(This began as a question: what’s the most important thing in life? to which my brother answered- in jest I hope- wealth. I began with “Faith, Knowledge, & Love. Then next are Health, Happiness and Wealth.” I intended to explain each virtue and why I think they’re important, but I got stuck in Love. Don’t I always?)
Knowledge is useless without faith. Knowing what is right doesn’t do any good unless you have the motivation to do it. The right knowledge: knowing the reason for our existence and having absolute certainty of it, and believing beyond what our eyes can see, that is the kind of faith that goes beyond following blindly.
For most people, the presence of Love is essential for one’s happiness. The absence of a partner or espouse doesn’t mean love will be absent also. There’s the love of parents, of brother’s and sisters, of family. Their love is steadier than your friend’s and that of the girl you like or that boy you hope for. And beyond this, and before this: is the Love of God. We should not forget that God created the world and everything in it. That includes everything and everyone in it. Whoever loved one you have now, be grateful to God for it. And remember that your heart is still beating at this very moment only because of God’s grace, the only reason that I am able to write this, and that you are able to read this.
It has been said that Love is that state when the happiness of the beloved is essential to one’s own. When you are in love, nothing breaks your heart more than the thought that the person is displeased with you and doesn’t want to be with you. Or to put it simply, doesn’t love you anymore. Seen in this light, then the Love of God is the same as Fear of God. Those with enough faith refrain from forbidden things because they fear God’s punishment, but those with great faith and love God shun those things because they cannot bear the thought that God will be displeased with them and choose not to be with them on the Day of Judgment.
When you truly love someone, you want to be with that someone. When you are apart, you wish you can be together again soon. And those who love God look forward to being with God forever.
“We all belong to God, and to God we all shall return.”
Life in this world is temporary, like working abroad, and we will all go home eventually. The question is: what state will we be in when we return to God? Will it be like that of a prisoner being lead to an execution, or that of a loved one returning home after being away for a lifetime?
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Fragile
I saw a man get hit by a car yesterday after work. I actually "heard" more than I saw, although I was looking at the general direction of the accident not far away from me. It was 3am in the morning and the street was dark. I heard a loud thud, saw a yellow car slow down to a halt, then heard a man yelling.
"That guy is dead," said a motorcycle driver although he didn't approach the victim. I came closer and saw the a Korean man on his knees while clutching at the driver who got off his car. He was wailing like a child. I think he was drunk. Laying on the ground was another Korean, an elderly man, he barely moved at all. There's a tiny pool of blood around his head on the ground. The people around didn't do anything at all, just looked on. Except a woman trying to make a call on his celphone. She's trying to call an ambulance, I thought.
I didnt stay to observe. I felt bad that the people didn't do anything at all. I know you're not supposed to move an accident victim unless you're trained for it. I just thought if that was in Cotabato people would have carried the guy to the hospital on a car or a passing jeepney. Back home, if you waited for an ambulance you would probably die right there. No ambulance will come for you.
Part of me wanted to stay and see what happens next, but I didn't want to watch a man die. There's something sickening with the thought that a someone can be a living, breathing person one minute - someone who feels and thinks and you can communicate with- can be just a lifeless body the next minute.
COme to think of it, I have never seen anyone die...I wonder how doctors and nurses deal with it? Must be a numbing experience.
I saw a man get hit by a car yesterday after work. I actually "heard" more than I saw, although I was looking at the general direction of the accident not far away from me. It was 3am in the morning and the street was dark. I heard a loud thud, saw a yellow car slow down to a halt, then heard a man yelling.
"That guy is dead," said a motorcycle driver although he didn't approach the victim. I came closer and saw the a Korean man on his knees while clutching at the driver who got off his car. He was wailing like a child. I think he was drunk. Laying on the ground was another Korean, an elderly man, he barely moved at all. There's a tiny pool of blood around his head on the ground. The people around didn't do anything at all, just looked on. Except a woman trying to make a call on his celphone. She's trying to call an ambulance, I thought.
I didnt stay to observe. I felt bad that the people didn't do anything at all. I know you're not supposed to move an accident victim unless you're trained for it. I just thought if that was in Cotabato people would have carried the guy to the hospital on a car or a passing jeepney. Back home, if you waited for an ambulance you would probably die right there. No ambulance will come for you.
Part of me wanted to stay and see what happens next, but I didn't want to watch a man die. There's something sickening with the thought that a someone can be a living, breathing person one minute - someone who feels and thinks and you can communicate with- can be just a lifeless body the next minute.
COme to think of it, I have never seen anyone die...I wonder how doctors and nurses deal with it? Must be a numbing experience.
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