ONCE I visited a sick person at Siloam Hospital, South Jakarta. He was a very busy businessman. There was no time for meditation or self-reflection and to feel the beauty of love from his family.
From morning until midnight, the businessman was busy with various activities of his company.
He said to me, “Gosh, I have been lying in bed for six days. Usually I am busy here and there. But during this time, I have just felt how cute my children are. They are around me every day: getting me drinks, massaging my feet, and telling me about their experiences at school. This calamity that I experienced brought abundant blessings.”
To reach this calamity, we need to learn from the actor in the film entitled Lawrence of Arabia. He advised his friend to live in the desert with the Arabs. They believe that all the words written by the Prophet Muhammad in the Qur’an are revelations from Allah.
So when the Quran says, “God has created you and all your actions,” they take it literally. That is why they accept and live their lives calmly and never rush or get caught up in unnecessary anger when something goes wrong.
He said that life in the desert was terrible. The wind was so hot that he felt as if his hair would be pulled out of his head. His throat was dry. His eyes burned and his teeth were full of grit. He felt as if he were standing in front of an oven in a glass factory. He almost went crazy. But the Arabs did not complain. They just shrugged their shoulders and said, “Maktoub” which means “it is written” or fate.
I remember a professor and theologian at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, named Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1974). He wrote a famous prayer, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Disasters should be “friends.”
Ajahn Bram wrote, “If we step on dog poop, don’t rush to clean your shoes. Take the poop home and clean it in your house under the mango tree. A year later, your mangoes will be sweeter, riper and tastier than before. It turns out that even the smelliest and dirtiest dog poop can be fertilizer for mangoes”.
Disasters such as being slandered and betrayed are indeed painful and paralyze us. We don’t need to curse the disasters we experience.
We can learn from the experience of Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) who lay sick in the Pamplona fortress, Spain, because he was injured. To fill his spare time and recovery, he asked for a novel to read. However, what he got was the book Vita Christi (Life of Christ) and Flos Sactorum (Anthology of the Saints).
At first he did not like it, but finally enjoyed the reading which eventually made him turn around to become a saint.
Nothing is coincidental in this world. Disasters, tragedies, accidents, and sufferings can be valuable lessons if we accept them with sincerity. Patience and surrender are needed. At the end of our wits, then, surrender. After trying so hard, then, surrender to God.
