poverty – Density Runs

May 3, 2016May 30, 2016

Obsession Election

This 2016 elections is so intense, it has brought more division rather than unity. Everybody is at each other’s throats trying to prove some logical point why their choice of candidate is the rightful choice. Suddenly, everyone has become so concerned about a nation, everyone has become some expert political critic and social media has conveniently become fuel for hate. My feed is amazingly overflowing with negativity. Amidst the social media war, the heated exchange of quips, the cursing and mudslinging, some respond with tact and diplomacy while others, with their overwhelming passion for whatever cause they are fighting for, morph into rabid bullies.

The development of the campaigns has become chaotic, comical and unpredictable, it’s kind of embarrassing and plainly annoying.

But isn’t it, supposedly as one people, our aim is for the progress of our country? That is if we are genuinely concerned with the development of our country and not just riding with the sensationalized bandwagon because it is the social media trend.

Change. Everyone is screaming change. WE WANT CHANGE. The overused “change” has literally been the undying promise of every running or aspiring politician every election season. (And honestly, to be fair to the past and present administrations, there has been change, it’s just that most of us are just too naive to notice. Change is gradual, not drastic. Even Charles Darwin believes so.)

But change happens with us. Discipline starts with us, not with some government official, not with some political aspirant and definitely not only during elections.

We are all so quick to judge, to conclude, to blame and to complain. No government is perfect. It will always have its fair share of unforgivable gaffes but I do hope that as educated citizens, we could give credit where credit is due. It’s just sad, human nature as it is, we are bent to see faults rather than acomplishments.

Let’s try to reevaluate, what have we actually done to contribute to the progress of this country besides clocking in to work and paying taxes. Have we actually immersed ourselves in the community and experienced first hand the hell of a country we live in as what some are relentlessly claiming? Have we gone out of our way to find out facts to alleviate our ignorance and not solely rely on mass and social media? Are we adherent to our nation’s laws as simple as following traffic rules, lining up and waiting for your turn at the grocery counter or disposing your trash in the right receptacle bin? Have we grasped opportunities to involve ourselves in helping the homeless, the neglected and the abused?

If we really want to see real change, we have to be a part of the process.

Five days left of the campaign period, six days left before election day. By now, most of the voting population has already decided whom to vote so let’s show each other respect as what civilized people are supposed to do for it is our right to root for whoever we feel deserving. Regardless of who will win the elections, local and national alike, all of us will have to deal with it.

After May 9, most of us will go about our everyday lives like we normally do. But let’s not be insensitive to the marginalized multitude who’s become victims of abject poverty; let’s not be insensitive to the underprivileged youth, let’s not be insensitive to the abused women and children; let’s not.

All of us yearn for a better government so choose someone with integrity, someone with a clear vision for this country, someone with tact and wit and consistency, someone who is respectful and considerate, someone who values transparency, someone who upholds the rule of law.

Choose someone who complements your principles, values and beliefs.

Enough of being a circus. Stop with the drama. When you exercise your right to suffrage, think. Think of your countrymen, think of the children. Six years is a very long time.

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March 25, 2014January 5, 2016

Trusting and Believing

I would like to share with you the reading plan I am currently on. The plan aims to help you grow in trusting and believing God’s promises.

Trusting and Believing: Devotions from Time of Grace. (www.timeofgrace.org)

These are readings from Day 1 to Day 13.

Knowing is not yet believing. Believing is not yet trusting. Some people can’t accept the concept of God’s existence. They see no particular order in the universe that would demand the existence of a grand designer behind it all. Some people know that there is a Creator, but only as someone to acknowledge from a distance. Some acknowledge the creator’s existence simply to satisfy the thought that all living things came from something. Some people have come to know about the one true God by hearing the bible’s message yet they still feel alone and disconnected.

And then there’s trusting. Life makes it hard to trust and believe the way the bible calls us to do. I cannot deny that I’ve felt so many times that God has abandoned me during my most trying times and I have questioned his existence. I have shed countless tears and felt very desperate. But hearing, listening and trying to understand God’s word has done so many things. Life has a purpose, and all we have to do is trust God to lead us to that purpose. Trusting means living in the serenity that everything will be okay. Trusting means that you know a smiling and utterly competent God will be waiting to catch you when you fall–and also when he invites you to jump. Trusting means that you are totally convinced that you will emerge a winner no matter what happens in your life.

Why is it so hard to trust God?

1. Fear.
Fear holds us back from trusting and believing. Fear paralyzes. Fear makes our painful memories much more intense. Fear breeds despair about the future and makes us not like our present very much either. fear makes us blind to the blessings we have and fear makes it difficult, even impossible, to believe that there will be good things to come. But during these bleak times, Isaiah has some wonderful words to say. You could trust and believe in a God who is not going to let you lose your true treasure. In fact, God would actually be using the hard things in your life to help you!

He said in Isaiah 41:10, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand.”

When you find yourself being afraid, take a deep breath, listen to these words of God, and remember that you are being cradled in God’s very big hands. You are safe.

2. Guilt.
It’s really hard to trust God when you feel guilt in his presence. Guilt comes on two levels: there’s head guilt and heart guilt. In our heads we know that we have broken God’s rules for our behavior. But guilt is also the wretched feeling of shame and failure in our hearts. Sometimes we let God’s Word get us halfway there. We hear the gospel message and know that we have been forgiven, but we don’t feel forgiven. We still feel dirty; we still feel the intense disappointment we must be to God.

The bible tells us that personal confession is a necessary part of healing the emotional baggage of guilt. 1 John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Confession is God’s way of getting the poisons out. It’s like draining a wound, it cuts through all the pretending, denial and defense. To get rid of guilt, we first objectively hear what Christ has done for us and subjectively, by confessing our sins, actually naming them, saying them out loud to our God without blaming others and without pretending, cutting through the denial–then we will get on the path to emotional healing as well. Our minds will know forgiveness. Our hearts will feel forgiven.

3. Self-Hatred
Everybody has been bullied. Everybody has been pushed around, ridiculed and mocked. People assume that those doing the putting down must feel powerful, but actually it’s the reverse. People who hurt other people really don’t like themselves much, and so they want to drag others down to their own level of emotional misery.

Honestly though, we’d all have to admit that there are things about our own lives that we don’t like, and so we don’t like ourselves all that much either. Here’s why we need God so much. We depend on God’s high opinion of us to give us a reason to believe not only in him but in ourselves again.

Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The Lord thinks you are so precious and valuable that he was willing to die for you in your messy state. He didn’t wait for you to clean yourself up first. He died so you could belong to him. If He thinks you’re valuable, then you must be! If he thinks you’re worth dying for, then you must be precious indeed. If he sends His Holy Spirit to live within you, then you are not helpless. If he loves you, then you can love yourself again.

4. Doubt
Is it good to be skeptical? If you’re a scientist, skepticism is considered a badge of honor. Scientists live to prove things and it’s by doubting, trying and testing that the great principles and laws of the universe are uncovered and the properties of matter better understood. Is it good to be doubtful and skeptical of God? Is it a good plan to devise tests to prove God’s existence, love, wisdom or power? Not such a good idea. Doubting God was the first human sin. In the string of things that Satan planted in the minds of Adam and Eve, the first step was to doubt God’s Word.

The Lord’s words banish doubt. When our life shakes with doubt, listen to your God talking to you. Let his calm voice assure you that nothing is too hard for him and that everything is going to be all right.

5. Fatigue
Think how much harder it is to feel confident when you’re exhausted. “Good tired” is how you feel at the end of a productive day. But you also know “bad tired,” don’t you? Bad tired is when you are physically and emotionally drained by the selfishness of others, or worse yet, by your own foolishness and bad judgement.

Fatigue wears down your cheerfulness and patience. Fatigue breeds pessimism and bitterness. The Lord Jesus knew personally what severe exhaustion felt like, and he wanted his tired brothers and sisters to know that there was relief for them.

He said in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

6. Prosperity
You can understand and even sympathize with people whose poverty and hardships have made them suspicious of God’s love and power. Has it ever occurred to you that prosperity is an even greater spiritual burden?

Jesus told his shocked disciples once, in Matthew 19:24, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

He said this from sad experience, because his encounters with the wealthy were usually not pleasant. God gives money to people as a tool to make his agenda happen. He provides treats because he is kind and loves to see us happy. Alas, money can easily become god to be pursued and worshiped for the power it gives.

7. Denial
Children love to pretend. They have a rich fantasy life and effortlessly slide into their own parallel universe. The plan is to quit pretending when you are an adult and learn to see and accept reality.

If only. I bet you know plenty of other adults who are still pretending. Single people move in with each other and pretend to be married. Married people act as though they are single. Sedated by drugs or alcohol, people pretend that their lives are fine. People pretend to be financially successful but behind the scenes they stagger under enormous mortgages, home equity loans and maxed out credit cards. The worst kind of delusion is to pretend that you are morally good enough for God. You can blame other people for your sins. You can compare yourself with people farther down the food chain and feel superior. You can indulge in selective memory, remembering only what makes you look good.

God’s view? Living in a state of spiritual denial is deadly. 1 John 1:8 says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” You need help. God’s help.

8. Blindness
It’s hard to trust in God for the future if you think that your present life is a dry, parched desert. That’s not reality though; it’s just ignorance. Or worse–blindness to the wonderful things that God has been doing for his believers.

In Ephisians 1:3,4, St. Paul wrote to some Christians who were being tempted to think they had nothing, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world.”

As you put Jesus’ gospel glasses on, as you see yourself as loved and forgiven, you can start noticing the good things that have been there all along: faithful friends, dear family members, skills and gifts, daily bread, flowers and sunsets, and a faithful Savior whose promise of everlasting life cannot be taken away from you.

9. Pain
Whatever intense emotion you are experiencing right now will color your entire worldview. If you are in pain right now, it can be very hard to be optimistic, to trust that your future will ever be better.

In John 16:33, hours before his death and resurrection, Jesus predicted terrible hardships for his disciples, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Here is our hope–not in our tired and aging bodies, not in our brilliant minds or wealth, but in the words of the One who has suffered like us and for us and who has conquered death, hell and pain for us all.

10. Confusion
Some people find their trust in God draining away because he doesn’t seem to be doing what they want when they want it. Think for just a moment what God’s greatest desire for you is. It is not to make you wealthy, famous, powerful or even comfortable. It is to get you through the minefield of your earthly life safely hoe to heaven.

Let God’s ultimate goal for your life be your goal too. Replace confusion with this kind of clarity: 2 Corinthians 4:18 says, “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

11. Self-Sufficiency
People want badly to believe that the world is steadily evolving into a higher state. It is a wonderful thing to be self-sufficient and to work at bettering yourself. It is a terrible thing, though, to suppose that we don’t need God. We are not evolving into better people. If anything, people are slowly devolving into beasts.

There’s a better way. The wise counsel from Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Every day in every way we are loved and blessed by our dear Father, Savior and Counselor.

We need to let go of the things that hinder our trust in God. You don’t always have to be in charge. Let go and let God work. He knows what is best for us. Trust that he knows.

Despite doubting, cursing, and blaming God for all the unworldly experiences I’ve encountered, He has received me with open arms and loved me without any apprehensions. He has blessed me beyond belief and I have so much to be thankful for. Learn to live by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Trust and surrender to him, let him direct your path and hear him say “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life,” (Psalm 32:8).

Photo courtesy: Google Images

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July 6, 2013January 5, 2016

INFERNO by Dan Brown

SPOILER ALERT!

I’ve finally finished reading Dan Brown’s Inferno and I must say it’s an amazingly chilling read (although the way he writes is confusing at times).

Yes, it’s unbelievably far out, his serial heroes Robert Langdon being perfectly versed with all of history and symbology and iconography and Sienna Brooks being inconceivably the most intelligent woman on earth. But then again, you don’t read Dan Brown books because of the redundant way it’s written or the absurd combination of words, you read it to be engrossed in a speedy, heart racing plot and see that facts from history, truthful global conspiracies could be incorporated into a work of fiction. You are educated. You then get hooked.
Note: Everything that happened in Inferno happened within 24 hours.

The book, inspired by the inscrutable symbolisms from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy and Sandro Botticelli’s Map of Hell, is devoted to transhumanism, devoted to the future of humanity and the existential risk it reveals due to overpopulation and the alarming fact that in the next century we may cease to exist. What’s frightening is that depicted in the book are two graphs from the World Health Organization supporting this theory. It is also mentioned by the antagonist of the story, Bertrand Zobrist, a deranged biochemist, in order for humanity to survive a sustainable environment, the population of the world should not run over four billion. We are currently running to seven or eight billion. Zobrist believed that unless a catastrophic event significantly reduces the startling rate of population growth, the human race will be wiped out thus, with the aid of the Consortium, he creates an airborne virus that could modify human DNA causing 1/3 of the world’s population to be sterile.

When I was reading the book, i did realize that this idea could somehow be true. Mentioned also in the book was the very controversial portrayal of Manila as the gates of hell. When Sienna Brooks joined in a humanitarian mission to one of the third world countries, they went to Manila, Philippines and it was mentioned in the book that she was shocked by its apocalyptic poverty and was almost raped by local ruffians. An excerpt from the book goes: “When the group settled in among the throngs in the city of Manila—the most densely populated city on earth—Sienna could only gape in horror. She had never seen poverty on this scale.”

I believe this sparked controversy because most Filipino “nation builders” are in denial. Yes we are on an alarming scale of poverty and unemployment and one of the reasons to this situations is due to overpopulation. They fail to see the overcrowded metropolis, the high crime rate, child labor, sex trade, pollution and unemployment. I am sure that this is not only applicable to Manila but also to densely populated areas all over the world.

Somehow I viewed the book as an eye opener on what is the world’s current status. And maybe somewhere, there is a deranged Bertrand Zobrist existing, a scientist with a mind ahead of its time, also creating a solution to help humanity survive.

Ok, stopping to overthink now. But again, I loved reading this book. 😊👍👏📕

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