UNDERSTANDING UNDERSTANDING

“Habang buhay, may pag-asa.”

As long as we’re alive, there’s hope.  This is one of the enduring Filipino maxims that are practically true and faithful in everything.  Of course, only the dead are hopeless and despairing, even if half the world had been theirs at the very hour they were dying.

For even if their heirs would spend all of the riches of the deceased had left for them to hire a multitude of praying righteous to plead for him to escape harsh judgment, still, everything will be in vain.  As what’s written in the Scriptures, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked:  whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Gal.6:7), so don’t believe the Led Zeppelin, there’s no buying stairway to heaven.

“Habang buhay, may pag-asa.”

This local phrase was my battlecry in my much younger years, especially during the stage when I discovered that my feeling for a certain girl was not mutual, for it egged me on to bravely pursue my case.  Yet later, I proved Shakespeare was right, ‘the better part of valor is discretion,’ for after I was pitted against handsomer race, I learned that facing the problem is full of stress if the problem is your face.

For many years, that Filipino proverb would stick to my mind like glue.  Throughout my roller-coaster life, it would become my rallying motto.  Yeah, as long as we’re alive, hope and chance would thrive.

“Habang buhay, may pag-asa,” however, “dapat may pang-unawa.”  Well, it is simply suggesting, there must have understanding.

All we need as well is the ability to know, to have the kind of wisdom, when under any given circumstance we could immediately recognize that such moment presented is our very chance.  People lived miserably—some perished—after failing to grab things at their very first appearance, as sometimes opportunity and chance seldom return to those who snubbed them once.

It’s like when we’d say we believe in God and in His Word but we lack wisdom and understanding.  Specifically in determining if what He says is in metaphor or literal sense of its absolute meaning.  Like when we say, God helps with all His heart.  But let’s not be like fools, we must do our part.

There was a preacher so faithful who fell in the ocean and he couldn't swim.  A little later a big boat came by, "Do you need help, sir?" yelled the captain.  The preacher said calmly, "No, God will save me."

Some moments later, another fishing boat came by and a kind-hearted fisherman asked, "Hey, do you need help?" The preacher replied again, "No, God will save me, thanks!"

Eventually the confused preacher drowned and went to heaven, and The preacher asked God at once:  "Why didn't you save me?" to which God replied, "You did not understand, I sent you two boats, son!"