01/11/2022
December is coming and it is traditionally regarded as the happiest month of the year. It's the holiday season. But, in the aftermath of Typhoon Paeng, which killed hundreds and destroyed infrastructure and agriculture in Visayas, Mindanao and Luzon, are there grounds to celebrate and hope for a better New Year a week from now?
Based on television interviews with Paengโs victims who have found themselves suddenly "homeless and despairing," it is difficult to imagine them reclaiming the luxurious lifestyles they had earned through decades of effort.
A sad old man grieved to a TV reporter, "I am too old to work again for a living." The crumbling concrete walls behind him suggested that he had constructed a house with his savings.
It is really terrifying to imagine that people who are supposed to be resting on their laurels because they have reached retirement age and are tired of working could suddenly lose everything to natural calamities.
Imagine a farmer who loses a potentially abundant rice harvest due to an "act of God." Suddenly, he is degraded to poverty, if not buried below for forever.
Even so, there are measures that can be taken to reduce the severity of disasters. A common belief is that God will not put us through anything we cannot handle.
But what else do we have besides words of hope to get over being negative? We need to keep in mind that as long as there is life, there is hope. Why shouldn't we dream and go after those dreams if they can help us deal with harsh realities?
I gathered some inspiring speeches and eternal words of famous persons that can gave us courage and faith to heal.
Quotes:
โWe are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.โ โ Oscar Wilde
โItโs not about how hard you can hit; itโs about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. โโRocky Balboa in the movie Rocky
โIf you are working on something that you really care about, you donโt have to be pushed. The vision pulls you. โ- Steve Jobs
When things go well, we feel happy, and when things go wrong, we learn something.
So, may their words guide us as we rush through another year of adventures, leaving behind the sad memories of this year, even if we were hurt by typhoons, floods, landslides, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.
To religious people who are also superstitious, every natural disaster is a direct punishment from God for all of our sins.
Why should we blame God when we are the ones who "sin" against nature? Illegal logging, which depletes forest cover and causes lethal flooding, is an example of such a "sin."
Because of what a few people did wrong, even the good people have to suffer.
On the bright side, we recognize this "punishment" as a wake-up call. It awakens us to the fact that we are not the proprietors of the earth and its material riches, but rather temporary stewards.
As David wrote in Psalm 24:1, โThe earth belongs to the Lord, and everything in itโ the world and all its people.โ
