All is Well...

I have been putting off, for several days now, doing an entry because I haven't found a significant thought to anchor upon, among all the other experiences that came and went during the past week.

I have been blessed with the situation of having finished my draft thesis, which went according to my summer holiday plans. That had taken some amount of thinking through and research, but the smoothness at how it all came together to form the draft I have now had been a very pleasant surprise. Right now, I have to wait for my moderator to go through it and, perhaps, it is this waiting period that can be quite an anxiety. That's because I don't really know how it will turn out.

Then there is the little political uncertainty and tension going on back in Malaysia where my family still resides. I send my brother an email to enquire if they are all well and whether they are threatened in any way by the recent happenings there. I received a reply a few days later saying that they are fine and all is as per normal. My brother is just a little miffed with the way the government is handling things. I don't blame him...

Later, I happened to flip through a daily devotional booklet which a friend passed on to me and I glanced upon an entry there that said, "Never falter, go forward so boldly, so unafraid. I am beside you to help and strengthen you. Wonders have unfolded. More still will unfold, beyond your dreams, beyond your hopes. Say 'All is well' to everything. All is well."

There's much comfort in those words. It is not so much that the words are piously devotional that make them soothing. It is more that they coincided with today's gospel's assurance that is enclosed in a statement that contains the very love of God for us and the reason why He wants to be with us. Our challenge today is simply to believe. On a wider scope of things, it also points to the call of our Holy Father who encouraged the more than 150,000 followers at mass this Sunday in the French shrine town of Lourdes to hold firm in their faith, telling them "love is stronger than evil" on the occasion of the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

I know there are events and happenings occurring elsewhere all over the world, even as I write this, whose situation may be much, much worst than mine. So, I really have no cause for complaint but to be more mindful of my place in the here and now and offer a helping hand to whomever in need and whenever possible.