Where is God?

Where is God? Who is God? What is God?-these are some of the questions we are familiar with. In times of peril, even those who believe in God wonder about the whereabouts of God. Many debate and deny the existence of God, because they cannot equate a loving God with a suffering world.

How could a loving God allow poverty, violence, injustice, tornadoes, tsunamis to happen in the world and do nothing about it? they ask. Where is  a loving God when a child dies of hunger? Reasonable question. We wish we could give a satisfying answer. But we are unable to do so with our limited love and understanding.

It's here I'd like to share a story, which Mother Theresa wrote in her book, "Where there is Love, there is God." A man once came to Mother Theresa's place with a prescription from a doctor. His child was dying in the nearby slum in Calcutta, and the prescribed medicine could not be found in any part of India at that time. It had to be brought from England. There was no way the man could get the medicine from abroad to save his child. He had neither money nor influence.

As the man and Mother Theresa were talking, another walked in with a basket of medicines. To equip the mobile clinics that served the poor all over the slums in Calcutta, workers from Mother Theresa's organization, went around gathering half-used medicines from houses around the city. On that particular day, the man was bringing all the half-used medicines that he had collected on his rounds.

Mother Theresa couldn't believe what she saw in the basket the man handed to her. On right on top of the basket was the exact medicine that the doctor had prescribed for the dying child. She writes, " I just couldn't believe because if it was inside, I would not have seen it. If he had come before or after, I would not have connected. I just stood in front of that basket and kept looking at the bottle and in my mind I was saying, Millions and millions and millions of children in the world- how could God be concerned with that the little child in the slums of Calcutta. To send that medicine, to send that man just at that time, to put that medicine right on the top and to sendthe full amout that the doctor had prescribed."

Where was God that day? He was there, right in the middle of the situation, working through the man who went out to collect the half-used medicines on behalf of sick and dying people in the slums of Calcutta and through sacrificial love of Mother Theresa who toiled for the poor and outcastes of the society in India.  God is love. He is everywhere . Up in the heaven and down on earth looking for you and me to be hands and feet.  He needs us to be the channels through which He could display His undying love and compassion to the hurting world. His heart weeps when we choose to turn the other way and leave the hurting world go unattended.

God made a beautiful earth for us to live in. But when sin entered, evil followed and made the place imperfect with man made potholes. Nature does act up with vengence at times and bring disasters to our surroundings.  In the middle of such devastation, God shows up and bring help and healing through compassionate people who donate goods, feed the hungry and build or rebuild houses. God need our partnership to heal, comfort and build this broken world. The question is "Are we willing to co-operate with Him?"

So, the next time when someone asks me " Where is God?"  I need to pause for a  moment before I give the answer.  I need to examine myself first  to find out whether I've  failed in anyway to represent God's love and care to him for him/her to ask the question.
"Where there is love, there is God. God is Love."

Are we displaying God's love to others? If not, don't be surprised when someone asks "Where is God?"  Action speaks much louder than words and remains longer in memory!
" Preach the gospel all the time. If necessary use words."- St. Francis of Assisi.***

A Mother's Prayer on Mother's Day

On this Mother's Day,
I thank You Lord for blessing me to be a mother of two lovely daughters,
 and for have given me a godly mother.

I pray this day,  whatever I'd learned from You and taught them
 they would wear like garlands around their necks to beautify them
.
They have seen my ups and downs,my strength and inadequacies
They have also  heard my prayers, heart desires and constant naggings

Guide them to choose the good and noble
And guard them from following any of my wrong and selfish doings.

Bless them with wisdom
And teach them how to wait on You in patience.

Let them learn to delight in You as I do
and dwell in Your faithfulness with confidence.

Waken their ears to listen to Your small voice
And direct them to walk in faith with no worry or fear.

Bless them to become godly mothers
and to carry the torch of love and faith

Help them to trust You for ever
And to pass down their faith to their children and to their children

 Yes Lord, it is this mother's prayer on this Mother's Day
that I ask You to bless me to have a godly generation down the  line.

When Mercy Shows up

Have you ever met Mercy? How does she look like? Just recently I watched Mercy on tv hugging a former drug addict named Fanny, who has been clean for the last six months and asking her, what she wanted. And Fanny replied amidst much sobbing and tears running down her face-"Prayers. I need lots of prayers to keep me off the street and drugs."

Fanny has been sober for the past six months, has a job to be proud of and wants to move out of her place so that she'd be away from her familiar, drug infected surrounding. She has applied to get a small apartment which she's confident that she could pay its rent of $65.00 out of her pay check and with government subsidies. She wants to turn a new leaf in her chapter of life and live with hope as others do. She couldn't have done without God and people like Mercy. That's why she needs prayers from you and me so that more Mercys will show up to help out more Fanny to get off the streets.

Mercy is not the real name of the woman, who looked into the eyes of the former drug addict with love. But mercy was what Fanny,the earlir drug user saw in her. No one else cared to look at Fanny or talk to her when she was loitering on the streets enslaved in drug addiction. All whom she knew or came in contact were men and women like her who smoked and smelled of drugs all day long.

No sane looking person ever walked her street or dared to talk to her or to any of fellow addicts until Mercy showed up.
Mercy knew the stories of many like Fanny who had been helped to go to the rehablitiation center to be cleaned up and how soon they get back to their addiction. Yet, she seemed determined to not to give up on them, but to love enough to feed, care and pray for them. That's Mercy spelled in kingdom love.

Mercy with another face shows up in another part of the country. Blessed with a husband to support her, Mercy opens up their humble home to shelter a woman released from prison. Unknowing where to go and what to do, the ex-convict just released from prison shades her eyes unable to face the glaring sun outside the prison gate. As she steps out crippled with guilt and fear of the unknown,Mercy meets her with open arms and beaming smile. That night,the woman who slept behind bars on a lice infected plank bed for six years slept like a baby under soft and clean blankets after a hot meal. Tears kept trickling down her face as the woman stirred in her sleep unbelieving the kindness she felt under Mercy's roof. breathe fresh air melt down in tears, when welcomed in love by Mercy and made to sleep in comfort with no judgement. at stretsteps into a car that takes her to in fear and guilt to face the world and

Mercy didn't stop with Jane. She went onto bring Mary, Tabitha,Stacey,Rita, Lucie and others into her home,after their release from prison.It didn't matter what crime each one did, Mercy gave the same welcome and comfort to everyone. Soon others joined hands to build a shelter to house these women, whom the world outside weren't prepared to accept, forgive or give a second chance. Because Mercy dwells, walks, talks, embraces and reaches out to those whom the outside world had forgotten, so many lives have been given a chance to hope, dream and build a better world as others do.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy," Jesus said.

"Mercy requires that we:
Keep short account of sin and injustice.
Have eyes to see beyond a circumstance and into the heart.
learn to desire the salve of mercy more than the satisfaction of punishment
Be willing to lay down our quick judgement and work on becoming compassionate."
(the above quote taken from Living life as a beautiful offering by Angela Thomas.)***