Sunday, June 29, 2008 Lim: Not God By Melanie T. Lim Wide Awake
LAST weekend was one of the most important of our lives.
We had spent more than a year planning it. We had relatives coming in from different parts of the country and family coming in from overseas. But as fate would have it, God would put our faith to a test.
I shall no longer chronicle the chain of events that led to the journey that ended in the successful celebration of my Mom’s 80th birthday last Sunday. I shall simply fast forward my account to the eventful weekend of last.
By Friday, my sister and I were busy tracking the storm moving ominously across the archipelago. Some of our guests were forced to travel to other cities and take alternate routes because ships did not dock in their usual ports of call while planes did not fly when storm signals were raised in many provinces across the country.
Frank threatened to derail our best-laid plans. Still, I held on to my faith. Frank was ubiquitous now. But storms could change course, I told myself. I could not will them to move out of the country on my time. But God could.
As flights were delayed and eventually cancelled and power failure blanketed some parts of Manila, I asked God to give me strength. Then I received distressing news. Signal No. 3 had been raised in Manila and flights were cancelled. At this point in time, I did not have the strength to continue to have faith but I thought to myself, when all hope deserts you, isn’t this the true test of faith?
I prayed for a miracle.
Barely six hours before we opened the ballroom to guests, I received a call that our entertainer from Manila had finally boarded the plane for Cebu. I heaved a big sigh of relief. Our last out-of-town guests arrived at the ballroom straight from the airport about an hour and a half into the party.
Still, typhoon Frank was just one of the many hurdles in the long and difficult journey that ended last Sunday. In the aftermath, I ask myself what God was trying to teach me throughout my journey. I believe that God was trying to teach me three things.
First, God wanted me to believe in Him, no matter what. He wanted me to believe against all hope that He would be there for me. And He was. As always. As promised. God was reminding me to be unwavering in my faith.
Second, God wanted to teach me the virtue of patience. He wanted me to understand that things happen in His time—not mine. And that if I had the patience to wait, He would grant me what I wanted or grant me the wisdom to understand why He could not grant me my heart’s desires.
Third, I believe that God was nudging me to wake up. Despite my superhuman efforts to get everything in perfect order, I was not superhuman. I could command an army but I could not will a storm to stop. I was not omnipotent. And despite my best-laid plans, I could not thwart God’s plan to teach me the value of humility last weekend.
Sometimes, we need to be reminded we are not God. I needed that reminder last weekend.
