" And these are the days
of Your servant Moses
righteousness being restored..."
so goes the song of Paul Wilbur which I remembered while rolling the 300 meatballs for the 93 hungry tummies of little kids we are feeding three times a week from the tribe community lying near the bay of Batangas.
Last month, I brought my daughters to a Jollibee fastfood store to eat. I saw an old time friend and we chat a little. She told me how terrible our days are today...the crimes, famine, threat of wars and immorality prevailing in the world. telling me, "looks like tribulation days huh.". I don't know if she heard me said.."Oh no, it's just normal. These kinds of happenings are expected.." She said a lot of things that all I said was, "Oh, God is in control...". and the rest are " ahhh...ahhh...mmm..??"
You know how slow I am to speak.
I bear that incident in mind. And I went back to devoting my time to study the present season. I used to do this, because I believe that like the natural seasons of the earth --- man has his own season in every year or decade that comes to his life. And this season or seasons are what life coaches and business coaches try so hard to determine in order to gauge the success rate of the industry to where they are engaged in, so they can use it in advising and assisting their clients. Businessmen engaged in high time and high end businesses consult the services of clairvoyants, fortune tellers and feng shui masters in order to tract and gauge their success rate. Wew, to this action! A person doesn't need to consult a spiritual practitioner. There is a loophole to this action.
I will just present a gist of the present season to give an encouragement and a light of what we are seeing and experiencing in the present time. In our country, the Philippines, the prevailing crime is human trafficking-- kidnapping of little children and young women by syndicated groups to sell their organs in and out of the country. I read an article that says, our country, since 2002 is still in the top 100 position in human trafficking.
So much for the human trafficking that created fear.
The season of fire arrived with a season of cleansing in our lives: negative situations occur that brings out our attitude, responses and character. These situations test our strength and exposes our weaknesses. They also exposes loopholes, deceptions and secrets we are holding inside, or are not blind spots to us. As fire burn the flammable materials, our negative responses and "materials" are "brought to light" to be "burned". Sometimes, they are accompanied by criticisms, rebuke, reprimands and discipline from other people that add to the pain that we are experiencing.
The global happenings are triggers to "bring out" what we are, who we are and how stable we are. Our anger, disappointments and depressions are the responses that comes after the "exposure" a.k.a. "burning".
Looking at our situations in the light of humility and God's word :
God is in control. The cleansing is needed to bring about in our lives a greater fruit of our labor, hopes and aspirations in life. That's how good the heaven's plan for each man. How can we be given great things if we are not capable of handling them?
So you see... it's a preparation. To be prepared, exert the positive responses and attitude in handling negative situations.
How strong we are? Great things need strength and stability of both mind and physique in order to handle them. Hindi pwedeng panay kilig at tili lang ang gagawin natin habang nakahalayhay sa ating harapan ang mga magagandang bagay na matagal mo nang inaasam! ahehehe :D
We may be surrounded by crimes, immorality, famine, war, persecutions, ....in a "name it, you have it" place... what can we get from it? absolutely nothing! But it can answer a question : "why are these things in this world?" Eh bakit nga ba???
These things will usher in righteousness. They are like grim woodland at the foot of cinderella's castle. Like trashes under the sofas and closets, these sins will not be purged if they will not be exposed to the light.
Fire sanitizes.
When unrighteousness prevails, the people look for righteousness. They began to see the differences. They learn to judge correctly. They overhaul their conscience and begin to think purely.
Man will one day abhor sinning and seek righteousness. Mananawa rin siya. Hmmm medyo matagal pa siguro ito! When all men do the seeking...righteousness will prevail. And righteousness will fill the earth. Then we live in peace in the simplicity of our lives.
When a person is able to deal with cleansing in his life, there comes fruits of his labors. I say, a fruitful season this will be for him. The season of fire will come and go quickly. Wisdom is needed to deal with it. We need to be sensitive about the situations in our lives and surroundings, so we can avoid being disillusioned, trapped in our emotions, sink deep into depression and helplessness...and become slaves to our fears.
It is encouraging to know that our Creator--our God is in control of all things. He will not allow imbalance. Though he cannot swing His hands to immediately eradicate the evil things of this world, He controls, so the people will live. It is imaginable--- if God will swing His hands to eradicate evil, all men will die. He loves His people beyond measure, so He is willing to wait for us to seek righteousness ourselves to eradicate evil.
"How come you know the seasons?" came the question I frequently hear.
My answer: " You should have paid attention to your teachers when you were taking history classes."
There is the answer. :D
History repeats itself when man fails to grasp the learning from it.
