Photo from Reuters
After everybody has blogged about Typhoon Ondoy, I am just about to start. Aside from my personal storms, my head was rather empty these past weeks and my heart was so heavy as well to see our fellowmen suffering this way. And this time, the calamity did not just hit the poor. This time, we see both the rich and the poor queuing to get their ration from relief-giving entities. One lesson here, no one is beyond the wrath of nature, or more appropriately the hand of God. Rich or poor, we are all the same where God is concerned–we are all His creation–well, that is, if one believes in God. But since I am writing this and am a believer, I will relate to these calamities as the hand of God against the country.
I will not get spiritual here however. I just want to appreciate the fact that many people went out of their way to help in whatever and however way they can–time, effort, money, used clothing, food, comfort, etc. These are truly our day to day heroes. The sacrificed themselves in order to give and help people who are more needy than them. But another set of people also surfaced–the looters and those taking advantage of the limelight and the situation in order to advance in the political race of 2010. If they become heroes in the eyes of the people in this trying time, then they have the surefire way to win the hearts of the people–and their votes.
Many people have also given of their money in support of noble programs to clean up and rehabilitate flooded areas, as well as to at least temporarily relieve the situations of our hapless fellowmen. I just hope that the entities entrusted with these funds will use them properly and not waste the resources on extravagant gestures.
Our country has experienced another painful tragedy with the loss of lives and the destruction of so much property that is estimated to be P5 billion already. If this is still not reminder enough for all of us to return to God, I don’t know what else will. In this country that claims to be a Christian nation and yet bows down to the holidays of the Muslims and makes the death of a religious cult to be a national holiday, it is no wonder that we are incurring the wrath of God. And why not? We claim to be Christians and worship other gods? The bible says that we cannot serve two masters. Who are we deceiving? The people of God during biblical times experienced so much destruction just because they turned their backs on God. And we are doing it all over again.
We need leaders whose hearts are attuned to God. We need people who love and fear the Lord to lead us. We need people whose morality is based not on worldly standards but on what the Bible says, after all, they swear on oath to serve the people over a bible. In the bible, the Jewish people experienced peace and prosperity when their leader or king was faithful to the Lord. Isn’t that an eye opener?
Let’s think about this.