Absence of foresight: A gift from God

By Shiela Mae G. Ticar

The author is a third year Bachelor in Secondary Education major in Social Science at the University of St La Salle, Bacolod City.

I was born an inquisitive individual. It’s very usual and natural for me to be very curious about a lot of things, even senseless ones. Since the time I learned the art of talking and inquiry, I usually would ask my family a lot of questions. I would even dare to ask neighbors and people I’d meet. I would ask about the world - its physical characteristics, wonders and so on. I would ask about people and events. I would ask why there’s a moon at night and a sun in daytime. As time passed by, my curiosity about many things was answered by books, media and experiences. Almost all was perfectly answered except the questions ‘Why God doesn’t reveal to us His magnificent plans for us?’ and ‘Why does God allow us to fail and make mistakes?’

It was the fine sunny day of 11 June this year that I finally got the answers to those two questions that had kept on bugging my brain and senses. At that time, I was attending the freshmen orientation of my school as a marshal/facilitator. My questions were answered indirectly by a remark made by St John Baptist de La Salle during his last days on earth. In his remark, St LaSalle said that he would never have gotten involved with the Brothers of Christian Schools if God had allowed him the luxury of looking into his future. Many of us, if given the chance to foresee the things that will happen in the future would most likely choose a life far from the likes of that of St LaSalle. Isn’t that so? Why would we bother to take those long, hard and rough roads of life? Why should we endure a life of trials and dilemmas, feel the pain of difficult situations and face challenges and the consequences of wrong actions and failures?

But God, being omniscient, conceals from us the ability to see the future so that we can find courage, love, faith, temperance, trust and fortitude instead of discouragement and hopelessness. He conceals the future from us so that we can learn that failures and shortcomings are realities of life and that we can not only outrun but learn from them. Moreover, I believe that indeed God conceals the future from us so that we may find happiness and contentment in all our endeavors even though the road ahead of us is long, rough and bumpy and in the end we can see that amidst all the hazards and difficulties along the way, there is a greatness and satisfaction that awaits us.

Strange and mysterious as it seems, God seems to give us the gift of the absence of foresight. We may not see the wisdom of God’s decision as of this moment but I strongly believe that in the end we will be thankful for it. As we continue to face every trial, challenge, failure, shortcoming, difficulty as well as victory, success and positive outcome of our life, we should always remember that even though we are not be able to see the future, predict outcomes and determine which is which, what is important is that we take the challenge and continue to trust God. Remember, the journey becomes meaningful if we embrace the process.

You may contact Shiela at smgt08@yahoo.com