A Dental Encounter

There is nothing more humbling to me than to be put in a situation where I have no control whatsoever.

And with that humility comes a need for a Savior.

Yesterday, we took our daughter Ahlana to the dentist to have several of her teeth removed. It was the first time our daughter would have a dental extraction, let alone have several at the same time. Aside from the extractions, she would also have several teeth fillings.

The procedure, along with our daughter’s age, required that she be put under sedation.

Needless to say, that as a concerned parent, I had more than a passing worry about the whole thing.

What if things go wrong? What if something happens to my daughter? What if we end up losing her during the process?

Those of you who are parents could perhaps understand and excuse my pessimism. We have only one daughter after all.

I cannot tell you how much I hate not being in control. I was raised by my family to be a man in charge and independent. I was made to realize that in this world, you cannot really trust anyone to do anything right, and that the most qualified person to do anything for myself was myself. There was no one else to help myself other than myself, and I had no one else to blame if something goes wrong, other than myself.

My family had their reasons for raising me this way. Conditions within Philippine society are such that it pays to be self-reliant.

But this upbringing did come with a price. And that price was that I found it hard to ever completely trust anyone. That and the fact that I hated not being in control of anything.

So when my wife and I were talking to the chief pediatric dentist and her anesthesiologist prior to the procedure, the foremost thought running through my mind was: “Can I really trust these people to do what is best for my daughter?”

The answer of course was that I can’t. Their waiver, which I had to sign prior to the procedure, said as much. There were too many unseen variables. Too many possibilities that things could go wrong.

It was a grim and sobering reminder that no matter how much we fool ourselves into thinking otherwise, the cold and hard fact is that we are not really fully in control of anything in our lives.

In a world where anything could go wrong, doubt is the quintessential posture that one adapts to.

And doubt was what gnawed at my soul the moment my wife and I gave the go ahead for the procedure. And like a ghastly bride accompanying her undead bridegroom, that doubt came with the cold touch of fear: the fear that something indeed might go wrong.

My daughter is old enough to realize that this was going to be an uncomfortable experience for her. She clung to her mother instinctively the moment the nurses came for her. The anesthesiologist tried to speak soothing words to her even as he hid the needle and syringe containing the sedative behind his back.

I tried my best to brace myself for what was to come. But as any parent would know, you can never truly prepare yourself to see your child in pain.

Hearing my daughter scream and cry as the needle plunged into her little arm was hard enough. But seeing her slowly go limp as the sedative did its work was beyond anything I’ve experienced before. I personally had to carry her to the dentist’s chair where the nurses strapped her in. I tried to speak words of comfort to her as I carried her. But instead of hugging me as she usually would, she just lay there limp in my arms, her dazed eyes looking up at me with her mouth half open. I had never seen her in this state before.

It was an incredible struggle fighting off the urge to just run out of there with my daughter. I fought desperately to keep my tears in check as the nurses calmly told me to leave the room.

It was at this moment that I realized why I needed God in my life.

When your loved one’s fate lay outside of your own hands, to whom do you put your trust in a world where nothing is ever certain?

My wife and I had been so agitated by the experience of seeing our daughter be put under sedation for the first time that we both had to go back to our car. There, we let ourselves go and cried to God to protect our daughter during the procedure. It was a trial of faith like none other we have experienced so far.

I would be a hypocrite if I said I believed in God and yet did not acknowledge His Sovereign Will over everything. He wouldn’t be God otherwise. And it was this Sovereign Will that I appealed to with prayer: that He would allow no harm to come to my daughter, and that the very same God who blessed us with her, would not choose to take her away at this moment.

Through the turbulence and swirling storm of my soul, His voice spoke in answer to my pleas:

Would you still love Me if I took away your daughter?

My thoughts were then filled with the image of the crucified Christ, hanging bloodied and dying, offering everything He had for love of His Father and of mankind.

God gave His one and only son for us. Could I do the same?

I realized that I could not.

In that moment, even as my heart was breaking with worry over my daughter, I acknowledged God for who He really is.

He alone is God. There is none like Him. There is no other Force who keeps the universe from falling into random chaos; no other Being who purposefully creates and destroys, and puts everything back together again.

If I couldn’t trust Him, then who can I trust?

“Let Your Will be done Lord. I will trust in You no matter what.” I prayed as my heart bowed down in worship.

And even as I continued to cry, my soul settled within me. It had found its solid ground.

My daughter is back to her old bubbly self again, sans four teeth of course, and with a few tooth fillings added in as a result of the experience.

As for myself, I too walked away from this dental encounter with a filling of my own: A God-sized one filling that hole within my soul that only He could fill.

To Him be all the Glory.

PS. Our thanks go out to all our relatives and friends who prayed with us over our daughter. May His Glory fill your lives as well!

A Hope Everlasting

I would like to open with another of life’s toughest questions:

What are we living our lives for?

Every day, I chance upon the faces of the multitudes going to and from work as I commute, and wonder what dreams, hopes and aspirations they have in life that they would endure the daily grind of the rat race.

Do they even have any hopes at all?

I sincerely believe that life is not possible without hope.

There must be something to be yearned for; some aspiration that sustains life at its dreariest and provides the impetus for growth.

Otherwise, what would be the meaning of it all, apart from merely eking out a living to bring food on the table?

If we were meant to live only to feed ourselves, then human civilization could have remained perfectly satisfied living in a subsistence economy that produces just enough for our nutritional needs.

Our history has shown us otherwise however, and thus proves the adage of Scripture:

Man does not live on bread alone.

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I have thought long and hard about the hopes that men have, and how they’ve fared in sustaining humanity in our journey through life.

I thought first about materialism and the desire for the accumulation of material wealth.

This would be the most obvious since we live in a material world.

There is no doubt that we need the material in order to survive. If work requires energy, then energy requires mass, as Albert Einstein postulated in his famous formula, E=mc², where “m” stands for mass (i.e. the material).

For us therefore, life is not possible without the material.

Is it not therefore, a legitimate hope to aspire for material wealth?

But then here is the catch: the material is impermanent.

I cannot tell you how difficult it was for me to accept that truth.

I had believed, as many others do (consciously or unconsciously), that the material represents the real. The “real world” as our knowledge and sciences would have it, consists of the material. Anything that is immaterial cannot be observed or studied, and therefore, does not exist. It is by the real and material that we base our lives upon.

It came as a shock therefore, to realize that all matter ultimately collapses into nothing.

Don’t believe me? Then try to look up the word “entropy” and the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

The physical universe is slowly but surely decaying. Our sciences confirm it. Nothing in the physical world is permanent.

Now let us look at the implications of this for those who hope and long for the material.

If the accumulation of material wealth is all you hope and work for in this life, then does it not bother you that all of what you worked for will ultimately and literally come to nothing?

When the disciples went with the Messiah to see the temple in Jerusalem, they marveled and wondered at the massive structure, thinking to themselves: “Ah, what a majestic structure! Look at these great stones that form its foundations! Surely, this temple will last forever!”

The Messiah answered them:

"As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down."

(Luke 21:6 NIV)

If the physical temple of God was not exempt from entropy, what more our own material wealth?

Our own physical bodies, being themselves material, are also subject to death and decay. Of what use will accumulated wealth be to us then?

In His parable of the rich fool, the Messiah describes how a rich man hoarded for himself the fruits of his labor. Thinking to live out the rest of his life in ease and luxury, the rich man sought to build bigger storehouses for his grain.

"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

(Luke 12:20 NIV)

If all our work and toil is to amass wealth that will ultimately come to nothing, then to hope for the material is nothing less than a delusion.

Materialism therefore, is self-defeating. It is a false hope.

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Then I thought about a second hope that man has: the rise and ascension to power.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines power as “the ability to do something or act in a particular way.”

A further definition by Merriam-Webster lists power as “possession of control, authority, or influence over others.”

By these definitions, humans are already born with some measure of power. Even a new-born baby for example, has the power to influence its parents for a bottle of milk when it cries.

This power increases accordingly as an individual grows and develops.

It is considered natural for humans to crave for more power, as it provides us with a sense of security and identity within our societies.

So we work for promotions, certifications and recognitions, study for diplomas, degrees and doctorates, and run for political offices and other positions of leadership and influence.

But do any of these truly provide us with a lasting sense of security?

If we work and compete our way to the top of our respective careers, will it be truly worth all the effort?

Human history is replete with men who have been considered the most powerful of their time: great Kings and Emperors wielding power over many peoples and nations. Were any of them truly happy with what they had?

Or did their pursuit of power only result in an insatiable hunger for more, thus dooming themselves to a life of emptiness?

Again, our history shows us that power is not permanent. Kingdoms and Empires rise and fall. Kings and Emperors die and fade into memory.

Power ultimately fails.

And so people living for the pursuit of power find themselves in a similar situation as those who live for material wealth: they are setting themselves up for a great and terrible loss.

Power, like wealth, is illusory and fleeting.

The ambition for power therefore, is also a false hope.

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Finally, I thought about the hope of getting the most pleasure out of life.

After being told that nothing is permanent, I believe it is only natural for a man to resort to hedonism. (I know I certainly did, at one point in my life.)

Life is about getting the most pleasurable experience out of everything. (By “pleasure”, I mean sensual pleasure that is derived from the physical senses of touch, sight, hearing, smelling, and taste.)

“If it feels good, then it must be right. After all, we’ll all end up being dead anyway.” So the sensual hedonist would say.

The Greek philosopher Epicurus came to a similar conclusion when he founded the Epicurean school of thought.

Death is the end of all things. Therefore, what matters is to attain pleasure in this life before the end.

Oh the price men would pay to gain a moment’s pleasure!

We only need look at commercial advertising to see that men are easily lured by the promises of the sensual.

Living a life in pursuit of pleasure however, can only culminate in pain. I have found this to be true on many levels.

A man who lives to eat and drink will eventually have to face the pain of countless medical conditions that such a lifestyle produces. The same goes for a man who lives for sexual pleasure.

And since we already established that all material things ultimately fade into nothing, finding pleasure solely in material things also inevitably end in the pain of loss.

I simply cannot imagine myself lying on my deathbed, knowing that I’ve lived a life dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure, only to realize that I’m ending it in pain.

The prophet Isaiah, seeing the wanton sensuality of his people during his time, wrote down these words:

But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! "Let us eat and drink," you say, "for tomorrow we die!" The LORD Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: "Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for," says the Lord, the LORD Almighty.
(Isaiah 22:13-14 NIV)

To live a life of pleasure only to end it in pain is both a tragedy and a travesty.

Sensual hedonism therefore, like materialism and the pursuit of power, is self-defeating.

It is yet another one of life’s false hopes.

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Scripture records the thoughts of King Solomon, reputedly the wisest, most powerful, and materially the richest king of Israel:

I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

(Ecclesiastes 2:8-11 NIV)

Here was a man who virtually attained everything that the world has to offer: wealth, power and sensual pleasure. And what does he have to say about it?

Nothing was gained under the sun.

The warning therefore is as clear as day: materialism, ambition for power and sensual hedonism are false and empty hopes.

Then why in Heaven’s name does humanity still cling to such hopes? Why do peoples, countries and nations continually aspire to these things?

In my personal case, the answer was so simple and obvious, it borders on the absurd:

It was because I didn’t know any better.

I suspect that many others would answer the same way.

If this is the case, then what hope is there for the ignorance of humankind? Is there something or someone who does know what is truly best for us? Someone who can provide us with a true and lasting hope?

My answer to that is an emphatic yes!

His Name is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, whose very name means “salvation from God”.

And His story is available to us through the accounts written in the book known as the Bible.

All we need do is to share His story to all humankind. For no one knows better how life works best, than the Author of Life Himself.

And we can trust in Him to know and understand about life’s false hopes, because He Himself had been tempted with the exact same false hopes prior to His ministry here on earth.

He had been tempted to depend on the material when Satan told Him to turn rocks into bread.

He had been tempted to rely on power when the Enemy told Him to publicly jump off a tall building, and command the angels to rescue Him to display His authority and power over the Heavenly Hosts.

And finally, He had been tempted with all of the pleasures of the world when Satan showed Him all that this world has to offer, in exchange for His subservience to evil.

The Messiah’s answer to all three temptations had been consistent with His teachings and the way He lived His life on this earth:

There is a God to whom we are all answerable to. It is in Him we should place our hopes.

His testimony was sealed by His suffering and death on the cross at Calvary: an event He could have easily avoided or run away from, yet deliberately chose to subject Himself to, in order to show the strength and completeness of His conviction and hope.

His choice to be subjected to the humiliation and suffering of the cross was proven justified by His resurrection, proving that not even death can destroy His hope, the very same hope that He offers for humankind:

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12 NIV)

Here then is real hope. Hope that will not fade nor fail us. It is the hope for the eternal.

And the eternal is God Himself.

As I go through the daily grind, I wade into the teeming masses who push, shove and jostle themselves to be ahead of the race.

Some of them do it for material wealth. Some of them do it for power and recognition. Some do it, in the hopes of attaining some measure of worldly pleasure at the end of it all.

What are we living our life for?

Have we placed our hopes on that which is fleeting and perishing?

Or have we set our eyes on the infinite?

It is my fervent prayer that we will all allow the Messiah to tear the veil of false hopes that this world has laid over our eyes, and allow us to see the face of the Holiest of Holies, the Lord of the Heavenly Hosts, and the one true source of hope everlasting.

May His name be glorified forever.

Soli Deo Gloria.