A Few Hours Past Tragedy

I just had the greatest day of my life walking out of a recent tragedy. It’s not my own though and I would clearly agree there’s no such thing as “greatest” and “tragedy” piling up on the same line. You seldom see people smiling after a great loss; you seldom share laughter with people who are supposed to be in pain.

But I am a few hours past that encounter; we just visited a friend who has just recently experienced so great a loss that the usual remuneration would be a trip to the dark corner of your room, and emptiness that would out sleep your guts, a fiery silence that would harness the greatest questions out of life.

Maybe it is just a straightforward testimony of how the grace of God is really sufficient for all of us. No matter how big the waves you are facing, no matter how loud the lion roars, nothing beats a still, silent heart in utter knowledge that “God knows”.

I remember this phrase from a book that I scanned a few hours earlier; it talks about the atrocities that Christians in China are experiencing. It holds in full account how lives are shattered because of faith. A few words from a missionary that I did not have the luxury of time to know speak something like this.

“After knowing how the Christian converts are being arrested and harassed and harmed; we just lift the burden with ease to God, and knowing that He knows we are comforted in overcoming this great tragedy”

“Lift the burden with ease to God”

It’s close to impossible right? Clearly it's grace that enables anyone to face opposition with ease, to counter chaos with silence, to render truth calmly amidst a rage of fallacy.

Praise God for the opportunity to witness grace at work in other people’s lives. How wonderful our God is, how vast is His wisdom and provision that His purpose never fails. His sovereign will defy all other life-long scientific proven truths. The One who defied gravity has done great things, more than enough, just in time.

Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?
Jeremiah 32:27

A Hooligan’s Day Out

Shock and awe, a group of intrepid looking men with blood on the tip of their fingers lurks on the foggy street of an unknown neighborhood. Behind them is a miniature gasping for life, seemingly hopeless but not. For the sake of the macabre influence of this writing, the blood belongs to that fading voice.

“Lord, do not hold this sin against them”

Just a few hours ago, the streets are filled with death-hungry people, in each of their hands were stones of different sizes. The sentence was meted out, this person deserves to die. According to the “law of the people”, he was a blasphemer. When in fact his only fault was that the “learned” Jews could not stand up against his wisdom or by the Spirit by whom he spoke.

He was among the seven whom the twelve disciples chose as full of the Spirit and wisdom. And amidst the accusations being thrown at him, his face looked like the face of an angel as all who were sitting on the Sanhedrin saw.

“Lord Jesus receive my spirit”

With all faith, knowing that the God he serves who has promised will never fail, he left his murderers with a genuine “shock and awe”. He spoke forgiveness, every moment of his last breath were spent with the blessing of forgiveness to each fiery hands that made sure his bones would crush, his skull would break open, his flesh would bleed, to all of this things even death, the crowd succeeded except for one.

They threw stones with one thing in mind, they thought Stephen would recommend them to Satan with a broken heart, but the opposite thing happened;

He spoke in behalf of all of them.

“Lord, do not hold this sin against them”

I remember a grudge that I had with a college pal, he said I was not good enough to reach the cyber world in front of the whole cyber community. I did not spoke to him for weeks. It’s a lame comparison I know, but that’s how I am when it comes to holding grudges to people who would oppose me. Yeah right, compared to Stephen I’m a hooligan and I took a day out when I remembered his story. In fact writing about it became more of an obstacle when it’s supposed to be a lesson to be learned.

Come to think of it, I reached the cyber world, still lame though.

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you
Lewis B. Smedes