God Cares

Be strong!
It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long,
Faint not, fight on!
Tomorrow comes the song.
Malthie D. Babcock

There comes a time in our life when we tend to question many things that happen around us. Some of us express doubts on the providence of God, when trials and difficulties come our way. It seems that God is a loving and caring God only when things are happening according to our plan but otherwise, He is distant and does not participate in our daily affairs. In my years in the religious life I have met a number of people who have got this kind of attitudinal belief. But I have been also blessed to meet people whose deep faith was instrumental in nurturing my own.

When I was young in religious life, I met a woman who was a mother of three grown-up children. I was privileged to hear her story. It was a journey through innumerable trials that led her through darkness and light. Her husband died of accident. Shortly thereafter, her eldest daughter, rebelling on the loss of the father ran away with her boyfriend. The son, next to the eldest got hooked on drugs, while the youngest was becoming a problem student at school. The problems at home as well as her personal problem brought about by the loss of her husband were like a millstone that was crushing her to the ground. However, her deep faith in the Lord sustained her through it all. She told me how many times she had cried out in pain, but deep in her heart she believed the Lord had a reason why He allowed these things to happen. I was so taken up by the lady’s story I did not know I was already shedding tears. She stopped talking and smiled at me ruefully. She apologized for having made me cry.

This lady and many others like her whom I have met in various instances through the years have helped me in many ways to live my faith meaningfully. We always say that experience is the best teacher. True, and when we talk of experience, we don’t only talk of our own and learn from it but from others as well. So many occasions will always come in our lives when we will be called to renew our faith in the love of God for us. May the example of this lady and other people like her give us consolation to face our own difficulties with courage and determination.