Can Anyone be Addicted to God?

There are instances where people who were addicted to things like money, power, luxury, recognition, or pride give up on those things when the love of God touches their heart. God actually finds ingenious ways to touch the hearts of those people who are addicted to worldly things. One of the most effective way He uses is by allowing suffering to enter the lives of those whom He wishes to touch. During the times of trials and tribulations, many tend to turn to God seeking relief from the desperate situations that they are in. Once a person discerns the presence of God - the warmth of His gentle and comforting love - there is no going back. Once we realize that the life offered by God through Jesus Christ is worth more than anything we ever possessed, it is easy to trade our life, with all of its riches and relationships, for a life in Christ. But many would argue that when somebody give up their worldly pleasures for joy in Christ, all they are doing is trading one addiction in for a different one. But is that really so, is it possible to be addicted to God?

I am not Perfect and That's not All That Bad

There is a misconception among many that people who pray a lot and attend Mass and other church services regularly are really good people. Recently somebody told me that they have lost their faith mostly because of the hypocrisy of people who prays a lot - people like renewed catholics. This person further went onto explain that they used to have a lot of respect for Charismatic preachers and other members of the prayer group. Then they had the opportunity to be in close contact with one for an extended period of time. They said that it was disappointing to see a normal person who was prone to anger, impatience, and harshness. They were expecting a holy man, somebody filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, and chastity (the 12 Fruits of the Holy Spirit), but realized that the person is nothing more than a regular human being. They told me that it made them realize that people who go around to preach and pray are just phony. This person went onto say that it has created a deep wound in their mind that they even begun to doubt their own faith. They said that they can't understand why God, who knows that this person was phony, listened to this person's prayers because it turned out this person's intercessory prayers were really effective. They thought that they too was living a life similar to the charismatic person, but all of their prayers to God had gone to deaf ears.

Temptation: Then and Now

It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out. - demon Screwtape, from The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis.

One of the things that the Bible clearly states in the Book of Genesis is that God had made everything that the man and woman would need prior to their creation. And upon human creation, God also made them rulers of all else that were created. There was no room for dissatisfaction - everything was there in abundance for them to enjoy. Then the question is: How did the satan so easily convinced them to disobey God? What great offer could the satan have given Eve that compelled her to go against God? Did God actually forgot to create something that man would have wanted and did satan took advantage of this lapse from God's part?

You will not be overcome

What do you do when nothing make sense; when plans fall apart and all seems to be ruined? The temptation to despair is ever present in our lives. And most of the time, it is the easiest path to take. But for an outsider looking in, it is hard to figure out why those in despair could not just find happiness in things that they have, rather than worrying about things they want, until it hit home, when they themselves become desperate. Sinking fast into an abyss of negative thoughts, they too will soon realize that when expectations fall apart, senselessness becomes the only behavior that make sense. So is hope a bad thing? Is it better not to hope at all? But is it even possible to not to have hope?

The Curious Case of Lance Armstrong - Part 2

In today's world, more than ever, people go hungry. There is a shortage of truthfulness in societies all over the world regardless of their physical abundance or lack of it. Appearance and illusion has taken over us; there is no longer any substance to anything, reality has become a relative term. The problem with illusion is that it exists only on the surface - anybody who bothers to dig into it will be faced with this enormous emptiness. But human beings cannot thrive in emptiness because we are meant to share the fullness of God in Christ (cf. Colossians 2:9). Therefore, the humanity today is poor: we desperately seek the truth and authenticity without even realizing it.

Should religion be kept private?

Though most of the religions exist to point the way to God, there are significant differences between these religions. For example, one could argue that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all professes about the same God; yet there are so many irreconcilable differences between the three. Not only that, both Christianity and Islam are sharply criticized over the centuries about their aggressive style of expansion. Though not much in the last few centuries, Christianity had been blamed for annihilating many cultures, their traditions, and their literary and art work in the name of religious conversion. In today's society, it seems like Muslims are often associated with violence and intolerance, promoting terrorism as a means to establish their presence. And Israel, a tiny nation in the Middle east, gives us the notion that it is the epicenter of civil unrest in that entire region. And this is only the tip of the iceberg if you factor in the Hindu-Muslim conflicts, and also the friction that exist within fractions of these religions. 

GOD: The What and The Who

Trying to understand God or the Supreme Being is a tricky proposition. There are two ways to you can pursue your knowledge of God: You can ask "What is God?" or "Who is God?". The first is a philosophical question that requires no backing from any religion. According to this view God is an impersonal Being - a supernatural phenomenon that exists in the universe and beyond the universe. Philosophy doesn't offer any clear consensus on the nature or attributes of God, rather it offer explanations such as God exists objectively and independently of human thought. 

Is God too big to fit into one religion?

Using "Is there a God" and "Religion: What is it"?, I tried to come to a conclusion that there is a God or a Supreme Being, and humans use religion to reach out to God. But there are so many religions in this world, and most of them are in existence to help human beings to guide the way - to point them to God. Monotheistic religions such as Judaism follows a God who is high up there  - simply uttering His name in vain could be considered as blasphemy. The glory and grandeur of this Jewish God is so frightening that you might get the sense of a highly impersonal god.

Religion: What is it?

While discussing about the existence of God (Is there a God?), I briefly discussed what set humans apart from animals. Saint Thomas Aquinas, as part of his fourth proof 'gradation', used human being's ability to reason to place them on a higher level than animals. Rationality provides us with the tools to think logically and choose intellectually. This unique ability of humans to reason also make it not only amazing but also strange that majority of the human beings believe in the supernatural. Even with all the logical thinking and free will available to our disposal, we choose to believe that there is something or someone else out there that is invisible to us, but somehow plays a vital role in our very existence. 

Is there a God?

"How do you know God exists?" It is a simple question with both a simple and complicated answer. It is simple for a faithful believer because faith is believing in something or someone you cannot see, or accepting something that cannot be proven as true. Faith doesn't require proof, or you don't need faith to believe in something already proven. Majority of the religious believers regardless of whether they are Christian, Muslim, Jew or Hindu accept the existence of God not due to revelations, but because of their faith. 

Lost in Knowledge; Lacking in Wisdom

Yet another year is upon us. Even with my optimistic glasses on, I am afraid that I don't anticipate a sudden and significant change in issues plaguing our society. Pain and misery still exists in the midst of all the scientific and technological advancements that we have experienced in the recent history. One might even argue that sufferings and influence of evil have a tighter grip on us than ever before. Wealth, convenience and abundance have failed to bring us true happiness and satisfaction. We live in a society that is overloaded with knowledge - almost everybody is a 'how-to guru'. Unfortunately as individuals we lack the wisdom to sort through the clutter of knowledge to identify what matters to us. I have this humble opinion that, more than ever, we need guidance to navigate through the overbearing load of information and knowledge. I believe that we live in a time where we need to re-examine our notion of the validity of a Church that looks old and the significance of the Word of God that seems ancient and out of touch with reality. Everyday more and more people are distancing themselves from the God, His word and His Church. People find it hard to link our everyday problems with a book that was written thousands of years ago. But can the word of God through the Church provide us with the wisdom to sort through our daily mess and find peace and happiness in a sinful world?

My problem with "My Jesus"

Jesus is a lot more than the God-made-man and the Redeemer for most of His followers. By taking a human form, Jesus encourages us to have a personal relationship with Him - something we don't quite able to do with God the Father or the Holy Spirit. "My Jesus" is a term we are very much comfortable with especially in times of sorrows and troubles. Having an understanding that Jesus is with us in our sufferings and sorrows help us to cope with it better. 

The Truth behind Joseph's 'agony' and Mary's 'pain'

Here is a familiar scene from the Nativity: It is the eve of Jesus' birth, and Joseph and Mary just arrived in Bethlehem. Mary is in the early stages of labor pain and Joseph is desperately knocking on every door in search of boarding. The Redeemer of the world is about to arrive and there is no room for Him in a world He has created! But is that what really happened at the eve of Jesus' birth, or is it just another Hollywood's version of what happened? 

The way HE looks at us

So here is a fantasy with some reality mixed in: Let's say God sits in front of a giant screen all day. On that screen, everything everybody thinks and does appears instantly. HE watches everything, nothing is hidden. Now comes the fantasy part - you won some reality show on TV, and as the winner you get to spend an entire day with God. You will be sitting next to Him, drinking Kool-aid and watching the world. It will be a chance to look at people like God does, "to explore the mind and test the heart" (Jeremiah 17:10a).

There will be blood

A school, especially an elementary school, would easily be considered as a safe haven for kids. It is an essential place in the development of any kid - a place where we learn to adapt to our life, with the help of grown ups. A classroom is also a place where kids naturally feel  safe. A nation is in pain and the world shocked upon hearing about a coldblooded killer who trespassed into the safety zone of kids only to shoot them point blank one after the other. We are outraged about the senselessness and insanity associated with the incident. We can feel our stomach churn while looking at the pictures of the innocent lives that were taken away for no apparent reasons. Without taking anything away from the pain and sufferings of that community, I must ask, "Are we truly upset and outraged about the murder of the most defenseless of our citizens in a place where they should be most protected?"

The Question of God and Tragedies

As the world prepares for the arrival the Prince of Peace, a heartbreaking and unforgettable tragedy beset the town of Newtown, Connecticut on Friday December 14th. 20 year-old Adam Lanza went on a shooting spree that left 20 children and 8 adults, including himself and his mother, dead. Authorities are desperately seeking a reason for Lanza's actions, in hopes of bringing some sort of closure to those who are involved. In the coming days, I am sure the news media will be at it full time trying to dissect everybody involved - the shooter, the victims, and their families. We will hear about heroes and how they helped to prevent a much bigger tragedy from occurring. Of course, we will also get to hear about the culprit - everything from his Facebook account to a possible history of mental illness. Unfortunately, something also tells me that we might also hear from people who looks squarely on TV cameras and utter in disbelief: "How could God allow this to happen?". 

I failed to see the "Light" in Lucy

On Wednesday of this week I tried to write a new article only to realize that I am running on empty - I had nothing to write about. That never happened before since I started blogging. So I decided to wait it out and did my usual readings hoping to get a spark. But nothing. Could it be that I have done or wrote something horrible that God deemed me not worthy to write anymore, the doubter in me began to poke its ugly head by the evening. I usually resort to praying when the doubter shows up since I don't know how else to combat him. Then I had an inspiration to write about "light". And it made sense because we are in the Advent season, the Season of light. So I did that last article "Let there be light". But I felt something missing from that article, as if that's not what I was suppose to write. But I didn't know what else to write about light, so I left it alone.

Gauging My Faith

The Crucifixion of St. Peter
Caravaggio, 1600 AD

There times when I wonder how strong my faith is. This question becomes even more valid as I am getting ready to join a small group of faithful lay people in our church to form a forum with the intention of promoting faith within the community. 

Over the last year, I was blessed enough to meet many people whose faith is incomprehensible to me. I know a doctor who who uses his office to hold Bible studies in the evenings. I know an unemployed man who spends all day making rosaries to raise money for the needy. Then there are a lot of people in between these two - people who are willing to do anything without any regard of the consequences, in the love of Christ Jesus. I don't think any of them have benefitted significantly for doing what they do. If anything, their lives are filled with sacrifices - both personal and financial.  But somehow they were able to stay in their faith and grow in their faith. I often thank God for placing me in the company of people with strong faith, because I have a tendency to be proud about my achievements - whether it be faith, health or wealth. But a glimpse of these people is more than enough to me bring me back on to earth and fills me with the reality that my faith is anything but solid.

Hating God

Looking back at my life away from God, I can say it with certainty that I never hated God. But I also know that there is nothing in that awareness for me to be proud about. No, I am not being humble here. The only reason I could say with certainty that I didn't hate God is because I never cared about God. So what's my point? Here it is: In order for for somebody to hate God, they need to believe in God. Not just any god, but they need to believe in an All-powerful, Almighty, Omnipresent, Omniscient God.

Atheists have no reason to hate God - how could anyone hate someone or something that doesn't exist? I can't understand the mindset of an atheist any way (I never was an atheist, I was an agnostic. Yes I know, nothing to be proud about). On one hand they go around and tell everybody that there is no such thing called an absolute truth, then on the other hand they proclaim the non-existence of God as a definite truth. They credit the existence of humans to mere chance, an accidental byproduct of time, matter and energy - something the nature failed to abort in time. It is like your parents telling you that you were conceived by accident, that they never wanted you to be born. On top of it, they are also telling you that since you are created by accident, there is no particular purpose for your existence. Just dine, dance and die. If you ask me, that is a way grim way to look at life. No wonder suicide rates are much higher in educated societies than the uneducated poor societies of the world. Atheists take hope away from life. But why would anybody want to live in this world filled with pain and sufferings, if there is nothing to hope for - either in this life or the next?

Talking about hope, I believe hope is what gets God in trouble. Of all the hardships we face in our lives, there is nothing more torturous than the simple act of waiting. Hope require waiting; God's timetable is password protected, we don't have access to it. And that is a problem. If I am out of work and my wife and kids are eating dust to survive, or if I am a widow whose husband died in an accident a year ago and just got news that my only kid is diagnosed with terminal cancer, or if I am a recovering drug addict who prays constantly for mental strength but only see an increase in tempting circumstances, then I would have a problem with that timetable that God is keeping. Because I can't think of a better time for God to intervene than now. Am I suppose to be hopeful when my wife leave me and the starving kids to have a new life with my best (ex)friend? How about watching my son dying slowly in the midst of mind numbing pain? Am I to blame for failing to resist constant temptations and getting drawn back into a life of addiction? I prayed, I believed, and I hoped. But nothing happened. People in despair hate God. People hate God when hope is shattered.

When we hope, we do it according to how we want things to turn out. This might look perfectly fine on the surface. But what we fail to recognize is that hope is not just expectation, but it is also desire of what the future should be like. When we design how our future ought to be like, unknowingly we are elevating ourselves to be gods. Hope centered on self fails to see the whole picture, instead we assume that what we see is the whole picture. When we set our mind on a certain outcome for our situation, we take God's will out of the equation and forgets, "The human heart plans the way, but the LORD directs the steps" (Proverbs 16:9). Trusting in God and having hope in Him should help us realize that the life on earth is not everything, rather it is only a small part of a life that goes on. Sufferings and pain are not God's design, instead they are the byproducts of us wandering away from God's mercy. But just like anything else, God uses and thus He allows, pain and suffering to draw us back to Him - in this life or the next one. 

"All things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). St. Thomas More knew this: Before his execution, he joked with his executioner that his beard was totally innocent of any crimes and did not deserve to be harmed during the beheading. He then positioned himself so that his beard wouldn't be cut off while they cut his head off. St. Lawrence of Rome told his executioners, "I am done on this side, now turn me over" while being grilled on a gridiron. None of us are no longer expected to be this brave to keep our hope alive. Those who hate God, if there is any sense left in you, should ask: What is going to be next? Are you going to hate Him enough to say that there is no God? But how is that going to solve anything? How is the knowledge that there is no purpose for pain and suffering going to give you comfort? Do you think about God only when things are not going well, to blame Him and to hate Him? When we direct our anger and hatred towards heaven, all we are doing is exposing our ignorance of God, His life as Jesus, and His teachings through the Bible. For beginners, just know that your free will to hate Him is also a grace of God - a gift wrapped in pure Love. 

"We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance." (Romans 8:22-25)

Ask and You Shall Receive

One of the things people with faith in God does in time of need is prayer. As Christians, we are encouraged by our faith to believe in a God who is also a provider - "With God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26). The Bible is filled with narratives of how God hears the cries of the sick and the suffering, and how He delivers them from their miseries. But I have also noticed a tendency among faithful Christians: they refuse to ask God's help in time of need. Many choose to suffer through their sickness and barely make it through in their daily life, thinking that it is God's will. They often rationalize their state by saying that they haven't done anything so bad to deserve what they are going through, so God must have a good reason for allowing it to happen to them. They might not blame God for their miseries, but not all that happy with Him for letting them suffer. They think it is futile to ask in prayer because, if it was not God's will for it to happen, then a loving God would have fix the problem even without asking. 

People may have many reasons to believe in God and to pray to Him without ever making a personal petition. But in doing so, they are closing their eyes towards a bigger truth about God - He is the giver of all gifts to carry out His plan and purpose. And if any one of us think that God's plan and purpose for us is to live in pain, to suffer with sickness, to agonize over our daily needs, then we don't believe "God is love" (1 John 4:8). For, a loving God could never allow human - the epitome of His creation - to live a life of pain and suffering. If we ever stop and look at the prayer that Jesus taught us, we will see that it is not just a prayer of praises but it is a prayer of petition also. If 'Give us our daily bread', 'Forgive our trespasses', 'Lead us not into temptation', and 'Deliver us from evil' are not petitions to God, then what is?

One of the things that puzzled me over the years was why do we have ask. If all good things come from God and if God's graces are free for all, then why do I need to go in there and ask for help with a particular problem that I am having. Why can't God just step in and take care of it for me. We need to ask because we have fallen out of God's grace through our sins. When we ask, it equates to repentance and humility. To ask is letting go of our pride. By petitioning to God, we are opening ourselves to the mercy of God. This is also the reason why prayers are not always answered right away. Often we ask without fully believing in His mercy, without fully humbling ourselves, and without fully forgiving others. Also, God would sometimes hold back to test our loyalty and perseverance. But Jesus told us the parable of the Persistent Widow to remind us "about the necessity to pray always without becoming weary" (Luke 18:1) of the outcome. St. Paul tells us that we have to keep doing good and stay in God's grace without giving up hope: "Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up" (Galatians 6:9). 

So today, if you are thinking about giving up your hope because you haven't seen any change in your situation, think again. God in His infinite wisdom must have a reason for not granting your wish, but that doesn't mean He wouldn't grant it in the future when the time is more appropriate. But we would never get to realize the wish if we are not with Him in the due time. And if you are person who never asked God anything, but to chose to suffer through the difficulties, think again. How would you ever know if it is God's will to have you suffer unless you ask Him?

                           "Your way, God, is holy:
                                    what god is as great as our God?
                             You are the God who does wonders;
                                    among the peoples you have revealed your might.
                             With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
                                    the children of Jacob and Joseph." (Psalm 77:14-16)