Typhoon Ondoy
The past several days have been hectic. Not mine personally, but around me it has been. I'm still trying to absorb everything that is happening and hoping to learn from it all.
I've been watching this youtube clip about preparing for natural disasters, especially floods in urban areas. And as the host was interviewing a survivor of hurricane katrina, she said something which made me think. She said that her advice if you want to survive in a time like that is this: don't panic.
How easier said than done really. Even as Christians, we fail in this area many times. Our fears get the best of us. And during a calamity, during a storm, during one of these unexpected moments in life which just shake our world, the immediate reaction is fear.
And yet we know that the antidote to fear is faith. But when this things happen to us: we somehow forget to act upon our faith. Even our calls for help to God are enclosed in fear-filled cries of help.
Much like the disciples when Jesus was sleeping amidst the storm. Its easy for us to panic. No matter how "mature" we are in our faith, fear is an emotion which easily sways us. Like the disciples who were supposed to be fishermen and more than capable of handling themselves, they looked frighteningly at their teacher, whose own career background was carpentry, to save them from a storm.
Fear can overcome us. And it usually does. More so in unexpected circumstances.
Even right now, I try to fight the fear that threatens to build up inside of me as I hear a super typhoon which newscasters say are threatening to hit Manila again in the coming days. They are saying that in terms of wind strength, Ondoy is only half of what this next typhoon's strength is.
I think most would be unanimous in saying that it's almost unthinkable for another storm to hit us when we even haven't started to recover from this previous storm.
So how can we not be afraid of this potential danger? It would be normal, humanly speaking to cringe in fear. We can only cry out, Lord we can't take anymore. What will happen if this too happens?
I am now left to come face to face with my fears. Of the uncertainty. Of the danger that storms do carry. But I also left to choose whether or not I will panic or I will choose to be still, to trust God, to have faith in Him. That He will carry us through, even in the literal storms of life that we face.
I've been watching this youtube clip about preparing for natural disasters, especially floods in urban areas. And as the host was interviewing a survivor of hurricane katrina, she said something which made me think. She said that her advice if you want to survive in a time like that is this: don't panic.
How easier said than done really. Even as Christians, we fail in this area many times. Our fears get the best of us. And during a calamity, during a storm, during one of these unexpected moments in life which just shake our world, the immediate reaction is fear.
And yet we know that the antidote to fear is faith. But when this things happen to us: we somehow forget to act upon our faith. Even our calls for help to God are enclosed in fear-filled cries of help.
Much like the disciples when Jesus was sleeping amidst the storm. Its easy for us to panic. No matter how "mature" we are in our faith, fear is an emotion which easily sways us. Like the disciples who were supposed to be fishermen and more than capable of handling themselves, they looked frighteningly at their teacher, whose own career background was carpentry, to save them from a storm.
Fear can overcome us. And it usually does. More so in unexpected circumstances.
Even right now, I try to fight the fear that threatens to build up inside of me as I hear a super typhoon which newscasters say are threatening to hit Manila again in the coming days. They are saying that in terms of wind strength, Ondoy is only half of what this next typhoon's strength is.
I think most would be unanimous in saying that it's almost unthinkable for another storm to hit us when we even haven't started to recover from this previous storm.
So how can we not be afraid of this potential danger? It would be normal, humanly speaking to cringe in fear. We can only cry out, Lord we can't take anymore. What will happen if this too happens?
I am now left to come face to face with my fears. Of the uncertainty. Of the danger that storms do carry. But I also left to choose whether or not I will panic or I will choose to be still, to trust God, to have faith in Him. That He will carry us through, even in the literal storms of life that we face.
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