In the beginning . . .

On this supposedly momentous occasion, I start my daily commitment to pray for President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino, that God almighty will bless him with wisdom, understanding, compassion, sincerity and above all good health.

May he be surrounded with the counsel of the wise; may his message and his vision be understood by the lowly and the great, by the simple and the profound.

May he MAKE time and turn to God daily for wisdom, for strength and above all, determined conviction to do what is right in God’s eyes and the people’s benefit.

May God grant him the ability to see through men and women, through friend or foe, through strangers or family and truly know them for who and what they are.

May our President be gifted with the ability to select good leaders and more than this, may he be blessed with the ability to trust them and respect not only their opinions but as well as their judgment.

May his story when it is written, be an account that is greater than those before him and will be a measure for those who come after. May God bless him, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

* * *

If some of you wondered why I cast doubt on today as being a momentous occasion, I do so in the context of the many unreasonable expectations that “we” as a nation place on the new President and the new administration.

I am reminded of our first “Head Pastor” Steve Murell who repeatedly told us that: “If you place your hope, or your trust in man, you are bound to be disappointed”.

In our current state, those who pin their hopes on President “Noy” are in effect abdicating or turning over our responsibilities and abilities by placing our hope, our dreams, our expectations on a man and his government.

I recently did a podcast with several young Filipinos for philstar.com and one thing I could not let go of was the knee jerk assumption of the panelists that all our problems have a political solution. When I challenged the position, Maro, the award winning blogger suddenly “lit up” and realized that indeed not all solutions need to be political.

Similarly Meg, a journalism student, took a position that she had to “stand up” in protest or fight for every right as well as her opinion. Again I challenged the view and asked why we never want to be optimists, pro-active or solutions oriented people.

Once again, the view changed as Dan picked up the ball and suggested that those in the habit of regularly criticizing should also try to catch something good that someone in the “P-Noy” administration might do at least one day of every week.

Jay who openly confessed that he campaigned for Noynoy came to the realization that he was not quite clear nor did he have a definite plan of action to support his winning candidate.

That in fact seems to be the problem.

We have never seen or placed ourselves as “The solutions provider”. We willingly admit that we have problems but never the idea that we may be “THE” problem or “THE” answer to our own set of problems.

Maro touched on two things that sounded generic but cut through to reality. He admitted that it was much harder to set aside pride which in turn will open us up to be more caring.

First “our” pride prevents us from letting our guard down, take chances and publicly do something to make a difference. Yes our pride has made it easier to follow the flock of sheep and bleat at government. We have grown old and familiar with the convenience of criticism rather than praise or encouragement.

Even more than our pride, we are afraid to be “mistaken” as supporters, collaborators, or people with vested interest. In our political paranoia we now mistake “FAIRNESS” with “PAIDNESS”.

If ever we try to introduce change it is centered on “self”. You fight corruption because it bites you in the butt. You condemn immorality because it took your husband away. You attack political abuse because politicians cause serious damage to your business or your interests.

We all try to do something but only as far as our problems are concerned. And when it is no longer a problem, it is also no longer our concern.

We don’t institute preventive programs. We don’t invest on long term “pest” control because we don’t think “it” is our problem. If you want progress, learn to take ownership of the problem.

Just observe your home, your car, your family.

You somehow have constant and consistent activity to prevent criminality or injury. You lock your doors, windows and place alarms. You have dogs, guards or perimeter lights. You deny parking to strangers not for selfish reasons but for security.

Sooner or later you realize that it is not enough, and the neighborhood is not being efficient. So you all band together sharing the same “problem” and concern. It all begins with “you” and then gets better when we make it “us” and “ours”.

I “boldly” started today’s column with a prayer for the new President, but it is also my way of telling people that as great and as important as the presidency may be, it is not big enough to survive without God and without our collective prayer as well as our individual effort and contribution.

I have a thousand and one proof that prayer works and that God listens and responds. But if you study the evidence, you will find that you need to cross the red sea, the river Jordan, fight the battles in order to win the war and enter the Promised Land.

Just like Moses, Noynoy can raise his arms, but we will still need to walk the talk.