By Fr. Roy Cimagala
THAT’S the attitude to develop and to have in this life where we can expect undesirable things to come our way. Yes, there are options we make that in spite of our best efforts, turn out to be wrong in the end. And there will also be unfavorable conditions in our life that we cannot avoid. All kinds of tragedies and disasters can come. In all these things, let’s remember that there is always an upside.
Before all these, our attitude should be that of a good sportsman with a good sense of humor, knowing that as long as we stick with the Lord all the time, we know that everything will turn out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28)
These negative experiences can, in fact, impart in us many precious lessons and can occasion the development of many good virtues, like patience, hope and optimism, flexibility and versatility, toughness, etc. Worrying does not help. It can only make things worse.
These experiences can lead us to be more spiritual and supernatural in our outlook in life which is what is proper to us as persons and as children of God. We can become better persons through them. Our differences and conflicts with others can also be transcended as we are forced to work together to resolve a common problem. Nothing is actually a loss. Rather, we can enjoy a tremendous gain.
It is good that we consider this fact more thoroughly so that instead of being afraid of these unwanted events, we just have to prepare ourselves for them with a positive outlook and the proper spiritual and material readiness.
We are already warned in the Book of Ecclesiastes that there is time for everything (cfr 3,1) and that we should just enjoy what we are doing (cfr 3,22), instead of filling ourselves with fear and anxiety. We have to learn to be sport and game in this exciting and suspenseful life of ours.
The important thing to do is to simply ride things out, but always with the Lord. If our faith is strong and deep, we know that the Lord has already turned all the bad conditions of our life into a way of our sanctification and salvation, the most important purpose of our life here on earth. Indeed, we can afford to smile and to feel confident in all these bad experiences we can have.
There can be no worse thing in our life than the very passion and death of Christ on the cross, which we know was his way of bearing all the sins and evils we commit and get involved in this world. And yet, that passion and death led to his resurrection, the conquest and victory over all our sins and the negative things in our life. If we stick with him in our bad conditions, we too are assured of conquest and victory.
Let’s always remember that God never leaves us. We have to immediately dismiss the temptation of thinking that God has left us alone in certain moments. Only with him can the perishable things become imperishable.
We should make this truth of our faith vividly imprinted in our mind and heart as we go through the drama of our life or, better said, the very thrilling game of our life. That is why we need to spend time and effort to make this truth of our faith an abiding conviction in us. And we should be most eager to spread this Good News to everyone, especially to the young ones who still need to have a more complete picture of things.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com