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Friday, July 07, 2006
God of the dark
By Rene Lizada
Papa's Table
BY ANY standard or era, Abraham could be judged as insane. Imagine yourself being 75 years old. One day, you hear a voice calling to you claiming to be God. That by itself will make you a candidate for the asylum and at your age it will be considered acceptable. But hearing the voice of God is totally different from doing what He wants. And what He wants is totally crazy.
You see God wants you to at your age to leave the comforts of your home, take your family with you and travel hundreds of miles to a land, which is alien to you. Tell me, if you were Abraham, would you do it? Would you leave your home, with all its comforts and bring your family with you to this place? We probably will stay where we are because we are not Abraham. But Abraham has this tremendous faith, this almost unbelievable belief in his God. So against all logic and reason he hauls his entire family and brings them to this place.
And when they get there what happens? God chooses to remain silent. For thirty years, there is silence. Now you are 75 and you have just traveled a great distance on the strength of some promises and now that one who has promised you chose to be silent. What do you do? Well most of us will probably grumble and curse and wail and complain. That was what Abraham did actually but in spite of all that noise, in the silence of his heart he knew that God will never abandon him. He was learning what God wanted to teach him. Obey and trust me no matter what the situation is. Believe me, trust me. And that is what Abraham did. He believed and He trusted.
The second thing here is why did God wait for 30 years before He broke His silence? I mean really, if you tell someone to do something so insane at least you could at least guide the person. But God remained silent. Why?
Perhaps it was because God loved Abraham so much. God wanted Abraham to trust him because that would be a sign of Abraham's love for Him. The whole idea of love is trust. It is impossible to love someone but not trust the person. They go together. The whole point of loving is, knowing your faith in your beloved. You will never fail someone you love, you will always stand by that person. Even if it may take 30 years. God is not room service wherein you can call on Him anytime you want to. He is not there to grant your wishes or feed your appetite. He does not want us to have the impression that because He loves us we can summon Him anytime, As I said He is not room service.
God wants us to call to Him in the dark because in many ways, He is God of the dark. It is this darkness that we find His light.
A lot of us, including myself, have wailed in the dark and perhaps even have cursed our God. When we are down our knees then we can see His feet hanging from a cross. When we are down then can we fathom the depth of His love. When there is no one else it is when we find the one Being who will never abandon us. Never.
I am sure all of us have had our Canaans. Abraham's Canaan was hostile land. It was good for grazing but not for growing crops. They constantly searched for food and water in that inhospitable place. One can say that God chose that spot to test Abraham. But Abraham survived and lived. I have this belief God places us where we need to be placed. He puts us in places and situations where He is telling us, no matter how it looks, trust Me, I know what I am doing. But in order for us to realize that we need to be humble and if we are not then we must be humbled. The first sign of love is humility. The first sign of faith is humility. Humility is the door of true spirituality.
Let us embrace that which afflicts us. Let the darkness show the light. If we are suffering from any form of malady whether it be physical, emotional or mental, let us embrace it. And know that this is the way that God wants us to take because with faith and strength it will lead us to Him. It may take some time, perhaps thirty years, but we will get there. We only need to trust and obey God, the God of dark and light. The God of Abraham.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (July 7, 2006 issue)
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