YOU HAVE THREE WISHES

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June 1, 2026

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Three Wishes (1995) is a feel-good, 1950s-set fantasy drama about a mysterious drifter named Jack McCloud (Patrick Swayze) who is taken in by a single mother, Jeanne Holman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), after she accidentally hits him with her car.

The movie follows several core themes:

Family Healing: The story is framed as a flashback from the present day. Jeanne’s husband is missing in the Korean War, leaving her boys—older son Tom (Joseph Mazzello) and young Gunny (Seth Mumy)—without a father. Jack acts as a surrogate father, teaching Tom how to play baseball using Zen-like philosophies and helping little Gunny overcome his childhood fears.

A Touch of Magic: Jack brings an unorthodox, mystical presence to the conservative neighborhood, teaching the boys about magic and telling tales of a genie trapped in the form of his dog.

Lessons in Gratitude: Ultimately, the story revolves around the life-changing impact that a compassionate stranger brings to a grieving family, exploring the magic found in the simplicity of helping others and living in the moment. 

Be careful what you wish for—it could reveal who you are, says Laura King, of Southern Methodist University. In a study published in the Journal of Personality, King administered a personality test to 405 college students, then asked them a simple question: “If you could have three wishes, what would you ask for?” Responses ran the gamut, from the obvious (“to be healthy and happy”) to the impossible (“to have sex with Marilyn Monroe”) to the peculiar (“to eat Chinese food at every meal every day for the rest of my life”). When examining these wishes and the people who made them, King discovered some interesting connections:

The most common wishes were for friends, happiness, health, marriage, money, success, self-improvement, and to help other people.

Although men’s and women’s wishes were generally similar, men were more likely to wish for sex and power, while women were more likely to wish for happiness, a better appearance, and better health.

Extroverted people often wished for happiness and positive feelings, and frequently included other people in their wishes. Neurotic people wished to be more sociable and more emotionally stable—in other words, to be less neurotic. “The chances of that wish coming true are practically zero,” says King, noting that personality traits are notoriously hard to change.

Those who were already satisfied with their lives were the most likely to believe that their wishes would come true.

When I was still a young boy, I was taught that there might be fairy creatures offering us those three free wishes. We should always be wise enough to think it over very well and select the best wishes for our very own. Sure, there will always be classic stupidities regarding fairy-wishes. We are all human beings and don’t belong to the fairy category.

Your wish is my command!  And, there is someone who wishes at first a strong health, and – sure, he or she receives it, because good fairies never hesitate. And now and then? Here he is, for example, the healthy man is like a boulder in the surf, but surrounded by a world of war, flames and so-called military conflicts. But this man is still alive and as fit as a fiddler. Why should he wish for a strong health…?

Well, maybe we have to formulate our wishes for something more improved. But what? Discretion is the better part of valor. Let’s try it like a fairy-tale and ask for wealth, riches and abundance. These are the one and only things on earth, right?

With money we can travel around the globe, find friends, even in far away distances, and we can do charities. Well, and if we might become sick, maybe seriously sick, we must not worry. We can afford and finance the most affordable doctors and most updated hospitals to give us back our good health. And if not?

In many fairy tales, we can also find the one with unassuming manners, inconspicuous, poorly dressed-up, a little bit silly, mostly disregarded and easily to be overlooked. This guy has only one wish, such as eternal salvation and bliss with a little stool in heaven besides God. And guys, be sure, that he will get it, and, he is happy and very
thankful. So far so good, it seems the simpleton has been the brightest.

It’s all right: three wishes and no one more. A different thing, isn’t it?

If all human beings on this entire globe could be all around happy, which means to say: nobody must go hungry any more, nobody must be despairing, nobody must be worried about wars and catastrophes, and everybody could be able to enjoy health and happiness without bearing trials … yes, if … Then we wouldn’t need fairy-wishes…

Real life looks different. Real life is not a fairy tale. We need prayers and should be more respectful and friendly to each other.

Each one of us has his or her own three wishes. Me too.

LIFE CHANGES DRAMATICALLY

Change allows you to explore new things and learn from different experiences. This will help you grow as a person as you can now understand more about yourself, your limits, and your desires.

Do you remember, my dear readers, what I wrote for a long time  at this corner? Our life will never be the way it used to be – due to Covid-19. Everything in our life changed. Really everything. 

Being in online classes while teaching but in the daily home office, I experienced a total change when it comes to the digital body language:  cues you send – or don’t send. Writer David Robson gets to the point in a nutshell: “Online, as in real-life, it’s not just what you say – but how you say it”. Meanwhile I was asked by Ateneo de Davao to continue my teaching face to face. No more online. Thank God!

Think about the last work email that you sent. Did its sentences end with full stops or exclamation marks, or did you forgo punctuation altogether? Was it peppered with emoji – or plain text? And was your response prompt, or did you have to apologise for the time it had taken to reply?

Now, consider your last Zoom call. Did you check your phone or email at least once during the meeting? And did you pause to be sure that the other speaker had finished? Or did you find yourself frequently interrupting their sentences, as you failed to take into account the slight delays in the connection?

According to the leadership expert Erica Dhawan, these are all examples of our “digital body language” – a concept that serves as the title of her new book. Like our in-person physical body language, digital body language concerns the subtle cues that signal things like our mood or engagement, and change the meaning of the words we say – be it in text, on the phone or in a video call.

Following David Robson, it is needless to say, the rise of remote working during the pandemic has only made these issues more urgent, but psychologists have long known that digital communication is ripe for misunderstanding.
So, what can be done? It’s indeed a question of mindfulness, so that we can be sure that our digital body language is intentional and appropriate to the situation at hand.

Do you like emojis?!? Well, first consider written communication, starting with the use of emoji and punctuation marks, like the exclamation point. Stylists may sneer, but many people (and include me in!) argue that they often help to clarify the meanings of the words themselves, much in the same way as a nodding head or a smirk in person. Whether you’re signalling urgency or excitement with ALL CAPS, impatience and irritation with an “?!?” or mutual appreciation with a fist-bump emoji, you are helping your text to convey the feelings you would have embodied in person.

It took me almost a whole year, but right now allow me to tell you: don’t feel shy about adopting these more informal digital cues, where appropriate – and be aware that others may well be expecting them.

Broadly, your use of punctuation and emojis are part of a bigger set of cues that will establish the tone of your exchanges – whether they feel formal or informal, enthusiastic or bored. Other signals will include your greetings (whether you include a friendly “Hello” at the start of the message or simply dive straight in), and your sign off (an emotionally distant “Regards” versus an enthusiastic “Thanks!”).

Honestly, sometimes I’m really getting tired of video calls and zoom meetings. They present their own unique problems. Your body language, manners and level of engagement on video-chat platforms can influence how colleagues see you and interpret your message. Even during my online teaching, I observed some students being absent-minded or even not being dressed well.

Whatever medium you use, you should remain conscious of two factors – trust and power – in all your interactions. These ratings will be subjective, of course, but if you sense there is a clear gap on either of these dimensions, you need to be more cautious.

In the past, the handshake, the smile and the smile gave us many well trusted signals,– but in online communication, our gratitude is often less apparent, or may not be expressed at all. Measures to remedy this could be as simple as sending a follow-up email, after a virtual meeting, to make it clear that you valued someone’s input, or cc’ing a junior colleague on an email to a client, acknowledging the role they played in a project. We can’t just assume that our colleagues will know how much we value them.

Erica Dhawan’s book Digital Body Language, is out now from St Martin’s Press. I learned a lot from her, especially perfecting our digital body language will take practice – but a few moments of thought each day may save hours of anxiety and confusion in the days and weeks ahead.

Earlier in this writeup, I mentioned David Robson. He is the author of The Intelligence Trap: Revolutionise Your Thinking and Make Wiser Decisions (Hodder & Stoughton/WW Norton) – out now in paperback. He is @d_a_robson on Twitter.

Since the pandemic, employees are leaving the workforce or switching jobs in droves. For many, employers have played a big part in why they’re walking away. It’s another big change in our business world. Read more about my thoughts in my next column here at this corner.

THE MUSIC AND THE BIBLE

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May 20, 2026

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I grew up with both. I was born in a  parish, and allowed to play the organ there. Pairing music with your Bible reading is a beautiful way to center your mind and deepen your spiritual focus. Many find that ambient instrumentals, scripture-based songs, or curated Praise and Worship Playlists help block out distractions while reading.

The Bible highly values music as a powerful tool for spiritual expression. It is depicted as a way to worship and praise God, express emotions (joy or sorrow), and teach others. The Bible does not restrict the style of music, but warns against music that promotes ungodly behavior. 

Music is intentional — designed by God to move both spirit and mind, as we see in 1 Corinthians 14:15, “What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.”

What is the biblical explanation of music? The principal direction of congregational singing is to the Lord (Ps. 96:1). Music is made first of all to the Lord and only secondarily to each other. Music should communicate and express a sense of awe and wonder in the presence of God; it should lead our thoughts toward God rather than toward ourselves.

Music has a way of piercing into the deep parts of our soul, that assists in our expression and response to God and to the church. Singing helps unites us to the church. The gospel alone unites believers to one another.

The music and the bible. Strategies against darkness. Sure, you are able to listen to the wonderful music I select for my daily music column. But there is something more… .

“Why am I so sad? What am I so troubled about?” (Psalm 42,11).

If it’s becoming dark, we usually turn on our lights. But, it’s still daylight. It’s a magnificent and wonderful  day! The sun shines with might in the sky. The trees are blossoming and the flowers are ablaze with amazing colors; the birds are chirping cheerfully. – “Yet, why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled?”

We experience feelings, as if darkness lies onto our souls, and light cannot get through any more. Yes, we make head or tail o it, because some really bad things happened since a couple of weeks or months in many of our life and surroundings:

A good friend passed away unforeseen; a wish, carried with us in our hearts never became true; all doors seem to be locked forever; financial problems bother us and don’t allow the chance for three daily meals; and arduous illness seems to become incurable.

Why are we so sad? Why are we so troubled? The psalm’s poet voices out innermost feelings and emotions during those times.

Music accomplishes many things. It has practical utility that can be applied to many endeavors, it can be used to communicate information and emotions, it plays a substantial role in culture, it provides entertainment, it gives people an outlet to be creative, it helps us understand beauty, and it has value on its own.

Music unites the congregation so that God is worshipped with one voice. A wide variety of music is used in Christian worship including hymns, psalms, choral music, gospel songs, contemporary music and instrumental music, played for meditation and reflection.

I was trained how to survive such periods of life. Be patient and wait!

Pray!

Or: “Quarrel with your soul!” No, it’s not nonsense, it really works.

“Don’t make such a fuss; get out of your dump and be happy!”

Or, read Psalm 103: “The Love of God”.

 

SONG OF SONGS

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May 19, 2026

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The Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) is a collection of Hebrew love poems celebrating the intensity, beauty, and intimacy of romantic and marital love between a man and a woman. It emphasizes mutual desire, commitment, and the goodness of physical intimacy within marriage, often interpreted as a metaphor for God’s love for his people. 

US musician and author Ted Gioia argues in his excellent book Music: A Subversive History (2019): “At every stage in human history, music has been a catalyst for change, challenging conventions and conveying coded messages – or, not infrequently, delivering blunt, unambiguous ones. It has given voice to individuals and groups denied access to other platforms for expression. Pop music has often been dismissed as “lightweight” given its young audience, simple snappiness and mainstream status, but those elements are really where its strength is concealed. Pop songs don’t originate themes of mental wellbeing, equality, liberty, activism – but they do transmit them to the broadest platforms possible”.

Snap the radio on, zip to any station, and what are you likely to hear? Love songs. Songs of new love, songs of disappointed love, songs of grateful love, songs of crazy love. I still remember my time as a radio host in Davao City several years ago playing the Hits of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Nothing has changed. Times change, but through history the flow of love songs is a constant.

Plenty of people are surprised or even shocked to find an explicit love song in the bible – complete with erotic lyrics. But “Song of Songs” is exactly that. It shows no embarrassment about lovers. Consequently, intermittent attempts have been made  to rule “Song of Songs” out of the bible. It’s like making it “for adults only”. Imagine, my dear reader, in 16th century Spain for instance, professor Fray Luis de Leon was dragged out of his classroom and taken to jail for four years. His crime? He translated “Song of Songs” into Spanish.

If you start reading “Song of Songs”, you will find out that this book conveys a very different atmosphere from most modern love songs and pop music. Since love songs are always popular, many people approach “Song of Songs” with great expectations. However, readers often find the book much different from what they had expected. One is the poetic imagery. Second: “Song of Songs” is hard to follow. One part  doesn’t seem connected to the next.

Song of Songs is a well-known but little-understood book of the Bible made up of eight chapters of ancient Israelite love poetry. While there is an introduction and a conclusion, the book doesn’t have a rigid literary design

Try to explore the “Song of Songs”. One thing is for sure. You’ll learn a lot about the love between God and His people.

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OUR BREAKING POINT IN LIFE

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May 16, 2026

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A breaking point is the critical threshold where prolonged stress, emotional strain, or exhaustion outpaces your ability to cope. It is not a failure, but rather a warning sign from your mind and body that your current situation or way of carrying the load is no longer sustainable.

A breaking point is a moment of greatest strain. Interestingly enough, the breaking points are the moments in which we need to stay calmer. Research shows that trying to control every event increases our stress.

A breaking point is a moment of stress in which we break down — it feels like you are never going to get back up again. We are more than under pressure — the situation becomes critical for our survival. Everyone faces a breaking point — we all get there in distinct ways.

A breakeven point is when total costs and total revenue are equal. It’s the sales level you need to reach to cover all of your costs. Your business cannot be profitable until it has reached this point.

When I hear the word breaking point I usually think that it’s like a bomb that could explode. For me, to be in my breaking point is the state of being exhausted in everything. Thinking that it’s time to end something… Most people think that when we say we are in our breaking point it’s easy to come up with a negative idea yet sometimes breaking point is not only to end something because you are exhausted, we can revise it in a positive thinking like breaking point can be a new beginning for us to be able to begin a new life with a weapon and that is our learning from our breaking point.

In human psychology, the breaking point is a moment of stress at which a person breaks down and is unable to cope with it. This obviously varies from individual to individual.

I got my first breaking point as a German expatriate in the Philippines as a result of culture shocks. This was a long time ago and very much different from today’s situation.  Meanwhile I have been living here smooth and sound for several years.

Nowadays, many people are  experiencing mood changes. Indeed, the emotional effects of stress can have a serious impact on your day-to-day mood and mental health. Firstly, you may find that you’re feeling more irritated or pessimistic than usual. This mood change can then begin to affect your motivation to work, socialise with your loved ones or complete the things on your to-do list. If left unchecked, these feelings can threaten to completely overwhelm you, leaving you feeling apathetic, depressed, frustrated, panicky or trapped.

If you’ve been asking yourself, “How do I fix my relationship?,” you may already be at a breaking point. A breaking point is when an argument or disagreement starts to become invasive in your life. Is it impacting your other relationships? Is it impacting your work? Is it impacting your health?

A lot of people around me can’t seem to focus or concentrate properly. If you’re battling to concentrate, keep focused or remember certain things, this is a good indication that you’re feeling the effects of anxiety. These changes in thinking and memory (also known as “brain fog”) can occur when you’re trying to manage several stressful situations at once, which can make you confused and forgetful. These situations may include demanding jobs or emotionally-taxing tasks. Unregulated emotional exhaustion can really impact your attention, executive functioning (organizing and planning), and memory.

A lot of people are expressing  difficulty with personal relationships. You’ll often notice emotional exhaustion from prolonged stress manifesting in your relationship and your capacity to connect with your family on a meaningful emotional level. You may find yourself picking fights over small things, feeling angry at or unsatisfied with your partner or being overly judgemental. Tension in your close relationships can cause you to feel anxious, detached, and withdrawn which can make it difficult to ask for emotional support when you need it or be there for those you love.

Low self-esteem is being reported a lot these days. If lately you’ve found your mind overwhelmed with negative thoughts, you’ve probably also noticed their impact on how you view yourself. Perhaps you’re feeling more cynical and hopeless than usual? Or maybe you’ve lacked confidence in situations where you would normally speak up. At times, you may even have found yourself wondering if what you’re doing even matters anymore. It is important to recognise these changes. If left unchecked, these feelings may progress into symptoms of depression.

To stay in balance you need to turn these behaviors around. The smallest changes make a difference, but pay attention to changes that aren’t so small, like getting enough sleep (without drugs), dealing with your anger and anxiety before they erupt, moving around during the day, making time to play, eating sensibly and simply being with yourself.

I learned that prevention is the best medicine. Reaching your breaking point means that you’ve crossed into the red zone, from which it’s hard to return. You won’t get to your red zone if you apply the habits of self-care I’ve just listed. The choice is really yours. Medical research has abundantly validated that being in balance is the healthiest way to live. Spend the next two weeks getting back into balance. You’ll be amazed and pleased with the results. I adopted a certain “Bahala-na”-emotion especially when it comes to “bad news”. I enjoy playing my piano and listening to wonderful relaxing music. I enjoy staying together with my family. I talked to God… .

CONFLICTS – PART OF OUR LIVES

 

• As of mid-2026, major ongoing conflicts causing significant global instability include the Russia-Ukraine war, the Gaza-Israel conflict, the Sudanese civil war, the Yemeni crisis, and widespread violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These wars involve major humanitarian crises, displacement, and geopolitical shifts.

We are in conflict with ourselves many times during life. Our future gives cause for concern; the past is captured, therefore we miss the future.

The grief and sorrow asked the hope, “How are you?” The hope answered, ” I am a little bit low and sad today!” The sorrow replied sarcastically, “I hope so!”

Conflict is the result of opposing thoughts, actions or ideas disrupting the status quo. Conflict is seen in everyday life, and is a natural, often selfish, and sometimes productive phenomenon. Because it can lead to violence and war in certain situations, the word ‘conflict’ often appears with a negative connotation.

Conflict is in our very nature. Every day, large or small, human conflicts are all around us. But conflict is simply a result of problems being tangled up with the darkside of human nature emerging from innate protection and competition motivations that have evolved over millions of years to help us survive, and that come with difficult tradeoffs. 

When conflict is mismanaged, it can cause great harm to a relationship, but when handled in a respectful, positive way, conflict provides an opportunity to strengthen the bond between two people. Whether you’re experiencing conflict at home, work, or school, learning these skills can help you resolve differences in a healthy way and build stronger, more rewarding relationships.

When people get angry with each other, they often say or do things without realizing the cause of their feelings. Understanding the dynamics behind a conflict can make it easier to resolve issues. This insight also can help you mediate a conflict between friends and relatives. Many experts break personal and professional conflicts down into basic types, based on the underlying causes of disagreements and the dynamics.

Nobody really knows what might happen after reaching the retirement age. Sure, if we can observe our neighbors and all other people in our surroundings, we really don’t like to know it. If we treat ourselves with care, our real age will not be shown. I won’t make any secret about celebrating my 72nd birthday sometime this year.  I am proud to reach this age with God’s help.

It seems that the respectable treatment of our beloved seniors around us are disappearing into the past and are forgotten by the younger generation. Praising the elderly nowadays means to attest to their impudent and imperishable youthfulness.  I am sure, with His help many seniors are still strong, still indefatigable, still a phenomenon, still intellectual and still spiritual on top!

Let’s not forget our respect, when sometimes just being artificial or  affected by stammering, that “our old lady” or “our old gentleman” hasn’t become senile yet.

On our way to an honorable and respectful age we should try to fulfill some of our greatest longings in life.

During the last decades, I met many people around the whole globe. Unbelievable, I found out, no matter where in this world, the conflicting attitude is everywhere. “It’s an absolute certainty, those doubts are the main certainty!” stressed already the German author, philosopher and dramatist Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956).

Please allow me, once in a while, to be able to say NO. Please allow me to delete inferior and defeatist feelings. Please allow me to admit that I can’t do everything during a single day. Please allow me to no longer be afraid about other people and their spiteful comments about me.  

Please allow me to accept my silence. Please accept me being terribly tired from time to time. Please allow me to be excused even without having an intelligent reply. Please allow me to be carried by salvation and bliss.

Hopefully, we may have enough understanding people with us to accompany us during the voyage of our sometimes very conflicting life.

Trust or Reliance?

 

rust or reliance? What is faith for you?

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May 13, 2026

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To say it clearly: without faith we are really nothing. Faith is belief; believe in us, beliefs in our works, talents and personalities.

We also should believe in our parents or better, in the whole family including the black sheep, who can be found everywhere. We should also believe in our friends, even sometimes it seems to become a very difficult task. A friend? A real friend? An expatriate friend…?

Without faith, we will be reaching the rock bottom. Please don’t say, it’s a likely story. The German poet Johann Christian Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1815) mentioned in his drama “Maria Stuart”: “Even the word might be dead, but faith keeps it alive.” Yes, I can live with this.

Faith and hope belong together. In his book “Through the Valley of the Kwai”, Scottish officer Ernest Gordon wrote of his years as a prisoner of World War II. The 6’2” man suffered from malaria, diphtheria, typhoid, beriberi and jungle ulcers. Many circumstances quickly plunged his weight to less than 100 pounds. Lying in the dirt of the death house, he waited to die. But every day, a fellow prisoner came to wash his wounds and to encourage him to eat parts of his own rations. As this fellow prisoner nursed Ernest back to health, he talked with the agnostic Scotsman of his own strong faith in God and showed him that, even in the midst of suffering – there is hope – and faith!

Faith is indeed tantamount to convincing and conviction. Richard Wagner, a German classical composer and poet found the following lyric: “Blessed are those people, who know how to live their life in humility and faith!”

Well, let’s even continue believing in our government. Faithful hope is loyal, reliable, exact and honorable.

Faith looks beyond the transient life with hope for all eternity. The hope we read in scripture is not a wishy-washy optimism. First and second Chapter of Thessalonians, for example, give encouragement to all Christians, who have been undergoing persecution for their faith. And, Corinthians 13:2 says: “If I have faith it can move mountains!”

Faith is one of those words that is commonly used but not always understood. Some of that confusion comes from the many different ways the word faith is used in everyday conversation; a quick look at Dictionary.com shows seven different uses! One common way that people use the word faith is to refer to belief in something despite lacking any evidence for it. But is that what the Bible means by faith? The answer is a resounding no! So what does faith mean?

The closest that the Bible comes to offering an exact definition is Hebrews 11:1 – “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” From this particular passage we see that the central feature of faith is confidence or trust. In the Bible, the object of faith is God and his promises. A clear example of this is Abram’s encounter with God in Genesis 15. In response to God’s promise of countless descendants, Abram “believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” (Gen 15:6). Commenting on this, the Apostle Paul writes, “No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” (Rom 4:20-21). Thus faith means putting your trust in God and having confidence that he will fulfill his promises.

Faith is more than intellectual agreement. To use an old illustration, imagine you are at Niagara Falls watching a tightrope walker push a wheelbarrow across the rope high above the falls. After watching him go back and forth several times, he asks for a volunteer to sit in the wheelbarrow as he pushes it across the falls. At an intellectual level you may believe that he could successfully push you across the rope over the falls, but you are not exercising biblical faith until you get in the wheelbarrow and entrust yourself to the tightrope walker.

Genuine biblical faith expresses itself in everyday life. James writes that “faith by itself, apart from works, is dead” (James 2:17). Faith works through love to produce tangible evidence of its existence in a person’s life (Gal 5:6). Put another way, the obedience that pleases God comes from faith (Rom 1:5; 16:26) rather than a mere sense of duty or obligation. There is all the difference in the world between the husband who buys his wife flowers out of delight and one who buys them simply out of duty.

Faith is so important because it is the means by which we have a relationship with God: “For by grace you have been saved through faith” (Eph 2:8). Faith is how we receive the benefits of what Jesus has done for us. He lived a life of perfect obedience to God, died to pay the penalty for our sinful rebellion against God, and rose from the dead to defeat sin, death, and the devil. By putting our faith in him, we receive forgiveness for our sins and the gift of eternal life.

So what does faith mean? Simply put, faith means relying completely on who Jesus is and what he has done to be made right with God. Are you considering a faith-filled call to Christian ministry? The programs at Grace Theological Seminary will ensure you grow in your faith on your way to equipping others to do the same.

To walk by faith, it’s not enough to believe that God’s word and promises are true, we must act on our belief and stand on the Truth. When what we believe overflows into how we live then our faith is made complete—and is counted to us as

HOW MUCH LONGER … ?

 

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May 9, 2026

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The phrase “How much longer, Lord?” echoes the plea in Psalm 13, where David cries out in distress, asking how long he will feel forgotten, overwhelmed by sorrow, and persecuted by enemies. It is a raw expression of anguish and a cry for God’s intervention in difficult times.

“How much longer” would only be used in a situation where the event was in progress and already considered to be taking a long time – i.e. ‘longer’ meaning an addition to the already long time period.

Have you been praying to God about the same challenge for the longest time? Are you asking, “How much longer, Lord?” or even, “Will it ever happen, Lord?” Perhaps you’re just so DONE with waiting and want to make things happen with your own hands. But my friend, as @hillsongworship’s song, “Seasons”, goes: “Though my waiting is even greater… I believe that my season will come.”

How much longer will You forget me, Lord?

During many times of darkness when I thought again, that the whole world is against me, I opened my Bible. Suddenly I found Psalm 13, also entitled a Prayer for Help: “How much longer will You forget me, Lord?”

I was born on a Sunday in 1953 – a so-called “Sunday-Child”. There are sayings that those kinds of people will have a life of great success without  problems, worries and trials. This is -excuse me! – nonsense!

I also experience difficult, problematic and questionable times, where I am really losing all my strength to get down to work on those problems. Life’s path becomes narrow. Fears grow: it’s enough, it’s enough!

I still feel how I started becoming awkward and jerky. I struggled against everybody around me. I was reluctant against the good ideas of others. I felt driven into a corner. I started to hurt and insult people in my surroundings with arrogance and unqualified comments. Everything became a problem and my voice bellows and my groans grow louder.

But admittedly groans lighten our burden. For even a short moment only, I do feel how my inner life and inside pressure ease off. But sometimes, more trials and problems overwhelm our families and ourselves: illness, death-threats, bankruptcy, war at the working-place, efforts to give us a bad name, intrigues … .

“How much longer will You forget me, Lord?” We stop groaning. We shout already to God, especially if nobody in our surroundings likes to listen to us anymore. If we are deep in fix, God must have forgotten us already, right? A terrible situation! We see faces of those people, who show us hostility.

But I also experienced how God put me into life’s “re-conversion plant” and freshened me up: Little but meaningful and important cares suddenly happened. After a hot day and a refreshing thunderstorm, let’s enjoy the following night; the person, who insulted us, suddenly apologized; the illness wiped out.

“You prepare a banquet for me, where all my enemies can see me!” (Psalm 23:5). I am glaad, because I really don’t know about more and new spitefulness through my next “enemy on duty” in future. I actually really don’t want to know it. I learned that negativism blocks life and its plans.

But I know Psalm 23. I read it every time I have a problem. Psalm 23 should be printed in everyone’s heart, mind and soul!

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