test we ask so many questions. Questions that leave us defenseless, powerless and impoverished. No one simply not willing to live with questions because most of the time it forces truth that we are unwilling to face, an honesty that may lead to live our lives in failure. But if we will take these life’s questions in a positive perspective we can simply find the answers. Sometimes God answers our questions with questions – questions that leave us meek, amazed, speechless and believing. No matter how discouraged we get, God has not asked us to do the impossible. He just wants us to explore His answers. It doesn’t really matter that we have more questions now than before. What matters is that we discover that the true answer to all our questions is our faith – that we have seen God as the truest answer.

GOD'S MASTERPIECE

Last night while preparing food for dinner, an evening show got my attentiveness. Too busy to peep on the boob tube, I just pinned my ears back to the program. The TV host asked the game contestant what he can say to his father .Then I heard the man saying " Itay maraming salamat, sorry dahil ikaw ang gumagawa ng mga bagay na ako dapat ang gumagawa, buhat ng mag-asawa ako ikaw ang nagpapagatas sa mga anak ko.Maraming salamat tay . . . I breathed out. Then I realized the main reason why a father's chore is no less than a mother's the most arduous job in the world is that it never end. The demands are day after day, week after week, month after moth, year after year and even when our children raise their own families... Our children we soon find out are here to hang around at least for a number of years. They don't show up like birds in the spring, then dash away at summers end. In fact as our children get older instead of putting our feet up our task seemingly augments. It's a job that never seems to get easier in spite of all those years of experience. It is a full-time job, with no reprieve, no postponement ,no time off even for sickness and recovery. A father does not stop caring just because we no longer the main providers. It never stops there. It's a father joyful pleasure to care for his children even after they no longer seem to need him. Even so fathers are human, subject to weaknesses, that they too have feet of clay, susceptible to errors just as capable of anyone else committing mistakes or sins against their children. A father must humble himself to admit that he can't be the farthermost and untainted example. He can only serve to emulate an image of a higher model. Although it may be the hardest for father to achieve, the highest examples of virtue a man can demonstrate to his children is to be quick to acknowledge when he has been wrong and seek his children forgiveness and compassion... God has chosen the father of each family to be his emissary in the home. When we became fathers He wants us to encounter a more profound achievement of security, He wants us to become shielded enough to challenge cowardice and apprehension to take the risk and make commitments. The happiest men and most satisfied in the masculine world today are those men who endowed a great deal of time and energy to his children. Fathers are the kind of masterpieces God had in his mind when he created man. When a man did his best to become a good father, God will someday meet him and will look at him to say "Very good, you have done your job well. You are a magnificent creature."

Happy Father's Day!