Is there God?

Since the beginning of history, men and women from different places and fields of study have inquired about God’s existence. Is there God? Does God exist? The Bible assumes God’s existence. There is not one verse which directly states the existence of God, because for the Bible writers, the existence of God is a given fact—it is an accepted reality. In fact, to not believe that there is God, is considered ridiculous. Only fools who are corrupt and those deeds are vile say “The fool says in his heart” (Psalm 14:1).

But still, it is possible to ask the question of God’s existence as it relates to everyday practical human life. There are valid questions that people commonly ask, though silently. They are questions raised everywhere and every time by all kinds of people who encounter the realities of life. They are questions that transcend the boundaries of nationality or citizenship. They are not original questions, as they have already been raised in the past; but they will be recycled, as they will be brought up again today and in the future.

Was there God in the past?

Was there God during the Holocaust, when millions of Jews were murdered by the Nazis?

Was there God every time a bullet hits a body of a soldier during the World Wars?

Was there God when the World Trade Center collapsed, killing innocent lives?

Was there God when the tsunami hit Asia in December 2005?

Is there God today?

Is there God in the market, where there is cheating?

Is there God in the streets, where all you hear are jeepney horns and vehicles’ engines?

Is there God in the subdivision, where there is an atmosphere of individualism?

Is there God in the house, where the drunk father gets home late?

Is there God in the classroom, where the teacher is an atheist?

Is there God in the jeepney, where people sit in front of each other but do not talk?

Is there God in the mall, where what everyone wants is to have and buy?

Is there God in the office, where the boss is demanding and your co-workers are tired?

Is there God in the city, where everyone is busy?

Is there God in the barber shop, where talks revolve on senseless topics?

Is there God in the hospital, where everyone is suffering pain?

Is there God in jail, where convicted criminals abound?

Is there God?

Is there God in the traffic, when you are already late for an appointment?

Is there God when a mother is grieving over the death of her only child?

Is there God in your neighbor’s house when they don’t have any food?

Is there God when a friend comes complaining about his or her miserable life?

Is there God when your best friend is sick?

Is there God when your neighbor has cancer?

Is there God to a hungry old man begging on the street?

Is there God when a car just carelessly cut you through?

So we ask again: “Is there God? Where is He?

Is there God?

Is there God for a family living in the slum?

Is there God for a desperate unemployed fresh graduate from college?

Is there God for the drug addict, whose very life is death?

Is there God for the taxi driver, whose life is in peril everyday on the streets?

Is there God for the peanut vendor, whose earnings cannot feed the entire family of eight?

Is there God for the blind, who sees nothing but darkness?

Is there God for the sorrowful, whose heart is filled with grief?

Is there God for the orphan, who has no one to show him love?

Is there God for the street child, whose mind and heart is filled with fear?

Is there God for the oppressed, the outcasts, the society’s trash?

Is there God for the businessman, whose business is on collapse?

Is there God for the hungry, whose stomach is grumbling and in pain?

Is there God for the son, whose father loves beating him?

Is there God for the daughter, molested and sexually abused by his own father?

Is there God for the homosexual, who is living in shame and sin?

Is there God? Where is He? Why is there suffering in the world? Where is the good God in an evil world?

Is there God?

Is there God in politics, where greed and corruption abound?

Is there God in philosophy, where search for truth is never satisfied?

Is there God in economics, where having possessions is the ultimate aim?

Is there God in education, where intellectual activity dominates the practical sphere?

Is there God in science, which often times opposes the person of God and belief in Him?

Is there God in arts, where sensual beauty is idolized?

Is there God in technology, upon which humanity leans and depends for its existence?

Is there God in business, where love of money is both first and last?

Is God in the world? Why are there so little, if no evidence of His existence?

I do not see any wrong in asking these questions. Indeed raising them is inevitable. So long as we are living in this world, these questions will be asked by humanity. The questions I enumerated are indirect questions concerning God. They are in no way directed towards God. Most of the time, these questions just stay in the mind—we do not utter them, we do not say them—although they are deeply rooted in our consciousness.

It is part of our freedom to raise questions. Indeed we can utter these very questions to God. We can tell God and inquire of Him. But it is not fair, I think, if all the answers to these questions are left to God as His assignment. There are elements in the questions that are answerable only by God. This I affirm. Yet when we look back at the questions, we see that we already have the answers to the very questions we ask, especially us who are Christians. Let me illustrate my point by inversing the questions. This time, it is God who asks the questions—and they are directed to believers. GOD IS ASKING: WHO WILL BE ME?

Who will be Me in the market, where there is cheating?

Who will be Me in the streets, where all you hear are jeepney horns and vehicles’ engines?

Who will be Me in the subdivision, where there is an atmosphere of individualism?

Who will be Me in the house, where the drunk father gets home late?

Who will be Me in the classroom, where the teacher is an atheist?

Who will be Me in the jeepney, where people sit in front of each other but do not talk?

Who will be Me in the mall, where what everyone wants is to buy and have and buy?

Who will be Me in the office, where the boss is demanding and your co-workers are tired?

Who will be Me in the city, where everyone is busy?

Who will be Me in the hospital, where everyone is suffering in pain?

Who will be Me in jail, where convicted criminals abound?

Who will be Me?

Who will be My hands?

Who will be My feet?

Who will be My voice?

Who will be Me for a family living in the squatters area?

Who will be Me for a desperate unemployed fresh graduate from college?

Who will be Me for the drug addict?

Who will be Me for the taxi driver?

Who will be Me for the peanut vendor?

Who will be Me for the blind?

Who will be Me for the sorrowful?

Who will be Me for the orphan?

Who will be Me for the street child?

Who will be Me for the oppressed, the outcasts, the society’s trash?

Who will be Me for the businessman?

Who will be Me for the security guard?

Who will be Me for the student?

Who will be Me for the hungry?

Who will be Me for the son, whose father loves beating him?

Who will be Me for the daughter, molested and sexually abused by his own father?

Who will be Me for the homosexual?

Who will be Me?

Who will be My hands?

Who will be My feet?

Who will be My voice?

Who will be Me in politics?

Who will be Me in philosophy?

Who will be Me in economics?

Who will be Me in education?

Who will be Me in science?

Who will be Me in arts?

Who will be Me in business circles?

Who will be Me?

Who will be My hands?

Who will be My feet?

Who will be My voice?

We are the light and salt of the world. (Matthew 5:13-16)

We are the ambassadors of Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Discipline

In my blog post Honest Prayer, the importance of having godly desires was emphasized. Since it is free to dream and desire things, we must dream big and desire for great things. We must think of big stuff not only for our own selves and families, but also for the church. The importance of having a vision or an ambition is captured by Steve Jobs: “If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.” So without deep desires, great dreams, and clear vision, our lives may be like the journey of a driver going everywhere, until he runs out of gas, ending his meaningless journey. The writer of Proverbs is right: “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Prov 29:18)

But having godly desires and dreams is not enough to guarantee success. Everyone has big dreams—for themselves and for the church—but those aspirations often times remain in Dreamland or Visionland. They do not materialize. So the question is a simple WHY? I suggest that what is missing is discipline (at least when we are talking about our human counterpart in the equation).

What is the role of discipline in our Christian life, particularly in relation to our desires and dreams? It is as simple as the way we respond to the alarm clock that goes off at 5:30AM. We desire and decide to wake up at 5:30AM. Because we really want to accomplish this, our determination compels us to set up an alarm clock. But at the end of all this, what matters most is not our desire to wake up or the act of setting up an alarm. What matters most is the discipline to rise from the bed and start our day when the annoying sound of the alarm rings. This is discipline.

We make big decisions and dream big dreams, but the question is: Do we have the discipline to achieve them?

People who are not able to do what they want to accomplish because of fear are people without will. In ancient thought, will is determined by the action accompanying a decision to do something. Someone is branded as possessing no will for failing to act on that which he or she has decided or intended to do. To be will-less is to desire to be with a girl, but possessing no guts to approach her. It is to desire to have a transformed lifestyle, only to be defeated and end in failure every day. It is like intending to read the Bible and pray every day, but always failing to do so. Lack of will and lack of discipline are first cousins.  

Often times we are like the apostle Peter. As we know, Peter is the most impulsive among the twelve disciples. He was the most outspoken and he would make big promises. With sudden outburst of emotions, he would say something extremely honorable. We read one of the examples in Mark 14:27-53. When Jesus said that the disciples would all fall away, Peter declared: “Even if all fall away, I will not.” When Jesus told him that he would deny Jesus before dawn, he insisted that he would never do such a thing: “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” All the other disciples said the same. But we all know that Peter and the disciples were not able to keep their promise even before day break. When Jesus was arrested, as recorded in Mark 14:43-52, Judas betrayed Him, and Mark says that “all of Jesus’ disciples ran off and left him. One of them was a young man who was wearing only a linen cloth. And when the men grabbed him, he left the cloth behind and ran away naked” (14:50-52).

Let us not be mistaken. It was not as if Peter had no intention to do what he said. He intended to stand by his word. He was passionate for Jesus. He said his promises with vigor and enthusiasm. In short, he really wanted to do them with all his heart and soul. But still, he failed when the opportunities to prove himself were right in front of him.

Discipline is not just simple will-power. It involves self-restraint, courage, and perseverance. Many lack discipline in their lives because they have lived a lifelong pattern of running away from trials, of avoiding difficult people and situations, of seeking the easy way, and of giving up when the going gets tough. The Scripture says, “If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength!” (Prov 24:10). We all face trials and adversities. They come to us unexpectedly. They come to us in many forms. But it is precisely when the situation is tough that our faith and discipline are tested.

No matter how big the dream or how passionate we are about something, when we do not have discipline, all our aspirations mean nothing. No matter how wonderful our visions may be of the future, if we are not doing anything about it, because of the many hurdles in life, we will not accomplish anything. No matter how grand the desire is in our hearts of something big for ourselves and for God, without discipline, they will remain in our imagination. As Joel A. Barker once said, “Vision without action is merely a dream.” An anonymous writer also remarked: “Vision is not enough. It must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps. We must step up the stairs.”

We can always create a long list of reasons why we should quit. We can always make excuses why we cannot achieve our dreams. We can always blame others for not helping us. We can always blame ourselves by looking at our poverty, weaknesses, and limitations. But at the end of the day, it is our discipline that really matters. As Stephen Curry, 2015 NBA MVP said, “Success is not an accident.” It involves hard work, perseverance, learning, sacrifice. Thomas Edison is right, and to paraphrase him, “Success is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.

All the great men and women in the Bible were great not because they had grand desire or a big dream; they are known as great because they enacted, in faith and in the power of God, what they sought to achieve or do. Abraham wanted to be obedient to Yahweh, but the real test was on the way to Mt. Moriah and when he arrived there with his son Isaac (Gen 22:1-12). Caleb’s vision was to slay giants, but the real test was when he was in front of the giants (Josh 14:6-15; 15:13-19). David’s desire was to slay Goliath, but the real test was when he was with Goliath in the battle field (1 Sam 17:1-50). Paul’s ambition was to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, but the real test was when he was travelling (2 Cor 4:8-9). Jesus wanted to save the whole world from its sin, but the test was in Jerusalem (esp. Gethsemane and Golgotha). Jesus vividly portrays to us that in the face of danger, pain, and death, we can shrink back from even our most godly desire. At the Garden of Gethsemane we see Him torn between self-preservation and doing what He came to accomplish: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matt 26:39, 42, 43).

We resonate very well with the experience of these great men. We struggle. But what the heroes of faith also show us is that it is possible to be victorious. Defeat is not the only option available. There can be victory. No matter what challenges come our way, we must cling to the vision God has given us and He will make a way for us. Paul says, “Run in such a way as to get the prize” (1 Cor 9:24). We must stand courageous. Whatever dream and desire God has given in our hearts, we are meant to be victorious. The promise for us is that “every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith” (1 John 5:4, NLT). Like Paul, we must say “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14) and claim in faith, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Phil 4:13).