A practical hope for 2021

Micah Stefan Dagaerag

Honest Engagements

Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you
ask this (Ecclesiastes 7:10).

It is hard to overstate the rottenness of the year that was 2020. The whole world came,
quite literally, to a halt. And where humans had been accustomed to naturally congregate in
times of crisis and pain, this particularly insidious virus required that we instead distance
ourselves away from each other in order not to endanger anyone any further. Many people
eventually lost jobs and businesses. Many ultimately lost their very lives.

We are now in 2021. Yet where a few countries like Australia and New Zealand are already
enjoying their successes at containing and managing the pandemic, here in the Philippines
precious little has changed or improved for nigh a year already. We are still deep in the
throes of the pandemic, what with an undisciplined populace governed by an even less
disciplined administration. Relief is likely to come, as with most things for the Philippines,
later rather than sooner.

So, how should we live in the meantime? How can we start and keep the new year with
enough hope to motivate us? I offer a few points for reflection.

For the things that we still can do something about, the hopeful thing to do is to work
at them with all our might.

A global pandemic notwithstanding, there remain many benefits to be had that are within
our control and management. There are just some things that will not move unless we
move first: gains that don’t come unless we get them, and harvests we will not reap unless
we sow.

We can wear a mask outdoors, minimize physical touch, avoid crowds, clean hands
constantly, and so on. The more of these little things that we are able to get right, the more
our hope for health and safety is preserved and protected. Conversely, the more carelessly
and recklessly we act, the more we endanger our own hope for the future and even those of
others.
Humanity throughout history, however, has endured and survived worse calamities,
including plagues and pandemics. Thus, we can reasonably look forward to eventually
trudging out of this mess and moving onwards. Some, of course, sooner than others.

For the things that we cannot do anything about, the hopeful thing to do is to identify,
accept, and leave them up to the Lord.

Then, on the other hand, there also many things outside of what we can help. These include
how other people act and behave, government action (or inaction, depending on where you
are in the world), other natural phenomena, or even a viral mutation.

We only really worry about the things that we think we can still change in some way. But
once we truly consider a certain something to already be beyond us, the release of that
burden on our shoulders is almost instantaneous. To include the inevitable in the things for
us to be anxious about is not only foolhardy, it is an unnecessary and an impossible burden
to bear. And in that sense, it is triply oppressive.

After all, we were born into this world with neither our input nor opinion. We don’t even
really control the necessarily repetitious act of breathing (thankfully). Uncertainty and
unilaterality mark the beginning and the end of our lives. The in-between part (where we
currently are), therefore, cannot be fairly expected to be much different.

So, logically, we look to the one, the only One, who was there before and at our beginning,
and who continues to be absolutely sovereign over all things. And what will probably give
us a minor brain ache is the realization that the perfect wisdom of a perfect God means that
even now, in the hidden and deepest recesses of God’s plans, there could not have been a
better way of ordaining the entire history of the world.

To wish, then, that things were otherwise would be to stray into the territory of suggesting
that either God is not completely in control or God is not completely good. In both cases
God would no longer be God. And to the extent that we think we might know better we
usurp and supplant the God-ness of God Himself.

As St. Paul says, “we know that all things work together for good for those who love God,
for those who are called according to his purpose, because those whom he foreknew, he
also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he should be the firstborn
among many brothers (Romans 8:28).”
Whether our hopes live or die depends on where they are placed. Hope set on things that
are more stable will more likely endure than hope on things that are more unreliable. Hope
in the Lord. He alone is in total control. And He remains perfectly good, even (and
especially) when bad things happen.