Everyone knows what happened to Japan. The tsunami and the earthquake with 8.9 magnitude. Actually, I decided not to blog about the disaster but early this morning, while I was at work, I saw my friend's status (who is in Japan) in facebook saying that there are still aftershocks in their place which made me do this one.
Last Sunday, while I was listening to a homily that tackles about the said disaster, the pastor said that all that is happening is written in the bible and we must not fear. In the homily, we read about this verses in the bible:
Matthew 24:4-14 states that:
Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Yes, it is written and it will happen. God's word is always true and everything that He says will happen so we must not be afraid. In fact, we must be stronger. There are many questions that will come into our minds but those will only be answered at the right time. All we can do now is to pray and pray and have faith that whatever happens in every part of the world has a purpose.
We must also be responsible of our brothers and sisters all over the world. In line with this, I want to share this prayer (Source: Paulo Coelho's Blog) that I hope, every reader (of this blog) must pray as a sign of our concern for our neighbors in Japan and in other places who are suffering from disasters and other calamities:
Lord, protect our planet, because we live here, and here we dwell with our daily tragedies.
May our daily reconstruction be the result of the very best that we carry within us.
Give us the courage to be able to reconstruct what was destroyed to be able to recover what was lost, to be able to accept what was gone forever.
May you give us courage to look ahead, may we never look back nor allow our soul to be discouraged.
Lord, give us enthusiasm, because Enthusiasm reaffirms to us that everything is possible, as long as we are totally committed to what we are doing.
Lord, may the Earth continue to transform seeds into wheat, may we continue to transmute wheat into bread. Do not leave us in solitude.
Have compassion on us, Lord. For we often think we are dressed when we are naked.
Do not forget, in your mercy, our friends in Japan, who are now teaching us the meaning of Courage, Reconstruction, Solidarity and Enthusiasm.
Amen
Strong faith and good communication with God is what we need right now. Slowly, we can see that we can do nothing but pray when something like this happen. Also, let us be responsible with each other, have concern for those who are in need. Give help if we can. And if not, the best help that we can give them is our prayers. Let us practice a neighborly love as Luke 10:27 says "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself."
Lady Gaga designed a "we pray for Japan" bracelet as her way of helping Japan
Let us also remember that we can talk to God and tell everything to Him anytime. He is always there to listen whenever we want to talk to Him. He is just waiting for us to call.
Again and again, I will say, maybe, it is the time to go back to basics. Let's read and spread God's word for us to understand even just a bit of what is happening around us.
And to our brothers and sisters in Japan, we will all pray for you.
xoxo
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