Friday, September 09, 2005

Editorial

A Journey With A Purpose
By: Megs S. Lunn

Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life, the Gold Medallion Book Award in his book said, “Today the average life span is 25,550 days. That’s how long you will live if you are typical.” The question in his book asks, “What on earth am I here for?”
Yes, what on earth are we here for, anyway? Are you here to focus on yourself? Would this be the way it will reveal your real purpose on earth? A BIG NO. Reading the book, I realized lately the reason why we are here on this earth. It is not because for ourselves. It is far greater than our own personal dreams, even our personal happiness. It is because we are born by God’s purpose and for God’s purpose.
You will understand why I am saying these. If you remember my article last time about SMOKING and CANCER? Oh well, this is the follow up and hopefully the last time I will warn the youth and the not so old to stop smoking. My husband is now very ill and dying of Lung cancer. After many visits in two hospitals in Panay and one in Manila, he is now confined in bed and waiting for his time. Is it morbid? Why do I say like these? As my husband would put it this way, “we all have time, that life on earth is a temporary assignment.” Yes, and you can find what he said in the same book I have mentioned above without him first reading it. Is it coincidence that a good friend gave this book to him or to me to read it for him? When I learned the average life span is 25,550 days, (70 years), I surprisingly told him, “Oh, so you have more than two (2) years bonus, and hoping for more.” He just laughed.
Taking good care of a cancer patient is indeed a rewarding one. I am not happy, why should I? It is my husband, my beloved who will leave me alone soon on this earth. However, he is a kind of cancer patient who inspite of his condition, he still manages to joke and laugh. He blames nobody of his illness but himself. Pity, because he said, “I did not listen to you when you said, “stop smoking, and watch out your health.” But while I am more than 100 percent personally looking after him, I learned many things and realized many valuable lessons that really, life on earth is a temporary assignment. “The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.” It is now my turn to pamper him. It is my duty to give him all the comfort, my responsibility to share my most precious time while I grow and learn what on earth I am here for. In our happy days together when he isn’t sick yet, he taught me something I have never done. He usually gives me an unbelievable amount of joy, just making me laugh, no matter what, is and will be the most memorable time of our togetherness. “Our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.” {I John 3:18 TEV} We experience life together, and that what matters most.
Life never make sense until we understand why on earth you are here for. We only seek God when we are lonely and in pain. I have always comforted myself of what God has promised us, “I will never leave you nor forsake you. I am your refuge.” Now that my husband whom I consider not only my husband but my best friend will be soon taken away from me, I can only consider God as the only living yet unseen best friend I have and I will have. For without God, I am never as strong as I am now, never as at peace as before, never been so grateful as yesterday and never knew the reason of why on earth I am here for. “God‘s ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort, but character development.”
Why do you have to wait to be stricken with CANCER before you will realize the fault you did to yourself? Why do you have to wait for someone or somebody out there to tell you, STOP SMOKING? The phrase “CIGARETTE IS BAD TO YOUR HEALTH” is not a joke, never been and never will be a joke. It’s real. It kills you, not just yet, not now, not tomorrow, but it will, sooner or later.
C.S. Lewis said, “There are two kinds of people: those who say to God ‘Thy will be done’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right then, have it your way.’” I always pray for my husband, “Lord, please deliver him and let YOUR WILL BE DONE. /MP mailto:madyaas_pen@yahoo.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dok, thank you for the editorial this week, i think it would be my advocate to continue fight the "no smoking, it kills" policy when I win the next barangay election hehehe joke joke..oh well, friends are a blessings from God, you're the best. I have emailed all my friends of this section, thought they have to know the existing website of MP he he Cheers.

Anonymous said...

very inspiring...